Giovanni Battista Giraldi (November 1504 – 30 December 1573) was an Italian

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

and

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 (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. He appended the nickname Cinthio to his name and is commonly referred to by that name (which is also rendered as Cynthius, Cintio or, in Italian, Cinzio).

Biography

Cinthio was born in

Ferrara Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) 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 ...

, then the capital of the

Duchy of Ferrara The Duchy of Ferrara (; ; ) was a state in what is now northern Italy. It consisted of about 1,100 km2 south of the lower Po River, stretching to the valley of the lower Reno River, including the city of Ferrara. The territory that was part ...

, and educated at the

University of Ferrara The University of Ferrara () is the main university of the city of Ferrara in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. In the years prior to the First World War the University of Ferrara, with more than 500 students, was the best attended of ...

. In 1525, he became a professor of

natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the develop ...

there. Twelve years later, he succeeded Celio Calcagnini in the chair of ''

belles-lettres () is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. In the modern narrow sense, it is a label for literary works that do not fall into the major categories such as fiction, poetry, or drama. The phrase is sometimes used pej ...

''. Between 1542 and 1560 he was a private secretary, first to Ercole II and afterwards to Alfonso II d'Este; but having, in connection with a literary quarrel, lost the favour of his patron, he moved to

Mondovì Mondovì (; , ) is a town and ''comune'' (township) in Piedmont, northern Italy, about from Turin. The area around it is known as the Monregalese. The town, located on the Monte Regale hill, is divided into several '' rioni'' (ancient quart ...

, where he remained as a teacher of literature until 1568. Subsequently, on the invitation of the senate of

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, he occupied the chair of

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

Pavia Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was a major polit ...

until 1573, when, in search of health, he returned to Ferrara, where he later died. Besides an

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

entitled ''Ercole'' (1557), in twenty-six

canto The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry. Etymology and equivalent terms The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from th ...

s, Cinthio wrote nine

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

, the best known of which, ''

Orbecche ''Orbecche'' is a tragedy written by Giovanni Battista Giraldi in 1541. It was the first modern tragedy written on classical principles, and along with Sperone Speroni's '' Canace'', was responsible for a sixteenth-century theoretical debate o ...

'', was produced in 1541. The bloodthirsty nature of the play, and its style, are, in the opinion of many of its critics, almost redeemed by occasional bursts of genuine and impassioned poetry. His literary work was ideologically influenced by the Catholic Reformation. In the theatrical works there appears a vein of experimentation that anticipates some typical elements of taste of the modern European theatre, for example the

Elizabethan theatre The English Renaissance theatre or Elizabethan theatre was the theatre of England from 1558 to 1642. Its most prominent playwrights were William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. Background The term ''English Renaissance theatr ...

and

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 ...

styles, where psychological violence and horror are used in function and dramatic action structured in real time. Among the prose works of Cinthio is the ''Hecatommithi'' or ''Gli Ecatommiti'', a collection of tales told somewhat after the manner of

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was s ...

, but still more closely resembling the novels of Cinthio's contemporary,

Matteo Bandello Matteo Bandello ( 1480–1562) was an Italian writer, soldier, Dominican friar and bishop, best known for his novellas. His collection of 214 novellas made him the most popular short-story writer of his day. Biography Matteo Bandello was b ...

. Something may be said in favour of their professed claim to represent a higher standard of morality. Originally published at

in 1565, they were frequently reprinted in Italy, while a French translation appeared in 1583 and one in Spanish, with 20 of the stories, in 1590. They have a peculiar interest to students of

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

, for providing the plots of ''

Measure for Measure ''Measure for Measure'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604 and first performed in 1604. It was published in the First Folio of 1623. The play centers on the despotic and puritan Angelo (Measure for ...

'' and ''

Othello ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulat ...

''. That of the latter, which is to be found in the ''Hecatommithi'', was almost certainly read by

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

in the original Italian;Michael Neill, ed. ''Othello'' (Oxford University Press), 2006, p. 21–2. while that of the former is probably to be traced to George Whetstone's ''Promos and Cassandra'' (1578), an adaptation of Cinthio's story, and to his ''Heptamerone'' (1582), which contains a direct English translation. To Cinthio also must be attributed the plot of

Beaumont and Fletcher Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather t ...

's ''Custom of the Country''.

References

Sources

* * * Jossa, Stefano, ''Rappresentazione e scrittura. La crisi delle forme poetiche rinascimentali (1540-1560)'', Naples: Vivarium, 1996.

External links

*

Extended contents (not in book) of first (and only) volume of Hecatommithi] transl. into Spanish 1590, digitised by Biblioteca Nacional Espana, bne.es, digital and hard copy page nos * Massimo Colella, ''Radici novellistiche e metamorfosi teatrali: Otello da Giraldi Cinzio a Shakespeare'', in «Rivista di Letterature moderne e comparate», LXXIV, 2, 2021, pp. 121–144.
Hecatommithi, Deca Terza, Novella VII: "Un Capitano Moro", di Giovan Battista Giraldi Cinthio
(1574), on archive.org
Gli Ecatommiti, Deca Terza, Novella VII: "Un Capitano Moro", di Giovan Battista Giraldi
(1853), on archive.org
Gli Ecatommiti, Deca Terza, Novella VII: "Un Capitano Moro", di Giovan Battista Giraldi
(1853), on archive.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Giraldi, Giovanni Battista 1504 births 1573 deaths Writers from Ferrara 16th-century Italian novelists 16th-century Italian male writers 16th-century Italian poets Italian male poets University of Ferrara alumni Academic staff of the University of Ferrara Academic staff of the University of Pavia Italian male novelists

Biography

References

Sources

Further reading

External links