Giovanni Della Casa

Giuseppe Falvo (The University of Maryland)

Ed. by Jo Ann Cavallo, Columbia University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.1: Italian Writing and Culture, 453-present.
Vol. editors: Carla Bregman (Independent Scholar - North America), Jo Ann Cavallo (Columbia University)

Dates

Born 28 Jun 1503
Died 14 Nov 1556
Activity 1540-1556

Places

Born in Italy
Active in Italy

Activities

Primary

Moralist
Poet

Resources

Casa's Works

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Giovanni Della Casa was a Florentine writer, poet and diplomat of the Italian Renaissance. In the history of Italian literature, his name is primarily associated with his widely known treatise

Il Galateo, ovvero de’ costumi

, which from the time of its publication (Venice, 1558) became one of the most influential courtesy books in Italy and in Europe, along with Baldesar Castiglione’s monumental work

The Book of the Courtier

(1528) and Machiavelli’s pragmatic treatise

The Prince

(1532). The literary fame of Giovanni Della Casa, however, is not only tied to the elegant and refined prose of the

Galateo

but also to the deeply intense lyric poetry of the

Rime

(Venice, 1558) which placed him among the major Petrarchist poets of the sixteenth century.

Della Casa was born on June 28, 1503,

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2119 words

Citation: Falvo, Giuseppe. "Giovanni Della Casa". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 February 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1218, accessed 23 November 2024.]