Lilio Gregorio, an ingenious critic, and one of the most learned men that modern Italy has produced, was born at Ferrara in 1479. He was at Rome when it was plundered by the emperor Charles V.; and having thus lost all he had, and being tormented by the gout, he struggled through life with ill fortune and ill health. He wrote, nevertheless, 17 performances, which were collected and published at Basil in 2 vols. folio in 1580, and at Leyden in 1696. Authors of the first rank have bestowed the highest eulogies on Giraldus; particularly Casaubon and Thuanus.

John Baptist Cintio, an Italian poet of the same family with the foregoing Lilio, was born in 1504. He was secretary to the duke of Ferrara, and afterwards became professor of rhetoric at Pavia. He died in 1573. His works, which consist chiefly of tragedies, were collected and published at Venice by his son Cecco Giraldi, in 1583; and some scruple not to rank him among the best tragic writers Italy has produced.