Sperone Speroni

Sperone Speroni degli Alvarotti (1500–1588) was an Italian Renaissance humanist, scholar, and dramatist. He was born in Padua on April 12, 1500, and was the second child of Bernardino Speroni degli Alvarotti and Lucia Contarini. In 1518, he obtained the *artibus* degree from the University of Padua and joined the Guild of artists and physicians. He lectured on philosophy at Padua, under the Chair of Logic. He interrupted his teachings to study at Bologna under Pietro Pomponazzi but, after Pietro's death, returned to Padua where he obtained an Extraordinary Chair of Philosophy, a post he held for another three years. His literary career began with the publication of the *Dialoghi* ("Dialogues") at Venice (1542). Very famous and influential was his polemic with Giovan Battista Giraldi about the principles of theatre, involving Giraldi's tragedy *Orbecche* as well as Speroni's tragedy *Canace*. Between 1560 and 1564 he lived in Rome, where he became a close friend of Annibal Caro and frequented the meetings of the *Accademia delle Notti Vaticane*. He then returned to Padua, where he continued his literary production. When Ugo Boncompagni was made Pope Gregory XIII in 1572, Speroni returned to Rome. In 1578, he went back to Padua where he died on June 2, 1588. His play *Canace*, based on a Greek legend of incestuous love, was only performed once; but was widely diffused, and (together with Giraldi's play *Orbecche*) led to literary debates on tragedy and theatrical morals through to the next century. Speroni's *Dialogo delle lingue* (1542) greatly influenced French Renaissance thinking about the French language; it formed the basis of Joachim Du Bellay's *Deffense et illustration de la langue française* (1549) and inspired in part the literary studies of Claude Fauchet. Speroni was a friend and supporter of Venetian-language playwright Angelo Beolco (el Ruzante).