Claudio Tolomei
De le lettere
Born
Angelo Claudio Tolomei

1492
Asciano, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Died23 March 1556(1556-03-23) (aged 63–64)
Rome, Papal States
NationalityItalian
Occupations
  • Jurist
  • University teacher
  • Linguist
  • Bishop
  • Diplomat
Parent(s)Pieranselmo di Gabrioccio Tolomei and Cornelia Tolomei (née Sozzini)
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Bologna
Influences
Academic work
DisciplineItalian studies
InstitutionsUniversity of Siena
Influenced

Angelo Claudio Tolomei (1492 in Asciano – 1556 in Rome) was an Italian philologist. His name in Italian is identical to that of Claudius Ptolemaeus, the 2nd-century Greek astronomer.[4] He belonged to the prominent Tolomei family of Siena, and became a bishop attached to the court of Pope Paul III.

Biography

He was born in 1492 to an affluent Senese family, and was a teacher of law at the University of Siena from 1516 to 1518.[1]

He then attached himself to the service of Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, and is supposed to have had some part in the unsuccessfil military expedition andertaken by Pope Clement VII against Siena, in 1526. At any rate, a sentence of banishment from his native city was passed apon him that year, which was not revoked until 1542. In 1527, he interested himself warmly for the imprisoned pontif, in whose behalf he composed five discourses addressed to the Emperor Charles V.[5]

In 1532, he was sent by Cardinal Ippolito, in his own name, to Vienna. Some time after the death of the cardinal, he entered the service of Pier Luigi Farnese, duke of Parma and Piacenza. He remained in Piacenza, with the title of Minister of Justice, until the tragical death of Pier Luigi, in 1547; he then retired to Padua, where he remained until the following year, when he went to Rome.[5]

In 1549, he was made bishop of Curzola, a small island in the Adriatic Sea. In 1552, he was again in Siena, and had the honor to be appointed one of the sixteen citizens who were entrusted with the conservation of the public liberty. He was also sent with three others to thank the king of France for the protection he had accorded to the republic, and the discourse he delivered to that monarch at Compiègne has been preserved. He returned two years after, and died in Rome on March 23, 1553.[5]

Tolomei was one of those to whom fellow Sienese, Bernardino Ochino, corresponded from exile in Geneva, where he had fled after abandoning his monastic position due to accusations of heresy.[6]

Works

Tolomei was a writer of considerable merit. A famous jurist and philologist, he wrote Lettere and Orazioni, which constituted a lively testimony of his participation in the literary disputes and political events of the time. Tolomei was the defender of the Tuscan vulgate against the pure Florentineity of the language in the works of literary interest, anticipating many concepts of 19th-century scientific linguistics.

List of works

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Lucioli 2019.
  2. ^ Jacomuzzi 1970, p. 619.
  3. ^ Formichetti, Gianfranco (1982). "Cittadini, Celso". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 26: Cironi–Collegno (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
  4. ^ Bio of Claudio Tolomei Archived 2009-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ a b c Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth; Felton, C. C. (Cornelius Conway) (1845). "The poets and poetry of Europe. With introductions and biographical notices". Philadelphia, Carey and Hart [Cambridge, Stereotyped and printed by Metcalf and Company].Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  6. ^ Bernardino Ochino, of Siena: A Contribution Towards the History of the Reformation, by Karl Benrath, page 120-131.

Bibliography

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