[610] Strozzi, Poetae, p. 31 sqq. ‘Caesaris Borgiae ducis epicedium.’
‘Pontificem addiderat, flammis lustralibus omneis
Corporis ablutum labes, Dis Juppiter ipsis,’ etc.
[612] This was Ercole II. of Ferrara, b. April 4, 1508, probably either shortly before or shortly after the composition of this poem. ‘Nascere, magne puer, matri expectate patrique,’ is said near the end.
[613] Comp. the collections of the Scriptores by Schardius, Freher, &c., and see above p. 126, note 1.
[614] Uzzano, see Archiv. iv. i. 296. Macchiavelli, i Decennali. The life of Savonarola, under the title Cedrus Libani, by Fra Benedetto. Assedio di Piombino, Murat. xxv. We may quote as a parallel the Teuerdank and other northern works in rhyme (new ed. of that by Haltaus, Quedlinb. and Leipzig, 1836). The popular historical songs of the Germans, which were produced in great abundance in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, may be compared with these Italian poems.
[615] We may remark of the Coltivazione of L. Alamanni, written in Italian ‘versi sciolti,’ that all the really poetical and enjoyable passages are directly or indirectly borrowed from the ancients (an old ed., Paris, 1540; new ed. of the works of A., 2 vols., Florence, 1867).
[616] E.g. by C. G. Weise, Leipzig, 1832. The work, divided into twelve books, named after the twelve constellations, is dedicated to Hercules II. of Ferrara. In the dedication occur the remarkable words: ‘Nam quem alium patronum in totâ Italiâ invenire possum, cui musae cordisunt, qui carmen sibi oblatum aut intelligat, aut examine recto expendere sciat?’ Palingenius uses ‘Juppiter’ and ‘Deus’ indiscriminately.
[617] L. B. Alberti’s first comic poem, which purported to be by an author Lepidus, was long considered as a work of antiquity.
[618] In this case (see below, p. 266, note 2) of the introduction to Lucretius, and of Horace, Od. iv. 1.