Paolo
PAOLO:
1) - GIROLAMO GASPARE (1532-1600) was the only child of Gian Battista, and was born on the 4th of July 1532. Like his father, he maintained a large correspondence with many persons of learning and note. In 1541 Francesco Contarini, procurator of St Mark's, brought from Brussels a MS. of Villehardouin's History of the Conquest of Constantinople, which he presented to the Council of Ten. In 1556 they publicly ordered its translation into Latin, and gave the commission to Paolo Rannusio. His father also seems to have taken much interest in the work, for a MS. vernacular translation by him exists in the Marciana. Paolo's book was not completed 1 Brunei's statements on the subject are borrowed, and not quite accurate. The detail in Cigogna seems to be accurale, but it is vague as lo the deficiencies of the earlier editions.
1 All of ihese are in the British Museum.
4 All at the British Museum.
* This person and his son affected the spelling Rannusio.
till 1573, many years after the father's death, and was in fact a paraphrase enlarged from other sources, thus, according to Cigogna's questionable judgment, " converting the dry story of Villehardouin into an elegant (fiorita) historical work." It was not published till 1609, nine years after Paolo's death; nor was it ever really reprinted, though it became the subject of a singular and unintelligible forgery. For Jacopo Gaffarelli, who was sent to Venice to buy books for Richelieu, having apparently procured the " remainder " copies, removed the title and preliminary pages and substituted a fresh title with the date 1634, and a dedication to his master the cardinal. 1
2) - GIROLAMO GIUSEPPE (1555-1611), the son of Paolo, was born at Venice in 1555. He entered the public service in 1577, and was employed in connexion with various foreign missions. In 1601 he published at Lyons the French text of Villehardouin; and, besides an Italian translation of this old historian (who seems thus to have furnished occupation for three generations of Ramusios), he left behind him a Storia o Cronaca di Casa Ramusia, a folio MS still in St Mark's Library. He died at Padua in 1611, and his posterity did nothing to continue the reputation of the family, official or literary.
Besides the circumstances to be gathered from the Navigationi regarding the Ramusio family, see the Iscrizioni Venete of Emanuele Cigogna. There is also in the British Museum Monografia letta il 14 Marzo 1883 . . . by Guglielmo Carradori (Rimini, 1883); but hardly-anything has been found in this except the inscription quoted at the beginning of this article. (H. Y.)
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
