Humanism at the Papal court: the Biblical Scholarship of Giannozzo Manetti (1396-1459)
By Annet den Haan
The court of Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455) was a centre of learning and culture, and attracted several key-figures of Italian humanism. Some of them dedicated themselves to Biblical scholarship: the circle around cardinal Bessarion discussed possible corruptions of the Vulgate, and Lorenzo Valla wrote his Annotationes to the New Testament. At the same time, Giannozzo Manetti, Florentine by birth, produced a new Latin version of the New Testament. Given the circumstances, he must have been familiar with Bessarion’s and Valla’s Biblical scholarship.