Tommaso Garzoni, (born ''Ottaviano'',

Bagnacavallo Bagnacavallo () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The Renaissance painter Bartolomeo Ramenghi bore the nickname of his native city. Main sights *''Castellaccio'' (15th century) * Giardino dei Semplici ...

, March 1549 – 8 June 1589), was an Italian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

writer.

Life

Tommaso Garzoni was born in March 1549 in

(a village in 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 ...

near

Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...

) to a humble family, who however succeeded to pay for his education. He briefly studied law in

Ferrara Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main ...

, then logic in

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

. At the age of seventeen, on 18 October 1566, he entered in the Canons Regular of the Lateran, the religious order who held the Santa Maria in Porto Basilica in Ravenna. On that occasion he took the religious name of ''Tommaso'' (or ''Tomaso''). Garzoni spent most of his life in the monastery of Santa Maria del Porto, though he had contacts with literary circles and was elected to the Accademia degli Informi in Ravenna just before his death. Returned to his birth town to preach on the Bible, he died on 8 June 1589, and he was buried in the local church of Saint Francesco. With a prodigious inventive faculty, in the last six years of his short existence he wrote all the works - bizarrely encyclopedic - that would make him famous. His interests ranged from natural philosophy to manual trades. He is best known for ''La piazza universale di tutte le professioni del mondo'' (1585), which, with its descriptions of unusual professions, shows a fascination with

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

and encyclopedic listings evident also in other writings. Many of his writings were aimed at confuting the occult philosophy of Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim. He was also the first to write in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

a complete biographical catalog of women in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

(''Le vite delle donne illustri della Sacra Scrittura''). Garzoni's eclectic work had a vast European success (numerous translations and reprints), to the point of consecrating him among the most popular Italian authors of the late sixteenth century. Today, after a long oblivion, Garzoni is again discovered and analyzed by critics.

Works

;In Italian * ''Il Theatro de' vari, e diversi cervelli mondani'',

Venezia 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 ...

, 1583 * ''La piazza universale di tutte le professioni del mondo'', Venezia, 1585 * ''L'hospidale de pazzi incurabili'', Venezia, 1586 * ''Le vite delle donne illustri della Scrittura sacra'', Venezia, 1586 * ''La sinagoga de gl'ignoranti'', Venezia, 1589 * ''Il mirabile cornucopia consolatorio'',

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, 1601 (posthumous) * ''L'huomo astratto'', Venezia, 1604 (posthumous) * ''Il serraglio de gli stupori del mondo'', Venezia, 1613 (posthumous) ;Translations in French * ''Le Théâtre des divers cerveaux du monde'', translated by Gabriel Chappuys, Paris, J. Houzé, 1586 * ''L'Hospital des fols incurables, où sont déduites de poinct en poinct toutes les folies et les maladies d'esprit, tant des hommes que des femmes'', translated by François de Clarier, sieur de Longval, Paris, F. Julliot, L. Sevestre, 1620 * ''L'hospidale de’ pazzi incurabili'', 2001 ;Translations in English * ''The Hospital of Incurable Madness. L'Hospedale de' Pazzi Incurabili (1586), by Tomas Garzoni'', 2009 ;Translations in German * ''Spital unheylsamer Narren und Närrinnen Herrn Thomasi Garzoni, auss der italiänischen Sprach teutsch gemacht durch Georgium Fridericum Messerschmid'', Strassburg, J. Carolo, 1618 * ''Piazza universale, das ist allgemeiner Schawplatz, Marckt und Zusammenkunfft aller Professionen, Künsten, Geschäfften, Händeln und Handtwerken... erstmaln durch Thomam Garzonum italianisch zusammengetragen, anjetzo ..verdeutscht'' Frankfurt am Mayn, W. Hoffmanns Buchdruckerei, 1641 ;Translations in Latin * ''Emporium universale'', translated by Nic. Belli, Francfort, 1614 ;Translations in Spanish * ''Plaza universal de todas sciencias y artes'', parte traduzida de toscano e Thomaso Garzoniy parte compuesta por el doctor Christóval Suárez de Figueroa, Perpiñan, 1630

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garzoni, Tommaso 1549 births 1589 deaths Italian Renaissance writers Italian Renaissance humanists 16th-century Italian writers 16th-century Italian male writers People from the Province of Ravenna