| Fetchwikidata: | ALL |
| Birth Place: | Ferrara, Duchy of Ferrara |
| Death Place: | Ferrara, Duchy of Ferrara |
| Occupation: | writer |
| Movement: | Renaissance humanism |
Giovan Battista Pigna (April 8, 1529November 4, 1575) was an Italian humanist, poet and historian from Ferrara. A reformer of the University of Ferrara, Pigna was secretary to Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and court historian at Ferrara.[1]
Pigna's I romanzi (1554) argued that chivalric romances like those of Ariosto were a modern form of poetry equal to those considered by Aristotle's Poetics. Torquato Tasso, who succeeded Pigna as court historian, attacked Pigna's defence of Ariostan poetry in his Discorsi dell'arte poetica.[1]