Gregorio Leti

Gregorio Leti (29 May 1630 – 9 June 1701) was an Italian historian and satirist from Milan, who sometimes published under the pseudonym Abbe Gualdi, L'abbé Gualdi, or Gualdus known for his works about the Catholic Church, especially the papacy. All of his publications were listed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

Life

He was born in Milan on 29 May 1630 to Girolamo Leti and Isabella Lampugnano.

Leti's paternal grandfather, Marco, was in the service of Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini for two years and was then a judge in Ancona. He married Laura Pizzi and had two children, Agostino Francesco Nicola and Girolamo. Girolamo followed a military career under the Medici. In 1628, he was sent by Ferdinando II de Medici as an infantry Captain to Milan to help the Spaniards. Here Girolamo met and married Isabella, a Milanese noblewoman. From this marriage was born Caterina (who married Cesare Reina, secretary of the Senate of Milan) and a son, Leti.

In 1632, Leti followed his parents to Amantea, where Girolamo became garrison commander. In 1639, following the death of his father, Leti was sent by his mother to the Jesuit college at Cosenza, where he remained forcibly until 1644, when he accepted the invitation of his uncle Agostino to join him in Rome. In Rome, his uncle tried in vain to encourage Leti to start a career in law or to become a priest. Under this pressure, Leti decided to return to his mother in Milan, where he stayed until her death in 1646.

Orphaned at age 16, he was forced to return to his uncle, now a vicar in Orvieto and to adapt to the severe discipline of his tutor Don Agostino Cauli. He remained in the charge of his uncle until 1654, moving to Naples in 1647, to Milan in 1650 and returning to Rome in 1652, where he made contacts with the Academy of Humorists.