"Arma praedicatorum sunt auctoritates sumptae de libris" Visual Expressions of the Mendicant-Humanist Dialectic among the Friars Preachers

Abstract

This article investigates the complex and dynamic relationship between Dominican mendicant culture and the rise of humanism from the Trecento to the early Cinquecento, focusing on visual and material culture. Beginning with the 1352 mural cycle in San Nicolò in Treviso, which portrays forty Dominican intellectuals immersed in reading and writing, the study explores how the Order of Preachers crafted a visual rhetoric to assert their role as active participants in the emerging humanist discourse. By examining key examples, the article argues that Dominicans consciously positioned themselves as custodians of both sacred doctrine and classical erudition. It highlights the friars' engagement with the studia humanitatis not as antagonists but as contributors who reinterpreted humanist ideals through the lens of religious mission and civic responsibility. The article further analyses historiographical efforts to frame the convent as a civic institution and the strategic use of architectural metaphors to achieve this goal. The final section presents the bronze tomb slab of Leonardo Dati as a case study in how material choices were made at the intersection of ecclesiastical, intellectual, and urban spheres. Ultimately, the study demonstrates that the Dominicans' visual, textual and commemorative strategies reflect a deliberate dialectic between religious tradition and humanist innovation.