La lettera di Giovanni Manzini ad Andreasio Cavalcabò sul matrimonio (Cremona, 17 febbraio 1389)

Giovanni Manzini, a man of letters engaged at the Visconti court in 1388-1389 as a tutor of Melchiorre, son of the chancellor Pasquino Cappelli, is the author of a small letter collection, transmitted by the ms. Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 11507, largely autograph. Among his letters, only partially published, is the one to Andreasio Cavalcabò (Cremona, 17 February 1389), written on the occasion of the marriage of this Visconti diplomat. This epistle is a reflection on the dignity of marriage, in which Manzini uses patristic sources, in particular Augustine’s De bono coniugali, and modern ones, namely Petrarch’s Familiares. The essay offers the editio princeps of Manzini’s letter, placed in the context of the production on the subject of marriage in the 14th century and accompanied by an extensive commentary that gives an account of the philological problems and identify the sources.