Draft:Caesar Giarratano

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Caesar Giarratano [ˈsiːzɚ] [ˌdʒɑːrəˈtɑːnoʊ] was born on July 24, 1880 in Popoli, Italy, to Salvatore and Ida Carradori[1]. He was a classical philologist and Latinist scholar[1].

Education and Career

Caesar Giarratano went to Machiavelli high school in Lucca, later enrolling at the University of Naples in Letters and Philosophy[1]. His teachers included B. Zumbini for Italian literature, M. Kerbaker for the comparative history of classical languages, F. D'Ovidio for the comparative history of Neo-Latin languages and literatures, G. De Petra for archeology, and F. Masci for theoretical philosophy[1]. Especially of note was E. Cocchia, professor of Latin literature, to whom Giarratano dedicated his edition of Calpurnius and Nemesianus[2]. However, despite the qualifications of these professors, they were not experts on classical philology, so Giarratano's interest in that topic would not be fulfilled for some time[1].

In the early 1900s, Giarratano wrote De vita et scriptis Valerii Flacci, which was critiqued as "tenuous", and in Naples, published his work about the history of philosophy, The thought of Francesco Sanchez[1]. In 1905, Giarratano wrote an essay on what remains of Hermesianax's work, called "Fragmenta"[1]. These works showed the beginnings of Caesar Giarratano's superb Latin writing style, critical examination of texts, and a strong drive toward meticulousness[1]. Giarratano's works were later characterized by his methodical discipline and diligence[1].

Giarratano's publications were temporarily put on pause, due to his preparation to teach Latin and Greek, as well as his first teaching roles[1]. First, he was a professor in Cosenza's high school gymnasium, then at Palermo's Umberto I high school, and returned to Machiavelli school in Lucca[1]. 1916 brought about a relocation to Tuscany, where the institutions, libraries, and archives afforded a vast amount of knowledge in classical philological studies[1]. This allowed him to finally devote himself to his main topic of interest, philology[1].

In 1926, Caesar obtained his teaching qualification, while teaching at Pisa's Galilei high school[1]. The following year, Caesar was named extraordinary professor of Latin literature at the University of Cagliari[1]. This role lasted only a year before he was named the successor to V. Ussani, for the position of the chair of Latin literature at the University of Pisa's Faculty of Letters[1]. Beloved by students for his approachability, he remained a professor at the University of Pisa until he retired in 1950[1], due to an age limit requirement[2].

Giarratano was a member of the Academy of Lucca, and a corresponding member of the Lombard Institute of Science, Letters and Arts[1]. Moreover, Giarratano was made a corresponding member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, in the moral, historical and philological sciences[1]. Additionally, he became the director of the Institute of Classical Philology in Pisa[1].

Publications

One of Caesar Giarratano's contributions to the field of classical philology, entitled Bucolica. Tertium edidit einsidlensia quae dicuntur carmina iteratis curis adiecit Caesar Giarratano.

1920 saw the publication of Commentarii, and the texts of Asconio Pediano, relying on his use of the Florentine codices[1]. Due codici di Asconio Pediano: il Forteguerriano e il Madrileno was also published in an earlier 1906 edition[3]. He wrote about directly studying the Florentine codices in 1920, in Studies Italiani di Filologia Classica[2]. Later, Giarratano became a dedicated researcher and archivist of the works of Apicius[1]. It was a great honour for him to work with the famous Friedrich Vollmer[2], to publish C. Apicii librorum X qui dicuntur De re coquinaria quae extant[1]. Caesar published a text in 1924 on the works of Calpurnius and Nemesianus Bucolica, Einsidlensia quae dicuntur carmina adiecit[1]. During his work on this text, Giarratano was aided by the codices from the various libraries and archives in Italy and other places[1]. In addition, during this time period, he published texts about his teaching activity, as well as translations and commentaries by ancient writers[1]. Tacitus was one of Giarratano's favorite classical authors[1].

The next decades saw even more publication work from Caesar Giarratano. Giarratano's The Book of Epodes was about the illustration of Horace's iambs with his own analytical contribution[1]. Then, he published two manuals for Latin grammar and syntax for students[1]. In these manuals, he discouraged the time period's trend of simplifying texts, instead advocating for strict accuracy while examining the historic evolution and theory of grammar[1]. He collaborated with other authors to the Italian Encyclopedia, adding entries in Latin literature, from volume 1 until the first appendix[1]. Giarratano went on to publish two essays on his favorite classical Roman authors, Titus Livius, and Cornelius Tacitus[1]. Furthermore, Caesar contributed greatly to C. Marzorati's Introduction to Classical Philology[2]. Also, Caesar worked for years on his own Latin vocabulary, but it was never published[2].

While there's no bibliography of Caesar's numerous publications, the following is a list of his known contributions[1]:

Death and Legacy

Caesar Giarratano passed away on July 9, 1953, in Lucca[1]. He was unmarried, did not have any children, and was not in regular contact with relatives[2]. He lived a mostly solitary life[2].

He dedicated his time to his academic pursuits, mentioned as his life's purpose in a postmortem write-up by his colleague Augusto Mancini[2]. Mancini described Caesar Giarratano as a "scholar of undisputed merit" (Original: "uno studioso di indiscusso valore", translated by Google Translate), and someone with "the spirit of the greats of classical thought and art and with the serenity of his conscience" (Original: "nello spirito dei grandi del pensiero e dell'arte classica e nella serenità della sua coscienza.", translated by Google Translate)[2]. His students "all remember him with gratitude", and he was described as "a colleague dear to all for his nobility of soul and gentle nature" (Original: "Cesare Giarratano...per affettuosa cura dei disce poli, che lo ricordano tutti con riconoscenza, e fu un collega a tutti caro per la nobiltà dell'animo e la mitezza dell'indole.", translated with Google Translate)[2].

References

  1. "GIARRATANO, Cesare - Enciclopedia". Treccani (in Italian). Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  2. Mancini, Augusto (1954). "Cesare Giarratano". Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Lettere, Storia e Filosofia. 23 (1/2): I–IV. ISSN 0036-990X.
  3. Studi italiani di filologia classica. University of Michigan. Firenze, F. le Monnier [etc.] 1893.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

Category:1880 births Category:1953 deaths Category:People from Popoli Category:Italian philologists Category:Classical philologists Category:Philologists Category:Scholars of Latin literature Category:Italian Latinists Category:Latinists Category:Researchers Category:Archivists Category:Academic Staff of the Lombard Institute of Science, Letters and Arts Category:Academic Staff of the Accademia dei Lincei Category:Academics of the University of Pisa Category:Academics of the University of Naples Category:Academics of the University of Cagliari Category:Academics of the University of the Lombard Institute of Science, Letters and Art Category:Academics of the Accademia dei Lincei Category:20th Century Scholars Category:20th Century Authors Category:20th-century people from Italy Category:20th-century people from Popoli