GUARINO the VERONESE. - Humanist, born in Verona in 1374, died in Ferrara on 4 Dec. 1460. A pupil in Padua of Giovanni Conversino of Ravenna and in Constantinople of Chrysoloras, upon his return he taught classical letters in Florence, Venice, and Verona, until in 1429 he was called to Ferrara by Prince Niccolò III d'Este to instruct his son Lionello. There Guarino began to teach grammar, rhetoric, and history both at the university and in his own home. In the latter, as he had already done in Verona, he established a kind of boarding school, where disciples gathered from all parts, even from abroad; free for poor students and conducted with a close family spirit.
To classical culture, for which pagan and Christian authors were read and commented upon in harmonious balance, were joined physical exercises (gymnastics, hunting, dancing, swimming); thus putting into practice the cultivation of all the spiritual and physical faculties of the pupil and forming him at once healthy and learned. He then continued his work through personal correspondence with his pupils, offering them advice and encouragement suited to their various circumstances. This makes his abundant correspondence (edited by R. Sabbadini, 3 vols., Venice 1915-19) particularly interesting.
Without wishing to regard the times before him as darkened by ignorance, one cannot deny that Guarino exerted a notable influence on Ferrarese culture, both in the traditions of the boarding school and in his classicism, for he knew how to cultivate the study of authors not as an end in itself or for mere aesthetic pleasure, but for true formation in life, guiding it and permeating it with religious spirit. Indeed, acts of piety were frequent, and Guarino led his pupils by example.
A passionate seeker of manuscripts, he emended and prepared editions of classical works (Caesar, Gellius, the two Plinys, etc.), translated the first book of Herodotus, Isocrates, Plutarch (*De liberis educandis*, 1476), Lucian, Strabo, and also dealt with grammatical (*Regulae grammaticales*, 1470) and philological questions.