Complex sentence: This was not an easy time for the poet, in fact he was the victim of an assassination attempt by his rival Gaspare Murtola and he was then sentenced to a year in prison for malicious gossip he had written about the duke.
Split into simpler sentences: This was not an easy time for the poet, in fact he was the victim of an assassination attempt by his rival Gaspare Murtola. He was later sentenced to a year in prison, probably for malicious gossip he had written about the duke.