Roberta Ferro

This essay analyzes epistolary writings in Latin of three prominent figures in early seventeenth-century Lombardy (Italy): Girolamo Bossi, Aquilino Coppini and Sigismondo Boldoni. Starting in 1613, Bossi and Coppini published collections of letters emulating the Classical tradition established by the masters of the local ancient Roman Gymnasium (‘Scuole Palatine’); not so Boldoni, whose letters were published only in 1651, by his brother Ottavio...

SUMMARY: Twenty-four unpublished letters, dated 1611-1612, provide documentary evidence for the biography of the sender, the Bolognese poet Girolamo Preti (1582-1626), and are an important source for the history of the Ambrosiana Library, founded in Milan by cardinal Federico Borromeo. Indeed Preti was charged by the cardinal to purchase volumes for the library and the letters contain a number of lists of printed books and manuscripts. From his letters Preti appears in friendly relationship with Girolamo Aleandro, Alessandro Tassoni, and other members of Roman literary circles; for the benefit of the Roman Accademia degli Umoristi Preti convinced cardinal Federico to give a relic of S. Carlo Borromeo.