Francesco Saverio Quadrio

Francesco Saverio Quadrio (1 December 1695 – 21 November 1756) was an Italian scholar, historian, and writer. His most famous work is Della storia e della ragione di ogni poesia, a voluminous history of poetry, theatre, and music. It is considered the earliest attempt to produce a universal literary encyclopedia.

Biography Quadrio was born in Ponte in Valtellina. He joined the Jesuits and trained as a scholar, but finding himself uncomfortable with religious life, became suspicious and despondent, and suffered poor health from mental stress. In 1744, having received permission for a country sojourn, he reached a decision on the high road near Como to leave the order and proceeded to Switzerland, where he lived for some time, refusing offers from Protestant scholarly associations and becoming involved in several controversies. He next moved to Paris, where he met Voltaire. Finally, Pope Benedict XIV, having always treated him with decided forbearance, provided him assistance, and he retired to a convent of Barnabites. He died in Milan. Barbara Reynolds, writing in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), points out that it includes much valuable information on the history of music and early instruments, including illustrations. Volumes 2 and 3 contain articles on melodramma, oratorio, and cantata. Volume 3, part 2 (pp. 425–563), which has lists of singers, actors, writers, stage designers, costume designers, and inventors of stage machinery, and comments on production, is "invaluable for historians of opera."

Quadrio also published, among other works, the Dissertazioni critico-storiche intorno alla Rezia di qua dalle Alpi, oggi detta Valtellina (1755), which testifies to his learning and has a preface explaining his motives in changing his calling.