A Renaissance man indeed

Il Dialogo dell'Oratore di Cicerone, tradotto per M. Lodovico Dolce (Venice : Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1547)

Wondering if I might find something interesting to put in this blog (without having to do a lightning course in the use and influence of Cicero's De Oratore in the Renaissance), I Googled Lodovico Dolce, expecting to find he was no more than an obscure hack translator. But it turns out he was one of the most active intellectuals of his day -- art theorist, playwright, historian, writer of romances, translator, editor ... And also, remarkably in such a contentious age, a man who lived up to his name of 'dolce' -- 'mild', 'gentle'. He was also known as 'the indefatigable' -- if you read the blurb for Ronnie H. Terpening's study of him you will soon see why!