SANNAZARO, JACOMO, an elegant Italian poet, was
born at Naples on the 28th of July 1458, of a noble family San Paolo, of Spanish origin, who dwelt at San Nazaro, a mansion-house situated near Pavia. He began his studies at Naples, under Giuniano Maggio, but was very early interrupted by an unfortunate love affair, which drove him to travel. Some say he went to France, where he wrote his first poem, Arcadia, in 1502, an Italian pastoral, in which he describes, in alternate prose and verse, the scenes and occupations of pastoral life, intermingling them with adventures which really occurred to himself. The poem has been greatly admired for the elegance and purity of its diction; and the author has been generally ranked with the best poets of his country. The success of this work was early extended to Spain. Ticknor, in his History of Spanish Literature, vol. iii., p. 38, says, that "Spain was the first foreign country where the Arcadia was imitated, and was afterwards the only one where such works appeared in large numbers, and established a lasting influence." In 1526 appeared the work which gained him the name of the "Christian Virgil," De Partu Virginis. This poem, which was written in Latin, was much applauded, and the author gained the sanction of Popes Leo X. and of Clement VII. to his production. This work, and his Sonetti e Canzoni, 1530, gained for their author a very wide reputation. He received great honours on his return to Naples from King Ferdinand I., and subsequently from Frederic, the last Neapolitan king, who assigned him a residence on the beautiful slope of Mont Posilipo. Sannazaro accompanied the latter king in his exile to France, where he remained while that monarch lived. On his return to Italy, it is said, he was told one day that the Prince of Orange had been slain in battle, who, among other indignities, had recently demolished the poet's country-house; when Sannazaro called out, "I shall die contented since Mars has punished this barbarous enemy of the Muses." He died soon after, on the 27th of April 1530.