Lodovico Sergardi

Lodovico Sergardi (b. at Siena, 1660; d. at Spoleto, 7 November 1726) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and poet, chiefly known for his vivid latin satires against the jurist Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, models of composition, which for nearly a decade kept the Roman public in an uproar. Sergardi's satires were an influence on Parini's Il giorno.

Biography

Sergardi was born in Siena of a noble family on 27 March 1660. As a youth he studied painting, literature, and philosophy, and showed a passionate inclination toward poetry.

In October 1684 he went to Rome to study jurisprudence. Soon after his arrival at Rome he began to make acquaintances among the literati of the city, and soon became the protégé of Prince Chigi. He befriended cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, and served him as Prefect of St. Peter's Basilica when he was elected pope as Alexander VIII in 1689.

An active member of the Republic of Letters, Sergardi soon became friends with such eminent scholars as Jean Mabillon and Francesco Bianchini, the keeper of the Ottoboni Library. In 1691 Sergardi became a member of the Academy of Arcadia under the pseudonym of “Licone”.

During the seances of the Academy, Sergardi began a spirited debate with the famed jurist Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina. The hatred between them soon split the academy into supporting factions. Sergardi attacked Gravina in a series of bitter latin satires published under the pseudonym of Quintus Sectanus (1694).

Sergardi's satires appeared in five editions between 1694 and 1701. They have the force, the poetical expression, and the freedom or, rather, licentiousness, of Juvenal. The Satires were translated into Terza rima as it is believed by the author himself. The latter part of the fourteenth is particularly fine. The Spanish scholar Manuel Martí published his Satyromastix in defence of Gravina.

Sergardi also had artistic and medical interests; he designed the pavement for St. Peter's Square and the position of the Vatican Obelisk, and sketched the kidney stones found in Pope Innocent XI's body after his death. Sergardi died in Spoleto in November 1726. He was buried in the Cathedral of Spoleto.

Works

Quinti Sectani satyræ in Philodemum (Naples, or Rome), 1694, in-8°. Satire di Settano tradotte in terza rima, Zürich (Florence), 1760, in-8°. Oratio pro eligendo summo pontifice post obitum Innocentii XI, Rome, 1689, in-4°. Orazione recitata in Campidoglio per l’accademia dell’arti liberali, ibid., 1703, in-4°. Distinta relazione della gran sala della cancelleria apostolica, ibid., 1719, in-4°. Discorso sopra il nuovo ornato della Guglia di San Pietro, ibid., 1723, in-fol. Relazione della statua equestre di Carlo Magno, eretta nel portico Vaticano, Siena, 1725, in-fol. Satyræ, argumentis, scholiis, enarrationibus illustratæ, Lucca, 1783, 4 vols. in-8°.