Author: Tansillo, Luigi
Biography:
TANSILLO, Luigi (c. 1510-68: Wikipedia)
The translation of The Nurse by William Roscoe (q.v.) seems to be the first of any of Tansillo’s Italian works to appear in English and Roscoe’s preface is still a useful introduction. Tansillo was both a soldier and a poet; in his final years (1561-8) he was Governor of the coastal city of Gaeta. He was born at Venosa, of a patrician family with its origins in Nola. He entered into the service of the Viceroy of Naples in 1535 and until 1553 was engaged in military and political action for the Viceroy and his son, the Captain of the Neapolitan fleet. The bulk of his poetry was not published during his lifetime, but such as was known earned him a good reputation: Tasso (1544-95) especially praised his sonnets. Some of his early poetry was considered licentious and Tansillo’s name was put on the Index by Pope Paul IV, but he redeemed himself with a religious epic (“The Tears of St. Peter”) of which he published a sample, accompanied by a poem addressed to the Pope, in 1560--and his name was removed. In 1551 he married Luisa Puccio. In 1552 after the birth of their first child he composed La Balia (“the Nurse”) by way of encouraging women of the upper classes to breast-feed their own babies. Tansillo died in Teano on 1 Dec. 1568. La Balia remained unpublished until 1767, when it was published with notes by the Italian scholar G. A. Ranza. It was therefore a recent discovery when Roscoe produced his translation. He expressed his admiration for the author in the preface thus: “Contemporary with Ariosto, with Bemba, with Casa, and with the two Tassos, Tansillo was not perhaps inferior to any writer of his time in the simplicity of his diction, the elegance of his taste, or a strict attention to nature and to truth” (p. 12). (“Luigi Tansillo,” Wikipedia 31 July 2024; NBG 44 cols 866-8; William Roscoe, preface to Tansillo, The Nurse [1798]) HJ
Other Names:
- L. Tansillo