There was a Paduan man, in the 1500s, who was a philosopher, man of letters and pupil of Pomponazzi in Bologna: this was Sperone Speroni.
Throughout his life, he would have cultivated the cult of his teacher, who died in the distant 1525, making him an interlocutory idol of many of his writings; the Pomponazzi and the Bembo would have been the beacons of the youth of this illustrious man. In his existence, Speroni was destined to become nothing less than one of the most important professors that the University of Padua would ever have in its entire history, as well as being remembered as an avid defender of the "vulgar".
There were many public offices that this man would have held over the years in Padua. As if that weren't enough, he was even one of the founders of the Accademia degli Infiammati of Padua, which had such importance in spreading and defending the vernacular throughout the rest of the Italian peninsula, keeping the line of the dear good old Bembo. Due to his outstanding skills as a learned and severe critic, Speroni became sought after by most of the writers of his time, who sought his judgment.
Even Torquato Tasso submitted his famous work “Gerusalemme Liberata” to him for revision, but on that occasion the wise philosopher was not entirely fair. Several treatises would have been born in the womb of the city of Padua, which would have been widely disseminated throughout the sixteenth century and conceived from the judgment of the unique, incomparable Sperone Speroni, in the heart of this wonderful city.
Even today, Padua does not cease to make anyone who approaches it, enters it and gets lost in its streets and opulent squares, to fall in love with it. A mirror, that of Paduan beauty, which we want to place before you; let's contemplate it together…
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