Ottavio Tronsarelli

Ottavio Tronsarelli ( – 31 August 1646) was an Italian Baroque poet, librettist and man of letters.

Biography Ottavio Tronsarelli was born in Rome around 1586 of a wealthy family. His father, Antonio, was a famous art collector. He attended the Roman College, where he studied under Famiano Strada, Bernardino Stefonio and Terenzio Alciati. Tronsarelli was the author of two epic poems, one on the Emperor Constantine the Great, Il Costantino (Rome, 1629), the other on the battle of Lepanto, La Vittoria Navale (Rome, 1633), of more than thirty librettos, and of numerous other pieces in prose and verse. He was a member of the Accademia degli Ordinati of Rome.

Tronsarelli is best remembered for the libretto of Domenico Mazzocchi's La catena d'Adone, based on episodes from Giambattista Marino's epic poem L'Adone (1623). In 1632 he collected and published all his drammi per musica (except for two: La catena d'Adone and Dafne) in a single edition. Tronsarelli contributed a good deal of the text of Giovanni Baglione's Lives of the painters, sculptors, architects, including the 22 Latin distichs that preface the work. He was the author of several antiquarian works, including Le grandezze di Roma, a compilation from the Justus Lipsius' Admiranda, sive de Magnitudine Romana published as a supplement to the Italian translation of Orazio Torsellino's Ristretto dell'historie del mondo. Tronsarelli died in Rome on August 31, 1646. His eulogy was recited by the piarist father Francesco della Nunziata.

Works