Giuseppe Battista (; 11 February 1610 – 6 March 1675) was a prolific Italian
marinist
Marinism (Italian: ''marinismo'', or ''secentismo'', "17th century") is the name now given to an ornate, witty style of poetry and verse drama written in imitation of Giambattista Marino (1569–1625), following in particular ''La Lira'' and ''L'Ad ...
poet and writer.
Biography
Giuseppe Battista was born in
Grottaglie
Grottaglie (; scn, label=Salentino, li Vurtàgghie; la, Criptalium) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Taranto, Apulia, in southern Italy.
Geography
Grottaglie is located in the Salento peninsula, dividing the Adriatic sea from Ionian ...
, between
Brindisi
Brindisi ( , ) ; la, Brundisium; grc, Βρεντέσιον, translit=Brentésion; cms, Brunda), group=pron is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
Histo ...
and
Taranto. When very young he lost his parents; but he was able to study both at his native place and later with the
Jesuits in
Naples. Here he came to the notice of
Giovanni Battista Manso
Giovanni Battista Manso (1570- 28 December 1645) was an Italian aristocrat, scholar, and patron of the arts and artists.
Biography
Giambattista Manso was a wealthy nobleman and a prominent patron of the arts and letters in Naples during the late ...
, who apparently took him to live at his own house. He became a member of the
Oziosi; and was Manso's literary executor. After the death of Manso (1645) Battista spent some time with the Prince of Avellino, and then withdrew to his native village, where he lived a simple literary life. Though greatly troubled by physical ailments, he made frequent journeys in southern Italy. He died at Naples, March 6, 1675.
Critical assessment
Battista published extensive collections of verse, the
Latin ''Epigrammatum centuriae tres'' (1653), and the Italian ''Poesie meliche'' (in four parts, 1653–70), and ''Epicedi eroici'' (1667). His poems were once admired; they fitted the taste of their day.
Girolamo Tiraboschi finds Battista 'a bad poet, who united in himself all the faults of his age,' but admits that his treatise on ''Poetry'' (1676) was influential. According to
Benedetto Croce
Benedetto Croce (; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952)
was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician, who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. In most regards, Croce was a lib ...
Battista was, together with
Giuseppe Artale, the founder of a school of poetry aiming at going further the baroque in its quest for novelty. 'Giuseppe Battista was the leader, Giuseppe Artale the second in command of that sort of "baroque of the baroque" which flourished in the second half of the seventeenth century.'
[Benedetto Croce, ''Saggi sulla letteratura italiana del Seicento'', 3d ed., p. 401.]
Battista appears to have been on friendly terms with Pietro Alois,
Lorenzo Crasso
Lorenzo Crasso (Naples, 1623-1691) was an Italian author and poet of the Baroque period.
Biography
Lorenzo Crasso, Barone di Pianura, was a Neapolitan, a Doctor of Law, doctor of laws, and an active lawyer. He was a man of wealth, and possessed ...
, Pietro Michiele, and
Giovanni Francesco Loredano
Giovanni Francesco Loredan (or Loredano) (Venice, 27 February 1607 - Peschiera del Garda, 13 August 1661) was a Venetian writer and politician, and a member of the noble family of Loredan. In 1630, he founded the Accademia degli Incogniti, a lea ...
.
Works
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Notes
Bibliography
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* Snyder, Jon R. "Truth and Wonder in Naples circa 1640." In ''Culture and Authority in the Baroque'', ed. Massimo Ciavolella and Patrick Coleman, 85–105. Toronto, 2005.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Battista, Giuseppe
Italian poets
Italian male poets
1610 births
1675 deaths
17th-century Neapolitan people
Italian Baroque people
baroque writers
Marinism