VETTER, PIETRO. — Born in Florence in 1499, died there in 1585, after a life entirely devoted to study, except for a false start in anti-Medicean politics, from which he quickly withdrew; and the Medici later repaid him in full with generous and long-lasting patronage.
In truth, V. was not a rebellious spirit, as he demonstrated both in his life and in his work; and if his numerous students at the Studio of Florence, where he held the chair of Greek and Latin eloquence from 1538 until the end, and scholars of the classics worldwide continued to look to him as “eruditorum corypheo, cui debetur quidquid fructus ex eorum librorum lectione percipitur” (from F. Kieslinger, *Glasmalerei in Österreich*, Vienna 1917, tav. 1), it is nonetheless fitting to speak of him rather as one of the greatest masters of the Counter-Reformation era than as a great master of the humanist age. His merit lay in having brought philology to a scientific rigor hitherto unattained, as evidenced by his labors on Greek and Latin authors, some of whom, such as Clement of Alexandria, saw the light of day for the first time thanks to him. His famous *Cicerone*, published by Giunti, is well known. Yet even so, his love for the classics remained confined to philology. His predecessors would have been scandalized by his writing in the vernacular the treatise *On the Praise and Cultivation of Olives* (*Della lode e della coltivazione degli olivi*).
Of the mystical faith in the resurrection of Latin, which characterized the chairs of his predecessors Amaseo and Bonamico, there is no trace left in him. How much vigor he had lost in reconciling *pietas* and wisdom can be seen in what should have been his most philosophically rich philological work: *Commentarium in primum librum Aristotelis de arte poetica* (Florence 1560), in which, instead, one has the impression that in this respect he became a disciple of his own students.