Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6Various
Science
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6
Various
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
GUARINI, CAMILLO-GUARINO (1624-1683), Italian monk, writer and
architect, was born at Modena in 1624. He was at once a learned
mathematician, professor of literature and philosophy at Messina, and,
from the age of seventeen, was architect to Duke Philibert of Savoy. He
designed a very large number of public and private buildings at Turin,
including the palaces of the duke of Savoy and the prince of Cacignan,
and many public buildings at Modena, Verona, Vienna, Prague, Lisbon and
Paris. He died at Milan in 1683.
GUARINI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1537-1612), Italian poet, author of the
_Pastor fido_, was born at Ferrara on the 10th of December 1537, just
seven years before the birth of Tasso. He was descended from Guarino da
Verona. The young Battista studied both at Pisa and Padua, whence he was
called, when not yet twenty, to profess moral philosophy in the schools
of his native city. He inherited considerable wealth, and was able early
in life to marry Taddea de' Bendedei, a lady of good birth. In 1567 he
entered the service of Alphonso II., duke of Ferrara, thus beginning the
court career which was destined to prove a constant source of
disappointment and annoyance to him. Though he cultivated poetry for
pastime, Guarini aimed at state employment as the serious business of
his life, and managed to be sent on various embassies and missions by
his ducal master. There was, however, at the end of the 16th century no
opportunity for a man of energy and intellectual ability to distinguish
himself in the petty sphere of Italian diplomacy. The time too had
passed when the profession of a courtier, painted in such glowing terms
by Castiglione, could confer either profit or honour. It is true that
the court of Alphonso presented a brilliant spectacle to Europe, with
Tasso for titular poet, and an attractive circle of accomplished
ladies. But the last duke of Ferrara was an illiberal patron, feeding
his servants with promises, and ever ready to treat them with the
brutality that condemned the author of the _Gerusalemme liberata_ to a
madhouse. Guarini spent his time and money to little purpose, suffered
from the spite and ill-will of two successive secretaries,--Pigna and
Montecatini,--quarrelled with his old friend Tasso, and at the end of
fourteen years of service found himself half-ruined, with a large family
and no prospects. When Tasso was condemned to S. Anna, the duke promoted
Guarini to the vacant post of court poet. There is an interesting letter
extant from the latter to his friend Cornelio Bentivoglio, describing
the efforts he made to fill this place appropriately. "I strove to
transform myself into another person, and, like a player, reassumed the
character, costume and feelings of my youth. Advanced in manhood, I
forced myself to look young; I turned my natural melancholy into
artificial gaiety, affected loves I did not feel, exchanged wisdom for
folly, and, in a word, passed from a philosopher into a poet." How
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