FLORIO, John

(c. 1553-1625)

John Florio, a scholar and linguist, is known primarily for his translation of Michel de Montaigne's* Essais and for his affiliation with the circle of the earl of Southampton, William Shakespeare's* patron. Florio was the son of Mi­chelangelo Florio, an Italian Protestant refugee who moved to England and be­came the tutor of Lady Jane Grey.* John was born in London, but shortly after his birth, he and his parents were forced into exile on the Continent when the Catholic queen Mary I* ascended the English throne. John Florio later returned to England, attended Oxford, and published two widely used Italian grammars, Florio His Firste Fruites (1578) and Florios Second Frutes (1591). In 1598 Florio published the work that guaranteed his reputation as a scholar: his im­pressive Italian-English dictionary, A World of Wordes, a revised edition of which appeared in 1611 as Queen Anna's New World of Words.

Florio was also the Italian tutor of the earl of Southampton when the earl began to function as patron for Shakespeare. It was in this capacity that Florio most likely came to know of Shakespeare. Literary scholars have noted Shake­speare's indebtedness to Florio's linguistic works and translations, but it has also been suggested that Shakespeare lampooned Florio in the character of Hol-ofernes, the pedantic scholar in Love's Labour's Lost.

Florio's other notable achievement is his 1603 translation of Montaigne's Essais. This translation is still widely read and used by Montaigne scholars. There are more recent translations of Montaigne's essays, most notably that of Donald Frame, but many continue to use Florio's translation. Florio's contri­butions to the culture and life of the sixteenth century are therefore quite sig­nificant in that Florio's name is associated with two of the leading figures of his century.

Bibliography

F. Yates, John Florio, 1934.

Jeffrey A. Bell