Giambattista Gelli

Giambattista Gelli
Born	12 August 1498, 1498  Florence, Republic of Florence
Died	24 July 1563, 1563  (aged 64) Florence, Republic of Florence
Occupation	Writer, art historian
Movement	Renaissance

Giambattista Gelli (1498–1563) was a Florentine man of letters, from an artisan background. Gelli was a shoemaker, and he used to publish dialogues. He is known for his works of the 1540s, Capricci del bottaio and La Circe, which are ethical and philosophical dialogues. Other works were the plays La sporta (1543) and L'errore (1556). He became a member of the Accademia degli Umidi on 25 December 1540.

In his historical writings, Gelli was influenced by the late 15th-century forgeries of Annio da Viterbo, which purported to provide evidence from ancient texts to show that Tuscany had been founded by Noah and his descendants after the Deluge.

Biography

Giambattista Gelli was born of humble parents at Florence in 1498, and was brought up a tailor. As a youth, he studied literature and philosophy, and attended some of the celebrated humanist seances in the Orti Oricellari. According to Jacques Auguste de Thou Gelli did not understand Latin, but this must be a mistake, as he translated, from Latin into Italian, “The Life of Alphonsus duke of Ferrara,” by Paolo Giovio, and a treatise of Simone Porzio, “De Coloribus Oculorum”. His knowledge of Greek, however, was probably limited, as he translated the “Hecuba” of Euripides into Italian, from the Latin version. He excelled, however, in his native tongue, and acquired the highest reputation by the works he published in it. He was acquainted with all the learned men of Florence; and his merit was universally known. He was made a member of the Accademia Fiorentina and the city conferred him Florentine citizenship. Yet he continued to work as shoemaker and tailor until the end of his life. He died in 1563.

Works

Gelli wrote two comedies (La sporta, 1543; L'errore, 1556), a few poems, and a Trattatello sull'origine di Firenze, but his most significant works are two treatises in dialogue form. I capricci di Giusto bottaio (1548; tr. W. Barker, The Fearful Fansies of the Florentine Couper, 1568), which incurred the Church's displeasure, conveys in ten dialogues between a Florentine cooper and his soul a commonsense exhortation to all men, even the humblest, to seek the truth. The better-known Circe (1549; tr. T. Brown, 1702, repr. ed. R. Adams, Ithaca, N.Y., 1963) contains 10 discussions on the human condition between Odysseus and eleven former human beings who have been turned into animals. Ten reject the prospect of returning to their human lives, but the elephant, who had been a philosopher, accepts Odysseus's view; the last dialogue celebrates the nobility of man's intellect. The Circe has been translated into Latin, French, and English. These dialogues, like the rest of Gelli’s, are written in the manner of Lucian. We have too by him, Le Lettioni nell'Academia Fiorentina, 1551. These dissertations regard the poems of Dante and Petrarch. Lastly, he published several letters upon Dante’s Inferno, entitled Ragionamento sopra le Difficultà del mettere in Regole la nostra lingua, without date.

List of works

• L'apparato et feste nelle nozze dello Illustrissimo Signor Duca di Firenze et della Duchessa sua Consorte, 1539;
• Egloga per il felicissimo giorno 9 di gennaio nel quale lo Eccellentissimo Signor Cosimo fu fatto Duca di Firenze, 1542;
• La sporta, 1543;
• Dell'origine di Firenze, 1544;
• I capricci del bottaio, 1546-1548;
• La Circe, 1549;
• Ragionamento sopra la difficultà di mettere in regole la nostra lingua, 1551;
• Lo errore, 1556;
• Polifila, 1556.

External links

• Piscini, Angela (2000). "GELLI, Giovan Battista". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 53: Gelati–Ghisalberti (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
• Alessandro D'Alessandro (1980). "Il mito dell'origine « aramea » di Firenze in un trattatello di Giambattista Gelli". Archivio Storico Italiano. 138 (3): 339–389. JSTOR 26259494.
• Rossi, P. (2002). "Gelli, Giovan Battista". The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
• Campbell, G. (2003). "Gelli, Giambattista". The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 31 May 2023.