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. Biography. Sergardi was born at Siena 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 	Lodovico Sergardi
5715220	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 died in Spoleto in November 1726.