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

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

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 race; as well as the stu ...

from

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. He is known for his

universal history A universal history is a work aiming at the presentation of a history of all of mankind as a whole, coherent unit. A universal chronicle or world chronicle typically traces history from the beginning of written information about the past up to t ...

, ''Enneades sive Rhapsodia historiarum''.

Life

Born in

Vicovaro Vicovaro ( la, Varia, 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 tes ...

, his surname was originally Cocci; he took his

Latinised name Latinisation (or Latinization) of names, also known as onomastic Latinisation, is the practice of rendering a ''non''-Latin name in a Latin style. It is commonly found with historical proper names, including personal names and toponyms, and in t ...

as a pupil of

Pomponius Laetus Julius Pomponius Laetus (1428 – 9 June 1498), also known as Giulio Pomponio Leto, was an Italian humanist. Background Laetus was born at Teggiano, near Salerno, the illegitimate scion of the princely house of Sanseverino, the German historian L ...

. 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 ( , ; 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 t ...

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

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

, he went to

, with the Venetian history he had written speculatively. He was given a teaching position as deputy to Giorgio Valla. In 1487 he was appointed as a

curator A curator (from la, cura, 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 parti ...

of the Biblioteca Marciana.

Works

Sabellicus while at Udine wrote an antiquarian work on

Aquileia Aquileia / / / / ;Bilingual name of ''Aquileja – Oglej'' in: vec, Aquiłeja / ; Slovenian: ''Oglej''), group=pron 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 N ...

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, and as a humanist scholar wrote commentaries on classical authors. The ''Enneades sive Rhapsodia historiarum'' appeared in 1498. His collected works were published in 1560 at

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

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

Andrea Navagero Andrea Navagero (Venice, 1483 – Blois, 8 May 1529) was an Italians, Italian poet, orator, botanist, and official historian of the Republic of Venice. He was born to a noble family of Venice, and became a member of the Maggior Consiglio in 1504. ...

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

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

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

, whom Sabellicus had helped with

Guidobaldo of Urbino Guidobaldo (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 Montefelt ...

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

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

, book VII, on the history of

invention An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an i ...

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 Le ...

, 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