Luigi Cornaro (humanist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portrait of Cornaro by Jacopo Tintoretto .

Luigi Cornaro , even Aluise Cornaro and Alvise Cornaro , (* 1467 (according to other sources in 1475 or 1484) in Venice , † 8. May 1566 in Padua ) was an Italian humanist, agricultural economist and agronomist , writer and patron.

life and work

Luigi Cornaro is one of the prime examples of individualists in the epoch of the Renaissance and made a name for himself with his macrobiotic treatise On the measured life (Discorsi intorno della vita sobria) , also valued by Hufeland and Goethe . In this autobiography , which he wrote when he was 83 or 66, he extolled the joys of his old age to many of a much younger age. He saw the health condition for the achievement of a great age in the observance of a strict, on (contemporary) humoral pathological principles established diet to which he decided to previous illnesses. In his possessions he was committed to draining swamps and gaining cultivated land and was committed to the preservation of the lagoon landscape. In his treatise he cited as proof of the happiness of his age - and generations of imitators orientated themselves towards this - despite his old age, he could run, ride, hunt, sing like never before, be cheerful and healthy, be surrounded always meet stimulating contemporaries, live alternately in two splendid villas, designed to suit the seasons, travel a lot, visit friends and meet experts from all areas of knowledge, don't stop learning from impressions and encounters, enjoy his eleven healthy ones and educated grandchildren and recently even wrote a comedy that old people no longer trust.

As a respected citizen of the city of Padua, Luigi Cornaro belonged, together with the doctor Girolamo Fracastoro, to the learned circle around Cardinal Pietro Bembo .

Cornaro died almost 100 years old (according to other sources 82 years old) in Padua.

Services

Cornaro has confidently praised the life of an agile elderly like no other. In landscape management, he has made an outstanding contribution to the preservation of lagoons and the extraction of cultivated land.

Writings, editions of works and translations

  • Tratto della Vita Sobria , published in 1558 as part of the Discori della Vita Sobria
  • Discorsi de la Vita Sobria , first published in Milan in 1627
  • Klaus Bergdolt (Ed.): From the measured life. With an introduction by Klaus Bergdolt. Heidelberg 1991.

literature

  • Klaus Bergdolt: Introduction. In: Klaus Bergdolt (Hrsg.): Alvise Cornaro, From measured life, Padua 1558–63. Translated by Christian Ludovici in 1707. Manutius, Heidelberg 1991; 2nd edition ibid 1997.
  • Jacob Burckhardt : The culture of the Renaissance in Italy. 1860. 11th edition: Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-520-05311-X , pp. 245-247.

Web links

Commons : Luigi Cornaro  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Library of Congress
  2. ^ A b c Emilio Menegazzo: Alvise Cornaro e il suo tempo (catalogo della mostra) . Ed .: Municipality of Padua. Padua 1980, p. 18–29 ( google books [accessed May 4, 2015]).
  3. ^ Klaus Bergdolt : Cornaro, Alvise (Luigi). In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 274.
  4. ↑ a b c Wolfgang U. Eckart : Luigi Cornaro, in: Wolfgang U. Eckart and Christoph Gradmann (eds.): Ärztelexikon. From antiquity to the present , 3rd edition Springer Heidelberg, 2006, p. 86. Ärztelexikon 2006 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-540-29585-3 .
personal data
SURNAME Cornaro, Luigi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cornaro, Alvise; Cornaro, Aluise
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian humanist, agricultural economist, writer, villa owner and patron
DATE OF BIRTH 1467 or 1474 or 1484
PLACE OF BIRTH Venice
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1566
Place of death Padua