Giovan Batista Giraldi - Cinthio - Nobile Ferrarese (BM 1875,0814

Giovanni Battista Giraldi (12 November 1504 – 30 December 1573) was an Italian

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

. He appended the nickname Cinthio to his name and is commonly referred to by that name (which is also rendered as Cynthius, Cintio or, in Italian, Cinzio).

Biography

Born at

Duchy of Ferrara The Duchy of Ferrara ( la, Ducatus Ferrariensis; it, Ducato di Ferrara; egl, Ducà ad Frara) was a state in what is now northern Italy. It consisted of about 1,100 km2 south of the lower Po River, stretching to the valley of the lower Reno ...

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

, he was educated at the university there, and in 1525 became its professor of

natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior throu ...

. Twelve years afterwards, he succeeded

Celio Calcagnini Celio Calcagnini ( Ferrara, 17 September 1479 – Ferrara, 24 April 1541), also known as Caelius Calcagninus, was an Italian humanist and scientist from Ferrara. His learning as displayed in his collected works is very broad. He had a wide exper ...

in the chair of

belles-lettres is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. In the modern narrow sense, it is a label for literary works that do not fall into the major categories such as fiction, poetry, or drama. The phrase is sometimes used pejora ...

. Between 1542 and 1560 he was a private secretary, first to

Ercole II Ercole II d'Este (5 April 1508 – 3 October 1559) was Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio from 1534 to 1559. He was the eldest son of Alfonso I d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia. Biography Through his mother, Ercole was a grandson of Pope Alexander ...

and afterwards to Alfonso II d'Este; but having, in connection with a literary quarrel, lost the favour of his patron, he moved to Mondovì, where he remained as a teacher of literature until 1568. Subsequently, on the invitation of the senate of

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 ...

, he occupied the chair of

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

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 capit ...

until 1573, when, in search of health, he returned to Ferrara, where he later died. Besides an epic entitled ''Ercole'' (1557), in twenty-six

canto The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry. Etymology and equivalent terms The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from the ...

s, Cinthio wrote nine

tragedies Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

, the best known of which, ''

Orbecche ''Orbecche'' is a tragedy written by Giovanni Battista Giraldi in 1541. It was the first modern tragedy written on classical principles, and along with Sperone Speroni's ''Canace'', was responsible for a sixteenth-century theoretical debate on ...

'', was produced in 1541. The bloodthirsty nature of the play, and its style, are, in the opinion of many of its critics, almost redeemed by occasional bursts of genuine and impassioned poetry. His literary work was ideologically influenced by the

Catholic Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...

. In the theatrical works there appears a vein of experimentation that anticipates some typical elements of taste of the modern European theatre, for example the

Elizabethan theatre English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642. This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. ...

and

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

styles, where psychological violence and horror are used in function and dramatic action structured in real time. Among the prose works of Cinthio is the ''Hecatommithi'' or ''Gli Ecatommiti'', a collection of tales told somewhat after the manner of

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so we ...

, but still more closely resembling the novels of Cinthio's contemporary,

Matteo Bandello Matteo Bandello ( 1480 – 1562) was an Italian writer, soldier, monk, and, later, a Bishop mostly known for his novellas. His collection of 214 novellas made him the most popular short-story writer of his day. Biography Matteo Bandello wa ...

. Something may be said in favour of their professed claim to represent a higher standard of morality. Originally published at Mondovì in 1565, they were frequently reprinted in Italy, while a French translation appeared in 1583 and one in Spanish, with 20 of the stories, in 1590. They have a peculiar interest to students of

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

, for providing the plots of ''

Measure for Measure ''Measure for Measure'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604 and first performed in 1604, according to available records. It was published in the ''First Folio'' of 1623. The play's plot features its ...

'' and ''

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...

''. That of the latter, which is to be found in the ''Hecatommithi'', was almost certainly read by

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

in the original Italian; while that of the former is probably to be traced to

George Whetstone George Whetstone (1544? – 1587) was an English dramatist and author. Biography Whetstone was the third son of Robert Whetstone (d. 1557), a member of a wealthy family that owned the manor of Walcot Hall, Northamptonshire, Walcot at Barnack, near ...

's ''Promos and Cassandra'' (1578), an adaptation of Cinthio's story, and to his ''Heptamerone'' (1582), which contains a direct English translation. It has also been noted that the story of

and ''Un Capitano Moro'' resemble the earlier tale of ''

The Tale of the Three Apples ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'', a story from ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

''. To Cinthio also must be attributed the plot of

Beaumont and Fletcher Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I (1603–25). They became known as a team early in their association, so much so that their jo ...

's ''Custom of the Country''.

References

Sources

* * * Jossa, Stefano, ''Rappresentazione e scrittura. La crisi delle forme poetiche rinascimentali (1540-1560)'', Naples: Vivarium, 1996.

External links

*

Extended contents (not in book) of first (and only) volume of Hecatommithi] transl. into Spanish 1590, digitised by Biblioteca Nacional Espana, bne.es, digital and hard copy page nos * Massimo Colella, ''Radici novellistiche e metamorfosi teatrali: Otello da Giraldi Cinzio a Shakespeare'', in «Rivista di Letterature moderne e comparate», LXXIV, 2, 2021, pp. 121-144. {{DEFAULTSORT:Giraldi, Giovanni Battista 1504 births 1573 deaths Writers from Ferrara 16th-century Italian novelists 16th-century Italian poets 16th-century male writers Italian male poets University of Ferrara alumni University of Ferrara faculty University of Pavia faculty Italian male novelists