BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Giovanni della Casa, the author of the "Galateo," was born near Florence in 1503, and died at Rome in 1556. He took orders before 1538, and became successively Apostolic Clerk, Apostolic Commissary, Archbishop of Benevento, Papal Nuncio at Venice, and Secretary of State under Paul IV. He was distinguished as a poet, as a diplomatist, and as an orator.
The "Galateo" was written between 1551 and 1555, at the suggestion of Galeazzo Florimonte, Bishop of Sessa, whose "poetic" name it bears in consequence. It was published posthumously at Venice, in 1558, in a volume entitled "Rime e Prose di M. Giov. della Casa," and was republished separately at Milan in 1559, at Florence in 1560, and often thereafter. A complete edition of the works of Della Casa, in three volumes, was edited by Casotti at Florence in 1707.
The "Galateo" was translated into French by Jean du Peyrat in 1562, and again, anonymously, with the original and the translation on opposite pages, in 1573. A Spanish version by Domingo Becerra was published in 1585, and this was followed in 1599 by a loose imitation by Gracian Dantisco, entitled "El Galateo Español," which in its turn was translated into English in 1640 by William Styles as "Galateo Espagnol, or the Spanish Gallant." In 1598 an edition of the "Galateo" in four languages, Italian, French, Latin, and Spanish, was published at Lyons; and a German version was added in the editions of 1609 and 1615.