BALDI, BERNARDINO. - First abbot of Guastalla, poet, scientist, historian and philologist, b. in Urbino on 5 June 1553, d. there on 10 Oct. 1617. He received an excellent education in letters in his native city, and studied mathematics under the guidance of the famous Federico Commandino. While still very young, he translated and commented on Aratus' Phaenomena. In 1573 he was sent by his family to the University of Padua to study medicine, but he devoted himself with greater ardour to philosophy, to the classical languages, and, with the help of foreign students, to the modern ones. The plague of 1575 forced him to return to his native city, where he wrote the life of his lamented teacher F. Commandino, and resumed his mathematical studies under Guidobaldo del Monte.
Having become famous as a scientist, Don Ferrante II Gonzaga, Duke of Guastalla, wanted him, also on the advice of St. Charles Borromeo, to join him as a teacher of mathematics (1580), and later as a travelling companion for Spain. But B., having fallen ill, remained in Milan, taken in by St. Charles. In 1584 he was in Urbino and for his sister Eleonora, a Benedictine nun, he wrote the spiritual dialogue, Comparazione de lo stato monastico e secolare, with a sonnet (ms. in the Albani library).
After returning from Spain, Don Ferrante II Gonzaga thought of raising the vacant archpriesthood of Guastalla to the rank of abbey and of investing B. with it. During the long negotiations, B. was ordained a priest, and celebrated his first mass at Easter in 1585. He then devoted himself to the study of the sacred sciences and of the Oriental languages in order to understand the Holy Scriptures better. For this purpose he stayed in Rome, where he was appointed apostolic protonotary. In 1609, because of disagreements, he renounced the abbey, and returned to Urbino in the service of Duke Francesco Maria II della Rovere. Family bereavements embittered the last years of his life. He was buried in the church of St. Francis, dressed in the Franciscan habit.
He knew, says Crescimbeni, sixteen languages, which Mazzucchelli lists: "Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish, French, old Provençal, old Sicilian, German, Hungarian, Slavonic (Croatian), Hebrew, Chaldean (Aramaic), Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Etruscan."
His poetic works are numerous, among them La Nautica, a didactic poem celebrated as his masterpiece, and Il Diluvio Universale (Pavia 1604), famous in the history of Italian versification. He translated Gli automati, ovvero macchine semoventi, by Hero of Alexandria (Venice 1589 and 1601); he also composed works of erudition; worthy of particular mention are: the Cronaca de' matematici, ovvero epitome dell'istoria delle vite loro (Urbino 1707); Memorie concernenti la città di Urbino (Rome 1724); Della vita e dei fatti di Guidobaldo I da Montefeltro, in 2 vols. (Milan 1821, 2nd ed. 1852); Vita e fatti di Federico di Montefeltro in 3 vols. (Rome 1824; 2nd ed. Bologna 1826).
Very many of his works remained in manuscript; his friend Marco Velfero, who was to have overseen their publication, was prevented from doing so by death. Not a few, moreover, were lost in a fire in the Guastalla archive. Among them some dealt with biblical subjects, juridical subjects, ecclesiastical culture, sermons, etc. There was no lack even of grammars of Oriental languages.