Jacopo Caviceo wrote the best-selling prose romance Il Peregrino [1508]. This proto-Romeo-and-Juliet story of the star-crossed lovers Peregrino and Genevera enjoyed great success, as evidenced by twenty-one Italian editions, nine French translations, and three Spanish translations during its first fifty-one years of publication. It “may have been the first novel specially written for women” (Letizia Panizza, The Cambridge History of Italian Literature, 159).
Born in Parma in 1443, Caviceo began studying law in Bologna, but due to disciplinary issues he had to leave the university before finishing his degree. In the early 1460s he undertook an ecclesiastical career, although evidence of a true …
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Citation: Roush, Sherry. "Jacopo Caviceo". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 August 2014 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13356, accessed 21 November 2024.]