John Florio

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.[14] 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.[15] 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,[16] 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".[17] Furthermore, in First Fruits, John Florio asserted that when he arrived in London (at 19 years old), he didn't know the language and asked in Italian or French "where the post dwelt.[18] 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).[15] 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 Michalangelo "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".[19] 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.

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.[23] At 21 years old he married an Italian woman, Anna Soresollo;[24] they had five children: Annebelle, Joane, Edward, Aurelia and Elizabeth. It has been wrongly suggested by Anthony Wood that John married Samuel Daniel's sister.[25] 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 actually kinship between them.[26] 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."[27]

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 the language-teaching while having contacts with the theatre.

By the summer of 1578, he was sent by Lord Burleigh, 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.

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.[28]

In Oxford, beside his job as Italian tutor, John Florio also began a career as translator. He met Richard Hakluyt, an English writer who was very passionate about maritime literature. His collaboration with Florio was very fruitful: he commissioned him to translate Jacques Cartier's voyage to Canada. Later, in 1580, Florio published his translation under the name A Shorte and briefe narration of the two navigations and discoveries to the northweast partes called Newe Fraunce: first translated out of French into Italian by that famous learned man Gio : Bapt : Ramutius, and now turned into English by John Florio; worthy the reading of all venturers, travellers, and discoverers. Florio quickly developed an awareness of the potential of the ‘New World’, he advocates "planting" the "New-found land" four years before Hakluyt and Raleigh, the pioneers of colonisation. He threw himself early into the spirit of these English patriotic ventures. Furthermore, he committed himself to both refine the English language and be a contributor of England's colonial enterprise.

During the captivity of Mary, Queen of Scots, several attempts were made to place her on the English throne. The most significant of these was the Babington Plot, which ultimately led to Mary's trial and execution in 1587. William Vaughan's Golden Fleece was written one year after Florio's death, in 1626 and it contains references to Florio's involvement in the conspiracy of Babington of 1586. Walsingham, also thanks to Florio's help, as suggested by Vaughan, was able to intercept and decode Mary's correspondence.

At the French embassy, John Florio also embarked in a new, pioneering job as translator of news. In the Elizabethan England this trend had a tremendous demand, and quickly became a class of literature. Newspapers were not yet born. Even so, Florio intuitively began to translate several Italian newsletters that had been dispatched from Rome to France, turning them into novels. The resulting pamphlet was published in 1585 entitled A letter lately written from Rome, by an Italian gentleman to a freende of his in Lyons in Fraunce, and signed I.F.

Translated from Italian, Florio dedicated it to Henry Stanley, the Earl of Derby.

It has been pointed out that no original document titled A letter lately written from Rome exist and that the work was written or at least compiled by Florio himself[32] who borrowed news from Italy, edited them, and created an entirely different piece of work to adapt it to an English audience.[33]

Living with Giordano Bruno was the most important experience Florio had at the French Embassy. Bruno's influence will have a huge impact upon him. The philosopher, undoubtedly shaped Florio's character changing his vision of life and world permanently. John Florio embraced Bruno's philosophy, and above all, the thesis upon the infinite universe and the possibility of life on other planets, theories which went well beyond the Copernican limited heliocentric world.

Bruno received many attacks after the quarrel and tumultuous period that followed the "Ash Wednesday Supper". During that party he discussed his revolutionary theories, and after that, he got into a quarrel with the guests who didn't receive with favour his ideas. Undoubtedly, Florio and Castelnau always defended him. Bruno described the event in a philosophical pamphlet written in Italian the same year: La cena de le ceneri (The Ash Wednesday Supper, London, 1584).

The friendship that linked Bruno and Florio is particularly rich and significant. Florio in fact appears in The Ash Wednesday Supper as one of the messengers that brings to Bruno the invitation to dinner by Fulke Greville. In another scene Bruno and Florio are on a boat at night. They burst into song chanting stanzas from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.[34] Bruno would later portray him as "Eliotropo" in De la causa, principio et uno (Concerning Causality, Principle and Unity, London, 1584). In De l'infinito, universo e mondi (On The Infinite Universe and Worlds, London, 1584), fifth dialogue, Bruno adds Florio as "Elpino" and Alberico Gentili as "Albertino".

Similarly, Florio returned the compliment by introducing the figure of Bruno, "Il Nolano" (from Nola near Naples), in Second Fruits (1591). He portrayed him lounging on a window-seat, leafing through a book and poking fun at his friend John for taking too much time over getting dressed in the morning. The portrait painted by Florio is undoubtedly that of a friend. Bruno surely appears in his pages in a positive light, like a satirical and healthy whip of pedants.

Florio will never forget Giordano Bruno, even after the long years of the trial and their tragic outcome at the stake. For instance, in 1603, John Florio, in the preface of Montaigne's Essays, recalled his old "fellow Nolano", who had taught him the cultural value of translations.[35] Moreover, in 1611, he listed Bruno's Italian works among the texts he used for the composition of the dictionary.

Bruno's scholars Gentile and Vincenzo Spampanato have both proved Florio's indebtedness to the philosopher's writings. Many of Bruno's thoughts are undeniably shaped in Florio's work Second Fruits. Also, in his two dictionaries Florio added many terms as well as Neapolitan dialect words taken from Bruno's works.[36]

Proverbs were a usual feature of most Elizabethan language lesson books, but in no manual did they play such an all-important part as in the Second Fruits. The proverbs of the book are, in fact, keyed with those published in a corollary work by Florio, the Giardino di Ricreatione: six thousands Italian proverbs, without their English equivalents. It is one of the most important of the earlier collections of this kind. The title itself is interesting: Giardino di ricreatione, nel quel crescono fronde, fiori e frutti, vaghe, leggiadri e soavi; sotto nome di auree sentenze, belli proverbii, et piacevoli riboboli, tutti Italiani, colti, scelti, e scritti, per Giovanni Florio, non solo utili ma dilettevoli per ogni spirito vago della Nobil lingua Italiana. Il numero d'essi é di 3400. The proverbs in the Italian side of the dialogues are starred to indicate that they are listed among the six thousand Italian proverbs collected in the Giardino.

On Friday 4 October 1594, John Florio took part in the famous Danvers case, backing Henry's friends in their efforts to escape. Henry Danvers and Sir Charles Denvers were the two elder sons of Sir John Danvers of Dauntsey. Both close friends to Henry Wriothesley, they committed a crime in Wiltshire. According to one account, Henry Long was dining in the middle of the day with a party of friends in Cosham, when Henry Danvers, followed by his brother Charles and a number of retainers, burst into the room, and shot Long dead on the spot. According to another account, Henry Long had challenged Charles Danvers, that he was pressing an unfair advantage and had his arm raised to kill. When Henry Danvers thrust himself between to ward off the blow, was wounded in the act, and striking upwards with his dagger killed Henry Long accidentally.

Master Lawrence Grose, Sheriff, was informed on the murder, and on the evening of October 12 the following scene took place at Itchen's Ferry: "The said Grose, passing over Itchen’s Ferry with his wife that Saturday 12th, one Florio an Italian, and one Humphrey Drewell a servant of the Earl, being in the said passage boat threatened to cast Grose overboard, and said they would teach him to meddle with their fellows, with many other threatening words."[40]

John Florio had a close relationship with Henry Wriothesley at least until 1603, when Henry's family, Florio and other friends of the Southampton, flocked to him when he was released from the Tower.[41]

With the accession of James I John Florio's life at court begins a new chapter. He became Groom of the Privy Chamber, lived at court, and had a prestigious position at the centre of power. From 1604 to Queen Anne's death in 1619 he had a secure income, and his life was on a steadier course.

Florio's duties and his influence over the Queen at court emerge from various official documents. First, he became reader in Italian to Queen Anne and one of the grooms of her privy chamber. In a document dated March 1619 there is a list of Queen Anne's "Grooms of the Privy Chamber" with the length of their service and the amounts of their yearly salary. In this Florio is stated to have served her for fifteen years at a salary of one hundred pounds per annum. This makes 1604 the year in which John Florio began his court service. A groom's salary was sixty pounds per annum. The higher rate in Florio's case seems to have been due to his additional functions as reader in Italian and private secretary to the Queen.[50] He also wrote her letters and interviewed people for her. In addition to his attendance on the Queen, John Florio was also tutor in Italian and French to Prince Henry at court. In November 1606 Anne of Denmark gave him a valuable cup as a present at the christening of his grandchild, bought from the goldsmith John Williams.[51]

From Ottaviano Lotti's dispatches, the representative of the Grand Duke of Tuscany in London, we know that John Florio had a major and confidential role with the Queen at court.[52] This throws a flood of light upon Florio's position with the Queen, which turns out to have been much more important than has hitherto been guessed. Florio was also in close contact with Giovanni Carlo Scaramelli, Secretary to the Signoria; their relationship was important as it determined the political relationship between Venice and London at the time. Other ambassadors Florio got in contact with are Zorzi Giustinian, ambassador of Venice in London from January 1606 to 1608,[53] Nicolo Molino, Henry Wotton, and many others. This diplomatic partnership between London and Venice, the English and Venetian agents and ambassadors, had John Florio as the crucial link between the two worlds.[54]

Another of Florio's tasks at court was to interview and select musicians, often Italian ones, who were seeking an introduction at court. Ottaviano Lotti, for example, in 1606 asked Florio to assist with his influence a musician, who wishes to obtain employment at court. They arranged a supper-party with the idea of inducing Florio to introduce the musician and his lyre at court. This shows not only another accomplishment Florio added in his career, but also another talent: his musical competence.[55] The importance and influence which Florio's established reputation and his court position gave him are illustrated by the fact that books were now dedicated to him. These dedications reveal that he had some association during these years with Nicholas Breton, Ben Jonson, and Thomas Thorpe. John Florio's friendship with Ben Jonson is of great interest and importance. It is well-attested by an inscription written in Ben's own hand upon the fly-leaf of a copy of Volpone which is now in the British Museum: "To his louing Father, & worthy Freind, Mr John Florio: The ayde of his Muses. Ben: Jonson seales this testemony of Freindship, & Loue."[56] The word "Father" which the dramatist uses in addressing his friend, suggests not only the disparity in their ages. It most importantly implies some suggestion of discipleship, with a more striking tribute by speaking of him as "The ayde of his Muses".

Thomas Thorpe, in 1610, published a translation from Epictetus his Manuall. He dedicated this work to Florio, reminding him that he had procured a patron for an earlier work of John Healey's His apprentises essay, and hoping that he would do the same by this one. In the three existing dedications by Thorpe, other than that to W. H., the first is addressed to Florio, the two others to the Earl of Pembroke, while the other, some years before, is addressed to the editor, Edward Blount.

We thus have Thorpe's evidence that Florio procured him the Pembroke's patronage. He also did the same for John Healey. Florio secured the patronage of William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke for Healey's The Discovery of a New World. This work was an extremely free and humour version of the "Latin Mundus Alter ed Idem", a satire of England. Moreover, in 1609, John Florio gave to Thomas Thorpe his translation of Healey's Discovery of a New World.[57]

In 1617, at the age of 65, Florio married Rose Spicer, his second wife. She nursed him through his last years and in his will he refers to her in terms of tender affection. The period as Groom of the Privy Chamber and Personal Secretary to the Queen were for Florio happy years. Anne had promised him a pension of £100 a year until death. But as King James’ financial position worsened these Court pensions were never paid. Many loyal old courtiers were abandoned to poverty in the last years of his reign. Despite not being wealthy as he was before, Florio remained attached to all the things that once belonged to the Queen. Even after her death, he never sold them. Florio, in fact, still possessed her presents when he made his will, including her writing desk set with pearls and fitted with silver ink wells and sand box.

In 1620 Florio published the translation of Boccaccio's Decameron anonymously. His translation omits the Proemio and Conclusione dell'autore, while replacing Tale III.x with an innocuous story taken from Francois de Belleforest's Histoires tragiques, concluding that it "was commended by all the company...because it was free from all folly and obscoeneness." Tale IX.x is also modified, while Tale V.x loses its homosexual innuendo.[64]

In 1623, two years before his death, at 70 years old, John Florio made his last will. He bequeathed his library to William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. He also gave him "an unbound volume of divers written collections and rapsodies",[65] asking him to place his books in his library "eyther at Wilton or els at Baynards Castle at London." His books never reached Wilton House or Baynard's Castle at London as requested. For unknown reasons, the executors named in the will renounced execution. Florio's library has since disappeared. In his will John Florio mentioned "about" 340 books, most of them Italian, but also French, Spanish and English. Over the centuries some Florio scholars have attempted the impossible task of locating parts of his library. Arundel Del Re in his book about John Florio and First Fruits admitted he found only one book that belonged to Florio's library. This is the Imprese by Paolo Giovio, and bears Florio's signature: the book is now held in the British Library.

Frances Yates, Florio's biographer, asserted that she once had seen an annotated copy of Chaucer that belonged to John Florio. In 2019, this copy was sold online by Peter Harrington. The cover contains John Florio's handwriting: "J. Florio: Ex dono John Dony." The copy is now in Yale University Library.[66]

Michael Wyatt, in his study "La biblioteca in volgare di John Florio" ("The Vernacular Library of John Florio")[67] identified all the editions of the books used by Florio in compiling his dictionaries.[68]

John Florio died in Fulham, London, in about October 1625, a victim of the plague. Anthony Wood suggested that Florio's sepulture was either in the church or in the graveyard of All Saints' Church, Fulham, but so far no stone marks of the resting place has been found and Frances Yates suggested a grimmer alternative: for those victims of the plague, Hurlingham Field was the site of a plague pit and Florio's bones could "lie in the bed of the lake at Hurlingham".[69] Florio's only surviving daughter, Aurelia, married James Molins, a surgeon. Aurelia Florio was a midwife and was one of England's most celebrated midwives in the first part of the seventeenth century.[70]