Giovan Battista Pigna (April 8, 1529November 4, 1575) was an Italian humanist, poet and historian from

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

. A reformer of the

University of Ferrara The University of Ferrara ( it, Università degli Studi di Ferrara) is the main university of the city of Ferrara in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. In the years prior to the First World War the University of Ferrara, with more than 5 ...

, Pigna was secretary to Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and court historian at Ferrara.Giovan Battista Pigna
''Pathways through literature: Torquato Tasso''. Accessed 12 May 2013. Pigna's ''I romanzi'' (1554) argued that chivalric romances like those of

Ariosto Ludovico Ariosto (; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic ''Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando Innamorato'', describes the ...

were a modern form of poetry equal to those considered by

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

's ''

Poetics Poetics is the theory of structure, form, and discourse within literature, and, in particular, within poetry. History The term ''poetics'' derives from the Ancient Greek ποιητικός ''poietikos'' "pertaining to poetry"; also "creative" an ...

''.

Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...

, who succeeded Pigna as court historian, attacked Pigna's defence of Ariostan poetry in his ''Discorsi dell'arte poetica''.

Works

* ''I romanzi di M. Giouan Battita Pigna ... divisi in tre libri. Ne quali della poesia, & della vita dell'Ariosto con nuouo modo si tratta '', 1554 * (ed.) ''Poetica Horatiana'', 1561 * * * ''Historia de principi di Este'', 1570

References

Bibliography

Girolamo Tiraboschi Girolamo Tiraboschi S.J. (; 18 December 1731 – 9 June 1794) was an Italian literary critic, the first historian of Italian literature. Biography Born in Bergamo, he studied at the Jesuit college in Monza, entered the order, and was appointed i ...

, ''Biblioteca modenese'', IV, Modena 1783, p. 131; * Lorenzo Barotti, ''Memorie istoriche di letterati ferraresi'', II, Ferrara 1793, p. 177; * Venceslao Santi, ''La precedenza fra gli Estensi e i Medici e l'istoria de' Principi d'Este di G. Battista Pigna'', in ''Atti della Deputazione ferrarese di storia patria'', IX (1897), p. 35 ff.; * Luigi Raffaele, ''I codici delle rime di Giambattista Pigna'', ''ibid.'', XXI (1912), p. 35 ff.; * Giulio Bertoni, ''Torquato Tasso e Lucrezia Bendidio'', in ''Poeti e poesie del Medioevo e del Rinascimento'', Modena 1922, p. 273 ff.

links

* 1529 births 1575 deaths Italian Renaissance humanists 16th-century Italian poets 16th-century male writers 16th-century Italian historians 16th-century scholars Writers from Ferrara {{Italy-academic-bio-stub