Strozzi, Giulio
Strozzi, Giulio
Strozzi, Giulio, Italian librettist, poet, and dramatist, adoptive father of Barbara Strozzi; b. Venice, 1583; d. there, March 31, 1652. He was the illegitimate but later legitimized son of the Venetian banker Roberto Strozzi. After training in Venice, he studied law at the Univ. of Pisa. He was active in Rome as apostolic prothonotary and became a leading figure in the Accademia degli Ordinati. Following sojourns in Padua and Urbino, he returned to Venice in the early 1620s and became a major figure in both literary and musical circles. He was a member of the Accademia degli Incogniti, and also the founder of two academies of his own, the second being the Accademia degli Unisoni (1637), which met in his residence. Strozzi was an important figure in the development of Venetian opera via his role as a librettist. His texts were set by Monteverdi, Manelli, Sacrati, Cavalli et al. He also wrote the texts for his adopted daughter’s first book of madrigals.
—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire