COLOCCI, ANGELO

COLOCCI, ANGELO. - Humanist, b. at Iesi in 1467, d. at Rome on 1 May 1549. There he studied, devoting himself in particular to the ancient lyric poetry of Provence, entirely forgotten in the fifteenth century, under the guidance of Cariteo, who left him as a legacy a "Limousin book" (the songbook M, now in the National Library of Paris).

In 1486, at Naples, he was received into the Pontanian Academy; in 1498, having moved to Rome, he protected scholars and artists and, on the death of Pomponio Leto, opened his celebrated Horti Colotiani at Trevi to the Roman academicians and to lovers of good studies. Secretary of Leo X and of Clement VII, he made journeys to Germany and to England in order to "unite the Christian princes against the Turk." On 11 April 1537 he received the bishopric of Nocera Umbra, which he left in June 1545, and he spent his last years at Rome. He composed prized Latin poems, besides some mediocre poetry in the vernacular. In prose he wrote, among other things: Apologia alle opere di Serafino Aquilano, Annotazioni su vari autori volgari e latini, Facezie, Vita di Serafino dall'Aquila; two short novels: L'anima d'Oliviero and La notte d'amore; a Vocabolario della lingua. He collected precious manuscripts, in part preserved in the Vatican Library.