Gabriele Zinani

• Name — Gabriele Zinani • Born — 1557 • Birthplace — Reggio Emilia, Duchy of Ferrara • Died — c. 1634 • Occupation — * Poet • Playwright • Political theorist • Parents — Bartolomeo Zinani and Lucrezia Zinani (née Calcagni) • Education — University of Ferrara

Gabriele Zinani was born in Reggio Emilia in 1557 to Bartolomeo Zinani and Lucrezia Calcagni. Between 1578 and 1581 he studied at the University of Ferrara, where Cesare Cremonini and Franciscus Patricius were among his professors. In 1581 he went back to his native Reggio Emilia, where he resided until 1591. After 1591 he moved away from Reggio Emilia in search of fortune, going as far as Hungary, where he fought in the Long Turkish War in 1596. Back in Italy, he initially settled in Rome, where he was admitted a member of the Accademia degli Umoristi. In 1598 he moved to Naples, where he remained until 1622. He then moved to Venice, where he directly supervised the publication of his works. Zinani was a close friend of Torquato Tasso, Giambattista Marino, and Angelo Grillo. He edited the second edition of Giovanni Battista Manso's Vita di Torquato Tasso (Rome 1634). He died shortly after 1634.

Zinani's main work, the epic poem Eracleide, dealt with the struggles of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius against the Sasanian Empire. Among Zinani's works is Amerigo, (1590), which Tiraboschi ranked with the best Italian tragedies of the 16th century. Zinani was a close friend of Sara Copia Sulam. He regularly attended her salon and had a poetry exchange with her that was later included in his Rime diverse (Venice: Evangelista Deuchino, 1627). His political treatises Il Consigliere (Venice 1625) and Della Ragion di stato (Venice 1626) were translated into Latin by Ludwig von Hörnigk and published in Frankfurt in 1628.

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