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EDITED BY THE AUTHOR'S NIECE ERSILIA CORTESE DEL MONTE 4to (197x140 mm). [12], 362 pp. Collation: a4, b2, A-Z4, Aa-Yy4, Zz2. Lacking the final blank Zz2. With the printer's device on the title page. Early 19th-century gilt vellum over boards, lettering piece on spine, marbled endleaves, red edges. On the title page ownership's inscription and stamp of the Altemps library. Some light staining, but a very good, fresh copy. FIRST EDITION. It was dedicated to Pope Gregory XIII and published by Cortese's niece, Ersilia Cortese del Monte (1529-after 1587), by whom is also Gregorio's short biography printed before the indexes.Ersilia was the natural daughter of Jacopo Cortese, a wealthy lawyer from Modena. She received an excellent education at Tome and married in 1544 Giambattista del Monte, nephew of Cardinal Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte (later pope Pius III), who legitimized her before her marriage. Her husband died during the siege of Mirandola (1552), while leading the papal army against the Ferrarese. Ersila then refused all re-marriage proposals and devoted herself to her studies. She abandoned Rome at the election of Paul IV (1555), who was an enemy of the del Monte family. She returned only from her exile when Pius IV was hailed as new pope (1559). Ersilia was engaged in an epistolary exchange with Pietro Aretino and had contacts with Annibal Caro, Girolamo Ruscelli, Sperone Speroni, and Bernardo Tasso. She also wrote poetry, some of which was included in the verse collection edited by Muzio Manfredi, Per donne romane (Bologna, 1575) (cf. E. Melfi, Ersilia Cortese, in: ?Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani?, Roma, 1983, pp. 719-721).At the end of the volume is printed Cortese's tract Adversus negantem Petrum Apostolum Romae fuisse, dedicated to pope Adrian VI, a refutation of a pamphlet written by the Bohemian scholar Oldrich Velensky, in which he denied that the apostle Peter had ever been in Rome (cf. A.J. Lamping, Ulrichus Velenus and his Treatise against the Papacy, Leiden, 1976, chapter I).?The letters of Cortese not only display his skill in the classical languages, but also attest to his mastery of them. Benedetto Teocreno [Tagliacarne], writing to Cortese about the style of his letters, declared that they exhibit ?an excellent choice, an incredible candor, an admirable force and efficiency in words; in sentences, their own ? totally fitting ? weightiness, a delightful variety, a most becoming charm, a perspicacity on both sides ? to a degree I had hardly believed could be shown today' ? (F.C. Cesareo, op. cit., p. 160).Giovanni Andrea Cortese, born in Modena, received a thorough training in the humanities in his native city under the learned Cistercian Severo Varino of Piacenza. He then devoted himself to the study of jurisprudence for five years, first at Bologna, then at Padua, and was graduated as doctor of laws at the early age of seventeen.His deep knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages induced cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, the future pope Leo X, to take him into his service and afterwards appoint him legal auditor in the Curia. Desirous of leading a more quiet life, Cortese resigned this office and in 1507 entered the Benedictine monastery of Polirone near Mantua (assuming the name Gregorio), one of the most flourishing abbeys of the recently founded Cassinese Congregation. When Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici heard that his former auditor had become a monk, he addressed a letter to him expressing his surprise and his displeasure at the step which Cortese had taken and urging him to leave the monastery and resume his former occupation in Rome. In his answer to the cardinal's letter Cortese points out the great dangers which beset his soul when he was still engaged in worldly pursuits, and speaks of the interior happiness which he experienced while chanting the Divine praises and applying himself to the study of Holy Scripture. When in 1513 Giovanni de' Medici ascended the papal throne as Leo X, C. N° de ref. del artículo 0000000009901
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