A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Florio, John
Florio, John (1553?-1625).—Translator, s. of an Italian preacher, exiled for his Protestantism, but who appears to have lost credit owing to misconduct, b. in London, was, about 1576, a private tutor of languages at Oxf. In 1581 he was admitted a member of Magdalen Coll., and teacher of French and Italian. Patronised by various noblemen, he became in 1603 reader in Italian to Anne of Denmark, Queen of James I. He pub. First Fruites (1578), Second Fruites (1591), consisting of Italian and English Dialogues, and his great Italian dictionary entitled A World of Wonder, in 1598. His chief contribution to pure literature is his famous translation of The Essays of Montaigne, in stately if somewhat stiff Elizabethan English.