Niccolò Perotti facts for kids
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Niccolò Perotti (born in 1429, died December 14, 1480) was an Italian scholar during the Renaissance. He is famous for writing one of the very first modern Latin grammar books for schools. He was also known as Perotto or Nicolaus Perottus.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Niccolò Perotti was born in Sassoferrato, a town near Fano in Italy. When he was 14, in 1443, he began his studies with a famous teacher named Vittorino da Feltre in Mantua. Later, he continued his education in Ferrara with another well-known teacher, Guarino. He also studied at the University of Padua.
Around the age of 18, Perotti worked for an English traveler named William Grey. Grey was also a student of Guarino. Perotti helped Grey by copying texts and traveled with him to Rome. In 1447, Perotti became a secretary for an important leader, Cardinal Basilius Bessarion. He even wrote a book about Cardinal Bessarion's life in 1472.
A Life of Learning and Public Service
From 1451 to 1453, Perotti taught public speaking and poetry at the University of Bologna. In 1452, the Emperor Frederick III honored him as a Poet Laureate in Bologna. This was because of a welcome speech Perotti had written.
In 1455, Perotti became a secretary for Pope Callixtus III. He was ordained as a priest in 1456. From 1458, he held the important position of Archbishop of Siponto. He also served as a governor in several cities, including Viterbo (1464–69), Spoleto (1471–72), and Perugia (1474–77). Perotti also traveled on important diplomatic trips to Naples and Germany. He helped Pope Nicholas V by translating a book called Roman History by Polybius. For this work, the Pope paid him 500 ducats, which was a lot of money back then!
Important Books and Writings
Perotti wrote a very important Latin grammar book called Rudimenta Grammatices. It was printed in 1473 by Pannartz and Sweynheim. This book was one of the first and most popular Latin grammar books of the Renaissance. It tried to remove many old words and ways of speaking that were from the Middle Ages, focusing instead on classical Latin.
A famous scholar named Erasmus said Perotti's grammar book was "accurate, yet not pedantic." It became a huge bestseller! By the end of the 1400s, it had been printed 117 times. About 59,000 copies were sold across Italy, Spain, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Another 12,000 copies of a changed version of the book, called Grammatica Nova, were also sold.
Perotti also worked with Pomponio Leto to create a version of the poet Martial's Epigrammaton in the 1470s. Another bestseller by Perotti was Cornu Copiae. This book was part commentary and part dictionary about Martial's poems. Perotti finished it in 1478, and it was printed after he died in 1489. One expert called it "a massive encyclopedia of the classical world." It was full of information about language, history, and culture from ancient times.
Debates and Discoveries
Niccolò Perotti was also known for his strong opinions and for openly disagreeing with other scholars. He criticized Domizio Calderini's work on Martial.
Perotti was very upset by the many mistakes he found in Giovanni Andrea Bussi's printed version of Pliny's Natural History. He even wrote to the Pope, asking him to create a group of smart people (like himself) to check every book before it could be printed. Some people say this was the first time someone asked for books to be checked for errors before printing.
Perotti also made an important discovery. He found a collection of fables by Phaedrus in an old manuscript. This manuscript is now lost, but Perotti's version of the fables has been saved in the Vatican Library. It is known as "Perotti's Appendix."
Later Life
Perotti worked with a bookseller from Florence named Vespasiano da Bisticci. Together, they collected many books for the Pope's library. Niccolò Perotti passed away in Sassoferrato on December 14, 1480.
