Speroni, Sperone

Abstract

The Paduan philosopher and man of letters Sperone Speroni degli Alvarotti (1500–1588) was one of the most prominent cultural figures of sixteenth-century Italy who had a pivotal role in the vernacularization and dissemination of the works of Aristotle (Sperone Speroni 1989; Fournel 1989; Panciera 2010–2011; Vianello 2011). He spent his whole, unsettled life writing especially dialogues, orations, letters, and discourses on the most diverse topics, such as love, ethics, politics, history, language, and rhetoric (Ms. E/13; Dalle Laste and Forcellini 1740; Loi and Pozzi 1993). He was the author of a highly polemical play, the Canace et Macareo [Canace et Macareo], written in Padua in 1542 and printed in Florence four years later (Roaf 1982). Formerly a university professor and philosopher (he was a pupil of Pietro Pomponazzi), then a rhetorician and a vulgarizer in the academies, and finally a courtier, Speroni was closely involved in Padua’s Accademia degli Infiammati (Academy of the Burning Ones). His works deeply influenced several protagonists of the Renaissance culture, even beyond Italy, although only in recent years scholars have been giving this figure the attention he deserves.