Cristoforo was born in Florence probably between 1380-1390 from a branch of the noble Buondelmonti family. His self-qualifications and references indicate that while in Florence he pursued an ecclesiastic career as presbyter of the church Santa Maria Sopr’Arno. During his early years, he was exposed to the teaching of prominent humanists such as Domenico Bandini and Coluccio Salutati, this latter directly involved in the promotion of Greek Studies in Florence. In 1397 Salutati, chancelor of the Florentine Republic, created the first public chair of Greek Studies in the West by appointing the Byzantine scholar, Manuel Chrysoloras, as teacher of Greek in the Studio, a move which contributed to the training of a new generation of humanists and to a general interest for ancient Greece and its heritage. Around 1414, Buondelmonti left Florence and moved to Rhodes, at that time seat of the Knights of St. John. The latest attestation for his presence on the island goes back to 1430 when he is mentioned in some archival documents as the dean of the Latin cathedral on the island. No information is known about his death and whether he ever went back to Florence (on the life of Buondelmonti: Barsanti 2001; passim; Ragone 2002, 184-193; Bessi 2014, 223-228; Bessi 2023, 64-67).
During his time in Greece, Buondelmonti travelled extensively through the Aegean exploring its islands and some places of Greece’s mainland and the coast of Asia Minor. The results of his travels were collected in two works: the Descriptio Insule Crete and the Liber Insularum Archipelagi.
The Descriptio, edited in multiple versions by Buondelmonti himself (1417, 1422/23, 1425/27), was dedicated to the Florentine humanist and manuscript collector Niccolò Niccoli and, as the name implies, it featured a detailed description of Crete based on the author’s visit and circumnavigation (Van Spitael 1981, Bartelloni 2021).
The Liber Insularum was a liber figuratus (a picture book) with a format that combining textual descriptions of the islands and corresponding maps, is considered the forerunner of the new literary genre of the Isolarii. The Greek islands are described starting from the westernmost group of the Ionian islands and ending with Egina. Exception to this insularity are the descriptions of Gallipoli on the Strait of Hellespont, Constantinople and Mounth Athos. As shown in the acronym formed by the initial letters of each paragraph and by several references throughout the text, the Liber was dedicated to Cardinal Giordano Orsini, another protagonist of the Italian Humanism and an avid book collector with an interest in Greek Studies. The book circulated in various editions, a circumstance which has made the history of the tradition of the text quite complicated. As a matter of fact, scholars have reconstructed the existence of at least 3, possibly four different editions of the Liber dating within a period comprehended between sometime before 1420 and 1430. Of these editions, the one dated to 1422 became the most popular and it is today referred to as the vulgata or standard text. Even considering the possibility that based on its shorter text, it could be an abridged version prepared by someone else rather than the author, it is undeniable that given its popularity, it is in this format that the Liber circulated in many copies through Italy and Europe influencing several generations of scholars and opening the path to new travels and explorations of Greece. More than 70 manuscript copies dating between the 15th and 16th century, are attested and even if its original version was in Latin, it was also quickly translated into Italian, English, French and Greek. (Ragone 2002, 195-203; Pontari 2013, 88-89)
At present no scientific critical edition of the Liber is available and the text is accessible only through the publication of single or arbitrarly collated manuscripts (De Sinner 1824, Legrand 1897, Siebert, Plasman 2005, Bayer 2007, Edson 2018).
Since the beginning of the 20th century, Buoldemonti has received the attention of scholars initially focused especially in the geographical and cartographic aspects of his books. In a second moment, the antiquarian value of his travels has also been recognized: Buondelmonti has been called an “umanista antiquario” (Weiss 1961) and considered a pioneer in the rediscovery of Greek antiquities (Beschi 1986; Bessi 2012). References to Buondelmonti’s witnesses are now a staple component in books and articles focusing on the history of the various Greek islands but no comprehensive commentary of his major work, the Liber Insularum has yet been published.
Barsanti C: Costantinopoli e l’Egeo nei primi decenni del XV secolo: la testimonianza di Cristoforo Buondelmonti. Rivista dell’Istituto Nazionale d’Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte 2001, 56: 83–254.
Bartelloni AL: Cristoforo Buondelmonti, Descriptio insule Crete. Edizione critica e Introduzione. Tesi di laurea magistrale. Università di Pisa: Pisa, 2020
Bayer K: Cristoforo Buondelmonti. Transkription des Exemplars Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf Ms. G 13, Übersetzung und Kommentar. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2007
Beschi L: La scoperta dell’arte greca. In Memoria dell’antico nell’arte italiana. Ed. Salvatore Settis. Torino: Einaudi 1986, vol. 3, 295–372.
Bessi B: A New Approach to Cristoforo Buondelmonti’s Liber Insularum: the Case of Siphnos. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Siphnean Symposium, Siphnos, June 29-July 2, 2006. Ed. John Zervoudakis, Society for Siphnean Studies: Athens 2009, 207–214.
Bessi B: Cristoforo Buondelmonti: Greek Antiquities in Florentine Humanism. The Historical Revue. La Revue Historique 2012, 9: 63–76.
Bessi B: The Ionian Islands in the Liber Insularum of Cristoforo Buondelmonti in The History and Culture of the Ionian Islands. ed A. Hirst A, Sammon P. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2014, 225–261.
Bessi B: Homer in the Liber Insularum by Cristoforo Buondelmonti. In Studi sulla riscoperta umanistica di Omero. ed. John Butcher, Paola Megna, Nigel Wilson. Città di Castello: Nuova Prhomos 2023, 59–78.
De Sinner GRL: Christofori Bondelmontii Florentini “Librum insularum Archipelagi” e codicibus Parisinis regiis nunc primum totum edidit, praefatione at annotatione instruxit G.R. L. De Sinner. Leipzig-Berlin: G. Reimer, 1824.
Edson E: Description of the Aegean and other islands: a facsimile of the manuscript at the James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota New York: Italica Press, 2018.
Legrand E: Description des Îles de l'Archipel grec. Paris: Leroux, 1897.
Mancinelli T, Pierazzo E: Che cos'è un'edizione scientifica digitale. Roma: Carocci 2020.
Pontari P: Il ms. Vat. Ross. 704 e il «Liber insularum Archipelagi» di Cristoforo Buondelmonti: interpolazioni di un anonimo volgarizzatore anconetano. Itineraria 2013, 12: 83-172.
Ragone G: Il Liber Insularum archipelagi di Cristoforo dei Buondelmonti: filologia del testo, filologia dell’immagine. In: Humanisme et culture géographique à l’époque du concile de Constance autour de Guillaume Fillastre. Actes du Colloque de l’Université de Reims 18–19 novembre 1999. Ed. Didier Marcotte. Thurnout: Brepols, 2002, 177– 217.
Roger JM: Christophe Buondelmonte, doyen de l’église-cathedrale de Rhodes (1430). Byzantium 2012, 82: 323–46.
Siebert I, Plassmann M: Cristoforo Buondelmonti: Liber insularum archipelagi; Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf Ms. G 13; Faksimile. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2005.
Van Spitael MA.: Descriptio Insule Crete et Liber Insularum, cap. XI: Creta / Cristoforo Buondelmonti. Heraklion: Syllogos Politistikes Anaptyxeos, 1981.
Weiss R: Un umanista antiquario: Cristoforo Buondelmonti. Lettere italiane.1964; 16: 105–116.