Silvio, a man of great learning, who raised himself from a low condition by his merit, was born at Rome in the year 1540. At the age of ten he could make verses impromptu on any subject proposed. The duke of Ferrara, coming to Rome to congratulate Marcellus II. on his elevation to the pontificate, was so charmed with the genius of Antoniano, that he carried him to Ferrara, where he made him professor of literature at the age of sixteen. From thence he was sent for by Pius IV., who made him professor of the belles lettres in the college of Wisdom at Rome. Antoniano filled this place with so much reputation, that, on the day when he began to explain the oration of Cicero pro Marcello, he had among his numerous auditors no less than twenty-five cardinals. He was afterwards chosen rector of the college; and after the death of Pius IV., being seized with a spirit of devotion, he joined himself to Filippo Neri, and accepted the office of secretary to the sacred college, offered him by Pius V., which he held for twenty-five years. He refused three bishoprics which Gregory XIV. would have given him; but he accepted the office of secretary to the Briefs, offered him by Clement VIII., who made him his chamberlain, and afterwards a cardinal. His excessive application to study brought on a sickness, of which he died in the sixty-third year of his age. A work of his on education was published at Verona in 1584, 4to; and some Orations appeared after his death in 1610, 4to, Rome. He wrote, besides, numerous discourses and poems, both in Latin and Italian.