Giovanni Florio (1552 or 1553 – 1625), known as John Florio, was an English humanist, linguist, writer, translator, lexicographer, and language tutor. Born in London, he spent much of his childhood and youth in continental Europe after his family left England during the reign of Mary I, returning to London in the early 1570s. He died of plague in Fulham, London.
He published the language-learning works Firste Fruites (1578) and Second Fruits (1591), and produced A World of Words (1598), the second Italian–English dictionary published in England, and much more extensive than William Thomas's earlier dictionary. His English translation of Montaigne's Essays was published in 1603. He published an expanded version, Queen Anna's New World of Words (1611), which contained nearly 74,000 definitions, and in 1620 he published a translation of Boccaccio's Decameron anonymously.
Florio served as tutor to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, and from 1604 to 1619 as a reader in Italian and groom of the privy chamber to Anne of Denmark (queen consort of James VI and I). Florio also taught Italian and French to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. Amongst his friends and associates were Giordano Bruno and Ben Jonson.
Florio's work has been studied in relation to William Shakespeare, particularly the influence scholars have attributed to his translation of Montaigne and similarities identified between the two writers' works. In the 20th century, Florio and his father, Michelangelo Florio, were among the many people proposed by advocates of the Shakespeare authorship question as alternative authors of Shakespeare's works.
Early life John Florio was born in London in 1552 or 1553 but he grew up and lived in continental Europe until the age of 19. The only portrait of Florio, the frontispiece to the New World of Words of 1611, presents him as "Italus ore, Anglus pector" ("Italian in mouth, English in chest"); glosses this as, "in his native language an Italian, in his heart an Englishman," and interprets Florio's declaration that "I am an Englishman in Italian"John Florio, Florio's Second Frutes (London, 1591), 'To the Reader', sig. *r. to mean that he was "an Englishman with an Italian inflection or streak".
His father Michelangelo
John's father, Michelangelo Florio, born in Tuscany, had been a Franciscan friar before converting to the Protestant faith. He was a fervent Protestant with Jewish ancestors."...and I if should say that my ancestors were Hebrews before baptism, this I will not deny.." Florio, Michelangelo, Apologia, 1557. He got into trouble with the Inquisition in Italy, after preaching in Naples, Padua, and Venice. Seeking refuge in England during the reign of Edward VI, he was appointed pastor of the Italian Protestant congregation in London in 1550.Ives p. 65 He was also a member of the household of William Cecil. He was dismissed from both on a charge of immorality, but William Cecil later fully forgave him. Little is known of Florio's mother,"De uxore, quae Angla Videtur, et liberi nihil constant" Simmler in Florio, M., Apologia, 1557, p. 13, n.2 she was a servant in the house of Cecil and John Aubrey confirms she was Italian, writing in his Brief Lives that Florio's Italian "father and mother flew from the Valtolin (region) to London for religion" reasons and Aubrey says "the information was from Florio's grandson, Mr. Molins". Furthermore, in First Fruits, John Florio asserted that when he arrived in London (at 19 years old), he did not know the language and asked in Italian or French "where the Post dwelt"."When I arrived first in London, I coulde not speake English, and i met above five hundred persons, afore i coulde find one, that could tel me in Italian, or French, where the Post dwelt" Florio, J., His First Fruits, 1578, Thomas Woodcocke, London. He later explained that he learnt the language by reading books.
Michelangelo Florio then became Italian tutor to Lady Jane Grey and in the family of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, father of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke who would become the husband of Mary Sidney, sister of Philip Sidney. He dedicated a book to Henry Herbert and Jane Grey, his highest-ranking pupils: Regole de la lingua thoscana (Rules of the Tuscan language). Lady Jane Grey's youth, faith, and death affected him deeply and later, in seclusion, in Soglio, in Italian-speaking Switzerland, he wrote a book about her life, titled Historia de la vita e de la morte de L'Illlustriss. Signora Giovanna Graia, published later in 1607. In the preface of the book, the anonymous publisher explained that the original book was written "by his own hand by the author" and it was found "after his death, in the home of an honored and great benefactor." It is also explained that Michelangelo "would certainly have had this book published in that he had not been prevented from very cruel persecutions. He in fact deposed it for fifty years in safe hands".Michelangelo Florio, Historia de la vita e dela morte de l'Illustriss. Signora Giovanna Graia, 1607, Riccardo Pittore di Venezia. He describes Lady Jane Grey as a martyr and innocent "saint". It is possible that he had witnessed some of the events surrounding her or had told her about the persecutions in Italy.
Exile
When Mary Tudor ascended to the throne in 1554, she re-established Catholicism in England and Ireland. In February 1554, a royal edict proclaimed that all foreigners had to depart the realm within twenty-four days. Consequently, on 4 March 1554, Michelangelo and his family, which included infant John, left England.Florio, Michelangelo, Apologia, "...Where we were until 4 March 1554. And there left me with my little family I came to Anversa in Alemagna. And I went to Argentina (Strasbourg) on 6 May 1555" pp. 108–112. In Strasbourg, the generous citizens offered themselves to give a first temporary refuge to the exiles for twenty days. Here, Michelangelo had a first meeting with the noble Frederik von Salis, coming from Soglio, who invited him to become pastor of the Reformed Evangelical Church of Graubünden in Soglio.Florio, M., Apologia, pp. 108–112.
Soglio was remote from the Inquisition and was situated near Chiavenna (north of Lake Como in Italy), a centre of Reformed preaching. In the first years of John's infancy, Michelangelo worked as pastor and notary, educating his son in an environment rich in religious and theological ferment. In addition, he taught John Italian, as well as Latin, Hebrew and Greek. Michelangelo Florio died in 1566. After this date his name is no longer mentioned, and in the synod of 1571 he is mentioned as a deceased person.Cantimori, D., Eretici italiani del Cinquecento, Torino, Einaudi, 2002, p. 292.
When he was ten, John Florio was sent to live with and to be schooled in a Paedagogium in Tübingen (Germany) by the Reformed Protestant theologian, Pier Paolo Vergerio, a native of Venetian Capodistria (who had also lived in Swiss Bregaglia). Under these circumstances, John was formed in the humanist cultural circle of Tübingen, in a strong Italianate atmosphere. However, Vergerio died in 1566 and John never completed his studies. Without any financial support, and an orphan at 14 years old, he left Tübingen. He came back to Soglio, and later departed for England in the early 1570s, in possession of a Christian Reformed and humanist education.
London: First Fruits & Leicester's Men (1571–1578)
First marriage At about 19 years old, after his formative years in Soglio and in Tübingen, John Florio came back to London. Ascribed to the Italian church, John worked for some years as silk dyer and servant of Michel Baynard. In addition, he worked for the Venetian merchant Gaspare Gatti, living in the wool-dyers' district of London. At 21 years old he married an Italian woman, Anna Soresollo in 1574; they had six children: Annabelle, Anne, Aurelia, Joane, Edward and Elizabeth. It has been wrongly suggested by Anthony Wood that John married Samuel Daniel's sister. No record of their marriage has so far been discovered, and Wood's suggestion was probably mainly due to Daniel's dedication lines in the 1613 second edition of Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essays in which he referred to him as his "brother", suggesting a long-time friendship, more than an actual kinship between them. However, it is possible that it was John's sister, Justina, who married Samuel Daniel. Robert Anderson, in The Works of the British Poets (1795), states that Daniel "left no issue by his wife Justina, sister of John Florio."
First Fruits At 25 years old John Florio published Firste Fruites which yeelde familiar speech, merie prouerbes, wittie sentences, and golden sayings. Also a perfect induction to the Italian, and English tongues, as in the table appeareth. The like heretofore, neuer by any man published (1578). This collection of dramatic dialogues contains translated passages from literature and philosophy. Moreover, it is designed for novices in both the Italian and English language. Florio inscribed the manual to "All Italian gentlemen and merchants who delight in the English tongue". He dedicated his first work to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. In the dedication, John reminded Dudley of his father's faithful service, successfully entering his social circle.
In the manual, John Florio refers to himself as "povero artigiano" (poor artisan). His insistence upon the fact that teaching was not his profession indicates that this was the very first time he approached the languages as a profession. In addition, the commendatory verses that precede Firste Fruites show that John Florio got in contact with the Dudley's theatre company: The Leicester's Men. The first pages of the First Fruits, in fact, contain various commendatory verses written by the company actors: Richard Tarlton, Robert Wilson, Thomas Clarke, and John Bentley. They thank him for having contributed to bring the Italian novelist to the English theatre.
With Firste Fruites, John Florio began a new career in London in language instruction while having contacts with the theatre.
Oxford: Euphuism & Cartier's Voyages (1578–1582)
Oxford By the summer of 1578, he was sent by Lord Burghley, William Cecil, to Magdalen College, Oxford. He entered as a poor scholar and became servant and tutor in Italian to Barnabe and Emmanuel Barnes, sons of the Bishop of Durham. John Florio remained at Oxford at least until 1582. Magdalen College today commemorates his time there with the John Florio Society that meets to appreciate its members' own poems.
Euphuism During these years John matured as a lexicographer and made the development of modern English language his primary mission. Firstly, he became tutor in Italian to John Lyly. As the author considered to be the first English prose stylist to leave an enduring impression upon the language, Lyly was a key figure of Euphuism. Another Euphuist and pupil of John Florio was Stephen Gosson. Both Gosson and Lyly adopted the Euphuistic style and were saturated in Italian reading through John Florio's lessons. It is possible that another Euphuist, George Pettie, was the "I.P." who signed the Italian verses that prefaced the First Fruits.
Cartier's Voyages