Page:The Oxford book of Italian verse.djvu/555

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NOTES

Magno (page 257). Born at Venice. Travelled. Secretary of the Senate and one of the Council of Ten.

Guarini (page 263). Born at Ferrara. Studied at Padua; professor of rhetoric at Ferrara; member of the Accademia deglt Eterei of Padua; went to the court of Alfonso II d'Este, 1567. Went on political missions; was present at the production of Tasso's Aminta at Ferrara in 1573. Afterwards in the services of Carlo Emanuele of Savoy, the Duke of Urbino, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Went to Rome in 1605 to offer the homage of Ferrara to Paul V. Was head of the society of the Umoristi. Died at Venice. He wrote the famous Pastor Fido; it was acted for the first time at Crema in 1596.

Torquato Tasso (page 265). Born at Sorrento. Studied under the Jesuits at Naples. After his father had lost most of his possessions, the family went to Rome, and then to the court of Guidobaldo II at Urbino. Studied law at Padua; was for two years at the University of Bologna, but had to leave because he recited a pasquinade (probably written by someone else) on the manners of the professors and students. He published the Rinaldo in 1562, and in 1565 was attached to the court of Ferrara in the service of Cardinal Luigi D'Este. Worked at the Gerusalemme Liberata for six years, and fell in love with the Duke's sister Leonora. Wrote the Aminta in 1572; in 1575 an obscure mental disease began to develop in him; he disappeared from the court on various occasions, wandering aimlessly over Italy, and had to be put under restraint in the asylum of St. Anna, Ferrara; the Duke seems to have treated him as kindly as possible. He died in the convent of Sant'Onofrio in Rome when Clement VIII was about to crown him laureate on the Capitol. [Gerusalemme Liberata, 3 vols., ed. Solerti, Firenze, 1895-6; Opere mlnori, ed. A. Solerti, Bologna, 1891-5.]

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