Gasparinus de Bergamo (in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

, ''Gasparino (da) Barzizza''; in French, ''Gasparin de Bergame''; in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, ''Gasparinus Barzizius Bergomensis'' or ''Pergamensis'') (c. 1360 – 1431) was an Italian grammarian and teacher noted for introducing a new style of epistolary

inspired by the works of

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

. With Pier Paolo Vergerio the Elder, he was influential in the development of

humanism Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and Agency (philosophy), agency of Human, human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical in ...

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

. As one of the first Italian Humanists, he taught rhetoric,

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes domain ...

, and

moral philosophy Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ...

with the aim of reviving

Latin literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literature ...

Biography

Born Gasparino Di Pietrobuono in the village of Barzizza, near Bergamo, he studied

and rhetoric at

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the cap ...

. Remaining there to teach from 1403 to 1407, he subsequently moved to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

to serve as private tutor to the

Barbaro family The Barbaro family was a patrician family of Venice. They were wealthy and influential and owned large estates in the Veneto above Treviso.Encyclopedia of Italian Renaissance & Mannerist art, Volume 1', Jane Turner, New York, 2000 Various mem ...

. Unable to find backing in Venice in order to establish a school there, Gasparinus then taught at Padua (1407–21), enjoying his most productive writing period, where his reputation as a teacher and scholar was established. He was appointed to lecture there on rhetoric and on authors such as

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

, and

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 166–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought ...

. He also established the elementary school, which offered a humanist curriculum. He helped Both

Vittorino da Feltre Vittorino da Feltre (1378February 2, 1446) was an Italian humanist and teacher. He was born in Feltre, Belluno, Republic of Venice and died in Mantua. His real name was Vittorino Rambaldoni. It was in Vittorino that the Renaissance idea of the com ...

and

Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. H ...

owed their boyhood education to him. Antonio Beccadelli, called "Il Panormita", also studied under him. Other famous students include

Francesco Filelfo Francesco Filelfo ( la, Franciscus Philelphus; 25 July 1398 – 31 July 1481) was an Italian Renaissance humanist. Biography Filelfo was born at Tolentino, in the March of Ancona. He is believed to be a third cousin of Leonardo da Vinci. At th ...

and Stefano Fieschi. He then taught at Ferrara, and on the invitation of Filippo Maria Visconti, opened an elementary school at

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

in 1418, to be organized along the same lines as Gasparinus' school at Padua. He taught at Milan from 1421 and also served as Visconti's court

orator An orator, or oratist, is a public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled. Etymology Recorded in English c. 1374, with a meaning of "one who pleads or argues for a cause", from Anglo-French ''oratour'', Old French ''orateur'' (14th ...

. Gasparinus also served as secretary to Pope Martin V and in this capacity attended the Council of Constance. Gasparinus died at Milan around 1431, after which

Lorenzo Valla Lorenzo Valla (; also Latinized as Laurentius; 14071 August 1457) was an Italian Renaissance humanist, rhetorician, educator, scholar, and Catholic priest. He is best known for his historical-critical textual analysis that proved that the ''Do ...

succeeded him as chair of rhetoric in Pavia. By his marriage to Lucrezia Alliardi, Gasparinus had a son, named Guimforte (Guiniforto) Barzizza (c. 1406–63), who became a distinguished scholar and writer. Guimforte married Giovannina Malabarba.

Works

*''Epistolarum liber'' ("Book of Letters") or ''Epistolae'' ("Letters"): his most famous work, which carries the distinction of being the first book printed in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

(

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

), in 1470, with the newly introduced

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

Johann Heynlin Johann Heynlin, variously spelled ''Heynlein'', ''Henelyn'', ''Henlin'', ''Hélin'', ''Hemlin'', ''Hegelin'', ''Steinlin''; and translated as ''Jean à Lapide'', ''Jean La Pierre (Lapierre, de la Pierre)'', ''Johannes Lapideus'', ''Johannes Lapida ...

. This work was intended to provide an exemplar for students for the writing of artful and elegant

and was designed to teach prose composition. *''Epistolae ad exercitatem accommodatae.'' *''Tractatus de compositione'' (ca. 1420): a treatise on rhetoric and literary style. In this treatise, Gasparinus argued for a return to the elements of style found in the rhetoricians of antiquity. *''De eloquentia opusculum perutile ad oratores grammaticosque.'' *
Exempla exordiorum
'' *''Summa praeceptorum ad eam partem compositiones.'' *''De imitatione.'' *''Orthographia'': a manual of Latin

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...

, his most important work. *possibly the ''Sinonima Ciceronis'' ("Synonyms of Cicero"): a collection of synonymous terms used in the rhetorical works of Cicero, produced to aid in the expansion of students' rhetorical vocabulary in Latin.The work is anonymous, but R.G.G. Merce
suggests
in ''The Teaching of Gasparino Barzizza: With Special Reference to his Place in Paduan Humanism'' (London, 1979; p. 66) that it may well be the work of Barzizza.

References

Sources

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070312022732/http://itlinguistica.net/linguistica/Barzizza-%20Gasparino-11D7.html Philology and linguistics
The Classical Renaissance

Miscellany of Humanistic Texts

Palazzo Barzizza

Biography

Works

References

Sources

Further reading