Girolamo Muzio or ''Mutio Justinopolitano'' (1496 in

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1576 in

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) was an Italian author in defence of the vernacular Italian language against Latin.

Biography

Girolamo Muzio was born at Padua in 1496, and educated there. He was honoured by

Pope Leo X Pope Leo X (; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political and banking Med ...

with the title of Cavalier; and he was in the service of the marquis del Vasto; after whose death he passed into the service of Don Ferdinando Gonzaga, whose affairs he managed at several Italian courts. The duke of Urbino next appointed him governor to his son, afterwards duke Francesco II. He was afterwards in the service of

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Ferdinando de' Medici. He died in 1576. In 1551 he published, along with other Italian poems, his ''Arte Poetica'', in three books, composed in

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metre (poetry), metrical but rhyme, unrhymed lines, usually in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th cen ...

. Besides letters, histories, moral treatises, he wrote several tracts against the

Reformers A reformer is someone who works for reform. Reformer may also refer to: * Catalytic reformer, in an oil refinery *Methane reformer, producing hydrogen * Steam reformer * Hydrogen reformer, extracting hydrogen *Methanol reformer, producing hydrogen ...

, especially those of the Italian nation, who at that time were numerous. He first attacked Vergerio. He then contended with Ochino, and Betti; and he afterwards assailed Bullinger, Viret, and others. As a counterbalance to the Protestant writers of ecclesiastical history, called the Magdeburg Centuriators, Muzio, in 1570, published a Roman Catholic history of the two first centuries, which made up in polemic zeal for what it wanted in sound erudition. Muzio's works on the

Italian language Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...

, published as the ''Battaglie per diffesa dell'italica lingua'' (1582), include a defence of the vernacular against claims for the superiority 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 ...

, and the ''Varchina'', in which Muzio attacks

Benedetto Varchi Benedetto Varchi (; 1502/15031565) was an Italian humanist, historian, and poet. Biography Born in Florence to a family that had originated at Montevarchi, he frequented the neoplatonic academy that Bernardo Rucellai organized in his garden, the ...

's pro-Florentine ''Ercolano'' while upholding his own ideal of an Italian learned from books.

Works

* Il duello (Venice, 1550) * Il gentilhuomo (Venice, 1571) * Battaglie per diffesa dell'italica lingua (1582) * Poems for Tullia d’Aragona: Egloghe (1550) * Treatise of poetry after

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

(1551) * Against Claudio Tolomei (1533–1574) * * Le mentite ochiniane (1551) against Bernardino Ochino * Lettere catholiche, vol I-IV (1571)

Notes

External links

* * * 1496 births 1576 deaths Italian poets Italian male poets Italian philologists Italian Renaissance humanists People from Padua Italian Roman Catholic writers Republic of Venice writers {{Italy-writer-stub