“Who can control himself, it seems to me, rules a very great kingdom.”
The Zibaldone da Canal was created in the early fourteenth century by a Venetian merchant, likely a member of the da Canal family. It is a compendium of information that he found useful or interesting, and includes a lot about business practices – for example, how much do products buy and sell for, the weights used to measure them, and details on various ports around the Mediterranean.
The author also included many other kinds of entries, such as mathematical questions to practice, food recipes, a short chronicle, and even poetry. In one section, he even includes over a dozen proverbs that he wanted to remember. He added them in under the title:
These are beautiful words to understand
Courtesy from the mouth is very valuable, and costs little.
The excessive man cannot acquire great things that last long.
Whoever errs and does not believe that he has erred ought to find mercy, but whoever knowingly errs is neither true nor good.
If a man knows in himself that which he sees and knows in other people, I have a firm belief that he will not fail in the end, though at times he may fail grievously.
Who can control himself, it seems to me, rules a very great kingdom.
Good words and evil deeds deceive wise man and fool alike.
These are the three most hopeless things in the world: the first is a poor man, the second is the beauty of a whore, the third is the strength of a fool.
These are three things that are more displeasing to God than any others: the first is for a rich man to be greedy, the second is for a poor man to be arrogant, the third is for an old man to be lascivious.
The wise man says: He who breaks faith will find faith broken.
The wise man says: Whoever shall do well shall have good and shall not know whence it shall come.
If those who wound felt the pain of those who are wounded, they could not often wound with pleasure.
There is a time to climb and a time to descend. And a time to weep and a time to be silent. And there is a time to serve those who offend thee. And a time to threaten, not to fear: and at such times a man ought to wait to know the good from the bad, according to which carries the best chance of success.
The wise man has his mouth in his heart, while the fool has his heart in his mouth.
Praise the fool and make him rise.
You can find this entire work in Merchant Culture in Fourteenth-Century Venice: The Zibaldone da Canal, edited and translated by John Dotson (Birmingham: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Vol.98, 1994)
Click here to buy the book from Amazon.com
See also: A Living Text: Literacy, Identity and Fourteenth-Century Merchants in the Zibaldone da Canal, by Eve Wolynes
Top Image: 15th-century image of Venice by Erhardum Reüwich de Trajecto and Bernhard von Breydenbach
“Who can control himself, it seems to me, rules a very great kingdom.”
The Zibaldone da Canal was created in the early fourteenth century by a Venetian merchant, likely a member of the da Canal family. It is a compendium of information that he found useful or interesting, and includes a lot about business practices – for example, how much do products buy and sell for, the weights used to measure them, and details on various ports around the Mediterranean.
The author also included many other kinds of entries, such as mathematical questions to practice, food recipes, a short chronicle, and even poetry. In one section, he even includes over a dozen proverbs that he wanted to remember. He added them in under the title:
These are beautiful words to understand
Courtesy from the mouth is very valuable, and costs little.
The excessive man cannot acquire great things that last long.
Whoever errs and does not believe that he has erred ought to find mercy, but whoever knowingly errs is neither true nor good.
If a man knows in himself that which he sees and knows in other people, I have a firm belief that he will not fail in the end, though at times he may fail grievously.
Who can control himself, it seems to me, rules a very great kingdom.
Good words and evil deeds deceive wise man and fool alike.
These are the three most hopeless things in the world: the first is a poor man, the second is the beauty of a whore, the third is the strength of a fool.
These are three things that are more displeasing to God than any others: the first is for a rich man to be greedy, the second is for a poor man to be arrogant, the third is for an old man to be lascivious.
The wise man says: He who breaks faith will find faith broken.
The wise man says: Whoever shall do well shall have good and shall not know whence it shall come.
If those who wound felt the pain of those who are wounded, they could not often wound with pleasure.
There is a time to climb and a time to descend. And a time to weep and a time to be silent. And there is a time to serve those who offend thee. And a time to threaten, not to fear: and at such times a man ought to wait to know the good from the bad, according to which carries the best chance of success.
The wise man has his mouth in his heart, while the fool has his heart in his mouth.
Praise the fool and make him rise.
Click here to buy the book from Amazon.com
See also: A Living Text: Literacy, Identity and Fourteenth-Century Merchants in the Zibaldone da Canal, by Eve Wolynes
Top Image: 15th-century image of Venice by Erhardum Reüwich de Trajecto and Bernhard von Breydenbach
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