Bandino Gualfreducci (1565 5 March 1627) was an Italian

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...

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 ...

Biographie

Bandino Gualfreducci was born at

Pistoia Pistoia (; ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about north-west of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typic ...

, joined the Jesuits, and taught

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 ...

for six years at the

Roman College The Roman College (, ) was a school established by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1551, just 11 years after he founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It quickly grew to include classes from elementary school through university level and moved to seve ...

. Later he became Latin Secretary to the General of the Order, and finally, near the end of his life, retired to the Jesuits' house in Rome, where he died.

Works

Bandino Gualfreducci wrote a considerable amount of

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

verse, principally

dramas Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been c ...

. He was author of several Latin poems of religious content and of some theatrical pieces that were performed at the Roman College. His miscellaneous verse was collected in the following volume: ''Variorum Carminum libri sex. Sophoclis Oedipus Tyrannus eodem interprete''. Rome (apud heredem Barth. Zannetti), 1622. Gualfreducci took an unusual interest in the

Greek Anthology The ''Greek Anthology'' () is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Classical Greece, Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. Most of the material of the ''Greek Anthology'' comes from two manuscripts, the ''Palatine ...

; and it may well be that it was owing to his interest that it came to play a part in Jesuit education.. The sixth book of his ''Carmina'' is wholly made up of translations from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek (, "inscription", from [], "to write on, to inscribe"). This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia ...

s arranged roughly in the order of the Anthology of Planudes, Planudean collection. The section is headed: 'E Graeco libro Anthologiae.' These translations in many instances are the same as those published in the ''Selecta Epigrammata'' of 1608''Selecta Epigrammata ex Florilegio et alia quaedam ex Veteribus Poetis comicis potissimum Latino carmine conversa''. Rome, 1608. Pp. 363 + under the initials 'B. Gu.,' and it seems probable that Gualfreducci was the editor of that Selection. Gualfreducci's collection includes also a Latin version of

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

' ''

Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' (, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles. While some scholars have argued that the play was first performed , this is highly uncertain. Originally, to ...

''.

List of works

* ''Hieromenia seu sacri menses'', Rome, 1622, 1625, in-12: a collection of

poem Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

s in praise of every

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

celebrated by the Church every day of the year. * ''Variorum carminum libri sex'', ibid., 1622, in-12
online
. * ''Sigeris, Tragœdia'', ibid., 1627, in-12. * ''Oratio de Passione Domini'', ibid., 1641, in-12.

Notes

Bibliography

Carlos Sommervogel Carlos Sommervogel (8 January 1834 – 4 March 1902) was a French Jesuit scholar. He was author of the monumental ''Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus'', which served as one of the major references for the editors of the Catholic Encyclo ...

: ''Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus'', vol. 3, p. 1898
online
. * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gualfreducci, Bandino 1565 births 1627 deaths People from Pistoia 17th-century Italian Jesuits 17th-century writers in Latin Italian Renaissance humanists Italian poets Italian male non-fiction writers Italian male dramatists and playwrights Neo-Latin poets 17th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights 17th-century Italian male writers Greek–Latin translators