Marcus Tullius Cicero[a] (/ˈsɪsəroʊ/ SISS-ə-roh; Latin: [ˈmaːrkʊs ˈtʊlːi.ʊs ˈkɪkɛroː]; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, writer and Academic skeptic,[4] who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire.[5] His extensive writings include treatises on rhetoric, philosophy and politics. He is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists and the innovator of what became known as "Ciceronian rhetoric".[6][7][8] Cicero was educated in Rome and in Greece. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and served as consul in 63 BC.
His influence on the Latin language was immense. He wrote more than three-quarters of extant Latin literature that is known to have existed in his lifetime, and it has been said that subsequent prose was either a reaction against or a return to his style, not only in Latin but in European languages up to the 19th century.[9][10][11] Cicero introduced into Latin the arguments of the chief schools of Hellenistic philosophy and created a large amount of Latin philosophical vocabulary via lexical innovation (e.g. neologisms such as evidentia,[12] generator, humanitas, infinitio, qualitas, quantitas),[13] almost 150 of which had been introduced from the translation of Greek philosophical terms,[14] demonstrating himself as both an adept scholar of philosophy as well as a skilled translator.
Initially Gryphius mostly published works on law and administration, in Gothic script. He then moved to Latin classics. He also translated classical Greek authors into Latin. He published his contemporaries Erasmus, Guillaume Budé and Poliziano.
In 1536 he went into business with Hugues de la Porte, who financed him in an independent venture. He founded l'Atelier du Griffon, with a griffin mark. Around this time he introduced the Italic type of Aldus Manutius.
In the 1540s he was the highly reputed 'Prince of the Lyon book trade'.[1] He promoted the local humanist culture, and his books were prized for their clean lay-out and accuracy. The nineteenth-century scholar Henri Baudrier spoke of Sebastian Gryphius's printshop (Atelier du Griffon) as a « société angélique pour les libres-penseurs ».[2]
His friends included André Alciat, Étienne Dolet, Guillaume Scève and Barthélémy Aneau, and they wrote highly of his work, even helping out in practical printing tasks. Their linguistic input was also of benefit to the works printed. Gryphius printed suspect texts and even sheltered authors in trouble for heretical writing. Étienne Dolet, an academic and satirical poet, came fresh from jail in Toulouse, and was burned as a
in 1546.[3]
Cardinal Jacob Sadoleto
****Cardinal, humanist, and reformer, b. at Modena, 1477; d. at Rome, 1547. His father, a distinguished lawyer, intended him for his ownSprofession; but Jacopo devoted himself to classical and philosophical studies. At Rome he enjoyed the favour of Cardinal Caraffa, and afterwards of Leo X, who made him his secretary. In 1517 he was appointed Bishop of Carpentras near Avignon. Unlike many of the humanists, he was a man of blameless life and attentive to all his duties as a priest and bishop. It was only at the express command of the successive popes whom he served that he would consent to absent himself even for a time from his diocese. In him were combined in an eminent degree the qualities of a man of piety, a man of letters, and a man of action. As a poet, orator, theologian, and philosopher he was in the foremost rank of his time. His poem on the recently discovered Laocoön first brought him to the notice of the learned. His mild and gentle character, shunning all extremes, and his profound learning fitted him for the difficult task of conciliating the Protestants. Indeed, his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans was considered to favour them too much, and the publication of it was forbidden at Rome until it had undergone correction. He would have nothing to do with persecuting the heretics. In 1536 he was summoned to Rome by Paul III to be a member of a special commission for the reform of the Church. In the following December he received the cardinal's hat, at the same time as Caraffa (afterwards Paul IV) and Pole, also members of the commission. With Cardinal Contarini, the president of the commission, they drew up the famous "Consilium de emendanda Ecclesia", which they presented to the pope. Sadoleto was sent as legate to Francis I to bring about a reconciliation between him and Charles V (1542), but his mission failed. After 1543, when a coadjutor was appointed to govern Carpentras, he was constantly at the side of Paul III, ever urging the pontiff in the path of peace and reform. Sadoleto's works were published at Verona in four volumes (1737-8), and at Rome (1759).
SADOLETO, JACOPO