Argoli, John

, son of the former, was born in 1609, with a decided turn for poetry. Before the age of fifteen, he published an idyllium on the silk-worm, “Bambace e seta, idillio,” Rome, 1624, 12mo. Shortly afterwards, inspired with an ardent emulation by the applauses that were lavished on Marini, the author of the poem of Adonis, he undertook to compose one of the same kind. Having shut himself up in a room, where none were admitted but to bring him his victuals, he finished, in seven months, at the age of seventeen, a poem in twelve cantos, entitled “Endymion,” 1626, 4to. This performance was so much admired, that, though published with his name, the critics could scarcely be persuaded that it was not the work of his father. He is the author of several other pieces of poetry, both Latin and Italian, but the greater part have never been printed. His taste for the belles-lettres did not prevent him from applying to the study of jurisprudence, philology, and antiquities; in the latter he was a contributor to various collections. The precise year of his death is not known: but it is thought to have happened in 1660. ³

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