Lodovico Castelvetro
Lodovico Castelvetro was a notable Italian literary critic and scholar, born into a noble family in Modena around 1505. He pursued studies in law at prestigious Italian universities before shifting his focus to literature. Castelvetro lived for a time in Rome, where he interacted with influential figures, but his outspoken nature led to a conflict with the poet Annibale Caro, resulting in accusations of heresy that forced him to flee Italy in 1560. His exile took him to France, Vienna, and the Swiss Confederation, where he developed an expertise in Aristotle's writings on poetry and drama. His significant work, "La poetica di Aristotele vulgarizzata," argued that poetry's primary purposes are to provide pleasure to readers and to garner glory for poets, challenging traditional views that emphasized moral instruction. Castelvetro also criticized the idea of divine inspiration in poetry, advocating for a more structured understanding based on time, place, and action. Though later critiques identified flaws in his interpretations, his ideas notably influenced the evolution of literary criticism, particularly within the French classical tradition. He passed away on February 21, 1571, in Chiavenna, Switzerland.
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Lodovico Castelvetro
Literary Critic
- Born: 1505
- Birthplace: Modena, Italy
- Died: February 21, 1571
- Place of death: Chiavenna, Swiss Federation
Biography
Locovico Castelvetro was born into a noble family in Modena, Italy, probably in 1505. He studied law at the universities of Balogna, Ferrara, and Padua, and he then studied literature at Siena. After living for a time in Rome with his uncle, an ambassador to the Papal court, he returned to Modena, where he lectured on law and became a prominent literary critic.
An opinionated man with little sense of tact, Castelvetro became embroiled in a bitter quarrel with poet Annibale Caro, secretary to a powerful cardinal, after he ridiculed one of Caro’s canzoni. Caro responded with a pamphlet accusing him of impiety and heresy, and the Inquisition then summoned him to Rome. Having been influenced by Lutheranism, even translating a book by Philip Melancthon, Castelvetro had good reason to fear for his life. In 1560, he fled from Italy and was immediately excommunicated as a heretic.
Castelvetro spent the remained of his life in exile, first in France, then in Vienna, and finally in the Swiss Confederation. Acquiring an expert knowledge of Aristotle’s writings about poetry and drama, he published his one major work, La poetica di Aristotele vulgarizzata. He argued that the only purposes of poetry were to promote pleasure in readers and gain glory for the poet, rejecting the conventional view that poetry should also instruct and encourage virtue. According to him, effective poetry was based on three factors: time, place, and action. In addition, he criticized the Platonic notion that poets are possessed with a kind of divine madness. A few months after his book was published, he died in Chiavenna, Switzerland, on February 21, 1571.
Although later critics pointed out errors and weaknesses in Castelvetro’s interpretations of Aristotle’s works, he apparently exercised a degree of influence on the later history of literary criticism. He was especially influential on the theories and practices of the French classical tradition.