Jacopo Bonfadio

Who was Jacopo Bonfadio?

Jacopo Bonfadio was an Italian humanist and historian. Born in Garda he was educated at Verona and Padua. From 1532 he worked as the secretary of various members of the clergy in Rome and Naples, however in 1540 gained employment in Padua with the son of Cardinal-humanist Pietro Bembo. At this time he met and became friends with notable humanists of the time and was a contemporary of Annibal Caro. He also gained fame from his poetry, for which reputation he was invited to teach philosophy at the University of Genoa in 1544. While there he was commissioned to write a history of the Republic of Genoa since 1528. In 1541, he among others, coined the term una terza natura, meaning nature improved by art, and subsequently many designers so conceived it. Large scale views of the Medici villas, the grand vistas of Louis XIV, and the planning of 16th century and later English country houses show how this term was incorporated. His humanist views earned him some powerful enemies in Genoa.