FLORIO, GIOVANNI English writer, was born in London about 1553. He was of Tuscan origin, his parents being Waldenses who had taken refuge in England from persecu tion. In 1578 he published a work entitled First Fruits, which was accompanied by A Perfect Induction to the Italian and Eng lish Tongues. It was dedicated to the earl of Leicester. Three years later Florio was admitted a member of Magdalen college, and became a teacher of French and Italian in the University of Oxford. In I591 appeared his Second Fruits, to which was an nexed the Garden of Recreation, yielding six thousand Italian Proverbs. These manuals contained an outline of the grammar, a selection of dialogues in parallel columns of Italian and English, and longer extracts from classical Italian writers in prose and verse. Florio's Italian and English dictionary, entitled A World of Words, was published in folio in 1598. After the accession of James I., Florio was French and Italian tutor to Prince Henry, and afterwards to the queen. His magnum opus is the admirable translation of the Essayes on Politike, and Millitarie Dis courses of Lo. Michaell de Montaigne, published in folio in 1603 in three books, each dedicated to two noble ladies. A second edi tion in 1613 was dedicated to the queen. Special interest attaches to the first edition from the circumstances that, of the several copies in the British Museum library, one bears the autograph of Shakespeare—long received as genuine but now supposed to be by an i8th century hand—and another that of Ben Jonson. This is one of the most famous of all translations, and, like all the great ones, cannot be called faithful to the letter of the original. Full of idiomatic turns of phrase, and even of words of his own invention, it does not so much render Montaigne as make him live in the new language. It was suggested by Warburton that Florio is satirized by Shakespeare under the character of Holo fernes in Love's Labour's Lost. He married the sister of the poet Daniel, and had friendly relations with many writers of his day. Ben Jonson sent him a copy of Volpone with the inscription, "To his loving father and worthy friend, Master John Florio, Ben Jonson seals this testimony of his friendship and love." He died at Fulham, London, in the autumn of 1625.
His translation of the Essays (1892-93) in the Tudor Translations Series.
See C. P. de Chambrun, Shakespeare et Florio (1916) ; L. Chambrun, Giovanni Florio (1921) .