TESTI, FULVIO. – Political figure and poet, b. in Ferrara on 23 Aug. 1593, d. in Modena on 28 Aug. 1646.
He served the Este Court in Modena; he sought and obtained court offices and advantageous diplomatic assignments in Vienna, in Rome at the court of Urban VIII (cf. the portrait of the Pontiff in the Relazione al Duca of 23 Aug. 1634), in Turin, and in Madrid. The fickleness of his character is documented by his indifferent attribution of praise and blame to persons and States, according to circumstances (cf. Rime, Venezia 1616; Modena 1617; ibid. 1653). His ambition – some hold that in the Conte zio of the Consiglio Segreto Manzoni portrayed the T. of the Epistolario – led him to experience the instability of fortune and, finally, after attempting to enter French service, imprisonment in the fortress of Modena, where he died. For the theatre he composed L'Isola d'Alcina and L'Arsinda. His epic attempts, all left unfinished, include il Costantino, l'India conquistata, and Gli Amori di Pantea; more celebrated are the ottave Pianto d'Italia, an aspiration to freedom from Spanish servitude. A follower of Chiabrera, in lyric poetry he advocated Horatian and Pindaric imitation. Leopardi stated that, had he lived in a less barbarous age, he would have been our Horace; but, while acknowledging his merits of grandeur and eloquence, he concluded that it is difficult to find a Canzone not badly smeared with the pitch of his century (Pensieri, 1, Firenze 1930, p. 110).