Baldovini, Francis

, an Italian poet, was born at Florence, in 1654. His first studies were devoted to the law, which his father wished him to pursue as a profession but, after the death of his parents, he gave himself wholly up to the enchantments of poetry and music. On visiting Rome, he obtained, through the interest of his uncle cardinal Flavio Chigi, the place of secretary to cardinal Jacopo Filippo, and in that city, at the age of forty, he entered into holy orders. In 1676, he obtained the living of St. Leonardo d’Artimino and in 1694, Cosmo | III. grand duke of Tuscany, conferred on him the priorship of Orbatello; which, in 1699, he changed for that of Santa Felicita. In the discharge of his new functions, he gave equal satisfaction to the court, the religious orders, and his parishioners, by his exemplary piety, and his rigid attention to the duties of his station to which the amiableness of his manners, his knowledge of the world, and his proficiency in learning, rendered him perfectly adequate. He died in 1716. His chief work is a poem of the pastoral kind, entitled “II Lamento de Cecco da Varlungo,” written in the provincial dialect of Tuscany, and in his youth; and published in 1694, by Bartolommei, to whom the author had given the manuscript. It was reprinted in 1755, with the author’s life by Manni, and curious notes by Marini. In 1800, it was introduced into our language by John Hunter, esq. under the title of “Cecco’s Complaint,” 8vo, from the preface to which this sketch is taken. ¹