Tommaso Fazello (

New Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

''Fazellus'', 1498 – 8 April 1570) was an Italian Dominican

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...

, historian and antiquarian. He is known as the father of Sicilian history. He is the author of the first printed history of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

: ''De Rebus Siculis Decades Duae'', published in Palermo in 1558 in Latin. He was born in

Sciacca Sciacca (; Greek: ; Latin: Thermae Selinuntinae, Thermae Selinuntiae, Thermae, Aquae Labrodes and Aquae Labodes) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento on the southwestern coast of Sicily, southern Italy. It has views of the Medit ...

, Sicily and died in Palermo, Sicily. He rediscovered the ruins of the ancient Sicilian towns of Akrai (modern

Palazzolo Acreide Palazzolo Acreide ( Sicilian: ''Palazzolu'', in the local dialect: ''Palazzuolu'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily (southern Italy). It is from the city of Syracuse in the Hyblean Mountains. History The area around ...

), Selinus (modern

Selinunte Selinunte (; grc, Σελῑνοῦς, Selīnoûs ; la, Selīnūs , ; scn, Silinunti ) was a rich and extensive ancient Greek city on the south-western coast of Sicily in Italy. It was situated between the valleys of the Cottone and Modion ...

) and Heraclea Minoa. He also rediscovered the Temple of Olympian Zeus at Akragas (modern

Agrigento Agrigento (; scn, Girgenti or ; grc, Ἀκράγας, translit=Akrágas; la, Agrigentum or ; ar, كركنت, Kirkant, or ''Jirjant'') is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. It was one o ...

). In 1555, he taught at the Convent of San Domenico, Palermo, which later became the

University of Palermo The University of Palermo ( it, Università degli Studi di Palermo) is a university located in Palermo, Italy, and founded in 1806. It is organized in 12 Faculties. History The University of Palermo was officially founded in 1806, although its ...

Biography

Born at Sciacca in Sicily, Fazello studied at Palermo and entered the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...

. He next studied at Rome and at Padua, where he received his doctorate. At Rome, he became friends with the humanist scholar

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 ...

, who encouraged him to write a history of Sicily. Returning to Palermo, Fazello undertook to teach philosophy and at the same time kept up his religious exercises. He so devoted himself to his studies that eventually he gave up all but one meal a day and reduced the number of hours he slept each night. His history of Sicily, ''De rebus siculis decades duae'' (Palermo, 1558), which was his only publication, included material on the ancient history and antiquities of Sicily, showing an immense personal knowledge of topography that allowed him to identify, on the basis of ancient authors, many of the major sites of Sicily. His work is still considered fundamental for the study of ancient Sicily.

Opere

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Bibliography

References

External links

Storia di Sicilia, Deche due
Tommaso Fazello, - Internet Archive
Storia di Sicilia, Deche due: Tradotte in Lingua Toscana (1830)
Tommaso Fazello, G. Bertini - Internet Archive
An online copy of "De Rebus Siculis (Historia di Sicilia)
with other ancient books, photographically scanned by The Freaknet Medialab. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fazello, Tommaso 1498 births 1570 deaths People from Sciacca Italian Dominicans Historians of Sicily 16th-century Latin-language writers University of Palermo faculty 16th-century Italian historians