Bastiano de' Rossi

Pala from the Crusca with Rossi's nickname

Bastiano de' Rossi (1556–1627) was an Italian philologist and writer.[1]

He was born in San Casciano in Val di Pesa in Tuscany. Bastiano was one of the founders of the Accademia della Crusca, along with Bernardo Canigiani, Antonio Francesco Grazzini, and Lionardo Salviati. As the first secretary of the organization, he helped shepherd the first volumes of the dictionary. He was nicknamed l'inferigno: which refers to a bread mixed with bran, thus unsifted flour. Subsequent authors misspelled his nickname as inferrigno which would mean iron-like. Both seem to allude to his personality, that was described as "harsh and inflexible". Bastiano published a tract condemning the language used by Torquato Tasso. The Cruscans were focused on elevating the Tuscan Italian of Dante.[2]

References

  1. ^ Dizionario italiano multimediale e multilingue d’ortografia e di pronunzia.
  2. ^ Nuova Enciclopedia Popolare Italiana ovvero Dizionario Generale, 5th edition, Volume 20, Turin (1864); page 144.