BARZIZZA, GASPARINO. — Born in Barzizza near Bergamo, according to Sabbadini, in 1359. He graduated in grammar and rhetoric at Pavia in 1392 and taught in that same city from 1400 to 1407. From 1408 to 1420 he taught at the University of Padua, from where he moved in 1421, with the favor of Filippo Maria Visconti, to Lombardy. In 1430 he returned to Pavia but only briefly, as he died there in 1431. In Padua, B. also earned a doctorate in arts and in 1414 was appointed apostolic secretary, later participating in the Council of Constance in 1417 in that capacity, while Francesco Filelfo replaced him in the Paduan chair.
B. exerted notable influence on the culture and humanistic formation of the literati of his time. Among his pupils were Vittorino, Francesco Barbaro, Filelfo, and L. B. Alberti. B. was a friend of Guarino of Verona. To B. is owed the establishment in the 15th century of the boarding school system. Indeed, he hosted boarders in his own home, including some from noble families, such as three nephews of Cardinal Branda Castiglioni of Piacenza. The boarders paid a fee of 40 scudi and were entrusted to good tutors, sometimes even to B.’s own sons, while B. himself oversaw the general conduct—ego, he said, ad gubernaculum sedeo.
His correspondence reveals the paternal care and diligence B. devoted to the education of his pupils and boarders. L. B. Alberti calls him “father and tutor,” and the Venetian Senate, upon B.’s resignation, replied, “Our nobles cannot suffer you to be torn from their sons.” Following B.’s example, Guarino of Verona later opened a boarding school in his own home. B. deserves credit for having affirmed, in the revival of classical studies in the 15th century, the tradition of Cicero. Guarino could say of him, “whose guidance and patronage Cicero is loved, read, and celebrated with the greatest glory in the gymnasia of Italy.” B. was—as Woodward (Vittorino da Feltre, Florence 1921, p. 20) puts it—the first to approach Cicero with a distinctly scientific spirit, applying to the text an analytical and comparative method to which no ancient author had hitherto been subjected.
B. is the author of a treatise on orthography “which establishes the new foundations of humanistic orthography.”
Works: G. B., Opera, Rome 1728.