Gian Vittorio Rossi's Eudemiae libri decem E-Book

• Herausgeber: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: NeoLatina
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1393

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Gian Vittorio Rossi (1577–1647) was an active participant in the intellectual and artistic community in Rome orbiting around Pope Urban VIII and the powerful Barberini family. His prolific literary output encompassed letters, dialogues, orations, biographies, poetry, and fiction. A superlative Latinist, Rossi unleashed his biting wit and deep knowledge of Classical literature against perceived societal wrongs. Set on the fictional island of Eudemia in the first century CE, Eudemiae libri decem is a satirical novel that criticizes Rossi's own society for its system of patronage and favors that he saw as rewarding wealth and opulence over skill and hard work. An understudied figure, Rossi's involvement with one of Rome's premier literary academies and his relationships with intellectuals in Italy and throughout Europe provide a unique insider view of seventeenth-century Rome.

Leseprobe

Jennifer K. Nelson

Gian Vittorio Rossi's Eudemiae libri decem

Translated with an Introduction and Notes

Narr Francke Attempto Verlag Tübingen

Gedruckt mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Librarians Association of the University of California.

ISSN1615-7133

© 2021 • Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Dischingerweg 5 • D-72070 Tübingen www.narr.de • [email protected]

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ISBN 978-3-8233-8430-4 (Print)

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Contents

To my late mother ...List of AbbreviationsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionGian Vittorio Rossi and EudemiaState of Scholarship on EudemiaLife of Gian Vittorio RossiGian Vittorio Rossi: vitaIntellectual and Artistic Milieu of Seventeenth-Century RomeGian Vittorio Rossi: WorksEudemia and Other Published WorksUnpublished or Lost WorksKeys to Accompany EudemiaLiterary Models for EudemiaAncient ModelsContemporary ModelsTranslating Gian Vittorio Rossi’s LatinText of Eudemiae libri decemEudemia: Story Outline and ThemesStory OutlineThemesEudemiae libri decemEpistola dedicatoriaLectori salutemArgumentumLiber ILiber IILiber IIILiber IVLiber VLiber VILiber VIILiber VIIILiber IXLiber XEudemia in Ten BooksDedicatory LetterTo the ReaderPlot SummaryBook OneBook TwoBook ThreeBook FourBook FiveBook SixBook SevenBook EightBook NineBook TenAppendix A: Key To the Pseudonyms in EudemiaAppendix B: Gian Vittorio Rossi’s Published WorksBibliographyRegister

To my late mother Judith Nelson. You brought the Baroque to life and made it sing.

List of Abbreviations

DBI

Dizionario biografico degli Italiani. Treccani. www.treccani.it/biografie/

Dialog. sept.

Iani Nicii Erythraei Dialogi septendecim. Coloniae Ubiorum

[i.e., Amsterdam]: Apud Iodocum Kalcovium [i.e., Joan Blaeu], 1645

Ep. ad div. 1

Iani Nicii Erythraei Epistolae ad diversos. Coloniae Ubiorum

[i.e., Amsterdam]: Apud Iodocum Kalcovium [i.e., Joan Blaeu], 1645.

Ep. ad div. 2

Iani Nicii Erythraei Epistolarum ad diversos volumen posterius. Coloniae Ubiorum [i.e., Amsterdam]: Apud Iodocum Kalcovium

[i.e., Joan Blaeu], 1649.

Ep. ad Tyrr.

Iani Nicii Erythraei Epistolae ad Tyrrhenum. Coloniae Ubiorum

[i.e., Amsterdam]: Apud Iodocum Kalcovium [i.e., Joan Blaeu], 1645.

Eud. 1998

Iani Nicii Erythraei Eudemiae libri decem. Retiarius: Archivum Recentioris Latinitatis. Modern & Classical Languages, Literatures & Cultures (University of Kentucky, Lexington), 1998. https://mcl.as.uky.edu/liber-i

L&S

A Latin Dictionary. Rev. & ed. C. T. Lewis and C. Short. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879.

OCD

The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition. Edited by Esther Eidinow. Oxford University Press, 2012.

Abbreviations for Classical texts follow the conventions of the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition. In the instances where a text is not in the OCD, the conventions of the Perseus Digital Library are followed. Citations to Classical texts follow the Loeb Classical Library editions from Harvard University Press, unless otherwise specified.

Acknowledgments

This translation of Eudemia began as my PhD thesis for the University of Florida Department of Classics. I thank the members of my dissertation committee for their guidance and support: Konstantinos Kapparis, Eleni Bozia, Jennifer A. Rea, and Mary A. Watt. It has been a deeply satisfying experience to combine my interests in Latin, Italian, Rome, and books. I thank Laurent Mayali, director of the Robbins Collection at the UC Berkeley School of Law, for his encouragement of my studies. Additionally, I would like to thank my professors at the University of Kentucky and UCLA for introducing me to the world of Neo-Latin: Michael J. B. Allen, Bernard Frischer, Carlo Ginzburg, Milena Minkova, Jane Phillips, Debora Shuger, Jennifer MorrishMorrish, JenniferTunbergTunberg, Terence, and TerenceTerence Tunberg. Additionally, I thank Peter James Dennistoun Bryant, Ingrid De Smet, Laura Foster, Riccardo Gandolfi, Luisella GiachinoGiachino, Luisella, Kathryn L. Jasper, Michal Lemberger, Daniel Stolzenberg, and Laura Whittemore for their enthusiasm, insights, and aid. Special thanks goes to Erin Blake for her keen eye and superlative formatting skills. I am grateful to the Walter de Gruyter Foundation for Scholarship and Research and the European Studies Section of the Association of College & Research Libraries for awarding me the European Librarianship Study Grant that enabled me to conduct research at the Vatican Library in Rome. My gratitude also goes to the Librarians Association of the University of California for their generous grant to cover supplemental publishing costs. I especially want to express my heartfelt and humble thanks to two pillars of Neo-Latin scholarship who read my drafts with care and offered invaluable edits and comments: Jeroen De Keyser and Mark T. RileyRiley, Mark T.. Their generosity and kindness in lending their expertise, focus, and time to my translation was far more than I could have possibly expected. I would like to thank my parents: Alan H. Nelson, for instilling in me a love of Latin and books, and my late mother, Judith Anne Manes Nelson, for filling our home with music and languages. Finally, I express my gratitude to my husband, Oscar Luca D’Amore: Galeotto fu il Latino.

Introduction

Gian Vittorio RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio and Eudemia

Gian Vittorio RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio had an ax to grind. His Eudemiae libri decem tells the story of Flavius VopiscusFlavius Vopiscus Niger (Gian Vittorio Rossi?) Niger and Paulus AemiliusPaulus Aemilius Verus Verus, who escape from Rome in the aftermath of the conspiracy of SejanusSejanus, Lucius Aelius and become shipwrecked on Eudemia, an island located off the coast of Mauritania. They are rescued by a fellow Roman named GalloniusGallonius (Gabriel Naudé?), who becomes their guide. The two travelers discover a society of Latin speakers governed by a class of people called dynastae, administered by incompetent poliarchi (senators) and magistrates, where petty rivalries thrive, hard work and skill are trumped by personal relationships and favors, and where, as Luisella GiachinoGiachino, Luisella puts it, everything revolves around the “sinister omnipresence and omnipotence of money.”1 Writing under the pseudonym Ianus Nicius Erythraeus, Rossi brought to bear his vast knowledge of ancient and contemporary authors, his acerbic wit, and his mastery of Latin to weave a tale that, despite its fictional time and place, is a mordant critique of his own society: Rome under the reign of Pope Urban VIIIUrban VIII, Pope and the powerful Barberini family.

It is clear both from his own writings and from contemporary assessments of his talent that RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio was well read, witty, and, above all, an excellent Latinist. He was a member of the Accademia degli Umoristi, an influential literary academy that attracted intellectuals from all over Europe and was frequented by Rome’s high society, including Maffeo Barberinisee Urban VIII, Pope, later Pope Urban VIIIUrban VIII, Pope. Rossi hoped that his education, skills, and connections would lead to a fruitful career in the Roman Curia, but this never came to fruition. After a life of professional frustration, Rossi retired to a private life of reading and writing.

Among the literary products of his retirement years was Eudemia, described by Luigi GerboniGerboni, Luigi as a “venting of old grudges.”2 Published first in 1637 in eight books, and then in 1645 in ten books, Eudemia falls squarely within what Jennifer MorrishMorrish, Jennifer calls the “golden age of the Neo-Latin novel.”3 As Mark T. RileyRiley, Mark T.explains, examples of extended Latin prose fiction in the vein of ApuleiusApuleius’s Metamorphoses or PetroniusPetronius Arbiter’s Satyricon were rare until the early seventeenth century, when John BarclayBarclay, John published Euphormionis lusinini satyricon (Parisiis: Huby, 1605).4 Following Barclay’s satire, which, like Petronius’s Satyricon, was “full of lively incident and satirical descriptions of contemporary people and institutions,”5RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio unleashed his arsenal of learning and wit against his contemporaries with full awareness of his ancient and modern generic predecessors.

Eudemia is at once an entertaining tour de force of Classical erudition and an intimately personal introduction to his own circle. As GiachinoGiachino, Luisella explains, Eudemia’s plot is secondary to “what today we would call ‘gossip,’ the incessant and vicious scuttlebutt that animates and involves all of the characters.”6RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio becomes our guide—our GalloniusGallonius (Gabriel Naudé?)—as he introduces us to his friends, lets us in on the debates of the day, and airs his grievances with a society that admired him but never completely embraced him.

State of Scholarship on Eudemia

Gian Vittorio RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio was a prolific writer who maintained an active correspondence with friends in high places, enjoyed a reputation as a superlative Latinist among his contemporaries, and remained famous in Northern Europe, particularly in Germany, for more than a century after his death.1 In spite of this, however, he remains a largely unexplored figure in Italian literature. Luigi GerboniGerboni, Luigi, the nineteenth-century scholar who wrote the most extensive biography of Rossi, lamented that this Roman author had all but been ignored even by Italian scholars: “Our critical tradition has forgotten his [literary output], or rather, has never known about it”2; likewise, Benedetto CroceCroce, Benedetto remarked that, unfortunately, nobody showed any interest in Rossi.3 The most recent and thorough analysis of Eudemia is Luisella GiachinoGiachino, Luisella’s 2002 article “CiceroCicero, Marcus Tullius libertinus: La satira della Roma barberiniana nell’Eudemia dell’Eritreo,” in which she offers a detailed summary of the work and discusses its major themes. Giachino also authored the entry for Rossi in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani.4

Though literature specifically on Gian Vittorio RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio and his works is slight, interest in Neo-Latin literature in general has happily been increasing. In the 1970s Jozef IJsewijnIJsewijn observed that, with regard to scholarly work on Neo-Latin authors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, “almost everything remains to be done.”5 Thirty years later, the scholarly status of Neo-Latin authors had not changed much when Jennifer MorrishMorrish, Jennifer remarked that they were “little known today and not much read” because, among other things, most of the texts are available only in their original Latin and do not exist in modern editions.”6 More recently, there has been significant progress in creating new editions and translations of Neo-Latin texts, notably the I Tatti Renaissance Library (Harvard University Press), the Bibliotheca Latinitatis Novae Neo-Latin Texts and Translation series (Leuven University Press), the Bloomsbury Neo-Latin Series, and the present NeoLatina series (Tübingen: Narr-Verlag). New reference works such as Brill’s Encyclopedia of the Neo-Latin World, the Oxford Handbook of Neo-Latin, and the Guide to Neo-Latin Literature from Cambridge University Press have also brought ever greater scholarly attention to Neo-Latin literature.

Despite this increased interest, Gian Vittorio RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio has largely been ignored, his works usually mentioned only in passing as part of a larger list of Neo-Latin authors and texts.7 Factors that have contributed to Rossi’s near obscurity include the fact that he was writing in Latin at a time when vernacular languages were ascending in Europe as the principal vehicle for literary expression and exchange of ideas; none of his work was ever translated for a broader reading public8; and, in the case of Eudemia, readers over the centuries may have lost interest in the satire because it was too tied to Rossi’s own circle of acquaintances, thus, to quote Dustin GriffinGriffin, Dustin H., “los[ing] referential power over time.”9

RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s works deserve further scholarly attention both on their own merits and because they provide a window into the dynamic cultural period in which he lived. Rossi was an insider witness to seventeenth-century Rome, a period that could be characterized as, in the words of Jozef IJsewijnIJsewijn, a “thriving center of Latin literature on an international scale.”10 His literary output was prolific and encompassed many genres, including letters, dialogues, orations, biographies, poetry, and, of course, fiction. Last but not least, his works are highly enjoyable to read because his personality—by turns witty, incisive, pious, and caustic—comes through on almost every page.

Life of Gian Vittorio RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio

Gian Vittorio RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio was born in 1577 in Rome to a family that he describes as noble but not wealthy: “The short answer is that I come from a good family and am descended from noble people of modest means.”1 He had a younger brother, Andrea, and a younger sister whom he never mentions by name.2 Rossi was educated at the Jesuit Collegio Romano, where he was a pupil of such teachers as Bernardino StefonioStefonio, Bernardino and Francesco BenciBenci, Francesco, the latter a student of the French humanist Marc-Antoine MuretMuret, Marc-Antoine, one of the greatest Latinists of the Renaissance. When Rossi was seventeen years old his father died, and his family was placed in a precarious financial state exacerbated by his brother Andrea’s penchant for making bad business investments and defaulting on loans, which resulted in the loss of the family’s good name among creditors.3 Finding himself, as the eldest son, in the position of head of household, Rossi studied law with the hope that this degree would lead to an administrative position within the papal court. He completed his degree in Roman and canon law in 1596 at the age of nineteen.

RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s professional future seemed bright at first when, upon finishing his legal studies, he caught the attention of an individual whom he does not name but describes as “the most learned and famous by far and occupying an important magisterial office”; and he was offered a position coveted by many young professionals “because it was honorable and well paid.”4 Rossi held this post for little more than a year, when this patron died suddenly, leaving him without employment. He soon entered an apprenticeship in contract law under the renowned lawyer Lepido Piccolomini, but this mentor died after only a few years.5

Following Piccolomini’s death, and after several attempts to enter into the service of one cardinal or another,6RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio became generally disillusioned with the law. He withdrew to a house on the Janiculum Hill and devoted himself to humanistic studies.7 In one of his autobiographical dialogues he explicitly expressed, in the persona of an interlocutor named Nicius, his preference for ancient Roman authors over the jurists and Roman law glossators such as AccursiusAccursius, Franciscus and BartolusBartolus of Saxoferrato of Saxoferrato, whose writings would have been an integral part of his legal training: “I much preferred reading the works of PlautusPlautus, Titus Maccius, TerenceTerence, CiceroCicero, Marcus Tullius, and Caesar to those of Accursius, Bartolus, and authors of their ilk.”8

During the early 1600s, when RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio was turning away from the law to focus on the liberal arts, he began attending meetings of the Accademia degli Umoristi (Academia Humoristarum), a literary society frequented by the most celebrated authors, scholars, and artists in Rome.9 The Academy originated as a loose association of writers, but it incorporated in 1608, at which point formal rules were established,10 and an official emblem was adopted depicting the sun partially obscured by precipitating clouds, accompanied by the Lucretian motto “redit agmine dulci” ([the water] returns in a sweet stream”).11 The Academy’s name stems from the main activity of its members, which was, at least initially, writing and performing comic plays in the style of ancient playwrights such as PlautusPlautus, Titus Maccius and TerenceTerence. Over time the Accademia degli Umoristi added more poetry and prose to their repertoire. The Academy boasted many well-known Italian poets as its Principe, or head, including Alessandro TassoniTassoni, Alessandro (elected in 1606),12 Giovanni Battista GuariniGuarini, Giovanni Battista (elected in 1611), and Giambattista MarinoMarino, Giambattista (elected in 1623).

Membership in the Accademia degli Umoristi was not limited to Rome’s elite; in fact, the rules stated that membership was open to any persons who were “considered worthy based on their nobility of blood, their superior literary abilities, or … excellence in any respectable art form.”13 That being said, from its very beginning the Academy did attract members of Rome’s most important families such as the ColonnaColonna, Pompeo and the Barberini. One of its most prominent members was that most famous Barberini, Maffeo—Jesuit educated and a recognized Neo-Latin poet—who in 1623 became Pope Urban VIIIUrban VIII, Pope. Marc FumaroliFumaroli, Marc refers to Urban VIII as “CiceroCicero, Marcus Tullius pontifex maximus” (Pope Cicero), explaining that Neo-Latin literature experienced its second great Renaissance under his influence.14 It was thanks to Urban VIII and the powerful Barberini family that the Accademia degli Umoristi, along with the scientific Accademia dei Lincei and the Jesuit Collegio Romano, became a driving cultural force in the seventeenth century, not just in Rome, but throughout Europe.15

Through his participation in the Accademia degli Umoristi, RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio came in contact with, as GerboniGerboni, Luigi describes, “the flower of Rome’s citizenry” gaining respect for his literary and linguistic abilities.16 The writers, scholars, and intellectuals he met through the Academy became the basis for many of the biographical profiles in his Pinacotheca imaginum illustrium, but also material for characters in Eudemia. These include, most prominently, a description of an Academy meeting in Book Three where Eudemia’s intellectual elites gather to recite their poetry. It is also because of his participation in the Accademia degli Umoristi that Rossi became acquainted with Fabio Chigisee Alexander VII, Pope (later Pope AlexanderAlexander (Alessandro Damasceni Peretti di Montalto)VIIAlexander VII, Pope), who would become his most important friend and correspondent, as well as being instrumental in his eventual publishing success.

In a 1646 letter to the Dutch scholar Guilelmus MoonsiusMoonsius, Guilelmus, RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio credited his reputation as a Latinist for the fact that, around 1607, he was offered a position in the Roman Curia, explaining that Marcello VestrioVestrio, Marcello, Secretary of Latin Briefs under Pope Paul VPaul V, Pope, had been impressed after hearing Rossi declaim at an Academy meeting.17 In the same letter, Rossi informed Moonsius that (by his own estimation) he made quite a name for himself in that job, remarking that “whenever anything a little more polished or elegant was issued by Vestrio’s office, everyone reckoned that it had been produced and executed largely thanks to my ingenuity and effort.”18 This job lasted only eight months, however, before Vestrio took ill and died.

Around 1608, RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio received a firm job offer as secretary to Cardinal Giovanni Garzia MelliniMellini, Giovanni Garzia, who had been appointed papal legate to Germany, but that would have meant relocating to another country and away from his beloved Rome. As it turned out, he made it as far as the town of Caprarola (about sixty kilometers north of Rome), came down with a fever, and had to be sent home.19 Indeed, he never was able to secure a permanent position within the Church. Rossi blamed his difficulty in securing steady employment on the fact that individuals in positions of power purposefully kept him out because they were jealous of, and intimidated by, his superior abilities.20

RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s longest period of employment lasted from 1610 to 1623, when he served as the private secretary to Cardinal Alessandro Damasceni Peretti di MontaltoPeretti di Montalto, Alessandro Damasceni.21 Rossi characterized this as a low point in his life, during which he spent more than a decade doing a thankless job for a thankless employer. In a 1637 letter to Ugone UbaldiniUbaldini, Ugone, Rossi described Peretti as “extremely heartless” (“inhumanissimus”) because he not only had to pay for medical care out of his own pocket when he fell ill while in Peretti’s employ, but Peretti never even asked after him to see if he needed anything.22 In Eudemia Peretti makes a memorable appearance as a nobleman named PlusiusPlusius (Alessandro Damasceni Peretti di Montalto), an inattentive, unappreciative, and miserly boss to a long-suffering and overworked secretary named Nicius RufusNicius Rufus (Gian Vittorio Rossi).23

RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio retreated into private life after Peretti’s death in 1623. In the early 1630s he moved to a house in the Monte Mario neighborhood of Rome, where he spent the rest of his days.24 There is no evidence of his having steady employment after that. GerboniGerboni, Luigi assumes that he enjoyed some level of financial stability, however, since he was able to donate funds for the construction of a small church on Monte Mario dedicated to Santa Maria della Febbre e del Rosario. Rossi bequeathed this church to the monastery of Saint Onuphrius, and it still exists today as the Chiesa della Madonna del Rosario.25 In addition, sometime before 1630 he had purchased the honorary office of Commissioner of the Aqua Marrana, which came with no responsibilities but yielded a modest annual income of 98.85 scudi.26 This financial independence allowed Rossi to spend the remainder of his life focused on writing and publishing.

As evidenced in his letters, RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio was an active participant in the Republic of Letters, the pan-European intellectual community that fostered humanistic studies and the exchange of ideas via epistolary correspondence. He cultivated friendships with fellow humanists in such places as Italy, France, Germany, and the Low Countries. In his personal life, however, Rossi chose to remain alone, never marrying or having children. GerboniGerboni, Luigi points to one of his dialogues for a clue as to why, citing an interlocutor named Iucundus who, when asked why he never married, explains that the main two reasons were fear of losing his freedom to a carping wife, and fear that she would give birth to children who were bow-legged, knock-kneed, squinty-eyed, buck-toothed, and ill-behaved.27 Gerboni concedes that these assertions were made primarily for humorous effect, and he surmises that the real reason was probably that the majority of educated laymen aspiring to a career in the Roman Curia tended not to marry, surrounded as they were by clerics28 (of course, it is also not out of the question that Rossi was homosexual). On the other hand, Rossi never entered the priesthood, which Gerboni ascribes to a similar fear of losing his liberty, and also to the fact that he ultimately did not feel a strong spiritual calling to such a life.29 Rossi died at the age of seventy on November 13, 1647, and was buried in the church he founded on Monte Mario. He left his estate to the caretakers of that church, the Poor Hermits of Blessed Peter Gambacorta of Pisa, of the monastic order of Saint Onuphrius, who memorialized him with this inscription: “Ioanni Victorio Roscio / Iani Nici Erythraei nomine / apud externos notissimo / huius domus et ecclesiae / munificentissimo fundatori.”30

Gian Vittorio RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio: vita

1577

Born in Rome.

ca. 1582–94

Educated at the Jesuit Collegio Romano.

1596

Completes studies in the law.

ca. 1598–1602

Legal apprenticeship under Lepido Piccolomini.

ca. 1602

Joins the Academia Humoristarum (Accademia degli Umoristi).

1603

Publishes first work, titled Orationes novem (Romae: Apud Aloysium Zannettum).

1607–8

Works in the Secretariat of Latin Briefs under Marcello Vestrio, Secretary of Latin Briefs for Pope Paul V.

1610–1623

Employed as private secretary (a studiis) to Alessandro Damasceni Peretti di Montalto.

1626

Meets Fabio Chigi for the first time, at a gathering of the Accademia degli Umoristi.

ca. 1630

Moves to the Janiculum Hill neighborhood of Rome retiring to a life of study and writing.

1637

Publishes Eudemiae libri VIII ([Leiden]: [Bonaventure and Abraham Elzevier]).

1641

Begins friendship and correspondence with Fabio Chigi, which lasts until his death.

ca. 1644

Moves to the Monte Mario neighborhood of Rome.

1645

Publishes Eudemiae libri decem (Coloniae Ubiorum [i.e., Amsterdam]: Apud Iodocum Kalcovium [i.e., Joan Blaeu]).

1647

Dies in Rome on November 13 and is buried at the church he founded on Monte Mario dedicated to Santa Maria della Febbre e del Rosario.

Fig. 1:

Engraved portrait of Gian Vittorio RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio. Iani Nicii Erythraei Eudemiae libri decem. Coloniae Ubiorum [i.e., Amsterdam]: Apud Iodocum Kalcovium [i.e., Joan BlaeuBlaeu, Joan] [1645]. Soc 950.36, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Fig. 2:

Ottavio Leoni, “Portrait of a Young Man” (1607–1612). Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, KdZ 17153. Proposed identification as Gian Vittorio RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio by Riccardo Gandolfi (Primarosa 2017: 381).

Intellectual and Artistic Milieu of Seventeenth-Century Rome

RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s active literary life largely coincided with the period known as the Baroque. Though there is no consensus regarding the precise dates that demarcate this era,1 the Baroque period in Italy more or less coincides with the seventeenth century (Seicento).2 The Baroque aesthetic was characterized by meraviglia (wonder or marvel), and comprised elements intended to act on the emotions of the reader or viewer: the supernatural or fantastic (favoloso), a surprising and pleasing style achieved via clever metaphor and ornament (concetti or concettismo), and the application of wit (arguzia) that allows the reader or viewer to “[glimpse] the truth of things in a unique way.”3 As Peter RietbergenRietbergen, Peter explains, the Baroque aesthetic was all-encompassing; it was not just an artistic style but “a style of living wherein all elements of life were fundamentally united” to create a sense of wonder.4 The author who is best known for representing the Baroque literary aesthetic of meraviglia is Giambattista MarinoMarino, Giambattista, though he had already died by the time the Baroque era reached its apex under Pope Urban VIIIUrban VIII, Pope.5

The Baroque aesthetic was a response to a critical historical moment for the Roman Catholic Church. During the post-Tridentine Catholic reform movement, or the Counter-Reformation, the Church sought to reassert its power and to reestablish Rome as the physical and spiritual center of the Catholic world.6 The consolidation and maintenance of temporal and spiritual power required the participation of the populace. The Baroque aesthetic—embodied in theater performances, music, public recitations, architecture, monuments, and highly visible displays of wealth—served to overwhelm and delight the reader or viewer, while at the same time leading him or her to embrace what the Roman Catholic Church deemed correct spiritual teaching (delectare et docere).7

One of the main drivers of culture in Baroque Rome was the Jesuit order, whose Collegio Romano was the principal institution for secondary education. The Jesuit curriculum was based on principles of what FumaroliFumaroli, Marc terms “Christian humanism,” a fusion of the disciplined rules found in CiceroCicero, Marcus Tullius and QuintilianQuintilian with the meditative and contemplative approach to spirituality as found in the Exercitia spiritualia of Igantius of Loyola.8 Under the Jesuit-educated, humanist pope Urban VIIIUrban VIII, Pope, and his nephew, Cardinal Francesco BarberiniBarberini, Francesco, Rome experienced a cultural renovatio that Fumaroli describes as a second Roman Renaissance.9 During this period Rome became a beacon for intellectuals and artists from all over Europe, who traveled to Rome in order to be part of this flourishing activity in literature, art, and science. Many of these intellectuals and artists were members of the Accademia degli Umoristi, which became an important arbiter of the best style (optimus stylus).10

Baroque literature has often been dismissed as extravagant, decadent, and representing “the nadir of Italian literature.”11 Scholars who resist this assessment do so from different vantages. IJsewijnIJsewijn, for example, argues that such a characterization tends to reflect only vernacular works, and that any adequate assessment of the literary output of Seicento Rome must also take into consideration Latin works of the period. In his view, “many of the flaws which critics usually find in the Italian writings of the age, such as bad taste and extravagance, are markedly absent from the best of their Latin counterparts.”12FumaroliFumaroli, Marc, on the other hand, argues that the very distinction between Baroque and Classical aesthetic is exaggerated and unnecessary, and that both the rigorous standards of Ciceronianism and individual (even eccentric) Baroque style are manifestations of the limitless ways one can express one’s relationship with the immutable logos of the Catholic Church, which was forced to become more flexible and open to different means of expression after the Reformation.13

RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio was certainly aware of these aesthetic debates. Classical authors provided the touchstone that guided his style and often put him at odds with the more experimental trends embraced by his contemporaries. As GerboniGerboni, Luigi explains, Rossi expressed a clear preference for Ciceronian Latin over the sort of style he described as “new and sublime,”14 criticizing those who rejected the “pure, clear words and manifest meanings” of CiceroCicero, Marcus Tullius, in favor of overwrought meraviglia, as privileging form over substance: “Always inflated and swollen, they spread their wings and reach for the mountaintops, only to grasp clouds and emptiness.”15

It is not only in his letters that RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio inveighs against this new style. Eudemia also serves as his vehicle for criticizing writers who turn their back on ancient authors. In Book Three, for example, he includes poems on such subjects as a honey apple, a beard, and a pomegranate, and the narrator mentions someone who composed a laudatory poem to a gnat. These compositions and references serve to make fun of the Baroque proliferation of paradoxical encomia, poems in praise of everyday objects.16 In addition, in Books Four and Nine, the two Romans meet people who, respectively, express indignation at being compared to ancient authors and insist on their own superiority. One of them declares: “I would be embarrassed to compose verses that are anything like VirgilVirgil’s”17; while the other insists that the writings of ancient authors be measured against his own: “He endeavored to measure ancient authors … against the criterion of his own acumen and dislodge them from their long-standing supremacy.”18 Thus Rossi’s novel, aside from being a social critique, is also an artistic one, to the detriment of his own contemporaries.

To reiterate RietbergenRietbergen, Peter’s assessment, the Baroque aesthetic was an all-encompassing lifestyle that included “banquets and behavior and books.”19RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s Eudemia parades this all-encompassing aesthetic before his readers’ eyes. Writing in elegant Latin, he lays bare a society, fashioned and fostered by the powerful Barberini family and their circle, that cultivated literary and artistic showmanship, opulent displays of wealth, lavish banquets, luxurious dress, and enormous villas complete with sumptuous decorations, fountains and spectacular gardens, all fueled and supported by a corrupt system of patronage and favors.

Gian Vittorio RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio: Works

Eudemia and Other Published Works

RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s first publications date to the early 1600s and were printed in Rome under his real name, Ioannes Victorius Roscius: Orationes novem (Luigi ZanettiZanetti, Luigi, 1603); Oratio de Christi Domini ascensu (Guglielmo FacciottiFacciotti, Guglielmo, 1604); and De diuturna aegrotatione toleranda oratio (Carlo Vullietti, 1605).1 In 1629 he published a collection of poems in Viterbo titled Rime spirituali, also under his real name (this time in the vernacular), Giovanni Vittorio de’ Rossi. This was the last work Rossi would publish in Italy.

After he had retreated to private life upon the death of Cardinal Peretti di Montalto in the early 1620s,2RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio began writing a series of humorous vignettes, often poking fun at people in his literary circle behind pseudonyms. These stories apparently delighted his friends, who encouraged him to publish them.3 By 1631, as indicated in a letter to Giovanni Zaratino CastelliniCastellini, Giovanni Zaratino, Rossi was actively in search of a dedicatee: “I could publish [my satire] with a dedicatory letter to you and, to the best of my ability, gain honor for you and praise for myself.”4 We know that Castellini declined this offer because Rossi wrote to him again three years later, informing him that the bookseller Giovanni Battista TamantiniTamantini, Giovanni Battista, whom he refers to by the pseudonym ThaumantinusThaumantinus (Giovanni Battista Tamantini),5 was supposedly going to help him get his as-yet-still-unpublished novel printed in Venice.6 No Venetian edition ever materialized. Instead, looking back in a 1646 letter to Kaspar SchoppeSchoppe, Kaspar, Rossi explained the circumstances by which Eudemiae libri VIII finally came to be published by the ElzeviersElzeviers (firm) in Leiden:

One day my bookseller friend7 came to me with John BarclayBarclay, John’s ArgenisArgenis, which I was eager to take a look at. Jokingly, I said to him: “I also have a book that is not too different from this.” Then he said, “Give it to me, I want to read it.” I gave it to him straightaway, thinking that I would never want it back. But hardly two years had passed from that meeting with him when he showed me the book, which I thought had met a bad end, having been published in Leiden.8

Unlike his earlier works printed in Italy, Eudemiae libri VIII was the first of many books RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio would publish under his pseudonym, Ianus Nicius Erythraeus.9

After its publication in Leiden, Eudemia libri VIII circulated in Northern Europe, where it came to the attention of Fabio Chigisee Alexander VII, Pope, who had been named Papal Nuncio to Cologne in 1639. Indeed, an early biography of Chigi indicates that the bishop was always eager to read things that were new, unique, and interesting.10 Chigi knew RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio from when they had met in 1626 at a meeting of the Accademia degli Umoristi, which the former had the opportunity to attend when he moved to Rome from Siena to embark on his ecclesiastical career—and it probably did not hurt that Chigi himself appears in Book Three of Eudemia as a noble young man named TyrrhenusTyrrhenus (Fabio Chigi) attending a meeting of a literary academy.11 Chigi’s delight in reading Eudemia prompted him to write to Rossi in April of 1641, saying, “Your Eudemia recently came into my hands among the many other books that arrived from Holland.”12 This letter initiated a friendship and correspondence between Chigi and Rossi that lasted until Rossi’s death in 1647.

By the early 1640s RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio had found himself with few avenues to publishing. Because of Eudemia’s rocky reception in Italy (about which more later), Roman—and presumably Italian—printers were no longer willing to publish his works, and Rossi remained dissatisfied with a 1642 French edition of his Dialogi that Gabriel NaudéNaudé, Gabriel had arranged to be printed in Paris, complaining that it was full of errors.13 Encouraged by Chigi’s enjoyment of his satire, Rossi took Naudé’s advice and asked the bishop for help in publishing his collection of imagines (biographies), which he titled Pinacotheca imaginum illustrium.14 Chigi found Pinacotheca worthy of publication and assigned the task of finding a printer to the German priest and scholar Barthold NihusNihus, Barthold, who worked as an editor for both the ElzeviersElzeviers (firm) and Joan BlaeuBlaeu, Joan.15

For their part, the ElzeviersElzeviers (firm) were open to publishing Pinacotheca. Eudemia libri VIII had proven to be a commercial success, and they were already sitting on a second edition of the novel, which the author had augmented by two books. As NihusNihus, Barthold informed Chigi, however, their presses were busy with other projects for the following seven months, so they would not be able to get started on it right away.16BlaeuBlaeu, Joan had more capacity to begin immediate production, prompting Nihus to select him for the project, with the arrangement that the biographies would be published under the name of the Cologne-based printer Cornelius ab EgmondtEgmondt, Cornelius ab.17Pinacotheca—with its lively biographies of priests, poets, theologians, scientists, philosophers, and artists, who lived between the second half of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century—remains the work for which RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio is still best known.18 Blaeu himself published three volumes of Pinacotheca over five years, and new editions of the work continued to be published into the eighteenth century, the final one in 1729.19

Much to BlaeuBlaeu, Joan’s satisfaction, Pinacotheca proved to be a bestseller20; so much so that, by April 1644, NihusNihus, Barthold informed Chigi that Blaeu was more than willing to publish all of RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s works.21 By the end of that same year, Blaeu had nine of Rossi’s works in production: the first and second edition of Exempla virtutum et vitiorum; another press run of Pinacotheca, as well as a second edition titled Pinacotheca altera; a religious work titled Documenta sacra ex Evangeliis; an expanded collection of dialogues titled Dialogi septendecim; a collection of letters from Rossi to his friends and acquaintances titled Epistolae ad diversos; a collection of Rossi’s letters to Fabio Chigisee Alexander VII, Pope titled Epistolae ad Tyrrhenum; and the second, augmented edition of his novel, Eudemiae libri decem. As was stated earlier, this last was supposed to have been published by the ElzeviersElzeviers (firm), but they never seem to have got around to it. In fact, as late as January 1644, Nihus was still informing Chigi that the Elzeviers were intending to print the second edition, but their presses continued to be unavailable.22 No explicit reason is given for this slow-walking of the second edition by the Elzeviers, whether their presses truly could not accommodate it, or whether they were reluctant to publish the work a second time based on the mixed reception of the first edition. In any case, by October of 1644 Eudemia was on Blaeu’s presses—but not without editorial intervention by Nihus to remove a few questionable passages.23

The collaboration among RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio, Chigi, NihusNihus, Barthold, and BlaeuBlaeu, Joan resulted in the publication of more than fifteen titles, from 1643 to 1649, some of which remained popular and continued to enjoy new editions into the first half of the eighteenth century.24 Until now, the only edition of Eudemia to be issued in print after Blaeu’s was Johann Christian FischerFischer, Johann Christian’s 1740 Eudemiae libri decem, editio novissima, which includes a preface that reconstructs the work’s publication history based on Rossi’s letters. In 1998 the University of Kentucky’s Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures published an online version of the Latin text of Eudemia libri decem in Retiarius: Commentarii Periodici Latini, its archive of Neo-Latin texts. This online version includes notes by Jozef IJsewijnIJsewijn and a preface by TerenceTerenceTunbergTunberg, Terence.25 In 2006 Gian Piero MaragoniMaragoni, Gian Piero published a sample critical edition and translation, into Italian, of Eudemia Book One.26 To my knowledge, the present edition is the first translation, into any language, of Eudemiae libri decem in its entirety. It includes notes to both the Latin and the English texts, the former primarily indicating where Rossi is quoting from other authors, and the latter explaining Classical and contemporary historical and cultural references. The identities behind the pseudonyms of this roman à clef are found in Appendix A.

Fig. 3:

Iani Nicii Erythraei Eudemiae libri VIII. [Leiden]: [Bonaventure and Abraham ElzevierElzevier, Abraham], [1637]. Image courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Fig. 4:

Iani Nicii Erythraei Eudemiae libri decem. Coloniae Ubiorum [i.e., Amsterdam]: Apud Iodocum Kalcovium [i.e., Joan BlaeuBlaeu, Joan] [1645]. Image courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Unpublished or Lost Works

RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio wrote a number of works that are now lost. Among his sacred dramatic works was a play titled Tobia, which, according to Leone AllacciAllacci, Leone, was published in 1629 in Viterbo.1 Rossi’s unpublished sacred plays include Esau et Iacob, Christi Domini praesepis, Filius profusus ac perditus, and Susanna. His play Magdalena flens ad sepulchrum Christi, set to music by the composer Virgilio MazzocchiMazzocchi, Virgilio, was performed multiple times, including in a private performance before cardinals Francesco BarberiniBarberini, Francesco, Ippolito Aldobrandini, Roberto UbaldiniUbaldini, Roberto, and the Polish ambassador to Rome,2 but the text has not survived. Another musical performance consisted of a sacred play about Ignatius Loyola set to music by the composer Loreto VittoriVittori, Loreto (who appears as a character in Book Ten).3 Other lost short works are Vita Iuvenalis Ancinae Saluciarum Episcopi, Vita Sancti Isidori, Vita B[eati] Stanislae Kostka, Canonis missae interpretatio, De officio ac dignitate sacerdotis, Totius missae sacrificii explicatio, and Confessiones propriae, modeled after St. Augustine’s Confessions.4

Keys to Accompany Eudemia

I rely primarily on six sources to identify, to the extent possible, the real names behind the pseudonyms in Eudemia. Two keys to the work have been published: Christian GryphiusGryphius, Christian’s Apparatus sive dissertatio isagogica de scriptoribus historiam seculi XVII illustrantibus (1710: 490–5) and Fernand DrujonDrujon, Fernand’s Les livres à clef (1888: 1052–7).1 Other sources for identifications are Luigi GerboniGerboni, Luigi’s Un umanista nel Seicento (1899: 131–3) and Luisella GiachinoGiachino, Luisella’s “CiceroCicero, Marcus Tullius libertinus” (2002: 185–215). Jozef IJsewijnIJsewijn identified a number of names in his notes that accompany the 1998 online version of Eudemia housed on the University of Kentucky’s website.2

In addition, I consulted two manuscript keys. “Clavis et index in Eudemiam,” which I identified in Harvard University’s Houghton Library archives, is in Gabriel NaudéNaudé, Gabriel’s hand and accompanies the 1637 Eudemiae libri VIII; “Chiave dell’Eudemia del Signor Gio. Vittorio De RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio” is sewn into a British Library copy of Eudemiae libri decem.3 Another key was apparently composed by Jean-Jacques BouchardBouchard, Jean-Jacques, which Rossi’s contemporary Cassiano Dal PozzoDal Pozzo, Cassiano mentions in his Memoriale romano,4 while a fourth was to be drafted by the Italian author Angelico AprosioAprosio, Angelico.5 Unfortunately, I have found no trace of either of these two last keys.

Where discrepancies occur among the existing keys and scholarly sources, I took the further step of consulting RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s Pinacotheca, since a significant number of the characters in Eudemia were also the subjects of his biographies. Identifications not gleaned from any of the existing keys and sources, and unique to this edition, are based on the similarities of the pseudonyms to names of real people, as well as on my own research. Examples of these are Giovanni Battista TamantiniTamantini, Giovanni Battista for ThaumantinusThaumantinus (Giovanni Battista Tamantini), Margherita CostaCosta, Margherita for PleuraPleura (Margherita Costa) (who also appears in Pinacotheca), and Francesco BarberiniBarberini, Francesco for the animal-loving Dynast BibulusBibulus (Francesco Barberini?). In addition, I identify a number of physical locations in Rome that do not appear in any of the sources, such as the Villa Peretti-Montalto for the Placidiani Gardens, the Villa Farnesina for a sumptuous villa on the banks of the river, and the Villa Borghese for the site of a May Day picnic (these latter two in Book Ten).

Fig. 5:

“Clavis et index in Eudemiam.” MS Lat 306.1, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Fig. 6:

“Chiave dell’Eudemia del Signor Gio.Vittorio de RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio” sewn into Iani Nicii Erythraei Eudemiae libri decem (1645) © British Library Board, 12410.aa.16.

Literary Models for Eudemia

Ancient Models

In a letter to Carlo MazzeiMazzei, Carlo, written a year after the publication of the second edition of Eudemia in ten books, RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio addressed his correspondent’s apparently negative reaction to his work:

Doubtless some aspects of my Eudemia have recently caused you offense because, in recounting the vices of several people, I have more than once exceeded the bounds of moderation. But keep in mind the works of HoraceHorace, JuvenalJuvenal, and others, who did the very same thing with the utmost freedom of speech and sentiment. Consider in particular PetroniusPetronius Arbiter Arbiter, whom I have attempted to imitate. As you can see, he rubbed the city with much salt and vinegar, just as Horace says about LuciliusLucilius Gaius. Finally, do not forget that my work is a satire, which I consider extremely difficult not to write in the face of mankind’s corrupt and irredeemable morals.1

Implied in this passage is that, because of its criticism of contemporary mores, Eudemia was not universally well received.

In his own defense, RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio inserts himself into a long and venerable line of ancient Roman satirists, whose legendary libertas (freedom of speech), he argues, enabled them to criticize their own societies. Rossi names PetroniusPetronius Arbiter Arbiter as his most immediate model, whose Satyricon, with its episodic tale and mix of prose and verse, is the closest ancient work to Eudemia in terms of genre. As additional models he cites the verse satirists HoraceHorace, JuvenalJuvenal, and LuciliusLucilius Gaius, and he closes this passage with a phrase inspired by a line in Juvenal’s first satire, “difficile est saturam non scribere” (“it is difficult not to write satire”).2

RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio invokes these ancient satirists as cover for any offense he may have caused. So what if he went a little too far in poking fun at his contemporaries (“non semel modestiae fines praeterierim”)? Is that really any different from what the greatest satiric poets from Rome’s illustrious past had done? Rossi’s explanation of his satiric pedigree, however, merits examination. First of all, Rossi is inserting himself into two distinct satiric traditions: prosimetric Menippean satire in the Petronian vein,3 and the verse satire of LuciliusLucilius Gaius, HoraceHorace, and JuvenalJuvenal. Second, and more important, he is pinning his defense on the question of libertas, which, out of all of the ancient predecessors he mentions, was only enjoyed by Lucilius.

LuciliusLucilius Gaius’s poetry, which survived only in fragmentary form, is known primarily through HoraceHorace’s two books of satires, but also through the satires of PersiusPersius and JuvenalJuvenal. A citizen of Republican Rome, member of the equestrian class, and friend of ScipioScipio Africanus Aemilianus, Lucilius famously “gave free rein to his pugnacious temperament, attacking Scipio’s political enemies, his own literary opponents, and anyone he happened to dislike.”4 In the satires of Horace, Persius, and Juvenal—reflecting a period of time spanning the late republic and early empire—Lucilius served as a model of freedom of speech that could only be aspired to by later authors, but that could not be emulated on account of the changed political situation.5

As Niall Rudd explains regarding HoraceHorace, “In 39 B.C. as a pardoned Republican and a man of no social consequence he could not afford to give indiscriminate offense.”6PersiusPersius and JuvenalJuvenal, who were writing, respectively, under the emperors Nero and Domitian (at least for Juvenal’s early satires), were constrained by a similar lack of libertas that found a creative outlet in satire. Additionally, although libertas is not an overt theme in the Satyricon, the novelistic genre—the fantastical voyage in the comic tradition—enabled PetroniusPetronius Arbiter to comment, albeit obliquely, on his own society.7 More than 1,500 years separated RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio from his ancient models, of course, yet he nevertheless composed his satire in similarly restrictive circumstances. Living in Rome under the absolutist rule of Pope Urban VIIIUrban VIII, Pope, and within the constraints of the Counter-Reformation, finding one’s works on the Index of Prohibited Books was a real danger, and running afoul of orthodox views was a risky proposition.8

A useful lens through which to view RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s insertion of his work into the two satiric traditions, as well as his invocation of libertas, is what Howard WeinbrotWeinbrot, Howard D. terms the “harsh” and “soft” modes of satire.9 Menippean satire is generally characterized as falling within the harsh mode; that is to say, it is an attack on societal vice via the slanderous mocking of people and customs. The verse satire of LuciliusLucilius Gaius, famous for its “censorious ridicule,”10 is another example of this harsh mode. HoraceHorace, on the other hand—the verse satirist Rossi cites most frequently throughout his body of work—presented a soft mode of satire that eschewed personal attacks and offered a moral corrective by praising virtue.11 In his letter to MazzeiMazzei, Carlo, Rossi implies that, with Eudemia, he wants to have it both ways. On the one hand, he claims to be part of a long line of free speakers stretching all the way back to Lucilius, choosing as his most overt model the harsh genre of Menippean satire; on the other hand, he exhorts his readers to view him as a soft-spoken, latter-day Horace, who, meaning no harm, is just trying to point out society’s flaws in a humorous way in order to expunge or correct them.

RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s soft, Horatian stance, which becomes fully expressed in his 1646 letter to MazzeiMazzei, Carlo, was not always in evidence. In fact, a close reading of Rossi’s correspondence over the entire publication process of Eudemia reveals that Rossi’s satiric persona underwent a consciously constructed transformation from harsh to soft as a strategy of self-defense in response to the reaction his satire generated.

In two separate letters to Giovanni Zaratino CastelliniCastellini, Giovanni Zaratino written in the early 1630s, RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio explicitly describes Eudemia as rendering humorous, yet accurate, depictions of his milieu: “This satire, or, if you will, this history, which is what I call it”12; and “My satire—or rather my history … for although I sprinkled my stories with made-up elements, they are true and they happened during my lifetime.”13 Rossi’s conflation of history and satire underscores what GriffinGriffin, Dustin H. describes as the genres’ shared referential nature and rhetorical purpose: “Like the satirist, the historian distinguishes between the virtuous and the wicked, and perpetuates the memory of both.”14

RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s insistence on the truth of his satire also calls to mind another literary model for Eudemia in the harsh mode, which he does not overtly acknowledge: LucianLucian of Samosata’s Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα (A True Story), in which a first-person narrator recounts the “true story” of his fantastical voyage to fictional lands.15 Unlike Lucian’s narrator, who destabilizes his narrative from the outset by declaring that he is a liar who is “writing about things which I have neither seen nor had to do with nor heard from others,”16 Rossi puts himself forward as a truth teller whose historia, he insists, is based on things that actually happened. While he might be saying this for rhetorical effect, demonstrating his familiarity with Lucian’s tale, his claim to truth telling is nevertheless borne out by the fact that, unlike Lucian’s fantasy landscapes—peopled with strange creatures and characters from ancient history and mythology—Rossi’s Eudemia presents characters who can, to a large extent, be traced to Rossi’s circle of friends.

In the same letters to CastelliniCastellini, Giovanni Zaratino, referenced above, RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio tells his friend that he was encouraged to publish his satire and that the censors “were said to have enjoyed both the subject and the style, and did not deem it unworthy of publication.”17 But communications immediately following Eudemia’s 1637 publication indicate that its reception was not entirely positive. Particularly relevant are two letters, both from the year 1638, to Cardinal Francesco BarberiniBarberini, Francesco (dated March 31) and to Clemente MerlinoMerlino, Clemente, judge of the Roman Rota (dated October 25), each of which reads like an apologia for the novel.18 The common theme of these letters is Rossi’s desire to mitigate any offense caused by his satire. In both of them he attempts to distance himself from his work, while at the same time standing by his use of humor to expose and expunge immoral behavior. The seeds of the rhetorical defense that Rossi would put forth eight years later, in his letter to MazzeiMazzei, Carlo, are found in these early justifications.

After an initial (and implausible) denial that he was the author of Eudemia,19RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s letter to Cardinal Barberini addresses complaints he heard about his satire being “pernicious, corrupting of morals, and damaging to the dignity and reputation of those associated with the [papal] court.”20 Rossi stresses that his book is a work of fiction, that it does not refer to any real people, and that only a person of ill will would associate the morally questionable characters in his satire with anyone in real life (a statement that is a complete reversal of his earlier claims to truth-telling). Most importantly, he makes the case that he is not narrating acts of immorality in a witty and elegant manner in order to praise such acts, but to make fun of them, or rather, to hiss at them and drive them away.21 Rossi is not yet explicitly referencing HoraceHorace’s corrective laughter, but this is certainly implied.

RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s letter to Clemente MerlinoMerlino, Clemente is longer and more substantial, putting forth a detailed rationale for his satire (“totam libri mei rationem”). His letter builds to a defense from an initial posture of distancing and minimizing, in which he claims that the satire was not his idea; his friends made him write it; it was meant to be seen only by a few people; and it merely consists of “ridiculae fabellae” (“ridiculous little stories”). For the first time, Rossi also introduces the notion, which he would go on to repeat on other occasions, that two books were left out of the 1637 edition, implying that these “missing” books would have clarified his intent or softened people’s reaction to it.22 By the end of the letter, Rossi embraces a full-throated defense of his use of satire to expunge immorality from society:

What more suitable, useful, and agreeable means of censure can be found, that can effectively insinuate itself into the minds of men, than that which exposes, in fictional characters—with real names concealed, times and locations changed—the sinful dispositions of the mind, as if through fun and jest? Ancient writings testify to the fact that this was always lawful and permitted according to both Greek and Roman custom. Was it not HoraceHorace who said, “Who is to prevent someone from telling the truth, as long as he is laughing”? “But,” they insist, “in your discourse you present the vile passions of certain private individuals, passions that are filthy even to think about let alone recount, on full display as if in living color.” Those people are perhaps among those whom it pleases to pursue these base and shameful acts, rather than to run away once they have partaken in them. So what if these acts are, as you say, foul, execrable, and worthy of every punishment? They nevertheless contain a certain hilarity that has the power to spur useful laughter and, most importantly, to expose and mock the schemes and tricks of shameless men.23

Most central to RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s defense of his work in this letter to MerlinoMerlino, Clemente is the notion of “useful laughter,” which is an inherent part of the soft Horatian satiric mode. HoraceHorace’s embrace of wit and humor as a corrective to societal ills is clearly expressed, for example, in Sat. I.X.14–5.24 This spirit, fortified by Rossi’s almost direct quotation in his letter of Horace’s Sat. I.I.24–5, is congruent with the author’s desire to be seen not as a harsh mocker like LuciliusLucilius Gaius, PetroniusPetronius Arbiter, or LucianLucian of Samosata, but as a gentle humorist like Horace, who desires to guide people to good behavior through laughter. Indeed, taking a cue from the reaction to his satire and his apologiae in defense of it, Rossi weaves this Horatian satiric mode into his expanded 1645 edition. Books Nine and Ten are more generic in their humor—targeting caricatures or ridiculous archetypes rather than actual people—and they contain more instances of praise, the most notable being a 177-line poem praising HumanusHumanus (Urban VIII), his pseudonym for Pope Urban VIIIUrban VIII, Pope. What is more, the Horatian satiric mode is personified in a character named IcosippusIcosippus (Gian Vittorio Rossi), an accomplished scholar who was criticized by a few scolds for a certain book he published—in which he took to task the questionable morals of certain individuals—but then defends himself in a long speech about the virtue of useful laughter. That Icosippus is a stand-in for Rossi himself is clear, as is the presence of the themes at the heart of the apologia as encapsulated in the Merlino letter.

Contemporary Models

Despite RossiRossi, Gian Vittorio’s declared indebtedness to PetroniusPetronius Arbiter’s Satyricon,1 a more direct model for Eudemia was John BarclayBarclay, John’s Euphormionis lusinini satyricon, published in two parts (in 1605 and 1607 respectively).2 The most significant Neo-Latin Menippean satire of Rossi’s time, Euphormionis lusinini satyricon tells the story of EuphormioEuphormio, a traveler from the idyllic fictional land of Lusinia, who is shocked by the corruption he finds in the land where he has arrived: seventeenth-century Europe. Part One of Barclay’s satire consists of the first-person narration of the title character Euphormio’s travels throughout Europe where, as David FlemingFleming, David A summarizes, he

encounters many of the social and professional classes of the early seventeenth century … [and] discovers through bitter experience the defects of all those whom he meets: the jealousy and internal rivalry of the clergy, the hypocrisy of physicians, the inconstancy of friends and lovers, the ostentation and selfishness of the nobility, the stupidity of rustics, the degeneracy of the learned.3

FlemingFleming, David A describes Part One of Euphormionis lusinini satyricon as “purely episodic” with short and self-contained incidents, ending without much advancement in plot or character development, and with EuphormioEuphormio having “achieved nothing but disillusionment and bitterness.”4 Part Two coheres much more as a narrative, consisting of “a few large sections, each of them embracing a considerable number of interrelated incidents” that together move the plot toward a singular goal: Euphormio’s reception and establishment in the court of King Tessaranactus (King James I) in the court of Scolimorrhodia (England).5Eudemia’s first-person narrative in the voice of Flavius VopiscusFlavius Vopiscus Niger (Gian Vittorio Rossi?) Niger; the nonerotic nature of his main characters; his criticism of thieves, moneylenders, priests, quack doctors, and charlatans; and the disjointed, inconclusive nature of the narrative, are all reminiscent of BarclayBarclay, John’s satire, particularly Part One.

BarclayBarclay, John’s Euphormionis lusinini satyricon