« A “Butcher” of Philosophy: Codro Urceo’s Sermo primus (1502), Serious or Not? »
Résumé
The vogue of paradoxical declamations “against” the litterae began in 1502 with the post-mortem publication of the "Orationes, seu sermones" of the Bolognese humanist Antonio “Codro” Urceo. Written “tum graviter, tum facete”, the "Sermo primus" challenges its readers to take it as a joke, or in earnest, as it pretends to reject any claim to truth, and deems all knoweldge as "fables". Contrasting this declamatory piece with the "Sermo XIII", “In laudem liberalium artium”, we nevertheless show why Codro's doubts were real, and grounded. In the context of the "querella delle arti", his scepticism justifies a plea for poetry, his favorite art. And the choice of a declamatory mode is linked, precisely, to this preference for fiction.