Gasparino da Barizizza

Gasparinus de Bergamo (in Italian, Gasparino (da) Barizizza or Gasparino (da) Barzizza; in French, Gasparin de Bergame; in Latin, Gasparinus Barzizius Bergamensis) (c. 1360 – c. 1431) was an Italian grammarian and teacher noted for introducing a new style of epistolary Latin inspired by the works of Cicero.

With Pier Paolo Vergerio the Elder, he was influential in the development of humanism at Padua. As one of the first Italian Humanists, he taught rhetoric, grammar, and moral philosophy with the aim of reviving Latin literature.

Born Gasparino Di Pietrobuono in the village of Barzizza, near Bergamo, he studied grammar and rhetoric at Pavia. Remaining there to teach from 1403 to 1407, he subsequently moved to Venice to serve as private tutor to the Barbaro family.

Unable to find backing in Venice in order to establish a school there, Gasparinus then taught at Padua (1407–21), enjoying his most productive writing period, where his reputation as a teacher and scholar was established. He was appointed to lecture there on rhetoric and on authors such as Seneca, Cicero, Virgil, and Terence. He also established the elementary school, which offered a humanist curriculum. Both Vittorino da Feltre and Leon Battista Alberti owed their boyhood education to him. Antonio Beccadelli, called "Il Panormita", also studied under him.

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