Guarino of Verona. On Studying Pagan Literature

Note on Text and Translation: The Latin text of Guarino's overtly polemical letter to Brother Giovanni of Prato, a perfect embodiment of the intellectual, pedagogical and ethical goals pursued by the fathers of Italian Humanism, mirrors that to be found in Guarino Veronese, "Epistolario", ed. by Remigio Sabbadini, 3 vol., Venice, A spese della società, 1915-1919, II, pp. 519-32. Minor alterations have been made to the punctuation and in the use of capital letters and italics. Guarino's fine humanistic Latin, based on Cicero, is not universally transparent. The purpose of the English translation here provided - which has benefitted from the consultation of an Italian version published in "Il pensiero pedagogico dello Umanesimo", ed. by Eugenio Garin, Florence, Giuntine / Sansoni, 1958, pp. 395-417 - is to offer a readable text, resolving the more challenging passages "ad sensum" through a proper contextualisation. The present pamphelt is published on the occasion of the international conference "La pedagogia italiana nel secolo dell'Umanesimo", promoted by the Centro Studi "Mario Pancrazi" in collaboration with the Accademia Petrarca di Lettere Arti e Scienze, Arezzo - Sansepolcro - Città di Castello, 29-31 October 2024. Il prof. John Butcher presenta la traduzione in inglese - Guarino of Verona sends his Christian greetings to the most learned preacher Brother Giovanni of Prato - del testo Guarinus Veronensis doctissimo dei praeconi fratri Iohanni Pratensi pl. in Christo sal. d.