1492-1556
Satirist

Man of Letters. Born in 1492 during the Golden Age of Florentine humanism, Pietro Aretino, who died from a stroke in 1556, is most recognized for the more than three thousand letters he published. These letters illuminate all facets of Italian life during the first half of the sixteenth century, from aesthetics to warfare, from sport to complicated religious dogma, from the eating of mushrooms to observations on how drunks stumble after a night spent imbibing. Given his prolific output, the sheer number of his readers, and the diversity of his themes, many intellectual historians regard him as Europe's first "journalist." His writing is often quite licentious, and indeed he indulged his obsession with prostitution both in his writings and in his daily life. Not surprisingly, the Counter-Reformation Church placed his works on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1559. He has remained less famous and less...