Editing Andrea Alciato

{{short description|Italian jurist and writer (1492–1550)}}
{{Infobox scholar
| honorific_prefix   =  [[Doctor (title)|Doctor]]
| name               = 
| honorific_suffix   = 
| image              = Andrea Alciato 1584.JPG
| image_size         = 
| alt                = 
| caption            = Portrait of Andrea Alciato, reproduced from the 1584 edition of his emblem book
| native_name        = 
| native_name_lang   = 
| birth_name         = Giovanni Andrea Alciato
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1492|5|8}}
| birth_place        = [[Alzate Brianza]], [[Duchy of Milan]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1550|1|12|1492|5|8}}
| death_place        = [[Pavia]], [[Duchy of Milan]]
| death_cause        = 
| nationality        = [[Italy|Italian]]
| citizenship        = <!-- use only when necessary per [[WP:INFONAT]] -->
| other_names        = 
| occupation         = [[Jurist]], [[university teacher]], [[lawyer]], [[writer]]
| period             = 
| known_for          = 
| title              = 
| boards             = 
| spouse             = 
| partner            = 
| children           = 
| parents            = Ambrogio Alciati and Margherita Alciati (née Landriani)
| relatives          = [[Francesco Alciati]]
| awards             = <!--notable national-level awards only-->
| website            = 
| education          = 
| alma_mater         = {{flatlist|
* [[University of Pavia]]
* [[University of Bologna]]
* [[University of Ferrara]]
}}
| thesis_title       = 
| thesis_url         = 
| thesis_year        = 
| school_tradition   = Mos gallicus iura docendi
| doctoral_advisor   = 
| academic_advisors  = 
| influences         = [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], [[Tacitus]], [[Tribonian]], [[Bartolus de Saxoferrato]], [[Erasmus]]
| era                = 
| discipline         = Civilist, legal theorist, philosopher of law
| sub_discipline     = 
| workplaces         = {{flatlist|
* [[Avignon University]]
* [[University of Bourges]]
* University of Pavia
* University of Bologna
* University of Ferrara
}}
| doctoral_students  = 
| notable_students   = [[Bonifacius Amerbach]], [[Viglius]], [[François Connan]], [[Johannes Secundus]], [[Antonio Agustín y Albanell]], [[Giulio Claro]]
| main_interests     = 
| notable_works      = ''[[Emblemata]]'' (1531)
| notable_ideas      = 
| influenced         = French school of legal humanism
| signature          = 
| signature_alt      = 
| signature_size     = 
| footnotes          = 
| resting_place      = Chiesa di Sant'Epifanio
}}
'''Andrea Alciato''' (8 May 1492{{snd}}12 January 1550),<ref>{{cite book|last=Bregman|first=Alvan|title=Emblemata: The emblem books of Andrea Alciato|year=2007|publisher=Bird & Bull Press|location=Newtown, Pa}}</ref> commonly known as '''Alciati''' ('''Andreas Alciatus'''), was an Italian [[jurist]] and writer.<ref>D. Bianchi, 1913. "L'opera letteraria e storica di Andrea Alciato", ''Archivio storico lombardo'', 4th series '''20''':47–57.</ref>  He is regarded as the founder of the French school of [[legal humanists]].

==Biography==
[[File:Andreas-Alciatus-Opera-omnia MG 0360.tif|thumb|Engraving of Andrea Alciato]]
Alciati was born in [[Alzate Brianza]], near [[Milan]], and settled in France in the early 16th century. He displayed great literary skill in his exposition of the laws, and was one of the first to interpret the [[civil law (common law)|civil law]] by the history, languages and literature of [[antiquities|antiquity]], and to substitute original research for the servile interpretations of the glossators.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Alciati, Andrea|volume=1|page=522}}</ref> He published many legal works, and some annotations on [[Tacitus]] and accumulated a sylloge of Roman inscriptions from Milan and its territories, as part of his preparation for his history of Milan, written in 1504–05.<ref>Roberto Weiss, 1969. ''The Renaissance Discovery of Antiquity'', pp 152f.</ref>

Among his several appointments, Alciati taught law at the [[University of Bourges]] between 1529 and 1535. It was [[Guillaume Budé]] who encouraged the call to Bourges at the time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jenny |first=Beat R. |title=Bonifacius Amerbach |publisher=Schwabe Verlag |year=1995 |isbn=9783796510083 |editor-last=Jacob-Friesen |editor-first=Holger |location=Basel |pages=54 |language=de |editor-last2=Jenny |editor-first2=Beat R.}}</ref> [[Pierre Bayle]], in his [[General Dictionary, Historical and Critical|General Dictionary]] (article "Alciat"), relates that he greatly increased his salary there, by the "stratagem" of arranging to get a job offer from the [[University of Bologna]] and using it as a negotiation point [https://books.google.com/books?id=PmZZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA444].

Alciati is most famous for his ''[[Emblemata]],'' published in dozens of editions from 1531 onward. This collection of short [[Latin verse]] texts and accompanying woodcuts created an entire European genre, the [[emblem book]], which attained enormous popularity in continental [[Europe]] and [[Great Britain]].

Alciati died at [[Pavia]] in 1550.<ref name="EB1911"/> His heir, [[Francesco Alciati]], commissioned a huge [[mausoleum]] in the Church of S. Epifanio.

==Works==
[[File:Emblema CLXXXIX.gif|right|thumb|Emblem 189: ''Mentem, non formam, plus pollere'' ("mind, not outward form, prevails")]]

* ''Annotationes in tres libros Codicis'' (1515)
* ''[[Emblemata|Emblematum libellus]]'' (1531)
* {{Cite book|title=De ponderibus et mensuris|publisher=Melchiorre Sessa|location=Venezia|year=1532|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=13750776}}
* ''Opera omnia'' (Basel 1546–49)
* ''Rerum Patriae, seu Historiae Mediolanensis, Libri IV'' (Milan, 1625) a history of Milan, written in 1504–05.
* ''De formula Romani Imperii'' (Basilae: Ioannem Oporinum, 1559, ''[[editio princeps]]'')<ref>{{cite web| url = https://opac.vatlib.it/stp/detail/10416314| title = OVL - VATICAN LIBRARY}}</ref>
* {{Cite book|title=In Digestorum titulos aliquot commentaria|volume=1|publisher=Compagnie des libraires|location=Lyon|year=1560|language=la|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11135576}}

<gallery>
File:Alciati, Andrea – De ponderibus et mensuris, 1532 – BEIC 13750776.jpg|''De ponderibus et mensuris'', 1532
File:Alciati, Andrea – In Digestorum titulos aliquot commentaria, 1560 – BEIC 11135576.tif|''In Digestorum titulos aliquot commentaria'', 1560
</gallery>

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |first=Filippo|last=Picinelli|author-link=Filippo Picinelli|title=Ateneo dei letterati milanesi |date=1670 |publisher=Vigone |location=Milan |pp=25-8}}
* Andrea Alciato, ''Il libro degli emblemi secondo le edizioni del 1531 e del 1534'', with Introduction, Italian translation and commentary by Mino Gabriele (Milan: Adelphi, 2009; second revised edition 2015) ISBN 978-88-459-2967-0
* William S. Heckscher, ''The Princeton Alciati Companion. A Glossary of Neo-Latin words and phrases used by Andrea Alciati and the emblem book writers of his time, including a bibliography of secondary sources relevant to the study of Alciati's emblems'' (New York: Garland, 1989) ISBN 0-8240-3715-4

==Quotation==
{{Blockquote|text=Plenitudo potestatis nihil aliud est quam violentia.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=_KYIuoFXq84C&dq=%22nihil+aliud+est+quam+violentia%22&pg=PA344 "Plenitude of power is nothing else than violence." Responsum Bk 5, 23]</ref>}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Andrea Alciato}}
* {{cite book |last= Phillipson |first= Coleman |chapter= Andrea Alciati and his predecessors |editor1= Macdonell, John  |editor1-link = John_Macdonell_(judge)|editor2= Manson, Edward William Donoghue  |title= Great Jurists of the World |place= London |publisher=  John Murray |year=  1913 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.13326/page/n71 58–82] |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.13326|access-date= 9 March 2019  |via= Internet Archive}}
*[http://www.emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/alciato/ Alciato at Glasgow] – Reproductions of 22 editions of Alciato's emblems from 1531 to 1621
*[https://www.mun.ca/alciato/index.html Description, Reproduction and translation] Memorial University of Newfoundland
*[http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/itali/autoren/alciati_itali.html Emblemata] Latin text, Antwerp 1577, full digital facsimile, CAMENA Project

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alciato, Andrea}}
[[Category:1492 births]]
[[Category:1550 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian jurists]]
[[Category:16th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian historians]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian male writers]]
[[Category:Italian male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Italian Renaissance humanists]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Como]]