Contents:
His father, Michelangelo Florio, was deeply committed to his religious order. He was, in fact, a Franciscan friar before joining the Protestant faith.
He then became a preacher and pastor for many years in Soglio, which was then in the Grigioni region in Switzerland. This would explain the profound biblical culture that pervades Shakespearian plays. Critics have had a great deal of trouble understanding in what way Shakespeare could have come to know those stories and the minute details of them, especially since some of the reports were known to never have been translated into English.
The theory that Shakespeare travelled to Italy has never been supported with any concrete evidence and the majority of critics contend that Shakespeare had no knowledge of the Italian language. John Florio, however, was not only raised in an Italian environment, but also had great knowledge of philosophical mores since he had a PhD in the subject.
A man of culture who studied at the University of Tubingen, where he took classes given by Pier Paolo Vergerio, Florio taught Italian in London and at the highest level no less. Important English aristocrats like Queen Anne, learned the language and about Italian culture from him. For a few years, he also taught at Oxford University.
It has been confirmed John Florio was one of the most important cultural teachers of his time and was even largely responsible for the Italian style that influenced the Elizabethan era. In addition to the rich vocabulary in his work, it is the baroque, flowery and superabundant writing style and the often vaguely odd expressions that seem to be a little displaced. It is almost as if some of the phrases do not flow in the English language, like they were originally thought up in another language. And the works of John Florio are perfectly consistent with the following cultural characteristics: He was of Italian origin yet he completely and consciously integrated British nationalist aristocracy into his own writings and was committed to enriching and explaining British culture in his own works.
He was also an exceptionally advanced linguist. This would explain the rich vocabulary and knowledge of both Italian and British cultures. One of his most important works is World of Words , an Italian-English dictionary, the first of its kind in the history of European culture. It was so extensive that his second edition in exceeded the number of words in the first Vocabolario della Crusca published in After noting that, "Such fantastic biographical reconstructions and equally fantastic textual attributions regularly occur, both in England and in other countries," she comments:.
One can only conclude that, to all appearances, the phenomenon of moving from an appropriation of Shakespeare's texts to the appropriation of his person has recently taken root also in Italy. I shall only mention the question of language: He argues that this required no personal experience of Italy, but was obtained in England, and primarily by reading John Florio 's book about Italian culture and language Second Fruits.
As mentioned above under "Origins of the Theory", in when the British Embassy in Rome hosted an exhibition called Shakespeare lives in Italy , Paola Marinozzi presented a RAI television program, available online , in which she interviewed an actor and media personality known as Pif Pierfrancesco Diliberto. The British ambassador Christopher Prentice appears briefly in the interview, and responds, with understated sardonic humour, to Pif's claims. Some Italian writers have welcomed the story of a Sicilian Shakespeare as an attractive literary myth.
Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers. English, French, Italian and Portuguese. La Gerla in Brunello di Montalcino. Share your thoughts with other customers. Giulia Harding is back again with her new article "Giordano Bruno and Shakespeare: Recently I have read some works written by Prof. La tradizione del presepio italiano.
In retelling it some have also changed the name from Crollalanza , which in today's Italian would tend to mean "spear collapses" or "spear gives way", to Scrollalanza , which unambiguously means "shakes spear". Both these are rare but real surnames. Andrea Camilleri , the celebrated writer who created the detective figure Salvo Montalbano , has co-written with Giuseppe Dipasquale a comedy in Sicilian dialect Troppu trafficu ppi nenti , based on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing , which plays mischievously on the theory that Shakespeare was of Sicilian origin.
In the novel Il Manoscritto di Shakespeare , [23] by Domenico Seminerio, a luckless Sicilian schoolteacher finds evidence of Shakespeare's being Sicilian and shows it to a famous writer who fictionalises the material, with comic results.
Seminerio includes in his acknowledgements a tribute to Iuvara: In Bellomo's own novel L'isola di Shakespeare , [25] set on the Aeolian island of Salina, a semi-historical C16th character narrates a very unreliable memory of having met there a shipwrecked Englishman called Shakespeare, who speaks fluent Italian, says his mother Guglielma Scrollalanza came from Sicily—and proceeds to collect some of his most famous lines from conversations on the island.
However, in a brief afterword Postfazione to the novel, Bellomo makes it clear that for him the Crollalanza theory is an enjoyable literary myth. He describes Iuvara's book as "amusing and embarrassing" and "lacking any scientific [i. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. In Italian, with English subtitles, 97 minutes. See also the article "Was Shakespeare English?
Alexa Actionable Analytics for the Web. AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally. Amazon Inspire Digital Educational Resources. Amazon Rapids Fun stories for kids on the go. Amazon Restaurants Food delivery from local restaurants. ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics. East Dane Designer Men's Fashion. Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands.
Withoutabox Submit to Film Festivals.