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JOVIUS, PAULUS
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See also:JOVIUS, See also:PAULUS , or See also:Paolo Giovio (1483-1552), See also:Italian historian and biographer, was See also:born of an See also:ancient and See also:noble See also:family at See also:Como on the 19th of See also:April 1483. His See also:father died when he was a See also:child, and Giovio owed his See also:education to his See also:brother Benedetto. After studying the humanities, he applied himself to See also:medicine and See also:philosophy at his brother's See also:request. He was Pomponazzi's See also:pupil at See also:Padua; and afterwards he took a medical degree in the university of See also:Pavia. He exercised the medical profession in See also:Rome, but the attraction of literature proved irresistible for Giovio, and he was See also:bent upon becoming the historian of his See also:age. He presented a portion of his See also:history to See also:Leo X., who read the MS., and pronounced it See also:superior in elegance to anything since See also:Livy, Thus encouraged, Giovio took up his See also:residence in Rome, and attached himself to See also:Cardinal Giulio de' See also:Medici, the See also:pope's See also:nephew. The next pope, See also:Adrian VI., gave him a canonry in Como, on the See also:condition, it is said, that Giovio should mention him with See also:honour in his history. This patronage from a pontiff who was averse from the current See also:tone of Italian See also:humanism proves that Giovio at this See also:period passed for a See also:man of See also:sound learning and sober See also:manners. After Adrian's, See also:death, Giulio de' Medici became pope as See also:Clement VII. and assigned him See also:chambers in the Vatican, with See also:maintenance for servants befitting a courtier of See also:rank. In addition to other benefices, he finally, in 1528, bestowed on him the bishopric of Nocera. Giovio had now become in a See also:special sense dependent on the Medici. He was employed by that family on several See also:missions—as when he accompanied Ippolito to See also:Bologna on the occasion of See also: During the See also:siege of Rome in 1527 he attended Clement in his See also:flight from the Vatican. While See also:crossing the See also:bridge which connected the See also:palace with the See also:castle of S. Angelo, Giovio threw his See also:mantle over the pope's shoulders in See also:order to disguise his See also:master. In the See also:sack he suffered a serious pecuniary and See also:literary loss, if we may See also:credit his own statement. The See also:story runs that he deposited the MS. of his history, together with some See also:silver, in a See also:box at S. Maria Sopra See also:Minerva for safety. This box was discovered by two Spaniards, one of whom secured the silver, while the other, named See also:Herrera, knowing who Giovio was, preferred to hold the See also:MSS. for See also:ransom. Herrera was so careless, however, as to throw away the sheets he found in See also:paper, reserving only that portion of the See also:work which was transcribed on See also:parchment. This he subsequently sold to Giovo in See also:exchange for a benifice at See also:Cordova, which Clement VII. conceded to the Spaniard. Six books of the history were lost in this transaction. Giovo contented himself with indicating their substance in a See also:summary. Perhaps he was not unwilling that his work should resemble that of Livy, even in its imperfection. But ' See, more fully, See also:Harnack, Hist.of See also:Dogma, v. 57. doubt rests upon the whole of this story. Apostolo See also:Zeno affirms that in the See also:middle of the last See also:century three of the missing books turned up among family papers in the See also:possession of See also:Count Giov. Batt. Giovio, who wrote a See also:panegyric on his ancestor. It is therefore not improbable that Giovio possessed his history intact, but preferred to withhold from publication those portions which might have involved him in difficulties with living persons of importance. The omissions were afterwards made See also:good by Curtio Marinello in the Italian edition, published at See also:Venice in 1581. But whether Marinello was the author of these additions is not known. After Clement's death Giovio found himself out of favour with the next pope, See also:Paul III. The failure of his career is usually ascribed to the irregularity of the See also:life he led in the literary society of Rome. We may also remember that Paul had special causes for animosity against the Medici, whose servant Giovio had been. Despairing of a cardinal's See also:hat, Giovio retired to his See also:villa on the See also:lake of Como, where he spent the See also:wealth he had acquired from donations and benefices in adorning his villa with curiosities, antiquities and pictures, including a very important collection of portraits of famous soldiers and men of letters, now almost entirely dispersed. He died upon a visit to See also:Florence in 1552. Giovio's See also:principal work was the History of His Own Times, from the invasion of Charles VIII. to the See also:year 1547. It was divided into two parts, containing altogether See also:forty-five books. Of these, books v.–xi. of See also:part i. were said by him to have been lost in the sack of Rome, while books xix.–See also:xxiv. of part ii., which should have embraced the period from the death of Leo to the sack, were never written. Giovio supplied the want of the latter six books by his lives of Leo, Adrian, See also:Alphonso I. of See also:Ferrara, and several other personages of importance. But he alleged that the history of that period was too painful to be written in full. His first published work, printed in 1524 at Rome, was a See also:treatise De piscibus romanis. After his retirement to Como he produced a valuable See also:series of See also:biographies, entitled Elogia virorum illustrium. They commemorate men distinguished for letters and arms, selected from all periods, and are said to have been written in See also:illustration of portraits collected by him for the museum of his villa at Como. Besides these books, we may mention a See also:biographical history of the See also:Visconti, lords of See also:Milan; an See also:essay on mottoes and badges; a dissertation on the See also:state of See also:Turkey; a large collection of See also:familiar epistles; together with descriptions of See also:Britain, Muscovy, the Lake of Como and Giovio's own villa. The titles of these miscellanies will be found in the See also:bibliographical See also:note appended to this See also:article. Giovio preferred Latin in the See also:composition of his more important See also:works. Though contemporary with See also:Machiavelli, See also:Guicciardini and See also:Varchi, he adhered to humanistic usages, and cared more for the Latinity than for the See also:matter of his histories. His See also:style is fluent and sonorous rather than pointed or See also:grave. Partly owing to the rhetorical defects inherent in this choice of Latin, when Italian had gained the See also:day, but more to his own untrustworthy and shallow See also:character, Giovio takes a See also:lower rank as historian than the bulk and See also:prestige of his writings would seem to See also:warrant. He professed himself a flatterer and a lampooner, See also:writing fulsome eulogies on the princes who paid him well, while he ignored or criticized those who proved less generous. The old story that he said he kept a See also:golden and an See also:iron See also:pen, to use according as See also:people paid him, condenses the truth in See also:epigram. His private morals were of a dubious character, and as a writer he had the faults of the See also:elder humanists, in See also:combination with that literary cynicism which reached its height in See also:Aretino; and therefore his histories and biographical essays are not to be used as authorities, without corroboration. Yet Giovio's works, taken in their entirety and with proper See also:reservation, have real value. To the student of See also:Italy they yield a lively picture of the manners and the feeling of the times in which he lived, and in which he played no obscure part. They abound in vivid sketches, telling anecdotes, fugitive comments, which unite a certain See also:charm of autobiographical See also:romance with the worldly See also:wisdom of an experienced courtier. A flavour of See also:personality makes them not unpleasant See also:reading. While we learn to despise and mistrust the man in Giovio, we appreciate the author. It would not be too far-fetched tc describe him as a sort of 16th-century See also:Horace See also:Walpole. The best and most See also:complete edition of Giovio's works is that of See also:Basel (1678). For his life see Giuseppe Sanesi, "Alcuni osservazioni e notizie intorno a tre storici minori del cinquecento—Giovio; Nerli, Segni" (in A rchivio Storico Italiano, 5th series, vol.See also:xxiii.) ; Eug. Mfintz, Sul museo di ritratti composto da Paolo Giovio (ibid., vol. xix.). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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