Galileo, poetry, and patronage: Iulio strozzi's venetia edificata and the lace of galileo in seventeenth-century talian poetry

The Venetian poet and librettist Giulio Strozzi (1583 -1652) spent much of his career glorifying he Serenissima through a series of theatrical pieces. His only epic poem, the Venetia edificata (1621, 1624), while ostensibly a celebration of the republic, shows a level of commitment to alileo Galilei (1564 -1643) and to Galileo's science that is unique among poets of the time, enetian or otherwise. It is the apex of Strozzi's artistic project to incorporate Galileo's discoveries nd texts into poetic works. The Venetia edificata also represents the culmination of a fifteen-year ffort to gain patronage from the Medici Grand Dukes in Florence. While the first, incomplete ersion is dedicated to the Venetian Doge, the second, finished version is dedicated to Grand DukeFerdinando II de' Medici of Florence. More than a decade after Galileo's departure from the eneto to Florence, Strozzi cites from Galileo's early works, creates a character inspired by Galileo, ncorporates the principles of Galileo's science into the organizing structure of the poem, and nswers one of Galileo's loudest complaints about Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1581). trozzi's strategies both in writing the Venetia edificata and in seeking patronage for it underscore he ambivalent response to Galileo in contemporary poetry.