VITTORINO (dei RAMBALDONI) da FELTRE. — Educator and humanist, born in Feltre, most likely in 1373, died in Mantua on 2 Feb. 1446.
At the age of eighteen he went to Padua, where at the University he had distinguished teachers: Giovanni di Conversino and Gasparino Barzizza for literature, Paolo Veneto for philosophy, Jacopo da Forlì for physical and astronomical sciences, and Biagio Pelacani da Parma for mathematics. Having obtained the degree of doctor, he went to Venice to perfect himself in Greek under Guarino; then, returning to Padua, and invited to teach at the University, he accepted the invitation of the townspeople, admired as he was for his method and goodness, to open a private school; but disillusioned by the carefree ways of Paduan youth, he moved to Venice and founded a new school there, to which came the sons of Venetian patricians and pupils from all over Italy; and there reached him the invitation of Gian Francesco Gonzaga, lord of Mantua, to accept the post of tutor to his sons.
He consented and resolved to realize fully and deeply in Mantua his lofty and Christian ideal of education, both in the sumptuous suburban building of the —