Francesco Maria Molza

Francesco Maria Molza (18 June 1489 in Modena – 28 February 1544 in Modena) was an Italian poet of the Renaissance. He has been described as "one of the most promising of contemporary authors".[1]

Life

Pope Leo X, known as the Medici Pope, carried on his family's tradition of patronage of the arts begun by his great-grandfather Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence. Upon hearing of the generosity of this new pope, Francesco Maria Molza abandoned his family – parents, wife, and children – and moved to Rome where he became infatuated with a woman and wrote poems to her; he wrote the pastoral poem La ninfa Tiberina in praise of Faustina Mancini and went through a series of various amours. He was at one point attacked and seriously wounded by a would-be assassin. After Leo's death, he moved to Bologna where he joined the entourage of Ippolito de' Medici.[2] He wrote five novellas, four of which were published in Lucca after his death in 1549.[1]

He died in 1544 of syphilis.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Brand, Peter, ed. (1996). Cambridge History of Italian Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-0-521-43492-8.
  2. 1 2 Durant, Will (1953). The Renaissance. The Story of Civilization. Vol. 5. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 492.
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