Sansovino, Francis

, an Italian poet and historian, was born in 1521 at Rome, and was the son of James Sansovino, an eminent sculptor and celebrated architect, whose eulogy Vasari has left us. He studied the belies lettres at Venice, and took his degrees in law at Padua; but that science not suiting his taste, he devoted himself wholly to poetry, history, and polite literature, and died in 1586, at Venice, aged sixty-five, leaving more than fifty works, all written in Italian. They consist of “Poems;” notes on Boccaccio’s “Decameron, on Ariosto, Dante, &c.” translations of ancient historians and some histories written by himself, as his “Venezia descritta,” of which the best edition is that of 1663, 4to; “Istoria Universale dell' origine, guerre, ed imperio deTurchi,” 1654, 2 vols. 4to, reckoned a capital work. His “Satires” are in a collection with those of Ariosto, and others, Venice, 1560, 8vo his “Capitoli” with those of Aretino, and different writers, 1540, and 1583, 8vo to which we may add his “Cento novelle Scelte,” Venice, 1566, 4to. ¹