Girolamo Zoppio (date unknown - 5 June 1591) was a 16th-century Bolognese writer. A street in Bologna and a lecture hall in 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 ...

both bear his name.

Life

He was born in Bologna, and began his career as a doctor and joined the medical faculty, where he assisted Vesalius in his dissections. His son,

Melchiorre Zoppio Melchiorre or Melchior Zoppio (c. 1544–1634) was an Italian doctor and scholar. Life Born in Bologna, a son of Girolamo Zoppio, Melchiorre Zoppio followed his father's dual career in medicine and education. He taught philosophy in Macerata t ...

, would follow him into a dual academic and medical career. In his spare time, Girolamo cultivated scholarship and philosophy, becoming a professor of both. He taught logic and morality for some years in

Macerata Macerata () is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy, the county seat of the province of Macerata in the Marche region. It has a population of about 41,564. History The historical city centre is on a hill between the Chienti and Potenza ri ...

, where he set up the ''Accademia di Catenati'', which taught in Italian not Latin. He then returned to take up the chair in literature in Bologna, where he died Zoppio took an active part in the grammatical disputes that arose during his lifetime between the literary figures of Italy. He declared his support for

Annibal Caro Fra' Annibale Caro, K.M., (6 June 150717 November 1566) was an Italian writer and poet. Biography Born in Civitanova Marche, then in the March of Ancona, Caro became tutor to the wealthy family of Lodovico Gaddi in Florence, and then secret ...

in the famous dispute begun by his famous canzone ''De gigli d'oro'' and was also one of the defenders of

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...

and

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

. In this, he acted as a humanist with a love of the language of his birthplace. In ''Difesa del Petrarcna'', one of his pamphlets, Zoppio fiercely attacked the Muzio. Fontanini pretended that this was because the Muzio had said that philosophers were patriarchs to heretics, but he could not find any other reason for Zoppio's attack, stating that its heat was inseparable from all discussion. Love of ancient philosophy was in fact also a humanist trait.

Works

# the first four books of the ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan_War#Sack_of_Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to ...

'' by

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: t ...

, translated into Italian ''in ottava rima'',

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 ...

, 1554, in-8 ; # ''Rime et prose'', ibid., 1567, in-8° - the only prose piece in the work is his defence of the ''Canzone'' by Annibale Caro. # ''L'Atamante traged.'',

, 1578, in-4°. # ''Ragionamenti in defensa di Dante e del Petrarcha'',

, 1583, in-4 ; # ''Risposta allé opposizioni sanesi'',

Fermo Fermo (ancient: Firmum Picenum) is a town and ''comune'' of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo. Fermo is on a hill, the Sabulo, elevation , on a branch from Porto San Giorgio on the Adriatic coast railway. History The oldest hum ...

, in-4° ; # ''Particelle poetiche sopra Dante'', Bologne, in-4° ; # ''La poetica sopra Dante'', ibid., in-4° (see: la ''Bibliotheca'' of Fontanini, vol. 1, p. 349 and following.).

Notes

Bibliography

*Luca Piantoni, ''Un’«insolita moneta». Il Mida di Girolamo Zoppio (1573)'', in ''Tra boschi e marine. Varietà della pastorale nel Rinascimento e nell’Età barocca'', a cura di Daria Perocco, Bologna, Archetipolibri, 2012, pp. 233–269. *Girolamo Zoppio, ''Il Mida'', a cura di Luca Piantoni, Manziana, Vecchiarelli, 2017.

Sources

* "Girolamo Zoppio", in Louis-Gabriel Michaud
''Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne : histoire par ordre alphabétique de la vie publique et privée de tous les hommes avec la collaboration de plus de 300 savants et littérateurs français ou étrangers''
2nd edition, 1843–1865 {{DEFAULTSORT:Zoppio, Girolamo 1591 deaths 16th-century Italian physicians Italian translators Italian philosophers Italian classical scholars Academic staff of the University of Bologna Italian poets Italian male poets Italian dramatists and playwrights Year of birth unknown Italian male dramatists and playwrights