ANGELO, was born at Monte Pulciano in Tuscany in 1454. He learned the Greek tongue, of which he became a complete master, under Andronicus of Thessalonica. He is said to have written verses both in Greek and Latin when he was not more than 12 years of age. He studied also the Platonic philosophy under Marsilio Ficinus, and that of Aristotle under Argyropoulos. He was one of the most learned and polite writers of his time. The first work which gained him a reputation was a poem on the tournament of Julian de Medicis. The account he wrote some time after of the conspiracy of the Pazzi's was very much esteemed. He wrote many other pieces which have merited approbation; and had he lived longer, he would have enriched the republic of letters with many excellent works; but he died at the age of 40 years. His morals answered the homeliness of his face rather than the beauty of his genius; for Paul Jovius informs us, that "he was a man of awkward and perverse manners, of..." a countenance by no means open and liberal, a nose remarkably large, and squinting eyes. He was crafty, satirical, and full of inward malice: for his constant way was, to sneer and ridicule the productions of other men, and never to allow any criticism, however just, upon his own."

He was, nevertheless, as all acknowledged, a man of most consummate erudition; and not only so, but a very polite and elegant writer. Erasmus, in his Ciceronianus, calls him a rare miracle of nature, on account of his excelling in every kind of writing; his words are remarkable: "Fateor Angelum profus angelicae fulsae mente, varum naturae miraculum, ad quodcunque fertur genus apphicatimum." Some of his poems were so much admired, that several learned men have made it their business to comment on them. It has been often reported that he spoke of the Bible with great contempt; and that, having read it but once, he complained he had never spent his time so ill. But this is not probable, for it must be remembered that he was a priest and canon of Florence; and we learn from one of his epistles that he preached a whole Lent. It does not indeed follow hence, that he did not think contemptuously of the Bible, because many of his church, especially among the better sort, have not been very good believers, and he might be one of them: but it is not likely he would speak out so freely. "I could (as Bayle says) much more easily believe the judgment he is said to have made on the Psalms of David and the Odes of Pindar: he did not deny that there are many good and fine things in the Psalms; but he pretended that the same things appear in Pindar with more brightness and sweetness. The two Scaligers have spoken highly of Politian: the elder has preferred a consolatory elegy of his to that which Ovid sent to Livia upon the death of Drusus, and says, he had rather have been the author of it: the younger calls him an excellent poet, but thinks the style of his epistles too elate and declamatory.

His works have been printed at various times, and in various places: his epistles have probably been most read, because these are things which the generality of people are best pleased with.