Alessandro Piccolomini was an Italian humanist, astronomer and philosopher from Siena, who promoted the popularization in the vernacular of Latin and Greek scientific and philosophical treatises. His early works include Il Dialogo della bella creanza delle donne, o Raffaella and the comedies Amor costante, and Alessandro, which were sponsored and produced by the Sienese Accademia degl'Intronati, of which he was a member and an official. Much of his literary production consisted of translations from the Classics, of which Book xiii of Ovid's Metamorphoses and book vi of the Aeneid are early examples. In 1540, while a student at the University of Padua, he helped found the Infiammati Academy, in which he gave lectures in philosophy. His poetry, in which he followed the Petrarchan tradition, appeared first in various contemporary collections, and in 1549 he published as a single volume one hundred sonnets titled Cento sonetti. Later in life, he established in his sister-in-love's Villa of Poggiarello of Stigliano, near Siena, where he attended the revision of his previous essays, and where he wrote all his late works, as the translation of Aristotle's Poetics on which he wrote a learned commentary issued in 1575. His interest in Aristotle included the publication of a paraphrase of Aristotle's Rhetoric with commentary. In his Trattato della grandezza della terra e dell' acqua , he opposed the Aristotelean and Ptolemaic opinion that water was more extensive than land.
The treatises Sfera del mondo e Delle stelle fisse , in which he adhered to Ptolemaic theories, were some of his major contributions to the field of astronomy. He also wrote, at the behest of Cosimo de' Medici, a proposal for reforming the calendar . In 1574 Pope Gregory XIII appointed him titular bishop of Patras and Coadjutor Archbishop of Siena.His comedy Alessandro was adapted by George Chapman into May Day .
The lunar crater Piccolomini is named after him.
Wikipedia
“We cannot learn our lessons at our companion’s expense”
Alle spese del compagno non si può imparare.
Act V., Scene I. — (Il Quercivola).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 247.
L’Alessandro (1544)
“Act I., Scene I. — (Vicenzo).”
Il mondo va invecchiando e peggiorando di mano in mano.
Translation: The world grows older and grows worse from generation to generation.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 317.
L’Alessandro (1544)
Act I., Scene I. — (Fabritio).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 328.
L’Alessandro (1544)
“Women resist in order to be conquered.”
Act IV., Scene IV. — (Il Quercivola.)
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 388.
L’Alessandro (1544)
“He who loves trusts the loved one unreservedly, and in all things.”
Act III., Scene III. — (Cornelio).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 261.
L’Alessandro (1544)
“Love is never paid for save with love.”
Act I., Scene IV. — (Alessandro).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 332.
L’Alessandro (1544)
“Gold is the thing that dazzles the women’s eyes.”
L’oro è quello che abbaglia gli occhi delle donne.
Act II. — (Vergilio).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 337.
L’Amor Costante (1536)
“Tis the quiet people that do the work.”
Act III. — (Lucia).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 243.
L’Amor Costante (1536)
“There are few servants to be found who cannot be corrupted with money.”
Pochi servidori si trovano che per danari non si corrompano.
Act II — (Vergilio).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 394.
L’Amor Costante (1536)
