Francesco Ciceri

Francesco Ciceri (* 1521 in Lugano ; † March 31, 1596 in Milan ) was an Italian humanist and university professor .

Life

Francesco Ciceri was the son of Maffeo Ciceri († around 1530), praefector fabrum with Francesco II. Sforza , and his wife Elisabetta († 1555), nee. Carentani. His father took on Italian citizenship for tax reasons so as not to have to pay special tax for foreigners.

He attended schools in Lugano, including the school of Giovanni Menabene, an expert in classical languages ​​and medicine, and acquired a humanistic education in Milan and attended lectures by Giuseppe Negri, lawyer and Greek scholar, Cornelio Siculo of Messina, Franciscan, philosopher and theologian, the Bolognese Ludovico Ferrari , mathematician, and Marcantonio Majoragio (1514–1555), a well-known Milanese Latin .

After completing his studies, he was appointed tutor to the sons of Count Giambattista Visconti by Lonate Pozzolo on the recommendation of the naturalist P. Albucci . He began his work in 1544. After a few months, however, he resigned because he could not hear any lectures here and also had no opportunity to communicate with scholars. He then moved to Milan in the fall of 1544; there, thanks to the help of Francesco Ierargo and Antonio Lentini, he got a job as tutor of the lawyer Pio. He used the time to attend public schools and university, and to meet with scholars. He heard the lectures of Otho Lupani, who explained the speeches of Cicero , and Giuseppe Negri, who gave a course in Greek grammar.

At the end of 1545 he returned to Lugano and fell ill with a serious illness from which he was cured thanks to the doctor Andrea Camozzi. He immediately opened a school with 25 students. He wrote to the printers of Basel , Johannes Oporinus and asked this to reprint it a Greek grammar in an edition of 300 copies; Since then there has been a close correspondence between the two, which lasted until the death of Johannes Oporinus. Francesco Ciceri was also the representative of the printing works in Lugano and Milan and he also mediated the publication of non-classical texts, which led to a profound connection between German and Italian humanism. During his stay in Lugano he came into contact with the works of the most important representatives of humanistic culture, from Erasmus von Rotterdam to Conrad Gessner to Simon Grynaeus .

In July 1548 he followed a friend's call and returned to Milan to teach Latin and Greek at a school there. In 1550 he opened a boarding school and taught there with his younger brother Cesare Cicieri. On October 9, 1561, thanks to the support of Luigi Annibale Della Croce (1509–1577), he became. City Secretary in Milan, appointed to the Chair of Rhetoric at the University of Milan .

He corresponded with politicians, writers and scholars, including Gerolamo Cardano , Carlo Sigonio , Andrea Alciato , Piero Vettori , Paolo Manuzio (1512–1574), Lilius Gregorius Giraldus and Giambattista Giraldi .

Francesco Ciceri was married to Daria Pirogalli. They had a son together:

Marco Maffeo Cicieri (* 1562), who also became a scholar.

After his death, Francesco Ciceri was buried in the Sant'Eustorgio in Milan. His extensive library, which consisted of various collections of ancient writings, a Euripides commentary and speeches, is now in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. His collection of manuscripts is particularly important for the transmission of the Epistulae of Cicero.

literature

• Alessandro Martini: Francesco Ciceri. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . January 19, 2004 , accessed January 13, 2020 .

Web links

• Francesco Ciceri . In: Treccani (ital.)