Piero or Pietro Vettori (

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 ...

: Petrus Victorius) (1499 – 8 December 1585) was an Italian writer,

philologist 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 strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

and

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 ...

Life

Vettori was born in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

and in his life dealt with numerous matters, from agriculture to sciences, from

rhetorics 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 write ...

moral philosophy Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied et ...

, and also catalogued codexes in Florence and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. However his main interest was the study of ancient classics, especially Greek texts. In 1522 he traveled to Spain with his cousin Paolo Vettori, naval commander of the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...

, and there he collected numerous ancient inscriptions which, once back to Florence, he tried to interpret. An adversary of the

House of Medici The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo de' Medici, Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first h ...

, after the death of the Republic and the establishment of the

Duchy of Florence The Duchy of Florence () was an Italian principality that was centred on the city of Florence, in Tuscany, Italy. The duchy was founded after Pope Clement VII, himself a Medici, appointed his relative Alessandro de' Medici as Duke of the Florent ...

in 1530, Vettori retired to San Casciano Val di Pesa, where he wrote the ''Trattato delle lodi et della coltivazione de gli ulivi'' ("Treatise on the praise and the cultivation of olive trees"). Despite previously having been a critic of Medici rule over Florence, in 1538 Duke

Cosimo I de' Medici Cosimo I de' Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was the second and last duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first grand duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death. Cosimo I succeeded his cousin to the duchy. ...

offered him a position as professor of Greek and Latin in the Studio Fiorentino, where he taught until 1583. He died in Florence in 1585.

Works

His other works include the '' Castigationes'' (commentaries) of

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

's family letter, and editions of works by

Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero). He is sometimes call ...

, Cato,

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

Sallust Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust (, ; –35 BC), was a historian and politician of the Roman Republic from a plebeian family. Probably born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines, Sallust became a partisan of Julius ...

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

's ''

Electra Electra, also spelt Elektra (; ; ), is one of the most popular Greek mythology, mythological characters in tragedies.Evans (1970), p. 79 She is the main character in two Greek tragedies, ''Electra (Sophocles play), Electra'' by Sophocles and ''Ele ...

'' and others. His edition of Aeschylus (1557) was the first printed edition to include the whole of the ''

Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans during the Trojan War. He was the son (or grandson) of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of C ...

'', as the earlier editors of Aeschylus Francesco Robortello and

Adrianus Turnebus Adrianus Turnebus ( or ''Tournebeuf''; 151212 June 1565) was a French classical scholar. Life Turnebus was born in Les Andelys in Normandy. At the age of twelve he was sent to Paris to study, and attracted great notice by his remarkable abilitie ...

had only had lines 1-310 and 1067-1159 available to them. Vettori made very few textual conjectures in this edition, but

Henricus Stephanus Henri Estienne ( , ; 1528 or 15311598), also known as Henricus Stephanus ( ), was a French printer and classical scholar. He was the eldest son of Robert Estienne. He was instructed in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew by his father and would eventually t ...

, who printed it, added an appendix with some further corrections.E. Fraenkel, ''Aeschylus: Agamemnon'', volume 1, pp. 34-35. He also edited the works of his friend

Giovanni della Casa Giovanni della Casa (28 June 1503 – 14 November 1556) was an Italian poet, diplomat, clergyman and inquisitor, and writer on etiquette and society. He is celebrated for his famous treatise on polite behavior, ''Il Galateo, Il Galateo overo de� ...

after the latter's death. In 1553 he published the first 25 books of the ''Variarum lectionum'', followed by another thirteen in 1569 and republished integrally in 1582.

Sources

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vettori, Piero 1499 births 1585 deaths Writers from the Grand Duchy of Tuscany Writers from Florence Italian male writers Italian philologists Italian Renaissance humanists 16th-century philologists 16th-century Italian philosophers 16th-century Italian male writers 16th-century Italian writers