MUSSATO, ALBERTINO. - Man of letters, b. in Padua in 1261, probably to Alberto Mussio, d. at Chioggia on 31 May 1329. He was a skilled diplomat, a politician endowed with very fine intuition, a lover of his homeland and of liberty, a truthful and impartial historian, a pre-humanist poet. He began with the legal profession, in 1296 he was made a knight and undertook several missions to the Emperor. Between 1302 and 1303 he was part of a Paduan legation to Boniface VIII against the Inquisitors.
In 1315, in Padua, he was awarded the poetic crown for his literary works. He dissuaded his fellow citizens from a revolt against Cane della Scala, but, once war broke out, he distinguished himself in fighting near Marostica, Vicenza and Lonigo. Taken prisoner, he was treated humanely by Cane. Once a truce was signed between the belligerents, he returned to Padua and wrote the history of the events in which he had taken part. When war flared up again, he again rendered important services to the Paduans as a counsellor and as one of the four elder conservators of the liberty of the State. But all this did not suffice to secure him against their unjust suspicions. Exiled to Chioggia, he died there.
Various works of his have been published in RIS, X (1730): Historiae augustae de rebus gestis Henrici VII Caesaris; De gestis Italicorum post Henricum VII Caesarem; Ludovicus Bavarius; De traditione Patavii ad Caesarem Grandem; the Latin tragedies: Ecerinia and others; poems, epistles, elegies, eclogues, dialogues. His style is easy and elegant.
Bibliography
Innocenzo Giuliani