Emanuele Tesauro

Emanuele Tesauro (1592 to 1675) was an Italian philosopher, rhetorician, literary theorist, dramatist, Marinist poet and historian, born in Turin into the noble family of the counts of Salmour. He entered the Jesuit order at nineteen, taught rhetoric at Milan and Cremona, and in 1626 moved to the Savoy court at Turin as preacher to the duchess Cristina, leaving the order in 1634 but remaining a secular priest. He is remembered chiefly for Il cannocchiale aristotelico (The Aristotelian Telescope), the first and most important treatise on metaphor and conceit written in early modern Europe, which has been called a milestone in the history of aesthetics. He also served as court historiographer to the House of Savoy, tutored the future Victor Amadeus II, and died in Turin in 1675.