Caro, Annibale
Persons known by name
Caro, Annibale
Annibale Caro
- 1507–1566
- poet, philologist, author, numismatist
- for long times in the service of the Farnese family, especially Ranuccio
- collector and author of a lost manuscript work of 4 volumes on Greek and Roman coins (according to [Castellani 1907])
- for some time member of the Accademia della Virtù and the Accademia dei Vignaioli
- belonged to the circle of cardinal Niccolo Gaddi and was his and his brother's, Giovanni Gaddi (†1542), secretary
- from late 1539 to early 1541 Caro worked for Bishop Giovanni Guidiccioni, governor of the region of Romagna.
- helped in the researches for Marliano's Topographia [Lanciani 1898: II, 271]
- from italianacademies.org:
- A recent interpretation of Caro`s speech on Statua della foia, is in Patricia Simons and Monique Kornell, `Annibal Caro`s After-Dinner Speech (1536) and the Question of Titian as Vesalius`s Illustrator`, in Renaissance Quarterly, 61, 4 (2008), pp. 1069–1097.
- In the 1560s, Caro worked together with Onofrio Panvinio, Fulvio Orsini and Paolo Manuzio for the decoration program of the Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola.
- [Nuovo 2013: 418–419] "Tramezino's name crops up constantly in the letters of Annibal Caro (as do those of Paolo Manuzio and Antonio Blado)[Fn. 60: The opening scene of Gli straccioni, a comedy by Annibal Caro, is set in Antonio Blado's Rome shop.] as a dependable intermediary for sending correspondence between Rome and Venice, and Rome and Naples. Tramezino was also a trusted interlocutor in linguistic questions, more or less openly soliciting written works and commissions to print new and commercial promising works. [Fn. 61: ]. Tramezino had made his Roman shop an important meeting place for scholares, who talked above all about history and archaeology, freely comparing observations and notes taken during walks in the city among the monumental ruins of ancient Rome.[Fn. 62: Franz Ehrle, Roma al tempo di Giulio III: La pianta di Roma di Leonardo Bufalini del 1551 (Roma: Danesi, 1911) 27–28] That daily scene may also have contributed to Tramezino's intensive production of commerce in maps and views of ancient Rome. [Fn. 63: Tinto, Annali, xxiv–xxvi.] Georg Fabricius records discussions of this sort that took place in Tramezino's and Antonio || Salamanca's shops, and he remembers with gratitude the open discussions he had with other scholars there. [Fn. 64: Georg Fabricius of Chemnitz, Roma Antiquitatum Libro Duo, Basel: I. Oporinus, 1551), 9.]
- about his speech given at a dinner of the Accademia della Virtù (probably) in 1536: [Simons / Kornell 2008]
- his tomb was designed/executed by Giovanni Antonio Dosio
- Caro seems to have promoted Dosio to Torquato Conti with words cited by [Valone 1976: 537/538]: "Dosio may have come to Conti's attention through Annibale Caro, whose connections with the young artist significantly exceed the fact that Dosio executed the poet's tomb. In Caro's letter to Conti mentioned above, he reported that Dosio was on his way to Anagni and added: "E con questa occasione ne / le raccomando, essendo molto mio amico e molto piui suo servitore. Se V. S. ha modo di fargli alcun bene, certo sara ben allogato, essendo un virtuoso e da ben giovane." [FN 45: Caro, Lettere, I, 66; III, 281.] Caro's warm recommendation of Dosio suggests a friendly relationship between the two that probably originated with Caro's earlier friendship with Raffaello da Montelupo,46 Dosio's master, but it was certainly nurtured by the young sculptor's admiration for the antique."
- Caro's friends [Valone 1976: 538]: "Annibale Caro (1507-1566) was one of the leading humanists in mid-century Italy and his intimate circle included
Benedetto Varchi and Pier Vettori from Florence, Claudio Tolomei, founder of the Roman Accademia della Virtui (which proposed to make a thorough study of Vitruvius from both the philological and architectural points of view), and Bartolomeo Marliano, whose Urbis Romae topographia in 1544 marked a decisive departure from the earlier medieval and Renaissanceattempts to portray the marvels of ancient Rome. In addition, Caro, Panvinio, and Orsini made up the triumvirate that helped amass one of the greatest antique collections of the Renaissance for the Farnese. [FN 47: See Aulo Greco, Annibal Caro, cultura e poesia, Rome, 1950.]
- [Valone 1976: 538] "Caro's circle was dedicated to a careful and detailed approach to antiquity. In a letter to Silvio Antoniano in 1551, Caro described his own painstaking method of classifying medals and coins according to size, location of find, categories of images, and chronology. He noted in particular the importance of signi- / fying clearly what appeared and what had been destroyed: "La prima cosa scriverei tutte le medaglie che me venissero a le mani o de le quali io potessi aver notizia, e i diritti e i rovesci loro diligentemente con tutte le lettere, cosi come stanno appunto, segnando quelle che non ci sono o non appaiono con intervalli e con punti . . ." [FN 48: Caro, Lettere, II, 110]