Giovanni Garzoni (1419–1506) was an Italian humanist and physician from

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

, where he was professor of medicine and teacher 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 ...

Biography

Born in Bologna in 1419 as the son of Bernardo Garzoni, a physician and rhetoric. Already in his youth, Garzoni's main interest was

rhetorics 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 part ...

, when he may have been instructed by his father Bernardo Garzoni and by Giovanni Lamola, and met humanists like

Leonardo Bruni Leonardo Bruni (or Leonardo Aretino; c. 1370 – March 9, 1444) was an Italian humanist, historian and statesman, often recognized as the most important humanist historian of the early Renaissance. He has been called the first modern historian. H ...

. When his father became one of the physicians of

pope Nicholas V Pope Nicholas V ( la, Nicholaus V; it, Niccolò V; 13 November 1397 – 24 March 1455), born Tommaso Parentucelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 March 1447 until his death in March 1455. Pope Eugene IV, Po ...

(between 1447 and 1455), Giovanni went along with him to Rome. The earliest extant texts by Barzoni date from this period, including a 300 folio long codex, mainly consisting of the emended ''Tractatus'' by Petrus Hispanus; and some poems and other minor works. Here as well, he met other humanists like

Theodorus Gaza Theodorus Gaza ( el, Θεόδωρος Γαζῆς, ''Theodoros Gazis''; it, Teodoro Gaza; la, Theodorus Gazes), also called Theodore Gazis or by the epithet Thessalonicensis (in Latin) and Thessalonikeus (in Greek) (c. 1398 – c. 1475), wa ...

. He was a student of

Guarino da Verona Guarino Veronese or Guarino da Verona (1374 – 14 December 1460) was an Italian classical scholar, humanist, and translator of ancient Greek texts during the Renaissance. In the republics of Florence and Venice he studied under Manuel Chrysolor ...

, with whom he studied

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the ''Satires''. The details of Juvenal's life ...

, and of

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 ''Don ...

, who was his teacher for four years. In 1455, he worked for cardinal

Domenico Capranica Domenico Capranica (1400 – 14 July 1458) was an Italian theologian, canonist, statesman, and Cardinal. Life Cardinal Capranica was born in Capranica Prenestina. His younger brother, Angelo, also became a cardinal. After studies in canon an ...

, for whom he travelled to

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. Part of this work was done together with

Jacopo Piccolomini-Ammannati Jacopo Piccolomini-Ammannati, or Giacomo Piccolomini (8 March 1422 – 10 September 1479) was an Italian Renaissance cardinal and humanist. Biography He was born at Pescia, now in the Province of Pistoia, Italy. He was related to the Picco ...

, a fellow humanist and later cardinal. In or after 1458, he returned to Bologna, where he became a public speaker, providing orations for official events, something he would later on also do at the university. He also started working as a private teacher of rhetoric, having students from countries and regions like Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. His most famous pupils were the historian

Leandro Alberti Leandro Alberti (1479–1552) was an Italian Dominican historian. Life Alberti was born and died at Bologna. In his early youth he attracted the attention of the Bolognese rhetorician, Giovanni Garzoni, who volunteered to act as his tutor. He e ...

, who stayed with Garzoni from when he was ten until he was fourteen, and

Girolamo Savonarola Girolamo Savonarola, OP (, , ; 21 September 1452 – 23 May 1498) or Jerome Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar from Ferrara and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of ...

, who was a student of Garzoni in 1476 and 1477, when he was a novice in Bologna. Later, he became friends with humanists like

Antonio Urceo Antonio Urceo, called Codro (''Antonius Urceus Codrus'', 1446, Rubiera–1500, Bologna) was an Italian humanist who taught grammar and eloquence in Bologna (where Nicolaus Copernicus was among his students). He studied in Modena under the poet an ...

and

Julius Pomponius Laetus Julius Pomponius Laetus (1428 – 9 June 1498), also known as Giulio Pomponio Leto, was an Italian humanist. Background Laetus was born at Teggiano, near Salerno, the illegitimate scion of the princely house of Sanseverino, the German historian L ...

. He received his degree in medicine in 1466, and remained a professor of medicine at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

for the rest of his life.

Works

Garzoni wrote 36 lives of saints (or ''vitae''), including those of Agatha, Blasius, Catherina Alex., Cecilia, Christina, Cosmas and Damian, Eustachius, Felix and Felix, George, Gervasius and Protasius, Hippolytus, the apostle Johannes, Laurentius, Lucia, Margarita, some Mauritanian martyrs, Nereus and Achilleus, Primus and Felicianus, Proculus, Sebastian, Vitus and Hippolytus, Simon of Trent, the martyr Peter, Petronius, Theodorus, Symphorianus, and Christopher. Some of his letters have been collected in ten books of ''epistolae familiares''. Other works that survive include histories (mainly Bolognese history), dialogues, treatises, medical texts, and a large number of funerary and other orations, on a wide range of subjects, from religion to military matters, including a pornographic story, ''Heliogalbalus''. Many of these are unpublished manuscripts, some published works include: * *''De eloquutione libellus'', 1503 *''Ad clarissimum virum dominum Ioannem Blanchfeldum berliniensem prohemium in vitam divi Antonii abbatis'', 1503 *''De Rebus Saxoniae, Thuringiae, Libonotriae, Misnae, Et Lusatiae'': 1518 *''Chronica. Des Durchleuchtigen, Hochgebornen Fürsten vnd Herrn, Herrn Friderichen, Landgraffen in Düringen, Marggraffen zu Meychssen t.'': 1546 (reprinted 1584) *''Historiae Bononienses'', reprinted in 2012 by Bononia University Press The ''De miseria humana'' by

Jean Gerson Jean Charlier de Gerson (13 December 1363 – 12 July 1429) was a French scholar, educator, reformer, and poet, Chancellor of the University of Paris, a guiding light of the conciliar movement and one of the most prominent theologians at the Co ...

is sometimes mistakenly attributed to Garzoni.

Biography

Works

Notes

Further reading