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Trissino

Name: Giovanni Giorgio Trissino

Nickname/Alias: Gian Giorgio, Giovan Giorgio

Achievements: Literary figure and patron/promoter of architect Andrea Palladio

Born: July 8, 1478; Vicenza, Italy

Died: December 8, 1550; Rome, Italy (Aged 72)

Field & Discipline: Art; Literature; Diplomacy; Scholar; Dramatist; Diplomat

Language: Italian

Father: Unknown

Mother: Unknown

Siblings: Unknown

Spouse: Name not known

Children: Giulio

Education: Unknown

Major Work:

Verse Drama:

"Sofonisba"

Epic poem:

"The Liberation of Italy from the Goths"

Life & Times:

Trissino was born into a noble family.  An outstanding Aristotelian scholar, he went to Milan to study Greek, and to Ferrara to study philosophy.  He spent some time in Florence, where he frequented  writer/politician [knew] Niccolo Macchiavelli*.  He eventually settled in Rome, where he became friends with humanist Pietro Bembo and dramatist Giovanni Rucelli  and adopted their humanist ideals.

Since the preferred form of drama for humanists was tragedy, Trissino wrote the blank verse tragedy "Sofonisba", which he finished in 1515.  Considered his most important work,  the play is regarded as the first modern Italian tragedy to be was free of the didactic constraints of religion or education.  It was written according to the ancient Greek techniques of drama used by Sophocles and Euripides,  maintaining the unities of time and place,  and using choruses to comment on the action.

Trissino, who supported the new Holy Roman Emperor, [attended coronation of] Charles V*, attended his coronation in 1519.   He was a friend of both Pope Leo X and Clement VII, the Medici Pope, and served in the Papacy.

After the sack of Rome in 1527, Trissino went to Bologna, where he met Sebastiano Serlio, a painter/architect who had worked under  architects Bramante and Raphael in the Vatican workshops.

Trissino owned a villa outside Vicenza, at Cricoli, where he wanted to create an academy similar to the academy in Rome,  where Bembo and Italian statesman Conte Baldassare Castiglione had studied,  and also similar to the one established in Lorenzo de' Medici's Florence.  He decided to rebuild his villa according to humanist principles, turning it into an estate in harmony with its surroundings,  and constructed with function in  mind.  He also hoped the villa would reflect the architectural principles of the great ancient Roman architect [a fan of] Vitruvius*, a figure Trissino admired enormously.

Trissino made arrangements with a workshop supplying the best stonemasons in Vicenza,  and came across the man who would become known as [patron of] Palladio* (real name: Andrea della Gondola.)

Trissino's major interest, however, was literary.  Over a number of years, he wrote an epic poem, "The Liberation of Italy from the Goths".  In the poem, a major character, a guardian angel, is named Palladio.  This guardian angel takes the side of the Emperor Justinian against the Goths,  and helps oust them from Italy.

Guiding the commander of Justinian's forces through a palace occupied by the Goths, the Palladio character displays an informed knowledge about the architecture of the palace and its materials, measurements and proportions.  It is not known whether the character of Palladio was already part of the poem before Trissino met him.

At Trissino's Academy, students were first and foremost taught humanist philosophy, but also astronomy, geography and philosophy.  The texts were in Latin and Greek. It was Trissino's belief that his curriculum would make cultured citizens, who would create a cultured society.

In Padua from 1538 to 1540, Trissino, now in his 60s, made sure Palladio, about 30 years younger, met influential people.   In 1541, Trissino took Palladio to Rome again  to study antiquities. Trissino and Palladio returned again to Rome in the winter of 1545-46 to study Roman buildings.

In 1548, Trissino published "The Liberation of Italy from the Goths" and dedicated it to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.  He also wrote another verse play, a comedy, "I similimi" (1548).  He translated the Roman poet Pindar's odes and was the first to translate into Italian the odes of Horace.

He attempted unsuccessfully to introduce new alphabetic letters into the Italian language to represent certain sounds.  And he tried (also unsuccessfully) to introduce the classical decimal monetary system.

Extra Connections: Knew [knew[ Tintoretto* and  [knew] Isabella d’Este*.

[work printed by] Arrighi* printed several of his works.

Assessment: A man who exemplified the humanist ideal, his interests encompassed literature, music, architecture and philology.  He is remembered today as the mentor of Andrea Palladio.

Oneliner: GG Trissino,  patron of Palladio

Bibliography:

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