Pietro Aretino (, ; 19 or 20 April 1492
– 21 October 1556) was an Italian
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
,
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
,
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 ...
,
satirist
This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires.
Under Contemporary, 1930-196 ...
and
blackmailer, who wielded influence on contemporary art and politics. He was one of the most influential writers of his time and an outspoken critic of the powerful. Owing to his communications and sympathies with religious reformers, he is considered to have been a
Nicodemite
A Nicodemite () is a person suspected of publicly misrepresenting their religious faith to conceal their true beliefs. The term is sometimes defined as referring to a Protestant Christian who lived in a Roman Catholic country and escaped persecuti ...
Protestant.
Life
His father was Luca Del Tura, a shoemaker from
Arezzo in
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze'').
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...
, Italy, who abandoned his family to join the militia. The father later returned to Arezzo, finally dying in poverty at the age of 85, unforgiven by his son, who never acknowledged the paternal name, taking ''Aretino'' (meaning 'Arretine, from Arezzo') as a surname.
His mother was Margherita, known as Tita, Bonci. Either before or after the abandonment (it is not known which), she entered into a lasting relationship with a local noble, Luigi Bacci, who supported Tita, Pietro and his two sisters and brought up Pietro as part of his own family.
Aretino spent a formative decade in Perugia, before being sent, highly recommended, to Rome. There
Agostino Chigi
Agostino Andrea Chigi (29 November 1466 – April 11, 1520) was an Italian banker and patron of the Renaissance.
Born in Siena, he was the son of the prominent banker Mariano Chigi, a member of the ancient and illustrious Chigi family. He moved ...
, the rich banker and patron of
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...
, took him under his wing.
When
Hanno the elephant, pet of
Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521.
Born into the prominent political an ...
, died in 1516, Aretino penned a satirical pamphlet entitled "The Last Will and Testament of the Elephant Hanno". The fictitious will cleverly mocked the leading political and religious figures of Rome at the time, including Pope Leo X himself. The pamphlet was such a success that it started Aretino's career and established him as a famous satirist, ultimately known as "the Scourge of Princes".
Aretino prospered, living from hand to mouth as a hanger-on in the literate circle of his patron, sharpening his satirical talents on the gossip of politics and the
Papal Curia, and turning the coarse Roman
pasquinade
A pasquinade or pasquil is a form of satire, usually an anonymous brief lampoon in verse or prose, and can also be seen as a form of literary caricature. The genre became popular in early modern Europe, in the 16th century, though the term had ...
into a rapier weapon of satire, until his sixteen ribald (Lust Sonnets) written to accompany
Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano (, ; – 1 November 1546), is the acquired name of Giulio Pippi, who was an Italian painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the sixteenth-cent ...
's exquisitely beautiful but utterly pornographic series of drawings engraved by
Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio Raimondi, often called simply Marcantonio (c. 1470/82 – c. 1534), was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists largely of prints copying paintings. He is therefore a key figu ...
under the title finally caused such outrage that he had to temporarily flee Rome.
After Leo's death in 1521, his patron was
Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, whose competitors for the papal throne felt the sting of Aretino's scurrilous lash. The installation of the Dutch pope
Adrian VI
Pope Adrian VI ( la, Hadrianus VI; it, Adriano VI; nl, Adrianus/Adriaan VI), born Adriaan Florensz Boeyens (2 March 1459 – 14 September 1523), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 January 1522 until his d ...
( in Pietro's words) instead encouraged Aretino to seek new patrons away from Rome, mainly with
Federico II Gonzaga
Federico II of Gonzaga (17 May 1500 – 28 August 1540) was the ruler of the Italian city of Mantua (first as Marquis, later as Duke) from 1519 until his death. He was also Marquis of Montferrat from 1536.
Biography
Federico was son of Francesc ...
in
Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...
, and with the
condottiero Giovanni de' Medici ("Giovanni delle Bande Nere"). The election of his old Medici patron as
Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII ( la, Clemens VII; it, Clemente VII; born Giulio de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the ...
sent him briefly back to Rome, but death threats and an attempted assassination from one of the victims of his pen,
Bishop Giovanni Giberti, in July 1525, set him wandering through northern Italy in the service of various noblemen, distinguished by his wit, audacity and brilliant and facile talents, until he settled permanently in 1527, in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
, anti-Papal city of Italy, "seat of all vices", Aretino noted with gusto.
He was a lover of men, having declared himself "a sodomite" since birth. In a letter to Giovanni de' Medici written in 1524 Aretino enclosed a satirical poem saying that due to a sudden aberration he had "fallen in love with a female cook and temporarily switched from boys to girls..." (''My Dear Boy''). In his comedy , the lead man is overjoyed to discover that the woman he has been forced to marry is really a page boy in disguise. While at court in Mantua he developed a crush on a young man called Bianchino, and annoyed Duke Federico with a request to plead with the boy on the writer's behalf.
Safe in Venice, Aretino became a blackmailer, extorting money from men who had sought his guidance in vice. He "kept all that was famous in Italy in a kind of state of siege", in
Jakob Burckhardt
Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt (25 May 1818 – 8 August 1897) was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. He is known as one of the major progenitors of cultural history. Sigfri ...
's estimation.
Francis I of France
Francis I (french: François Ier; frm, Francoys; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin on ...
and
Charles V Charles V may refer to:
* Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558)
* Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain
* Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise
* Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690)
* Infa ...
pensioned him at the same time, each hoping for some damage to the reputation of the other. "The rest of his relations with the great is mere beggary and vulgar extortion", according to Burckhardt. Addison states that "he laid half Europe under contribution".
Aretino is said to have died of suffocation from "
laughing too much". The more mundane truth may be that he died from a stroke or heart attack.
Writings
Apart from both sacred and profane texts – a satire of high-flown
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
Neoplatonic
Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some id ...
dialogues is set in a
brothel – and comedies such as and , Aretino is remembered above all for his letters, full of literary flattery that could turn to
blackmail. They circulated widely in manuscript and he collected them and published them at intervals winning as many enemies as it did fame, and earned him the dangerous nickname
Ariosto
Ludovico Ariosto (; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic ''Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando Innamorato'', describes the ...
gave him: ("scourge of princes"). In 1559, three years after Aretino's death, his entire oeuvre was listed in the papal
Index of Prohibited Books
The ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum'' ("List of Prohibited Books") was a list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index (a former Dicastery of the Roman Curia), and Catholics were forbidde ...
. The first English translations of some of Aretino's racier material have been coming onto the market recently.
is a brilliant parody of
Castiglione's , and features the adventures of a Sienese gentleman, Messer Maco, who travels to Rome to become a
cardinal. He would also like to win himself a mistress, but when he falls in love with a girl he sees in a window, he realizes that only as a courtier would he be able to win her. In mockery of Castiglione's advice on how to become the perfect courtier, a charlatan proceeds to teach Messer Maco how to behave as a courtier: he must learn how to deceive and flatter, and sit hours in front of the mirror.
Portrayals by artists
Aretino was a close friend of
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...
's, who painted his
portrait
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...
three times: a 1527 portrait in the
Kunstmuseum Basel
The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world and is generally considered to be the most important museum of art in Switzerland. It is listed as a heritage site of national significance.
Its lineage extends back to ...
, a 1537 portrait in the
Frick Collection, and a 1545
portrait in the Pitti Palace. Luba Freedman cites a fourth portrait, from "not later than 1535," but
Xavier F. Salomon, chief curator at the
Frick Collection, writes that "there is no evidence that it ever existed." Titian also portrayed Aretino as
Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilate (; grc-gre, Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος, ) was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of J ...
in his painting "Ecce Homo," in the
Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, "as a nameless soldier in the crowd" in "
Alfonso d'Avalos Addressing his Troops
''Alfonso d'Avalos Addressing his Troops'' (Spanish: ''Alocución del Marqués del Vasto'') is a portrait of Alfonso d'Avalos by Titian, painted in around 1540 and now held at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. Alfonso d'Avalos, Marquise del V ...
," in the
Prado
The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It migh ...
,
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, and next to a self-portrait in "
La Gloria," also in the Prado. Clement VII made Aretino a
Knight of Rhodes
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...
, and
Julius III named him a Knight of St. Peter, but the chain he wears for his 1545 portrait may have merely been jewelry. In his strictly-for-publication letters to patrons Aretino would often add a verbal portrait to Titian's painted one.
Titian was far from the only artist who portrayed Aretino. "Probably no other celebrity of the
cinquecento had his image reproduced so often and in so many media: paintings, frescoes, sculptures, prints, medals
..At various stages of his life Aretino was also portrayed by
Sebastiano del Piombo
Sebastiano del Piombo (; c. 1485 – 21 June 1547) was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance and early Mannerist periods famous as the only major artist of the period to combine the colouring of the Venetian school in which he was trained ...
,
Alessandro Moretto,
Francesco Salviati,
Jacopo Tintoretto
Tintoretto ( , , ; born Jacopo Robusti; late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594) was an Italian painter identified with the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized the speed with ...
, and
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...
. His portrait was engraved by
Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio Raimondi, often called simply Marcantonio (c. 1470/82 – c. 1534), was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists largely of prints copying paintings. He is therefore a key figu ...
and
Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio. His likeness was reproduced on medals by
Leone Leoni
:''For the early 17th-century composer, see Leone Leoni (composer)''.
Leone Leoni (ca. 1509 – 22 July 1590) was an Italian sculptor of international outlook who travelled in Italy, Germany, Austria, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Leoni is r ...
, Francesco Segala,
Alfonso Lombardi
Alfonso Lombardi (c. 1497–1537), also known as Lombardi da Lucca, Alfonso da Ferrara and as Alfonso Lombardo, was an Italian sculptor and medalist who was born in Ferrara, Italy in 1497, and died in Bologna in 1537. He was very active in Bolo ...
, and
Alessandro Vittoria and his image was sculpted by
Jacopo Sansovino and
Danese Cattaneo
Danese Cattaneo (c1512? - 1572) was an Italian sculptor and medallist, active mainly in the Veneto Region.
Danese was Tuscan in origin, born in either Massa di Carrara or Colonnata. He produced primarily sculptures of religious and historical ...
."
The Last Judgment
In November 1545, Aretino wrote an open letter to Michelangelo criticizing the nudity in ''
The Last Judgment''. His dialogues, , Aretino wrote, "demonstrate the superiority of my reserve to your indiscretion, seeing that I, while handling themes lascivious and immodest, use language comely and decorous, speak in terms beyond reproach and inoffensive to chaste ears. You, on the contrary, presenting so awful a subject, exhibit saints and angels, these without earthly decency, and those without celestial honors
€¦ Your art would be at home in some voluptuous
bagnio
Bagnio is a loan word into several languages (from it, bagno). In English, French, and so on, it has developed varying meanings: typically a brothel, bath-house, or prison for slaves.
In reference to the Ottoman Empire
The origin of this sens ...
, certainly not in the highest chapel in the world
€¦ I do not write this out of any resentment for the things I begged of you. In truth, if you had sent me what you promised, you would only have been doing what you ought to have desired most eagerly to do in your own interest".
John Addington Symonds writes, "Aretino’s real object was to wheedle some priceless sketch or drawing out of the great master. This appears from a second letter written by him on the 20th of January 1538."
Symonds describes Michelangelo's answer to Aretino's November 1545 letter: "Under the form of elaborate compliment it conceals the scorn he must have conceived for Aretino and his insolent advice. Yet he knew how dangerous the man could be, and felt obliged to humour him." In Michelangelo's ''The Last Judgment'', completed in 1541, he had painted Saint Bartholomew displaying his own flayed skin. "
e sagging flayed skin
€¦many scholars believe depicts Michelangelo's own features. Interestingly, the face of Saint Bartholomew
ho is holding the skinis similar to the face of Pietro Aretino, one of Michelangelo's chief persecutors." But these resemblances were unrelated to Aretino's letter to Michelangelo. Bernadine Barnes writes that "no sixteenth-century critic noticed
hat the flayed skin represents Michelangelo Nor did any contemporary critic notice the portrait of Pietro Aretino in the fresco
.. ewers of our own time have often seen him as St Bartholomew, who brandishes a knife in one hand and holds the skin with the semblance of Michelangelo's face in the other. However, Aretino's criticism
f Michelangelowas not written until 1545, four years after the fresco was completed. Even Aretino's good friend Vasari did not recognize him."
Legacy
Aretino is frequently mentioned in English works of the Elizabethan and later periods and differently appreciated, in comments ranging from "It was one of the wittiest knaves that ever God made" of
Nashe (''
The Unfortunate Traveller
''The Unfortunate Traveller: or, the Life of Jack Wilton'' (originally published as ''The Unfortunate Traueller: or, The Life of Jacke Wilton'') is a picaresque novel by Thomas Nashe first published in 1594 but set during the reign of Henry VIII of ...
'') to "that notorious ribald of Arezzo" of
Milton's ''
Areopagitica
''Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England'' is a 1644 prose polemic by the English poet, scholar, and polemical author John Milton opposing licensing and censorship. ''Are ...
''.
The English traveller
Sir John Reresby visited "the obscene profane poet" Aretino's grave in the church of
San Luca, Venice
The church of San Luca Evangelista is a church in the sestiere of San Marco in Venice, Italy.
A parish church stood at the site since the 11th century, patronized by the patrician Dandolo and Pizzamano families. Restored over the centuries, it und ...
, in the mid-1650s. He relates that the following epitaph had been removed by the
inquisitors: This he translates as "Here Aretin, the Tuscan poet, lies, who all the world abused but God, and why? he said he knew him not."
The tomb at the church now no longer exists, since the church was demolished.
Pietro's first biographer states that there was no epitaph on the tomb. Those who claim that there was a sarcastic epitaph in
hendecasyllable
In poetry, a hendecasyllable (sometimes hendecasyllabic) is a line of eleven syllables. The term may refer to several different poetic meters, the older of which are quantitative and used chiefly in classical (Ancient Greek and Latin) poetry, and ...
s suspect that it should be attributed to Bishop
Paolo Giovio
Paolo Giovio (also spelled ''Paulo Jovio''; Latin: ''Paulus Jovius''; 19 April 1483 – 11 December 1552) was an Italian physician, historian, biographer, and prelate.
Early life
Little is known about Giovio's youth. He was a native of Com ...
, and that it was composed when Aretino was still alive:
In 2007, the composer
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his length ...
set some of Aretino's to music under the title ''
8 Lust Songs''. Once again, Aretino's texts proved controversial: at a 2008 performance at
Cadogan Hall, London, the printed programs were withdrawn following allegations of obscenity.
Works
Poetry
* (1526). Erotically explicit sonnets written to accompany
Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio Raimondi, often called simply Marcantonio (c. 1470/82 – c. 1534), was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists largely of prints copying paintings. He is therefore a key figu ...
's engravings of
Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano (, ; – 1 November 1546), is the acquired name of Giulio Pippi, who was an Italian painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the sixteenth-cent ...
's drawings of
sexual positions
A sex position is a position of the body that people use for sexual intercourse or other sexual activities. Sexual acts are generally described by the positions the participants adopt in order to perform those acts. Though sexual intercourse ge ...
in .
* (1526). A series of questions and answers on erotic matters, expressed as poems in and
quatrains.
* (1527-; published 1532, 1535)
* (published 1536)
* (published 1540)
* (published )
Prose
*
* (also called ) (1534, 1536). A pair of
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
dialogues. In the ''Dialogue of Nanna and Antonia under a Fig Tree in Rome'' (1534), the two women discuss the life options open to Nanna's daughter, Pippa, to become a nun, a wife or a whore. In the follow-up ''Dialogue in which Nanna Teaches her Daughter Pippa'' (1536), the relations between prostitutes and their clients are discussed. Translated by
Raymond Rosenthal
Raymond B. Rosenthal (December 19, 1914 – July 24, 1995) was an American translator of Italian literature into the English language.
He has translated the works of Primo Levi, Pietro Aretino, Aldo Busi, Piero Sanavio, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Pi ...
as ''Aretino's Dialogues'' (New York: Stein and Day, 1972).
Reissued in 2005 by University of Toronto Press with additional material
/ref> The second dialogue is also translated by Rosa Maria Falvo, Alessandro Gallenzi, and Rebecca Skipwith as ''The School of Whoredom'' (London: Hesperus Press Limited, 2003).
Plays
*
* (1525, 1534). Comedy in five acts, a parody of the then-unpublished by Baldassare Castiglione
Baldassare Castiglione, Count of Casatico (; 6 December 1478 – 2 February 1529),Dates of birth and death, and cause of the latter, fro, ''Italica'', Rai International online. was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissanc ...
. First performance possibly in carnival
Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typi ...
1525. A revised version was published in Venice in 1534.
* (1533). Comedy in five acts. The play served as a source for Malipiero's opera of the same name (Treviso, 1969).
* (1542). Comedy in five acts.
* (1542). Comedy in five acts.
* (1546). Comedy in five acts.
* (1546). Tragedy in verse.
Notes
References
Bernadine Barnes, "Aretino, the Public, and the Censorship of Michelangelo's ''Last Judgment''," in ''Suspended License: Censorship and the Visual Arts'', ed. Elizabeth C. Childs (University of Washington Press, 1997), pp. 59–84
*Bernadine Barnes, ''Michelangelo’s Last Judgment: The Renaissance Response'' (University of California Press, 1998)
google books
pp. 74–88 discuss "Aretino and the 'Public.'"
*Elise Boillet, "L'Aretin et les papes de son temps" in: Florence Alazard et Frank La Brasca (eds.), ''La Papauté à la Renaissance'' (Paris, Editions Honoré Champion, 2007) (Travaux du Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance de Tours, 12), pp. 324–63
*Peter Brand, Charles Peter Brand and Lino Pertile, ''The Cambridge History of Italian Literature'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999)
*Danny Chaplin, ''Pietro Aretino: The First Modern'' (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017)
*Thomas Caldecot Chubb, ''Aretino: Scourge of Princes'' (Reynal & Hitchcock, 1940)
* James Cleugh, ''The Divine Aretino, Pietro of Arezzo, 1492-1556: A Biography'' (Anthony Blond, 1965; Stein and Day, 1966)
*Luba Freedman, ''Titian's Portraits Through Aretino's Lens'' (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995)
*Robert Greene, ''The 48 Laws of Power'' (Viking Penguin, 1998)
*Sheila Hale, ''Titian: His Life'' (HarperCollins, 2012)
Edward Hutton, ''Pietro Aretino: The Scourge of Princes'' (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1922)
*Mark A. Lamonica, ''Renaissance Porn Star: The Saga of Pietro Aretino, The World's Greatest Hustler'' (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012)
*Rictor Norton
Rictor Norton (born 1945) is an American writer on literary and cultural history, particularly queer history. He is based in London, England.
Biography
Norton was born in Friendship, New York, USA, on June 25, 1945. He gained a BA from Flo ...
(ed.) ''My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries'' (Leyland Publications, San Francisco, 1998)
*Francine Prose
Francine Prose (born April 1, 1947) is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She is a visiting professor of literature at Bard College, and was formerly president of PEN American Center.
Life and career
Born in Brookl ...
and Xavier F. Salomon, ''Titian's Pietro Aretino'' (The Frick Collection, 2020)
*Samuel Putnam
Samuel Putnam (October 10, 1892 – January 15, 1950) was an American translator and scholar of Romance languages. He is also noteworthy as the author of ''Paris Was Our Mistress'', a memoir on writers and artists associated with the American ex-p ...
, ''The Works of Aretino: Letters and Sonnets: Translated into English from the original Italian, with a critical and biographical essay by Samuel Putnam'' (New York: Covici-Friede Publishers, 1926, 1933). This book includes ''Pietro Aretino: A Biography Translated from the Italian of Francesco de Sanctis by Samuel Putnam''. Putnam calls de Sancti
"the leading Italian critic of the Nineteenth century." p. 9.
*David Rosand
David Rosand (September 6, 1938 – August 8, 2014) was an American art historian, university professor and writer. He died on August 8, 2014 from cardiac amyloidosis.Columbia UniversityRosand, faculty bio notes/ref> Rosand specialized in Italian ...
, " Veronese's Magdalene and Pietro Aretino," ''The Burlington Magazine'' 153 (2011), pp. 392–94.
*Joseph Satin, ''Pietro Aretino: The Sentient of Venice: A Novel'' (Press at California State University, Fresno, 2011)
Sources
''Encyclopædia Britannica''
External links
''I Modi'' – Illustrations by various artists based on Aretino's erotic sonnets
*
*
* Putnam'
translation of the ''Sonneti lussuriosi'' at Elfinspell.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aretino, Pietro
1492 births
1556 deaths
16th-century LGBT people
People from Arezzo
Gay writers
Italian dramatists and playwrights
Italian Renaissance humanists
Deaths from laughter
LGBT writers from Italy
LGBT dramatists and playwrights
Medieval LGBT people