Paolo Abriani
Paolo Abriani (1607 – 26 April 1699) was an Italian classical scholar, translator and Marinist poet.
Paolo Abriani | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1607 |
| Died | 26 April 1699 (aged 91–92) |
| Occupations |
|
| Known for | Italian translation of Horace and Lucan |
| Writing career | |
| Language | Latin, Italian |
| Genre | |
| Literary movement | |
Biography
Paolo Abriani was a native of Vicenza, Italy. Little is known about his parents or early life. He entered the Carmelite Order at 20, taking the religious name Francesco.[1] After completing his studies of Philosophy and Theology, he was actively employed in preaching.[1] Afterwards he taught at Carmelite colleges in Genoa, Verona, Padua, and Vicenza.[1] In 1654 he left the Carmelites and became a secular priest.[1] He spent most of his later life in Venice,[2] where he died in 1699, at the age of 92.[1]
Abriani is best remembered for his translations of Horace's Ars Poetica and Odes (1663 and 1680). In his translations Abriani tries to adapt classical meters to a vernacular, thus anticipating Giosuè Carducci's Barbarian Odes.[1] Abriani's translation were a great success, and were often reprinted.[3]
Works
Abriani's Poesie, first published in 1663, belong to the Venetian branch of Marinism, in which sensuality is strictly controlled by moral, even moralistic, considerations.[4] He published a collection of academical discourses on literary and antiquarian topics, entitled Fonghi because they grew, as he said, like mushrooms in his uncultivated mind.[1]
Among his other works are particularly important:
- Il Vaglio, a defence of Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered against the remarks of Matthew Ferchi (Venice, 1663; 1687);[1]
- L'Arte poetica di Horatio tradotta in versi sciolti (ibid. 1663);
- Ode di Horatio con la ristampa della poetica (ibid. 1680);
- La guerra civile ovvero Farsaglia di M. Anneo Lucano, a translation of Lucan's Pharsalia (ibid. 1668).[1]
Notes
- Asor Rosa 1960.
- Benzoni, Gino (1997). "La vita intellettuale". Storia di Venezia. Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.
- Chalmers 1812, p. 76.
- Diffley 2002.
Bibliography
- Diffley, P. (2002). "Abriani, Paolo". The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-818332-7. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
This article incorporates public domain material from McClintock, John; Strong, James (1867–1887). Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. Harper and Brothers.- Chalmers, Alexander (1812). "Abriani, Paul". General Biographical Dictionary. Vol. 1. London: J. Nichols. pp. 75–76. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- "Abriani (Paul)". Dictionnaire historique, critique et bibliographique. Vol. 1. Paris: Chez Ménard et Desenne. 1821. p. 57.
- "Abriani (Paul)". Encyclopédie Catholique. Vol. 1. Paris: Parent-Desbarres. 1839. p. 91.
- "Abriani (Paul)". La Grande Encyclopédie. Vol. 1. Paris: H. Lamirault. 1886. p. 140.
- Asor Rosa, Alberto (1960). "ABRIANI, Paolo". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 1: Aaron–Albertucci (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. pp. 523–524. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.