MARTELLI, PIER JACOPO. - Man of letters, born in Bologna on 28 April 1665, died there on 10 May 1727. He taught rhetoric in his native city. In 1713 he accompanied Monsignor Aldovrandi, apostolic minister, to France, and stayed in Paris for nine months, publishing there a Dialogo sopra la tragedia antica e moderna (1714). After his Teatro was printed in Rome (1715), he was summoned to Bologna to fill the post of chief secretary of the Senate, which he held until his death.
M., unjustly known to posterity almost solely for the “martelliano” verse (double heptameter), was one of the most prolific and ingenious writers of the early eighteenth century. Opposed by Gravina and Maffei, he took revenge with the Femia sentenziato (1724), in blank verse that pleased Parini. He wrote melodramas, comedies, and tragedies; he also cultivated lyric poetry and satire: noteworthy are his Canzoniere (1710) and Il Secretario Cliternale (1717), seven satires in terza rima, in which he pretends to teach a foolish nobleman, Baron di Cervara, how to become a man of letters: a pre-Parinian example of sustained ironic instruction. He also attempted epic poetry: in his last years he worked on the Carlo Magno, which, had it been completed, would have taken first place among the epic poems of the eighteenth century. Among his witty and lively prose works, Il vero parigino italiano should not be forgotten: three Lucianic dialogues written in defence of national honour.
BIRL.: editions: Opere, 7 vols., Bologna 1729-33. Studies: I. Carini, L'Arcadia, I, Roma 1891, p. 186 ff.; A. Restori, Il « Carlo Magno », poema inedito di P. J. M., Cremona 1891; G. Toffanin, L'eredità del Rinascimento in Arcadia, Bologna 1924, pp. 249-66; B. Croce, I versi di Teresa Zani; Le prose di P. J. M., in Letter. ital. del '700, Bari 1949, pp. 58-92. Giulio Natali