GIRALDI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1504-1573 ) , sur named CYNTHIUS, CINTHIO or CINTIO, Italian novelist and poet, born at Ferrara in Nov. 1504, was educated at the university of his native town, where in 1525 he became professor of natural philosophy, and, 12 years afterwards, succeeded Celio Calcagnini in the chair of belles-lettres. Between 1542 and 156o he acted as private secretary, first to Ercole II. and afterwards to Alphonso II. of Este; but having, in connection with a literary quarrel in which he had got involved, lost the favour of his patron in the latter year, he removed to Mondovi, where he remained as a teacher of literature till 1568. He occupied the chair of rhetoric at Pavia till 1573, when he returned to his native town, where on Dec. 3o he died. Besides an epic entitled Ercole (1557), in 26 cantos, Giraldi wrote nine tragedies, the best known of which is Orbecche (1541; vol iv. of the Teatro antico, 1809). The san guinary and disgusting character of the plot of this play, and the general poverty of its style are, in the opinion of many of its critics, almost fully redeemed by occasional bursts of genuine and impassioned poetry. Giraldi won a European reputation by his Hecatommithi or Ecatomiti (modern ed. Turin, 3 vols., a collection of tales closely resembling the novels of Giraldi's con temporary Bandello, though inferior in vigour, liveliness and local colour. Originally published at Monteregale, Sicily, in 1565, they were frequently reprinted in Italy ; a French translation by Chap puys appeared in 1583 and one in Spanish in 159o. The Hecatom rnithi furnished, whether directly or indirectly, the plots of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and Othello and of Beaumont and Fletcher's Custom of the Country.