Barzizza, Gasparino

BARZIZZA, GASPARINO. - Born at Barzizza in the territory of Bergamo, according to Sabbadini in 1359. Having taken his degree at Pavia in 1392 in grammar and rhetoric, he taught in that same city from 1400 to 1407. From 1408 to 1420 he taught in the Studio of Padua, whence he moved, in 1421, with the favor of Filippo Maria Visconti, to Lombardy. In 1430 he returned to Pavia, but only briefly, for death overtook him there in 1431. At Padua B. also took his doctorate in arts, and in 1414 he was named apostolic secretary, subsequently taking part, in 1417, in that office, in the Council of Constance, while Francesco Filelfo replaced him in the Paduan chair.

B. had a notable influence on the culture and the humanistic formation of the men of letters of his time. At his school were formed, among others, Vittorino, Francesco Barbaro, Filelfo, L. B. Alberti. B. was a friend of Guarino Veronese. To B. is due the institution, in the 15th century, of the boarding school (Convitto). He in fact kept boarders in his own house, among them some from noble families, such as three nephews of the cardinal of Piacenza, Branda Castiglioni. The boarders paid a fee of 40 scudi and were entrusted to the care of good tutors, sometimes to B.'s own sons, while B. supervised the general running of things: ego - he said - ad gubernaculum sedeo.

From his epistolary it appears how much paternal care and solicitude B. devoted to the education of his pupils and boarders. L. B. Alberti calls him "father and preceptor," and the Venetian Senate, upon B.'s resignation, had to reply "nostri nobiles non possunt pati te a filia eorum divelli." Following B.'s example, Guarino V. too later opened a boarding school in his own house. B. had the merit of having affirmed, in the revival of classical studies in the 15th century, the tradition of Cicero. Guarino could say of him "cuius ductu et auspiciis Cicero amatur, legitur et per Italorum gymnasia summa cum gloria volitat." B. was - as Woodward says (Vittorino da Feltre, Florence 1921, p. 20) - the first to approach Cicero with a purely scientific spirit, applying to the text an analytical-comparative method to which no ancient author had until then been subjected. B. is the author of a treatise on "orthography" that establishes the new foundations of humanistic orthography. Works: G. B., Opera, Rome 1728.

Nino Sammartano