Ansaldo Cebà (1565 – April 1623) was an Italian

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

poet and

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

Biography

Born to an ancient Genoese family connected with the Grimaldi, Cebà attended the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

, where he studied under

Sperone Speroni Sperone Speroni degli Alvarotti (1500–1588) was an Italian Renaissance Humanism, humanist, scholar and dramatist. He was one of the central members of Padua's literary academy ''Accademia degli Infiammati'' and wrote on both moral and literary ...

, and

Giason Denores Giasone Denores or De Nores ( — 1590) was an Italian Philosophy, philosopher of the Renaissance. Biography Giasone De Nores was born around 1530 at Nicosia, in the island of Cyprus. His family, which hailed originally from Nor ...

. He specialized in

Greek language Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic languages, Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), south ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

. On his return to Genoa in 1591 he became a member of the prestigious Accademia degli Addormentati (Academy of the Sleepers), and soon distinguished himself by his academic lectures. He lived most of his life in Genoa. He was ordained a cleric in 1605, after his beloved Geronima Di Negro had become a

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...

. Cebà was a member of the

Accademia degli Incogniti The Accademia degli Incogniti (Academy of the Unknowns), also called the Loredanian Academy, was a learned society of freethinking intellectuals, mainly Venetian nobility, noblemen, that significantly influenced the cultural and political life of ...

. He died in Genoa in April 1623. Cebà had an extremely close relationship, by correspondence only, with the jewish poet and writer

Sara Copia Sullam Sarra Copia Sullam (Sara Copio, 1588/1590–1641) was an Italian poet and writer who lived in Italy in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. She was Jewish and very well educated. Despite being married, for many years she had what appears to ...

, whom he admired but whom he never actually met. He appears to have fallen in love with Sara, and constantly urged her to convert to Christianity, but she resisted. Ansaldo and Sara corresponded from spring 1618 until spring 1622. The correspondence is known through Cebà's ''Lettere di Ansaldo Cebà scritte a Sarra Copia'' (Genoa: Giuseppe Pavoni, 1623). Sara's letters to Cebà were never published, and are lost.

Works

Cebà's conservative intellectual outlook was typical of Genoese lesser nobility, but conflicted with an inclination to Baroque novelty. His first book of verse, ''Rime'', appeared in 1596 at Padua and Antwerp. The love-poetry of a

Petrarchan The Petrarchan sonnet, also known as the Italian sonnet, is a sonnet named after the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, although it was not developed by Petrarch himself, but rather by a string of Renaissance poets.Spiller, Michael R. G. The Devel ...

stamp which it contained - celebrating a Genoese lady, Aurelia Spinola - gave way in a second volume of ''Rime'' (Rome, 1611) to religious and moral themes. In 1615 he published an epic poem entitled ''La reina Esther'', which narrates

Esther Esther (; ), originally Hadassah (; ), is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical narrative, which is set in the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus falls in love with Esther and ma ...

's story in twenty-one

cantos ''The Cantos'' is a long modernist poem by Ezra Pound, written in 109 canonical sections in addition to a number of drafts and fragments added as a supplement at the request of the poem's American publisher, James Laughlin. Most of it was wr ...

. The poem was a huge success and established him as an author of note. Sara Copia Sullam addressed an enthusiastic letter full of praise to the Genoese poet. In the letter she admitted that she carried the book with her all the time, and even slept with it. Cebà responded to Sara's letter, and this was the start of four years of letters, gifts and poems, exchanged between the two. The Genoese Doge of the time,

Giacomo Lomellini Giacomo Lomellini (Genoa, 1570 – Genoa, April 1, 1652) was the 97th Doge of the Republic of Genoa. Biography His election as doge took place in a particular period for the Republic of Genoa. From March 1625 the first signs of hostility began ...

, had his palace frescoed by

Domenico Fiasella Domenico Fiasella (12 August 1589 – 19 October 1669) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, mainly active in Genoa. He was nicknamed Il Sarzana, after his birthplace of Sarzana nera Genoa. Biography He was the son of Giovanni Fiasella, a ...

with a cycle of paintings inspired by Cebà's poem. In 1617 Cebà published the political treatise ''Il Cittadino di Repubblica'', translated into English by

Charles Edwards Lester Charles Edwards Lester or C. Edwards Lester (c. 1815–1890) was an American author and diplomat. Lester was born in Griswold, Connecticut, a descendant of Jonathan Edwards. He was of a roving disposition and traveled widely in the United Stat ...

and published in New York City in 1845. In 1620 he published an Italian version of

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; ; c. 371 – c. 287 BC) was an ancient Greek Philosophy, philosopher and Natural history, naturalist. A native of Eresos in Lesbos, he was Aristotle's close colleague and successor as head of the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum, the ...

' ''Characters'', accompanied by a detailed commentary. In 1621 appeared the ''Esercitii Accademici'', and the dialogue ''Il Gonzaga over del Poema Heroico'', in which he tried to prove that

Ludovico 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'', describ ...

and

Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...

had adhered to the

classical unities The classical unities, Aristotelian unities, or three unities represent a prescriptive theory of dramatic tragedy that was introduced in Italy in the 16th century and was influential for three centuries. The three unities are: #''unity of action' ...

in their epics. The same year he published also a

tragedy A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsi ...

, ''La Principessa Silandra'', and the historical treatise ''Il Principio dell'Historia Romana''. A second epic poem, ''Il Furio Camillo'', a second tragedy, ''Alcippo Spartano'', and two volumes of ''Lettere'', came out in 1623, the year of Cebà's death. A third tragedy, ''Le Gemelle Capovane'', was printed for the first time in

Scipione Maffei Francesco Scipione Maffei (; 1 June 1675 – 11 February 1755) was an Italian writer and art critic, author of many articles and plays. An antiquarian with a humanist education whose publications on Etruscan antiquities stand as incunables o ...

's ''Teatro Italiano'' (vol. 2), Verona, 1723.

Notes

Bibliography

* * Giuliani, Nicolò. "Ansaldo Cebà". ''Giornale Ligustico di Archeologia, Storia e Letteratura''. 9 (1882): 386-434; 10 (1883): 3–18, 78–95, 165–84, 401–42; 11 (1884): 3–35, 161–96. * * * * * * * * *

External links

* «Ansaldo Cebà Genovese». In : ''Le glorie de gli Incogniti: o vero, Gli huomini illustri dell'Accademia de' signori Incogniti di Venetia'', In Venetia : appresso Francesco Valuasense stampator dell'Accademia, 1647, pp. 70–73
on-line
. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cebà, Ansaldo 1565 births 1623 deaths Writers from the Republic of Genoa Italian literary critics Italian Baroque writers 16th-century Italian poets 17th-century Italian poets 17th-century Italian male writers Italian male poets 17th-century Italian translators University of Padua alumni Greek–Italian translators