competition of the Jeux Floraux. After a period of service
at the bar in Paris he was appointed to a number of im-
portant legal posts in the provinces. As a member of Henry
II’s Grand Conseil, he expressed his patriotism in the
Hymne de la monarchie (1567). Garnier’s dramatic works
reveal his preoccupation with moral and religious issues;
his early plays, which were heavily influenced by SENECA,
include Porcie (1568), Hippolyte (1573), Marc-Antoine
(1578), and Antigone (1580). With Bradamante (1582), in-
spired by Ariosto’s ORLANDO FURIOSO, Garnier pioneered
the genre of tragicomedy in French literature. The tragedy
Les Juives (1583), generally considered to be his finest
work, deals with the Old Testament story of the sufferings
of Zedekiah and his family at the hands of Nebuchadnez-
zar.
Further reading: Gillian Jondorf, Robert Garnier and
the Themes of Political Tragedy in the Sixteenth Century
(Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1969).
Garofalo, Il (Benvenuto Tisi) (1481–1559) Italian
painter
The most prolific of the 16th-century Ferrarese school,
Garofalo studied in Cremona and visited Venice and
Rome, where he came under the influence of RAPHAEL. He
served his first apprenticeship with Domenico Panetti
and, after settling in Ferrara, associated with Dosso DOSSI,
whose influence is evident in the treatment of landscape
backgrounds in several of Garofalo’s works, including his
pictures of the Nativity (pre-1520) and his fine Sacrifice to
Ceres (1526). Other works, the majority of which are com-
petent but unoriginal, can be seen in certain Ferrarese
churches, most notably the Madonna del Pilastro in San
Francesco. He went blind in 1550.
gastronomy See FOOD AND COOKING
Gattamelata, Il (Erasmo da Narni) (1370–1443) Italian
soldier
Born in Padua the son of a baker, Gattamelata served his
military apprenticeship under Braccio da Montone and
Niccolò PICCININObefore serving in the Florentine and
papal armies. It is unclear how he acquired his nickname,
which means “honeyed cat.” In 1434 he entered the ser-
vice of Venice. During the republic’s wars with the VIS-
CONTI FAMILY of Milan, he developed a reputation for
resourcefulness, determination, and leadership. His most
famous exploit was to have his army drag five galleys and
25 other vessels overland from Mori on the Adige to Lake
Garda to launch a surprise attack on a Milanese transport
station. The tale is marred only by the failure of the raid.
By the time he died, Gattamelata was captain-general of
Venice, a position that earned him a state funeral and an
EQUESTRIAN MONUMENTby DONATELLO, which stands out-
side the church of the Santo in Padua.
Gazes, Theodore (Theodore Gaza) (c. 1400–1475)
Greek scholar and teacher of Greek
Born at Thessalonica, he came to Italy in 1430 and lived at
Mantua, supporting himself by giving Greek lessons and
copying manuscripts while learning Latin from VITTORINO
DA FELTRE. He was made professor of Greek at Ferrara
(1447) but in 1450 went to Rome at the invitation of Pope
Nicholas V. In 1456 he moved to Naples and in 1459 to
Calabria, where he died. He wrote a Greek grammar in
Greek, which was printed in Venice (1495) and long re-
mained a standard textbook, and he translated many
Greek authors into Latin, including Aristotle, Theophras-
tus, and John Chrysostom.Gelli, Giambattista (1498–1563) Italian translator,
dramatist, and philosopher
Gelli had little formal education and was born of a rela-
tively poor Florentine family. He trained as a shoemaker
and tailor and in his spare time he studied Latin and
Greek. He was a committed supporter of the Tuscan ver-
nacular tongue for which he became a member of the Ac-
cademia degli Umidi (the Accademia Fiorentina from
1541). Gelli translated philosophical works from Latin,
wrote comedies, and lectured on Petrarch and Dante. He
is especially remembered for I capricci del bottaio (The
Caprices of the Cooper; 1546), consisting of 10 dialogues
between Giusto, the cooper, and his own soul; it covers
satirically a range of subjects although its dominant idea
is that wisdom does not ensure virtue. The book attracted
the oppprobrium of the Church and by 1562 it had been
placed on the Index of forbidden reading (see INDEX LI-
BRORUM PROHIBITORUM). In La Circe (1549) the human
condition is discussed in a dialogue between Ulysses and
some men who had been turned into animals by Circe;
they reject the chance to resume human shape because of
the woes of humankind.Gemistus Plethon See PLETHON, GEORGE GEMISTUSGemma Frisius (Gemma Regnier) (1508–1555) Dutch
mathematician, astronomer, and geographer
Born at Dockum, East Friesland, he became a pupil of
Peter APIANand was educated at the university of Louvain,
where he was appointed professor of medicine (1541). In
his Libellus de locorum describendorum ratione (Little book
on a method for delineating places), incorporated in his
1533 edition of Peter Apian’s Cosmographia, Frisius pub-
lished the first clear description of how maps could be
constructed more accurately by using triangulation. Less
immediate in its application (on account of the lack of suf-
ficiently reliable timepieces at that time) was Frisius’s pro-
posal in De principiis astronomiae et cosmographiae (1553
ed.) that longitude at sea and elsewhere could be deter-
mined with the aid of portable clocks. His Arithmeticae
practicae methodus facilis (1540), judging by the 59 edi-GGeemmmmaa FFrriissiiuuss 2 20055