Aspices, lector, Prisciani vulnera mille
Gramaticamque novam, quam nos docuere putane.

The note struck by Odassi was sustained by his immediate imitators. Another Paduan author used this parody of humanistic verse to caricature a humanist, whom he called Vigonça.[416] Like Odassi, he invoked Venus Volgivaga; and like Odassi's, very little of his verse is quotable. The following extracts may be found acceptable for their humorous account of a Professor's inaugural lecture in the university of Padua.[417] Vigonça announces the opening of his course:

Ipse ante totis facit asavere piacis,
Et totis scolis mandat bolletina bidelis,
Quæ bolletina portabant talia verba:
"Comes magnificus cavalerius ille Vigonça,
Patricius Patavus comesque ab origine longa,
Vos rogat ad primam veniatis quisque legendam;
Qui veniet, magnum fructum portabit a casa."
Omnes venturos sese dixere libenter;
Promissit comes, capitaneus atque potestas,
Et paduani vechi juvenesque politi.
Lux promissa aderat, qua se smatare Vigonça
Debebat, atque suam cunctis monstrare matieram.
Ille tamen totam facit conçare la scolam,
De nigro totam facit conzare cathedram,
In qua debebat matus sprologare Vigonça;
Cetera fulgebant banchalis atque thapetis,
Et decem in brochis dicit spendidisse duchatos.

After narrating how the whole town responded to Vigonça's invitation, and how the folk assembled to hear his first address, the poet thus describes the great occasion:[418]

Sed neque bastabat ingens intrantibus ussus;
Rumpebant cupos parietes atque fenestras,
Inque ipso multos busos fecere parete.
Tunc ibi bidelus cunctos ratione pregavit,
Et sibi cavavit nigrum Vigonça biretum,
Et manicas alzans dedit hic sua verba de mato,
Et començavit sanctam faciendo la crucem.
"Magnifice pretor, pariter generose prefecte,
Tu facunde comes auri portando colanam,
Magnus philosophus, lingua in utraque poeta,
Tu primicerius, Venete spes alma paludis,
Et vos doctores, celeberrima fama per orbem,
Vos cavalerii multum sperone dorati,
Vosque scolares, cives, charique sodales!
Non ego perdivi tempus futuendo putanas,
Non ego zugando, non per bordella vagando;
Non ego cum canibus lepores seguendo veloces,
Non cum sparveris, non cum falconibus ipse;
Non ego cum dadis tabulam lissando per ullam;
Non ego cum chartis volui dissipare dinaros,
Qualiter in Padue faciunt de nocte scolares.
Quum jocant alii, stabat in casa Vigonça
Et studiabat guardando volumina longa."

This Paduan caricature may be reckoned among the most valuable documents we possess for the illustration of the professorial system in Italy during the ascendancy of humanism. Some material of the same kind is supplied by the Virgiliana of Evangelista Fossa, a Cremonese gentleman, who versified a Venetian Burla in mock-heroic Latin. He, too, painted the portrait of a pedant, Priscianus:[419]

Est mirandus homo; nam sunt miracula in illo,
Omnes virtutes habet hic in testa fichatas ...
Nam quicquid dicit, semper per littera parlat,
Atque habet in boccham pulchra hæc proverbia semper....
Est letrutus nam multum, studiavit in omni
Arte, fuit Padoe, fuit in la citta de Perosa,
Bononie multum mansit de senno robando.

But Fossa's Virgiliana, while aiming at a more subtle sort of parody than the purely maccaronic poems, misses their peculiar salt, and, except for the Hudibrastic description of the author on horseback,[420] offers nothing of great interest.

Brief notice also may be taken of Giovan Giorgio Alione's satire on the Lombards. Alione was a native of Asti, and seasoned his maccaroni with the base French of his birthplace. For Asti, transferred to the House of Orleans by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, was more than half a French city and its inhabitants spoke the Gallic dialect common to Piedmont.[421] Alione is proud of this subjection, and twits the Lombards of Milan and Pavia with being unworthy of their ancient origin no less than of their modern masters.[422] Unlike the ordinary run of burlesque poems, his Macharonea is virulently satirical. Animated by a real rage against the North Italians, Alione paints them as effeminate cowards, devoid of the sense of honor and debased by the vices of ill-bred parvenus. The opening of a Novella he relates, may be cited as a fair specimen of his style:[423]

Quidam Franzosus, volens tornare Parisum,
Certum Mìlaneysum scontravit extra viglianam
Sine capello docheti testa bagnatum:
Et cum ignoraret Gallicus hic unde fuisset
Dixit vulgariter estes vous moglie mon amicus?
Ille qui intelligit a la rebusa, respondit
Sy sy mi che ho mogle Milani et anca fiolos.
Gallus tunc cernens Lombardum fore loquela,
Et recordatus quod tempore guerre Salucis
Alixandrini fecerant pagare menestram
Scutumque sibi sgrafignarant de gibesera,
Sfodravit ensem dicens o tretre ribalde
Rendez moy sa mon escu, sy non a la morte spazat.