Francesco Robortello ( la, Franciscus Robortellus; 1516–1567) was a

Renaissance humanist Renaissance humanism was a revival in the study of classical antiquity, at first Italian Renaissance, in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term ''humanist'' ( it, umanista ...

, nicknamed ''Canis grammaticus'' ("the grammatical dog") for his confrontational and demanding manner.

As scholar

Robortello, who was born in

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with ...

, was an editor of rediscovered works of Antiquity, who taught philosophy and rhetoric, as well as ethics (following

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatet ...

), and Latin and Greek, roving from Padua through universities at

Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as ...

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the ...

Venice 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 isla ...

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of t ...

, and

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, 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 1 ...

before finally returning to Padua in 1560. Robortello's scientific approach to

textual emendation Conjecture (conjectural emendation) is a critical reconstruction of the original reading of a clearly corrupt, contaminated, nonsensical or illegible textual fragment. Conjecture is one of the techniques of textual criticism used by philologists w ...

s laid the groundwork for modern

Hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of Biblical hermeneutics, biblical texts, wisdom literature, and Philosophy, philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles ...

. His commentary on Aristotle's ''Poetics'' formed the basis for Renaissance and 17th century theories of

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ori ...

, influential in writing for the

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

everywhere save in England. At the same time he was the conservative Aristotelian philosopher who urged woman to submit her will to that of her husband on the basis of her moral weakness, in his ''libro politicos: Aristotelis disputatio'' (Venice, 1552, p. 175, quoted Comensoli 1989). He followed his ''In librum Aristotelis de arte poetica explicationes'' (1548), in which he emended the Latin version of Alessandro de’ Pazzi (published 1536), with a paraphrase of

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ...

's '' Ars Poetica'' and with explications of

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other ...

s missing in the surviving text of Aristotle: ''De Satyra'', ''De Epigrammate'', ''De Comoedia'', ''De Salibus'', ''De Elegia.'' In the fields of

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

and history he sustained controversies in print with

Carolus Sigonius Carolus Sigonius (Carlo Sigonio or Sigone) (c. 152412 August 1584) was an Italian humanist, born in Modena. Biography Having studied Greek under the learned Franciscus Portus of Candia, he attended the philosophical schools of Bologna and P ...

and

Vincenzo Maggi Vincenzo is an Italian male given name, derived from the Latin name Vincentius (the verb ''vincere'' means to win or to conquer). Notable people with the name include: Art *Vincenzo Amato (born 1966), Italian actor and sculptor *Vincenzo Bell ...

in the form of

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

-like ''orations'', correcting the editions published in Venice by

Aldus Manutius Aldus Pius Manutius (; it, Aldo Pio Manuzio; 6 February 1515) was an Italian printer and humanist who founded the Aldine Press. Manutius devoted the later part of his life to publishing and disseminating rare texts. His interest in and prese ...

, and even philological missteps of

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...

. These brief essays were collected and published at intervals. A convention of surveys of Italian linguistics (Gensini 1993) is to start with Robortello. Robortello died at Padua, where, in the 1550s, one of his pupils was

Giacomo Zabarella Giacomo (or Jacopo) Zabarella (5 September 1533 – 15 October 1589) was an Italian Aristotelian philosopher and logician. Life Zabarella was born into a noble Paduan family. He received a humanist education and entered the University of Padua ...

. Another pupil was

Jan Kochanowski Jan Kochanowski (; 1530 – 22 August 1584) was a Polish Renaissance poet who established poetic patterns that would become integral to the Polish literary language. He is commonly regarded as the greatest Polish poet before Adam Mickiewicz. L ...

, a poet who wrote both in Polish and Latin and introduced the ideas, forms and spirit of the Renaissance into Polish literature.

Main works

*''De historica facultate disputatio'' (alternatively as ''De arte historica''), 1548; 1567. An incunable of

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians hav ...

. *''De rhetorica facultate'', 1548 *''In Aristotelis poeticam explicationes'', Florence 1548, 2nd edition 1555. Reinterpreting Aristotle's ''

Poetics Poetics is the theory of structure, form, and discourse within literature, and, in particular, within poetry. History The term ''poetics'' derives from the Ancient Greek ποιητικός ''poietikos'' "pertaining to poetry"; also "creative" an ...

'' for the humanist. *''Dionysi Longini rhetoris praestantissimi liber de grandi sive sublimiorationis genere ... cum adnotationibus'', Basel 1554. Recovering the lost literary criticism of

Longinus Longinus () is the name given to the unnamed Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a lance and who in medieval and some modern Christian traditions is described as a convert to Christianity. His name first appeared in the apocryphal G ...

, ''On the Sublime''. *''Thesaurus criticus'', 1557, second edition, 1604 *''De arte, sive ratione corrigendi antiquorum libros disputatio,'' Florence 1548;''"Firenze, Lorenzo Torrentino, 1548"''
2nd edition 1562 This "Lecture on the art and method of correcting the books of the old writers" was one of the first critical discussions of the methodologies to apply in correcting texts of Antiquity. *''De artificio dicendi'' 1567. A textbook of rhetoric.

Notes

References

*Ryan, E. E. "Robortello and Maggi on Aristotle's Theory of Catharsis". in ''Rinascimento XXII'' (1982) pp 263–273.

External links

note. * ttp://www.theatredatabase.com/16th_century/italian_dramatic_criticism_of_the_renaissance.html Theaterbase: Barret H. Clark, Italian Dramatic Criticism of the Renaissance Context of Robortello's works.

As scholar

Main works

Notes

References

External links

Further reading