Tommaso Garzoni, (born ''Ottaviano'',

Bagnacavallo Bagnacavallo ( rgn, Bagnacavàl) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The Renaissance painter Bartolomeo Ramenghi bore the nickname of his native city. Main sights *''Castellaccio'' (15th century) * Giardi ...

, 1549 – 1589), was an Italian

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 ...

writer.

Life

Tommaso Garzoni was born in March 1549 in

(a village in the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

near

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...

) to a humble family, who however succeeded to pay for his education. He briefly studied law in

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

, then logic in

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

. At the age of seventeen, on 18 October 1566, he entered in the

Canons Regular of the Lateran The Canons Regular of the Lateran (CRL), formally titled the Canons Regular of St. Augustine of the Congregation of the Most Holy Savior at the Lateran, is an international congregation of an order of canons regular, comprising priests and lay bro ...

, the religious order who held the Santa Maria in Porto Basilica in Ravenna. On that occasion he took the religious name of ''Tommaso'' (or ''Tomaso''). With a prodigious inventive faculty, in the last six years of his short existence he wrote all the works - bizarrely encyclopedic - that would make him famous. Garzoni's eclectic work had a vast European success (numerous translations and reprints), to the point of consecrating him among the most popular Italian authors of the late sixteenth century. Today, after a long oblivion, Garzoni is again discovered and analyzed by critics. He was also the first to write in Italian a complete biographical catalog of women in the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

(''Le vite delle donne illustri della Sacra Scrittura''). Returned to his birth town to preach on the Bible, he died on 8 June 1589, and he was buried in the local church of Saint Francesco.

Works

;In Italian * ''Il Theatro de' vari, e diversi cervelli mondani'',

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

, 1583 * ''La piazza universale di tutte le professioni del mondo'', Venezia, 1585 * ''L'hospidale de pazzi incurabili'', Venezia, 1586 * ''Le vite delle donne illustri della Scrittura sacra'', Venezia, 1586 * ''La sinagoga de gl'ignoranti'', Venezia, 1589 * ''Il mirabile cornucopia consolatorio'',

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 ...

, 1601 (posthumous) * ''L'huomo astratto'', Venezia, 1604 (posthumous) * ''Il serraglio de gli stupori del mondo'', Venezia, 1613 (posthumous) ;Translations in French * ''Le Théâtre des divers cerveaux du monde'', translated by Gabriel Chappuys, Paris, J. Houzé, 1586 * ''L'Hospital des fols incurables, où sont déduites de poinct en poinct toutes les folies et les maladies d'esprit, tant des hommes que des femmes'', translated by François de Clarier, sieur de Longval, Paris, F. Julliot, L. Sevestre, 1620 * ''L'hospidale de’ pazzi incurabili'', 2001 ;Translations in English * ''The Hospital of Incurable Madness. L'Hospedale de' Pazzi Incurabili (1586), by Tomas Garzoni'', 2009 ;Translations in German * ''Spital unheylsamer Narren und Närrinnen Herrn Thomasi Garzoni, auss der italiänischen Sprach teutsch gemacht durch Georgium Fridericum Messerschmid'', Strassburg, J. Carolo, 1618 * ''Piazza universale, das ist allgemeiner Schawplatz, Marckt und Zusammenkunfft aller Professionen, Künsten, Geschäfften, Händeln und Handtwerken... erstmaln durch Thomam Garzonum italianisch zusammengetragen, anjetzo ..verdeutscht'' Frankfurt am Mayn, W. Hoffmanns Buchdruckerei, 1641 ;Translations in Latin * ''Emporium universale'', translated by Nic. Belli, Francfort, 1614 ;Translations in Spanish * ''Plaza universal de todas sciencias y artes'', parte traduzida de toscano e Thomaso Garzoniy parte compuesta por el doctor Christóval Suárez de Figueroa, Perpiñan, 1630

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garzoni, Tommaso 1549 births 1589 deaths Italian Renaissance writers Italian Renaissance humanists 16th-century Italian writers 16th-century male writers People from the Province of Ravenna