Giovanni Marrasio (d. 1452), a humanist poet from Noto in Sicily, spent the major part of his poetic career in Siena and Ferrara before returning to Palermo in the role of a medical doctor serving the University of Palermo. In Siena, Naples, and Palermo he hovered on the edge of the courts of the Este and of Alfonso “the Magnanimous” of Aragon without ever winning the title of court poet he coveted.

Marrasio was esteemed in the Renaissance as the first to revive the ancient Latin elegy, and his Angelinetum, or “Angelina’s Garden,” as well as his later poems (Carmina Varia) explore that genre in all its variety, from love poetry, to a description of a court masque, to political panegyric, to poetic exchanges with famous humanists of the day such as Leonardo Bruni, Maffeo Vegio, Antonio Panormita, and Enea Silvio Piccolomini. This volume contains the first translation of Marrasio’s works into any modern language.

Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), scholar and critic, was one of the most admired Latinists of his day. After some years at the court of Urbino, where he exchanged Platonic love letters with Lucrezia Borgia, he moved to Rome and served as secretary to Leo X (1513-1520). Later he retired to Padua and a life of letters. He was made a cardinal in 1539. The poems in this volume come from all periods of his life and reflect both his erudition and his wide-ranging friendships. This verse edition is the first time they have been translated into English.

This volume also includes the prose dialogue Etna, an account of Bembo's ascent of Mt. Etna in Sicily during his student days, translated by Betty Radice.

Cristoforo Landino (1424–1498), one of the great scholar-poets of the Renaissance, is best known today for his Platonizing commentaries on Dante and Vergil. His most substantial work of poetry was his Three Books on Xandra, written while still a young man. They consist primarily of love poetry in Latin directed to his lady-love Alessandra, but they also chronicle his life, friendships, literary studies, and the patronage of his work by Piero de' Medici. Inspired equally by the ancient Roman love-elegy and by Petrarch’s Canzoniere, the poems illustrate the mingling of classical and vernacular traditions characteristic of the age of Lorenzo de’ Medici. Also included in this volume is the Carmina Varia, a collection whose centerpiece is a group of elegies directed to the Venetian humanist Bernardo Bembo. These bring to life the Platonic passion Bembo conceived for Ginevra de’Benci, later the subject of a famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci. This edition contains the first translation of both works into English.