Tags
Bergamo, Biblioteca Estense, Brera, Etruscan, Francis III, history, Italian, Jesuit, jurisprudence, medicine, Milan, philosophy, rhetoric
Storia Della Letteratura Italiana
Girolamo Tiraboschi (1731-1794)
Roma: Per Luigi Perego Savioni, Stampator Vaticano nella Sapienza…1782-1785
PQ4035 T46 1782
Girolamo Tiraboschi was born in Bergamo and studied at the Jesuit college there. He entered the order and was appointed professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres at Brera in Milan in 1755. In 1770 he became librarian to Francis III, Duke of Modena, at the Biblioteca Estense. There he collected material for his monumental Storia, the first significant history of Italian literature, first published from 1772 to 1782.
A comprehensive work, extending from Etruscan times to 1700, Tiraboschi addressed literature in its broadest sense, including history, philosophy, fine arts, medicine, and jurisprudence. Beautifully written in a clear style, the entire work is heavily documented from sources in the Biblioteca Estense. Tiraboschi was inspired to defend Italian arts against the attacks of foreign critics, an early attempt at unifying the Italian political states through cultural bonds.
Bound as issued in publisher’s flexible boards.
Anonymous gift. Thank you, Anonymous!
Interesting that his work was a means to try to unify segments of political division through cultural bonds of literature. I wonder whether anything similar was attempted in the United States after the Civil War?