Poliziano

Angelo Ambrogini Poliziano (July 14, 1454 – September 24, 1494) was a Florentine classical scholar and poet, one of the revivers of Humanist Latin. He used his didactic poem Manto, written in the 1480s as an introduction to his lectures on Virgil.

Early Life

Known in literary annals as Angelo Poliziano or Politianus from his birthplace, was born at Montepulciano in Tuscany. His father, Benedetto, a jurist of good family and distinguished ability, was murdered by political antagonists for adopting the cause of Piero de Medici in Montepulciano; and this circumstance gave his eldest son, Angelo, a claim on the family of Medici. At the age of ten the boy came to prosecute his studies at Florence, where he learned Latin and Greek. From Marsilio Ficino he imbibed the rudiments of philosophy. The precocity of his genius for scholarship and poetry was early manifested. At thirteen years of age he began to circulate Latin letters; at seventeen he sent forth essays in Greek versification; at eighteen he published an edition of Catullus. In 1470 he won for himself the title of flomericus juvenis by translating four books of the Iliad into Latin hexameters. Lorenzo de Medici, who was then the autocrat of Florence and the chief patron of learning in Italy, took Poliziano into his household, made him the tutor of his children, and secured him a distinguished post in the university of Florence. Lorenzo led the way himself, and Poliziano was more a follower in his path than an initiator.

Related Topics:
Montepulciano - Tuscany - Piero de Medici - Medici - Florence - Latin - Greek - Marsilio Ficino - Philosophy - Catullus - 1470 - Iliad - Lorenzo de Medici - Italy

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