BOCCALINI, TRAIANO. - Born in Loreto in 1556 to Giovanni da Carpi, he studied in Perugia and Padua; finally he settled in Rome as a judge on the Capitol and a private teacher. 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, successively. A friend of Sarpi, he moved to Venice around 1611, died there in Dec. 1613, and it was suspected that the Spaniards, who greatly feared B.'s polemical genius, were not unconnected with that almost sudden death.
The letters were almost all gathered together after B.'s death and published in the Bilancia politica di tutte le opere di T. B. (Castellana 1678: the work, in the same year, was placed on the Index). The Commentari di Tacito as well - in which, taking his cue from the most notable maxims of Tacitus, B. judged the acts and ideas of contemporary princes - were placed on the Index by decree of 19 Sept. 1679. In the Ragguagli del Parnaso (Venice 1624) he, with the soul of a publicist, imagines himself ascending Parnassus, where he attends a gathering of virtuous men of every time and every nation, who, under the rule of Apollo, reason about politics, economics, morals, religion, literature, art. But B., who pretends to be "menunte," that is, the boatman of this parliament, transports to Parnassus the society, the customs and the passions of contemporary life, and makes himself its judge, keen and not always benevolent, lashing out at hypocrites, at princes greedy for dominion and at religious reformers. An essentially critical and satirical mind, skeptical and serene at the same time, B. with this little work manifested the greatest freedom of judgment, employing only the most transparent allegories. La Pietra del paragone politico (1st ed. 1614, but a manuscript copy of 1607 with a dedication to the King of France is preserved) 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 the underhanded policy of the Spaniards. In various editions (there were many editions: this pamphlet was greatly successful for its political acumen, for its love of country and its tasty satire) a Discorso written by an Italian and Catholic gentleman to Italy is added, composed as early as 1591, but of uncertain attribution. B. derived much from the works of Cesare Caporali and in a certain sense anticipated the English "essayists"; but his humor, his conceits and inventions, make him one of the most significant political writers.
Bibliography12 works
Antonio Altamura