Leaf from the Lives of illustrious men / by Paolo Giovio. English translation of: Vivorum Doctorum, Ludouicus Ariostus. Goodman-Tuchmayer, Elise. Ludovico Ariosto, born from a noble family at Ferrara, since his paternal inheritance had been split among numerous offspring of his brothers and he had acquired very little, he vigilantly cultivated his talent in literature, so that the name of his family would be upheld by a sure and noble support. But fervently roused nearly equally by the goad of necessity and glory, he preferred to be celebrated with certainly more favorable judgment among the premier poets of the Etruscan language, than to stand among the second tier Latin poets, so that his hard work and diligence, although spread out very widely among the erudite and the ignorant, realized an abundance of immediate reward, and the profit of widespread praise. He was attached as a comrade to Hippolyto Atestino, when he became the cardinal of Pannonia, since he ambitiously was delighting in a learned and illustrious retinue among the Hungarian kings; but when he had refused to follow him, again going away, all the way, he so seriously offended him that a nearly implacable crisis of hatred ensued. After that he was received by Prince Alfonso, just as if a friend of all seasons, and a comrade, by whose generous hand he built an urban house, with a very pleasant abundance of gardens, equaling in daily costs the crops of a meal. But in that civil leisure, beyond the din of the atrium, he was accustomed to composing his poetry, especially satires spattered with biting wit, and likewise many comedies often demanded back by the pleasure of the theater; but among those, most of all the Suppositi excelled, and the successes of the creation contending with the easy charm of Plautus, if the customs of each age could be suitably compared. But his very splendid work, and perhaps on account of this, this book is deemed eternal, in which the war deeds of Orlando, the celebrated Hero, had to be admired, he sang in eight little measures, with Boiardo, by Hercules, and Pulci himself overcome most extraordinarily. When indeed he overcame this man in both deeds and poems with careful greatness, he completely destroyed him both by taking away the title of invention and he made that clear through various lights of rather elegant erudition. For he seems to have unrolled all his works so that, with esteem gathered for him from all sides, he might weave together from very lovely flowers, by far the most beautiful, and for that reason, eternal, garland, with which he could adorn his charming head. He died in his fatherland when up in years, when for a long time the narrowness of his chest had distressed him with the constant drip of phlegm; but this poem he composed while living so that it could be inscribed on his tomb: The bones of Ludovico Ariosto are buried Under this marble, or under this ground: or Under whatever his kind heir wanted: Or a comrade, kinder than an heir: or A traveler, more favorably happening upon it: For not at all is fortune able to know, but neither Was his body so great that While alive he wanted to prepare an empty urn, Nevertheless, while living he prepared those things for himself, Which he wanted to be written on his tomb, If, at one point, he were to have any tomb: So that when this brief, preordained space Had run out and his poor wretched spirit demands back Limbs which it had previously left behind with regret, Tearing away this and this ash from this and this, Until he gets to know himself, while he wanders. Poem of Celio Calcagnini You seek heaven, and, Ariosto, you leave behind the earth, And places now beneath your worth. We wretches, and driven for a long time by moral cares, We shed these tears not for you but for us. Your renown leads you up in a white chariot to heaven, We are crushed without you by everlasting grief. Poem of Latomus Singing about arms and a man, the poetry of the Etruscan Muse, Carrying back the victory wreath from Vergil, who even offered it. He knows you better than his Latin, his ancestral language, Better than he relates Greek things in Latin speech. b11 Text