MAFFEI, Giovanni Pietro (Giampietro). Bergamo 1533 — Tivoli 20.10.1603. S.J. Italian Jesuit Historian. Born in a noble family living in poverty. Educated by two maternal uncles and in Rome. From 1563 worked as Professor of Rhetorics in Genoa, before joining Jesuits in 1565. From now on studies in Rome, ordained 1571. In 1579-84 in Lisbon studying colonial history.
Publications: Historiarum Indicarum libri XVI. Florence 1588 and several editions, Italian transl. 1589.
– Rerum a Societate Jesu in Oriente gestarum tractatus. 1585 (with some missionary letters).
– A biography of Loyola (1585) and other works; Petri Maffeii Bergomatis e Societate Iesu opera omnia Latine scripta, nunc primum in unum corpus collecta. 1-2. Verona 1747.
Sources: St. Andretta, D.B.I. 67, 2006 (Treccani); Wikipedia with portrait (details in French and Italian versions).
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