Gian Vittorio Rossi's Eudemiae libri decem

Gian Vittorio Rossi (1577-1647) was an active participant in the intellectual and artistic community in Rome orbiting around Pope Urban VIII and the powerful Barberini family. His prolific literary output encompassed letters, dialogues, orations, biographies, poetry, and fiction. A superlative Latinist, Rossi unleashed his biting wit and deep knowledge of Classical literature against perceived societal wrongs. Set on the fictional island of Eudemia in the first century CE, Eudemiae libri decem is a satirical novel that criticizes Rossi's own society for its system of patronage and favors that he saw as rewarding wealth and opulence over skill and hard work. An understudied figure, Rossi's involvement with one of Rome's premier literary academies and his relationships with intellectuals in Italy and throughout Europe provide a unique insider view of seventeenth-century Rome.

Jennifer K. Nelson received a Ph. D. in Classics from the University of Florida, an M. A. in Classics and a Master's degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Kentucky, an M. A. in Italian from the University of California at Los Angeles, and a B. A. in Italian Literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Since 2005 she has been the Reference Librarian for the Robbins Collection in Civil and Religious Law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. She was the 2019 recipient of the ESS De Gruyter European Librarianship Study Grant and has received numerous travel grants from the Librarians Association of the University of California to attend conferences where she has presented papers on Gian Vittorio Rossi and his milieu.