Marcus Antonius Coccius Sabellicus or Marcantonio Sabellico (1436–1506) was a

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

from

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

. He is known for his

universal history Universal history may refer to: * Universal history (genre), a literary genre **''Jami' al-tawarikh'', 14th-century work of literature and history, produced by the Mongol Ilkhanate in Persia ** Universal History (Sale et al), ''Universal History'' ...

, ''Enneades sive Rhapsodia historiarum''.

Life

Born in

Vicovaro Vicovaro (, Romanesco: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Italian region Lazio, located about northeast of Rome. History The area of Vicovaro was inhabited as early as the Neolithic period, as testified by r ...

, his surname was originally Cocci; he took his Latinised name as a pupil of Pomponius Laetus. He studied also with Porcelio Pandone (1405–1485) and Gaspar Veronese.Peter G. Bietenholz, Thomas Brian Deutscher, ''Contemporaries of Erasmus: a biographical register of the Renaissance and Reformation'', Volumes 1–3 (2003), pp. 181–2
Google Books
Sabellicus became professor of eloquence at

Udine Udine ( ; ; ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Carnic Alps. It is the capital of the Province of Udine, Regional decentralization entity ...

in 1473, but was dismissed in 1482. After a short period at

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

, he went to

, with the Venetian history he had written speculatively. He was given a teaching position as deputy to

Giorgio Valla Giorgio Valla (Latin: ''Georgius Valla''; Piacenza 1447–Venice January 23, 1500) was an Italian academic, mathematician, philologist and translator. Life He was born in Piacenza in 1447. He was the son of Andrea Valla and Cornelia Corvini. At ...

. In 1487 he was appointed as a

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

of the

Biblioteca Marciana The Marciana Library or Library of Saint Mark (, but in historical documents commonly referred to as the ) is a public library in Venice, Italy. It is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositories for manuscripts in Italy and ...

Works

Sabellicus while at Udine wrote an antiquarian work on

Aquileia Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about from the sea, on the river Natiso (modern Natisone), the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times. Today, the city is small ( ...

that appeared in 1482. He then produced a Latin history of Venice, ''Historiae rerum venetarum ab urbe condita'', with official encouragement; but it proved unpopular with the citizens. He wrote further works concerned with Venice, including a street-level description ''De Venetae urbis situ'' ('On the site of Venice' 1492). As a humanist scholar, he wrote commentaries on classical authors. The ''Enneades sive Rhapsodia historiarum'' appeared in 1498. His collected works were published in 1560 at

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

. The ''Historiae rerum venetarum'' had a first continuator,

Andrea Navagero Andrea Navagero (1483 – 8 May 1529), known as Andreas Naugerius in Latin, was a Venetian diplomat and writer. Born to a wealthy family, he gained entry to the Great Council of Venice at the age of twenty, five years younger than was normal at ...

, who died having asked for his work to be destroyed. A second continuator,

Pietro Bembo Pietro Bembo, (; 20 May 1470 – 18 January 1547) was a Venetian scholar, poet, and literary theory, literary theorist who also was a member of the Knights Hospitaller and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. As an intellectual of the Italian Re ...

, was appointed in 1530, and he brought it up to 1513. An early poem in

hexameter Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek as well as in Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of s ...

s, ''De rerum et artium inventoribus'', was an influence on

Polydore Vergil Polydore Vergil or Virgil (Italian: Polidoro Virgili, commonly Latinised as Polydorus Vergilius; – 18 April 1555), widely known as Polydore Vergil of Urbino, was an Italian humanist scholar, historian, priest and diplomat, who spent much of ...

, whom Sabellicus had helped with

Guidobaldo of Urbino Guidobaldo (or Guido Ubaldo) da Montefeltro (25 January 1472 – 10 April 1508), also known as Guidobaldo I, was an Italian condottiero and the Duke of Urbino from 1482 to 1508. Biography Born in Gubbio, he succeeded his father Federico da Monte ...

. It derives from the '' Historia Naturalis'' of

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

, book VII, on the history of

invention An invention is a unique or novelty (patent), novel machine, device, Method_(patent), method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It m ...

s. It was also quoted verbatim by

Otto Heurnius Otto Heurnius (born Otto van Heurn; 8 September 1577 – 14 July 1652) was a Dutch physician, theologian and philosopher. Life He studied at Leiden University. He subsequently succeeded his father Johannes Heurnius as professor of medicine at Lei ...

, writing in 1600 a pioneering history of "barbarian philosophy". He also wrote "De Venetis magistratibus", Venice: Antonius de Strata, 1488, on the duties of various Venetian magistrates; it has a dedication letter of the author to the doge Augustinus Barbadicus and letter to the reader of Petrus Benedictus Venetus BSB Munich

Notes

External links

WorldCat page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sabellicus, Marcus Antonius Coccius 15th-century Italian historians Italian Renaissance humanists 1436 births 1506 deaths