Born in Capolona nearArezzo, he studied Greek withFilelfo andCarlo Marsuppini in Florence and withVittorino da Feltre in Mantua, perfected his Greek by spending five years in Greece between 1433 and 1438.[1] In 1447 he came to Rome to work withPope Nicholas V (Tommaso Parentucelli, 1447–1455). In 1453 he was named abbotin commenda of the abbey of San Sebastiano at Alatri, some 40 miles south of Rome, in what was then Campania. He restored and embellished the ancient monastery, where he may have spent much of the rest of his life.[2] His major work, dedicated to Nicholas V, was theDe Orthografia, a vast study of ancient Greek and Latin, antiquarian and erudite.[3] Special attention is now giving to epigraphical and grammatical sources ofDe Orthographia: in the theoretical section, at the beginning of the treatise, Tortelli handed down some grammatical fragments ascribable toPliny the Elder’sDubius sermo and to Papirianus, both of which are sources in Priscianus’De litteris. Tortelli attributed the existence of other fragments also to a Greek grammarian called Parthenius.[4] Under the item "Archimedes" one can found one of the first witness of the new humanistic translation of the Archimedean corpus, made byIacopo da San Cassiano in the first half of the 15th century.[5]
^G. Mancini, Giovanni Tortelli cooperatore di Niccolò V nel fondare la Biblioteca Vaticana, in "Arch. Storico Italiano" 78, 1920, pp. 1-108
^A. Manfredi, "Apud Alatrium, Campaniae Oppidum": Giovanni Tortelli and the Abbey under Pope Nicholas V" in E. Fentress, C. Goodson, M. Laird and S. Leone, eds.,Walls and Memory. The Abbey of San Sebastiano at Alatri (Lazio) from Late Roman Monastery to Renaissance Villa and Beyond Turnhout 2005, 254-284.
^G. Donati,L'Orthographia di Giovanni Tortelli. Percorsi dei classici, 11. Messina 2006; P. Tomè,La princepsVeneziana dell’Orthographiadi Giovanni Tortelli (con cenni sulla fortuna a stampa dell’opera in Veneto), in «Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae» XVIII (2011), pp. 517-581.
^P. Tomè,Frammenti inediti del Dubius sermopliniano nell’Orthographiadi Giovanni Tortelli, in «Lexis» 27 (2009), pp. 541-575; P. Tomè,Papiri(an)us, Paperinus, Papirinus e l’Orthographiadi Giovanni Tortelli, in «Revue d’histoire des textes» n.s. 6 (2011), pp. 167-210; P. Tomè,Nevio, Lucilio e ilgrammaticus Parthenius:due autentici ‘falsi d’autore’ nell’Orthographiadi Giovanni Tortelli, in «Bollettino di Studi Latini», 41/2 (2011), pp. 556-585: all these studies are available online in unive.academia.edu/PaolaTomè
^Paolo d'Alessandro e Pier Daniele Napolitani,Archimede Latino. Iacopo da San Cassiano e il corpus archimedeo alla metà del Quattrocento, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2012.
Onorato, Aldo, Gli Amici bolognesi di Giovanni Tortelli. Messina : Centro interdipartimentale di studi umanistici, 2003. 270 p.
Raffarin-Dupuis, Anne. "Les" antiquaires" et les debuts de l'archeologie a la renaissance: la roma instaurata deflavio biondo.(edition, traduction, commentaire)." PhD diss., Paris 4, 1998.
Raffarin, Anne. 2012. "Les Sources Antiques Confrontées Aux Sources Contemporaines Dans Les Annotations À L’italia Illustrata De Flavio Biondo Traduite En Italien Par Lucio Fauno."Camena
Tome, Paola. "L'" Orthographia" di Giovanni Tortelli: studio dell'opera e delle fonti." (2012).
Tomè, Paola. "Tortelli e Valla: tra epigrafia e ortografia."Revue d'Histoire des Textes 8 (2013): 387-413.
Tomè, Paola. "Papiri (an) us, Paperinus, Papirinus e l’«Orthographia» di Giovanni Tortelli."Revue d'Histoire des Textes 6 (2011): 167-210.
Tomè, Paola. "Carlo Marsuppini nell'Orthographia di Giovanni Tortelli." (2013): 11-20.Studi rinascimentali : rivista internazionale di letteratura italiana : 11: 11-20
