A research between philology, palaeography and bibliographical studies: the special case of Ludovico degli Arrighi

During the Medicean Papacy, Rome flourished welcoming the finest range of humanists and artists: most of them developed networks that are still not positively defined. Depicting them is problematic especially when attempting to reconstruct a polyedric personality who crosses, with his activity, different reseach fields. The case of Ludovico degli Arrighi, who was a calligrapher, an author of handwriting manuals and an editor, demands an interdisciplinary approach. In scrutinizing his training in Vicenza, palaeography seems to have overlooked the history of writing of that area; and in investigating his relations with illuminators, punch-cutters and wood-carvers is mandatory to deal with art history. Concerning the world census of his manuals and editions, library records are often missing book-in-hand cataloguing and likely to multiply errors. Furthermore, Arrighi appears to be connected with both the Hans Goritz's and Angelo Colocci's humanistic circles, and his abilities were required by Leo X, Clemens VII, Vittoria Colonna, Machiavelli, Aretino and many other more hardly-questioned humanistic personalities. There is still no evidence of the reason why he was the chosen publisher for the beginning of the printed story of the “questione della lingua”, promoting Giangiorgio Trissino's alphabetic reform, and notwithstanding printing Claudio Tolomei's Polito and Agnolo Firenzuola's Discacciamento, which were strongly against Trissino's theories. The purpose of this paper is to show the attempts made to pursue valuable results while the sources are variuos and often uneven or incomplete, offering an excerpt of solved and unsolved methodological issues applyed to a specific case.