- Gregorio Leti
Gregorio Leti (1630–1701) was an Italian historian and satirist from
Milan , who sometimes published under thepseudonym Abbe Gualdi, L'abbé Gualdi, [Jewett, Charles Coffin. "On the Construction of Catalogues of Libraries, and their Publication by Means of Separate Stereotyped titles". ISBN 1402175299. p. 78.] or Gualdus [ws|"" in the 1913 "Catholic Encyclopedia"] known for his works about theRoman Catholic Church , especially the papacy. He was born inMilan . All of his publications were listed on the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum ".Ambrosini, Maria Luisa, and Willis, Mary. 1996. "The Secret Archives of the Vatican". Barnes & Noble Publishing. ISBN 0760701253. p. 138.]The nephew of the Bishop of
Acquapendente inUmbria , Leti was educated in a Jesuit school, but later became a Protestant. [Israel, Jonathan Irvine. 1991. "The Anglo-Dutch Moment: Essays on the Glorious Revolution and Its World Impact". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521544068. p. 32.] He resided in the court ofLouis XIV of France and in 1680 (soon after theThe Restoration ) that ofCharles II of England , who commissioned him to write a history of England. Leti had access to the library of theEarl of Anglesey , which numbered over 5,000 volumes, as well as that of BishopGilbert Burnet . [Mayer, Thomas Frederick. 1999. "A Reluctant Author: Cardinal Pole and His Manuscripts". ISBN 0871698943. p. 107.] Leti was elected a member of theRoyal Society .After the publication of a collection of anecdotes which offended Charles II, "
Il Teatro Britannico ", Leti fled England in 1683 forAmsterdam , where he became the city historiographer in 1685.Granger, James. 1824. "A Biographical History of England". W. Baynes and Son. p. 45.] Marshall, John. 2006. "John Locke, Toleration and Early Enlightenment Culture". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052165114X. p. 177.] He died in Amsterdam in 1701."Dublin University Magazine". 1852. "Anecdotes of the Stage." in "Eclectic Magazine" edited by Walter Hilliard Bidwell and John Holmes Agnew. Leavitt, Throw and Co. p. 182.]Leti's biography of
Pope Sixtus V has been translated into many languages, and contains an anecdote similar to the infamous "pound of flesh" fromWilliam Shakespeare 's "The Merchant of Venice ". [Solomon A. 1998. "Shakespeare and the Jews." "Renaissance Quarterly". 51, 1.] The "Catholic Encyclopedia " calls Leti "mendacious and inexact" and is also critical of works describes as derivative of Leti's "anti-papal histories." [ws|"" in the 1913 "Catholic Encyclopedia"] Mosheim et al. call Leti "inaccurate and unfaithful." [Mosheim, Johann Lorenz, and Maclainep, Archibald. 1819. "An Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern, from the Birth of Christ, to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century". p. 194.] According to Thomas Trollope, "his inexactitude as an [sic] historian is notorious." [Trollope, Thomas Adolphus. 1876. "The Papal Conclaves, as They Were and as They are". Chapman and Hall. p. 106.] Even secular writers have characterized his biography of Sixtus V as "resting on very slight authority." [Clark, William George, and Wright, William Aldis. 1874. Introduction to "The Merchant of Venice". Clarendon Press. p. xx.] Among his critics, Leti is sometimes referred to as the "Varillas of Italy."Thomas, William John. 1860. "Notes and Queries". G. Bell. p. 270.]Leti was the father-in-law of the theologian Jean Leclerc.
Works
*1666. "
Histoire de Donna Olimpia Maldachini ".
*1667. "Il Nipotismo di Roma, o vero relatione delle ragioni che muovono i Pontefici all' aggrandimento de' Nipoti " ("Papal Nepotism, or the True Relation of the Reasons Which Impel the Popes to make their Nephews Powerful")
*1668. "Il Cardinalissimo di Santa Chiesa ".
*1671. "Le visioni politiche sopra gli interessi più reconditi di tutti i principi e repubbliche della Cristianità ".
*1682. "La Vita della Regina Elizabetta ".
*1685. "L'histoire de la vie du Pape Sixte Cinquième".
*1685. "Il ceremoniale historico e politico, opera utilissima a tutti gli Ambasciatori ".
*1686. "Historia Genevrena ".
*1693. "Historia overo Vita di Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra ".
*1697. "Critique historique, politique, morale, économique, & comique sur les lotteries ".Further reading
*Krivatsy, Nati. 1982. "Bibliography of the Works of Gregorio Leti". Oak Knoll Books New Castle. 8 vols.
References
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