Mariangelo Accorso or Accursio ( la, Mariangelus Accursius; 1489 or 14901544 or 1546) was an Italian writer and

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

Biography

He was born at

L'Aquila L'Aquila ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy. It is the capital city of both the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila. , it has a population of 70,967 inhabitants. Laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide valle ...

(

Abruzzo Abruzzo (, , ; nap, label=Neapolitan language, Abruzzese Neapolitan, Abbrùzze , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; nap, label=Sabino dialect, Aquilano, Abbrùzzu; #History, historically Abruzzi) is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy wi ...

), then part of the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

. He was a great favourite with Charles V, at whose court he resided for thirty-three years, and by whom he was employed on various foreign missions. To a perfect knowledge of Greek and Latin he added an intimate acquaintance with several modern languages. In discovering and collating ancient manuscripts, for which his travels abroad gave him special opportunities, he displayed uncommon diligence. His work entitled ''Diatribae in Ausonium, Solinum et Ovidium'' (1524) is a monument of erudition and critical skill.Inscriptiones sacrosanctae vetustatis non illae quidem Romanae, sed totius fere orbis summo studio ac maximis impensis terra marique conquisitae feliciter incipiunt. Raymundo Fuggero, Petrus Apianus mathematicus Ingolstadiensis & Barptholomeus Amantius poeta dedicaverunt, Ingolstadii : in aedibus P. Apiani, 1534 He was the first editor of the ''Letters'' of

Cassiodorus Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Roman statesman, renowned scholar of antiquity, and writer serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senator'' w ...

, with his ''Treatise on the Soul'' (1538); and his edition of

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally Anglicisation, anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Ancient history, antiquity (preceding Procopius). His w ...

(1533) contains five books more than any former one. The affected use of antiquated terms, introduced by some of the Latin writers of that age, is humorously ridiculed by him, in a dialogue in which an

Oscan Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian. Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including th ...

, a

Volscian Volscian was a Sabellic Italic language, which was spoken by the Volsci and closely related to Oscan and Umbrian. Overview Volscian is attested in an inscription found in Velitrae (Velletri), dating probably from early in the 3rd century BC; it ...

and a Roman are introduced as interlocutors (1531). Accorso was accused of plagiarism in his notes on Ausonius, a charge which he most solemnly and energetically repudiated.

Works

*''Osco, Volsco Romanaque eloquentia interlocutoribus, dialogus ludis Romanis actus''. Published probably in Rome, according to some E. Guillery, in 1513, to others by J. Beplin in 1515 *''Diatribae''. Published probably in Rome; Latin detail is "Romae: in aedibus Marcelli Argentei, octauo Kalendas Aprilis 25 III, 1524" *''Ammianus Marcellinus a Mariangelo Accursio mendis quinque millibus purgatus, atque libris quinque auctus ultimis, nunc primum ab eodem inuentis'', Augustae Vindelicorum: in aedibus Silwani Otmar, May 1533 *''Magni Aurelii Cassiodori Variarum Libri XII. Item De anima liber unus. Recens inventi, & in lucem dati a Mariangelo Accursio'', Augustae Vindelic.: Ex. aedibus Henrici Silicei, May 1533 *''Decimi Magni Ausonii Burdigalensis Opera, Iacobus Tollius, M.D. recensuit, et integris Scaligeri, Mariang. Accursii, Freheri, Scriverii; selectis Vineti, Barthii, Acidalii, Gronovii, Graevii, aliorumque notis accuratissime digestis, nec non & suis adimadversionibus illustravit'', Amsterdam: by Ioannem Blaeu, 1671

References

15th-century births 1540s deaths People from L'Aquila Italian male writers 16th-century Italian writers {{Italy-writer-stub