Guarino the Veronese

GUARINO il VERONESE. — Humanist, born in Verona in 1374, died in Ferrara on 4 December 1460. A pupil at Padua of Giovanni Conversino da Ravenna and at Constantinople of Crisoloro, on returning to his homeland he taught classical literature at Florence, Venice, and Verona, until in 1429 he was summoned to Ferrara by Prince Nicolò III d’Este to educate his son Lionello. There G. began teaching grammar, rhetoric, and history both at the University and in his own home. In the latter, as previously at Verona, he established a kind of boarding school, to which pupils came from every quarter, including from abroad; it was free for poor students and conducted in an intimate family spirit.

Classical culture, in which pagan and Christian authors were read and commented upon in harmonious conjunction, was combined with physical exercises (gymnastics, hunting, dancing, swimming), thus cultivating all the spiritual and physical faculties of the pupil and forming him as both healthy and learned. He continued his work through personal correspondence with his pupils, offering them advice and encouragement appropriate to their various circumstances. This makes the abundant correspondence particularly interesting (edited by R. Sabbadini, 3 vols., Venice 1915–19).

Without wishing to regard the times preceding him as darkened by ignorance, it cannot nevertheless be denied that G. exercised a considerable influence on the culture of Ferrara, both with regard to the traditions of the boarding school and with regard to classicism, because he knew how to cultivate the study of authors not as an end in itself or merely for aesthetic enjoyment, but for genuine preparation for life, supervising it and permeating it with a religious spirit. Practices of piety were in fact frequent, and G. led his pupils by his example.

A passionate researcher of manuscripts, he emended and prepared editions of classical authors (Caesar, Gellius, the two Plinys, etc.), translated the first book of Herodotus, Isocrates, Plutarch (De liberis educandis, 1476), Lucian, and Strabo, and also occupied himself with grammatical (Regulae grammaticales, 1470) and philological questions.

(Alinari photograph)
GUARIENTO PADOVANO – Crucifix bearing the signature of G. Bassano, Civic Museum.

The diocese was created on 13 September 1828 by Pope Leone XII at the request of Maria Luisa di Parma. The first bishop was J. Neuschel, a Hungarian. As early as 1471, G. had been a nullius archpriesthood; before that it had belonged to the diocese of Reggio Emilia. The name derives from the Lombards, who at the beginning of the seventh century established a military garrison at this place, “Warstall.” It became a free commune in 1106, the county of the Torelli in 1406, and thereafter belonged to a branch of the Gonzaga (1539–1746). Its most prosperous period came under the duchy of Ferrante II in 1621. It passed to the duchy of Parma in 1748, under the Treaty of Aquigrana; in 1800 it was a principality of Paolina Bonaparte for less than a month, and was then incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. The Treaty of Fontainebleau assigned it to Maria Luisa di Parma. The Cathedral, dedicated to S. Pietro, is the work of Francesco di Volterra (1575); its interior has a single nave. Southeast of G. stands the Basilica della Pieve, erected by Berengario I in 915; it was consecrated in 997. Urban II convened a synod there in 1095; Pasquale I the council known as that of G. in 1106. It was renovated in the thirteenth century and restored in 1930. Two series of pillars divide it into three naves, all ending in apses.