SPAGNUOLO (SPAGNOLI), BATTISTA (*Baptista Mantuanus*), blessed. — Born in Mantua on 17 April 1448, died there in 1516.
After studying in Padua and elsewhere, he entered the Carmelite Order, of which he was elected superior general in 1513. A good humanist and man of letters, he was esteemed in his time as a new Virgil and won the admiration, among others, of Erasmus and Pico della Mirandola, with whom he was on cordial terms. His *Eglogae*, in Virgilian style, were celebrated, and especially the *Parthenicae*, hexameters dedicated to the Virgin and to certain saints. In his compositions, there recurs frequently the parenthetical intent, with explicit deplorations of the corruption of the Roman curial environment. His cult was confirmed by Leo XIII on 17 December 1885. Feast day: 20 March.