John Florio

Born in London to an Italian Protestant family that had fled religious persecution, John Florio grew up between languages and cultures. That background shaped his whole career: he became a teacher, courtly man of letters, and one of the most important interpreters of Italian learning for English readers.

Florio is especially remembered for his Italian-English dictionaries, including A Worlde of Wordes, which greatly expanded the range of available vocabulary and helped document language in energetic, curious detail. He also translated Michel de Montaigne’s Essays into English, producing a version admired for its richness and verbal flair.

Working in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Florio moved in influential literary circles and served patrons at court. His writing captures the mix of scholarship, wit, and cultural exchange that made the period so fertile, and his work still matters to readers interested in language, translation, and Shakespeare’s England.