GIRALDI CINTHIO, Giambattista
Giambattista Giraldi was a prolific and influential Italian author noted for a collection of short prose tales, nine tragedies, and numerous works of literary criticism. In keeping with a tradition in academic circles, Giraldi adopted a Latin name, Cynthius: thus the addition of "Cinzio" or "Cinthio" to his name. In his own time, he was often referred to simply as "II Cinzio."
Giraldi received a broad humanist education and was also trained as a phy­sician. In 1532 he was hired to teach medicine at the university in his native town of Ferrara, and in 1541 he assumed the professorship of rhetoric, a post he held until 1562. In addition to his teaching duties, Giraldi devoted much of his time to writing; he preferred the vernacular for most of his works.
Throughout his life, Giraldi wrote short tales, or novelle, which he ultimately published in 1565 as Gli hecatommithi (The Hundred Tales). This collection of tales is in the tradition of Boccaccio's Decameron; here the storytellers are passengers on a ship to Marseilles escaping the sack of Rome. Unlike Boccac­cio's work, however, Giraldi's stories exhibit an undercurrent of moral intent. The plots of several of the stories were used by playwrights, including William Shakespeare* in Measure for Measure and Othello.
Giraldi also based several of his own tragedies on these tales; the most influ­ential of these, Orbecche, appeared in 1541 and was the first Italian tragedy to be performed on the stage. Giraldi's admiration of the Senecan tradition is ev­ident in the play's emphasis on horror and violence. His other tragedies appear to have been composed for stage performance as well, in contrast to his con­temporaries' Greek tragedies that were written primarily for readership. As a protege of Duke Ercole II d'Este, Giraldi produced plays to provide entertain­ment for the ducal court. He also wrote several works of theoretical guidelines for comedy, tragedy, romance, and epic. His arguments on the epic placed him at the center of an ongoing literary debate in which he defended the contem­porary romance epic represented by Ariosto's* Orlando Furioso against the more traditional proponents of the Homeric epic, such as Gian Giorgio Trissino.* Although Giraldi's dramatic theory was not always in keeping with his own practice, he advocated the idea of tragedia mista, a concept similar to tragicomedy, or tragedy with a happy and morally satisfactory ending. His the­ories of drama had a significant impact on dramatic practice in the latter part of the sixteenth century both inside and outside of Italy.
M. Herrick, Italian Tragedy in the Renaissance, 1965.
Jo Eldridge Carney
GILBERT, William
GIULIO Romano
Giambattista Giraldi Cinthio — Giambattista Giraldi Cintio, Cinthio o Cinzio (Ferrara, 1504 íd, 1573) fue un escritor y filósofo italiano. Biografía Alumno del Estudio de su ciudad natal, enseñó después Medicina, Filosofía y Literatura. Fue secretario del Duque de Ferrara… … Wikipedia Español
Giambattista Giraldi Cinzio — Giambattista Giraldi (* 1504 in Ferrara; † 30. Dezember 1573 in Ferrara) war ein italienischer Dichter, Schriftsteller, Philosoph und Mediziner. Giraldi, genannt Cinzio (lat. Geraldus Cinthius), studierte an der Universität von Ferrara und wurde… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Giraldi — Girạldi [dʒi ], Giambattista, genannt Cinzio [ tʃintsio], Cintio [ tʃintio] oder Cinthio [ tʃintio], italienischer Dichter, * Ferrara 1504, ✝ ebenda 30. 12. 1573; Professor für Philosophie und Rhetorik in Ferrara; schrieb in Anlehnung an… … Universal-Lexikon
Giraldi, Giambattista — ▪ Italian poet and dramatist also called Cynthius, Italian Cinzio, or Cinthio born 1504, Ferrara [Italy] died Dec. 30, 1573, Ferrara Italian poet and dramatist who wrote the first modern tragedy on classical principles to appear on the… … Universalium
Giovambattista Giraldi — Giambattista Giraldi (* 1504 in Ferrara; † 30. Dezember 1573 in Ferrara) war ein italienischer Dichter, Schriftsteller, Philosoph und Mediziner. Giraldi, genannt Cinzio (lat. Geraldus Cinthius), studierte an der Universität von Ferrara und wurde… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Giovanni Battista Giraldi — Giambattista Giraldi (* 1504 in Ferrara; † 30. Dezember 1573 in Ferrara) war ein italienischer Dichter, Schriftsteller, Philosoph und Mediziner. Giraldi, genannt Cinzio (lat. Geraldus Cinthius), studierte an der Universität von Ferrara und wurde… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Giovanni Battista Giraldi — (né en 1504 à Ferrare et mort en 1573 dans la même ville) est un écrivain italien, un poète et un philosophe. Il a rajouté à son nom Cinthio qui devient son diminutif courant parfois orthographié Cintio ou Cinzio Biographie Cette section est vide … Wikipédia en Français
'Giovanni Battista Giraldi' — né en 1504 , mort en 1573 à Ferrare est un écrivain italien, un poète et un philosophe. Il a rajouté à son nom Cinthio qui devient son diminutif courant parfois orthographié Cintio ou Cinzio Elève de l école de Ferrare, il a enseigné à l… … Wikipédia en Français
Mohr von Venedig — Othello, der Mohr von Venedig [ˌɒˈtɛlo] oder [əˈtɛləʊ] (engl. The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moor of Venice) ist ein Theaterstück von William Shakespeare, das um 1603 verfasst wurde. Wie die kurz davor geschriebenen Stücke Hamlet, Macbeth und König… … Deutsch Wikipedia
SPERONI, Sperone — (1500 1588) A versatile and extremely influential man of letters, Sperone Speroni was known for his literary criticism as espoused in the many prose dialogues and treatises he wrote over his long career. He was born in Padua, where he lived most… … Renaissance and Reformation 1500-1620: A Biographical Dictionary