Shortly before his death in Cochin he was appointed
viceroy of India.
See also: LUSIAD, THE
Gambara, Veronica (1485–1550) Italian poet and patron
of the arts
Born near Brescia into a distinguished noble family, Gam-
bara received a humanistic education, studying theology,
Greek, Latin, and philosophy. In her teens, as a devoted
admirer of Pietro BEMBO, she sent him her own verse, and
their friendship lasted until his death (1547). In 1509 she
married Count Giberto, lord of Correggio, for whom she
wrote love poetry in the style of PETRARCH. She established
her own salon on the Correggio estate, where she courted
the political and literary elite of the day and developed
friendships with Isabella d’ESTE, Bernardo TASSO, and
Pietro ARETINO. Monarchs and popes were among her
friends, and she promoted the career of the painter COR-
REGGIO(Antonio Allegri). After she was left a widow with
two sons in 1518, she managed her estate with consider-
able skill, and in 1538 successfully resisted attack by
troops of Galeotto Pico della Mirandola. Formerly a lover
of high living, she graduated to a more reclusive way of
life in widowhood, writing sober religious verse. The first
comprehensive edition of her work, Rime e lettere, was
published in 1759.
Garamond, Claude (c. 1500–1561) French type designer,
cutter, and founder
The design and manufacture of type formed a part of
printers’ work until Garamond concentrated on these
processes alone. He worked in Paris, where he may have
been influenced by the work of the printer Geoffrey Tory,
who wrote the first treatise on type design, Champfleury,
in 1529. Garamond’s family of roman types, first used by
Robert ESTIENNEin 1531 in a book by Jacques Dubois
(Sylvius), In linguam Gallicam isagoge, included capitals,
small capitals, and lower-case letters. They became Euro-
pean standards for about 200 years, with many later ver-
sions. Garamond designed roman and italic types to
complement each other, as part of the same series, so they
would look harmonious on the page. His customers for
type included Christophe PLANTIN, so that the best sur-
viving collection of his punches and matrices is now in the
Plantin–Moretus Museum in Antwerp.
Garcilaso de la Vega (1501–1536) Spanish poet
Born in Toledo into one of the most distinguished aristo-
cratic families of Castile, as a youth Garcilaso served
Charles V in the imperial bodyguard and, apart from a
brief period of disfavor (1532), remained a member of the
highest court circle. A model courtier, he successfully
combined the aristocrat’s profession of arms and his liter-
ary vocation. In 1525 he married the noblewoman Elena
de Zúñiga, but the following year fell in love with Isabel
Freire, a lady-in-waiting at the court, the “Elisa” of his
poems. The unhappiness of this affair was increased by Is-
abel’s own marriage in 1529 and by her early death in
childbirth a few years later.
In 1532 Garcilaso left Spain, exiled briefly to the
Danube for a minor offense that displeased the emperor.
He then went to Naples where he met TASSO, Juan de
VALDÉS, and others. He took part in the Tunis campaign in
1535 and the following year was fatally wounded in an
unimportant skirmish near Fréjus during Charles V’s in-
vasion of France.
The greatest Spanish poet of his age, Garcilaso estab-
lished Petrarchan hendecasyllabic metre and the sonnet
and canzone in Spanish poetry. He also introduced the lira,
a five-line stanza of 11- and 7-syllable lines rhyming
ababb. His works, with those of his friend BOSCÁN, were
published by Boscán’s widow in 1543, the year which
marks the beginning of Spain’s Siglo de Oro. The poems in-
clude about 40 sonnets, five canciones, three eclogues, two
elegies, a verse epistle to Boscán, and eight coplas in tradi-
tional Spanish metre. Églogas I and III are concerned with
“Elisa”; I shows the influence of Petrarch and Sannazaro’s
ARCADIAand III the purely classical inspiration of Virgil
and Ovid. Garcilaso also wrote the prologue to Boscán’s
translation of THE COURTIER(done at Garcilaso’s sugges-
tion). His oeuvre rapidly assumed the status of a classic,
with editions in 1574 and in 1580, the latter by Fernando
de HERRERA.Garcilaso de la Vega (“El Inca”) (c. 1540–1616)
Spanish writer on Inca history, rituals, and mythology
Garcilaso was born at Cuzco, the son of a Spanish sea cap-
tain and an Inca noblewoman. He went to Spain in 1560.
In 1590 his Spanish translation of the Dialoghi di amore by
LEONE EBREOwas published. His own writing displays
great affection for his theme and he contradicts many
Spanish chroniclers by siding with the Incas over many
key issues. His most famous works are Comentarios reales
(1609) and Historia general del Peru (1617).gardens The designers of Italian gardens of the Renais-
sance revived and developed the plans of the ideal villa
gardens described by the Roman author Pliny the Younger.
ALBERTIdirected the choice of sloping sites, with terraces
giving views of the scenery beyond the garden, while
within its boundaries avenues, loggias, or pergolas cov-
ered with vines provided shade, and fountains, pools, and
statues added symbolic decoration to regular patterns of
clipped evergreens or groves of trees. Cypress, juniper,
bay, and ilex were among the plants used, with flowers or
fragrant herbs often confined to a small, private, walled gi-
ardino segreto (secret garden) near the house, as the de-
signs made plants subservient to symmetry. Many of these
features may be seen in the illustrations to Colonna’s HYP-
NEROTOMACHIA POLIFILI(1499). Grottoes were favoriteggaarrddeennss 2 20033