ANGELI, PIETRO ANGELO DEGLI

PIETRO ANGELO DEGLI ANGELI (also known as PIETRO ANGELO DA BARGA). — Scholar, born in Barga in 1517, died in Pisa in 1596. He lived in Bologna, where he was a pupil of Amasco, in Venice, Constantinople (in the service of France), Milan, Florence, and Pisa. A humanist of refined literary taste, he also cultivated philosophy, teaching Aristotelian philosophy in Rome. On account of his reputation as a critic, he was chosen by Tasso to examine the *Gerusalemme Liberata*. More than his *Cynegeticon* and his Virgilian-style eclogues, we recall the *Siriade* (*Syrias*), a twelve-book poem on the crusade of Godfrey of Bouillon, printed in Florence in 1591. The conjecture that Tasso drew inspiration from this work of his for his own poem is false; indeed, the opposite is true. It does, however, seem probable that the *Siriade* was present in several places in the mind of the poet of the Crusades during the composition of the *Gerusalemme Conquistata*, inasmuch as it adhered more closely to historical reality.