BOCCALINI, TRAIANO. - Born in Loreto in 1556 to Giovanni da Carpi, he studied in Perugia and Padua; he eventually settled in Rome as a judge at the Campidoglio and a private tutor. Protected by Cardinals Scipione Borghese and Bonifacio Gaetani, he obtained from Gregory XIII the governorship of Benevento and from Paul V that of many other towns in succession. A friend of Sarpi, he moved to Venice around 1611, where he died in December 1613; it was suspected that the Spanish, who greatly feared B.'s polemical wit, were not uninvolved in that almost sudden death.
His letters were almost all collected after B.'s death and published in the Bilancia politica di tutte le opere di T. B. (Castellana 1678; the work was placed on the Index the same year). His Commentaries on Tacitus— in which, taking his cue from Tacitus' most notable maxims, B. judged the actions and ideas of contemporary princes— were also placed on the Index by decree of 19 September 1679. In the Raggugli del Parnaso (Venice 1624), he, with the soul of a publicist, imagines climbing Mount Parnassus, where he attends a gathering of "virtuous" men from every age and nation, who, under Apollo's rule, discuss politics, economics, morals, religion, literature, and art. But B., who pretends to be the "menante" (i.e., the gazetteer) of this parliament, transports into Parnassus the society, customs, and passions of contemporary life, and becomes their sharp, not always benevolent judge, lashing out at hypocrites, princes greedy for power, and religious reformers. An essentially critical and satirical mind, at once sceptical and serene, B. in this little work displayed the greatest freedom of judgment, employing only the most transparent allegories. La Pietra del paragone politico (1st ed. 1614, though a manuscript copy dated 1607 with a dedication to the King of France survives) serves B. to denounce, at the moment when the struggle between Spain and Savoy begins and it is foreseen that Venice will side with Charles Emmanuel I, the greed and insidious politics of the Spanish. In various editions (there were many; this pamphlet enjoyed great success for its political acumen, patriotic spirit, and witty satire) a Discorso written by an Italian and Catholic gentleman to Italy is appended; this was composed as early as 1591, but its attribution is uncertain. B. drew much from the works of Cesare Caporali and in a sense anticipated the English "essayists"; yet his humour, his ideas, and his inventions make him one of the most significant political writers.