Project | Global Thucydides
Catalogue | Digital catalogue
Entry | Ioannis Casae Latina Monimenta. Quorum partim versibus, partim soluta oratione …

Ioannis Casae Latina Monimenta. Quorum partim versibus, partim soluta oratione scripta sunt

Typology: Translation | Language: Latin | Place of publication: Florence | Publisher: in officina Iuntarum Bernardi filiorum | Year: 1564

Greek Text: no

Content: Anthologies | Pericles’ Funeral Oration | The Debate on Mytilene

Giovanni Della Casa (1503-1556), humanist, ecclesiastic, diplomat, and writer. Della Casa studied in Bologna, Florence, and Padua, where he received a humanist education steeped in classical rhetoric and moral philosophy. He entered the ecclesiastical career under the patronage of the Farnese family and was appointed Archbishop of Benevento in 1544. That same year, Pope Paul III sent him as nuncio to Venice, where he played a central role in introducing the Roman Inquisition. His tenure in Venice was also marked by intense literary activity and patronage of the arts. After the election of Pope Julius III, Della Casa fell into disfavor and withdrew to Nervesa, near Treviso, where he composed much of his most influential work. His Galateo ovvero de’ costumi, published posthumously in 1558, is a concise guide to courteous behavior in conversation, dress, and manners, reflecting both Renaissance civility and deep classical learning. In addition to Galateo, Della Casa wrote Latin and vernacular poetry (Rime), moral treatises, orations, and epistolary prose. His literary style, noted for its balance between clarity and elegance, helped shape the late Cinquecento canon. Treccani

Della Casa translated a significant selection of Thucydides' speeches into Latin between 1545 and 1546, during his tenure as papal nuncio in Venice. These translations comprise seventeen speeches from the first three books of the History, including major orations such as Pericles' Funeral Oration (Thuc. 1.32-43, 68-71, 73-78, 140-144; 2.35-46, 60-64, 71-73, 87, 89; 3.9-14, 29, 37-48).

His work, though never completed nor published during his lifetime, circulated in manuscript form. Two major manuscripts preserve some of these texts: Florence's BNF Magliabechiano II.I.100 and the Vatican's Vat. Lat. 14825. The translations remained unpublished until after Della Casa's death, when they were edited and printed by Pietro Vettori, though with some editorial intervention. A separate Latin translation of the Athenian Plague episode (Thuc. 2.47-54) is preserved in Vat. Lat. 14826 and was not included in the volume edited by Vettori. Della Casa's translations of Thucydides were reprinted in 1584 and 1610 by Johannes Caselius – see Della Casa 1584.

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Related editions:

Ioannis Casae Carmina et orationes Thucydidis pleraeque

Global Thucydides

Ioannis Casae Latina Monimenta. Quorum partim versibus, partim soluta oratione scripta sunt

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