John Florio

Timeline

1. 1601–1610London · EnglandBy the late Elizabethan period Florio had entered London literary circles, and in 1604 he was formally appointed a gentleman of the bedchamber to Queen Anne. During this period he taught Italian at court, introduced continental scholarship, and associated with writers such as Ben Jonson and John Donne, becoming an important conduit for Italian culture in England.
2. 1603London · EnglandIn 1603 Florio published his English translation of Montaigne's Essays, introducing the French humanist classic to England in ornate prose that influenced Shakespeare's late plays and metaphysical prose writing. The translation became the main route for seventeenth-century English intellectuals to read Montaigne.
3. 1608–1610London · EnglandIn 1608 Florio issued an enlarged edition of his Montaigne translation and became Italian tutor to Prince Henry, later also teaching Princess Elizabeth. He played a key role in court humanist education, integrating the Italian Renaissance scholarly tradition into the court culture of early Stuart England.