Current Project:

A-Speroni. Sperone Speroni and his Legacy (1500-1588). Literature, Philosophy, and the Vernacular

This project centres on the ideas and the legacy of the Paduan philosopher and man of letters Sperone Speroni (1500-1588), who had a fundamental role in the vernacularization and dissemination of the works of Aristotle in sixteenth-century Italy and France. Speroni was one of the most prominent cultural figures of sixteenth-century Italy. He spent his whole long, unsettled life writing especially dialogues and discourses on the most diverse topics, such as love, ethics, language and rhetoric. Formerly a university professor and a philosopher, a rhetorician and a vulgarizer in the academies, and finally a courtier, Speroni was closely involved in Padua’s Accademia degli Infiammati (one of the most significant academies of his day). He was also in contact with numerous important cultural figures including Benedetto Varchi (1503-1565), Alessandro Piccolomini (1508-1579), Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) and Joachim Du Bellay (1522-1560), on all of whom he exercised a remarkable influence. The purpose of this project is to offer a new study of this distinguished figure, highlighting both his attitudes toward contemporary institutions and intellectual currents and the significance of his example throughout Italy and into France.