Calentius, Elisius

, a modern Latin poet of the fifteenth century, was a native of Naples, and became preceptor to Frederic, the son of Ferdinand I. king of Naples, whom he endeavoured to inspire with the love of those virtues and principles of justice which would dignify his high station. He did not approve of condemning malefactors to death. According to him, “thieves should be obliged to restore what they had stolen, after being beaten for the theft; homicides should be made slaves; and other criminals be sent to the mines and the gallies.” He had also studied and practised agriculture and horticulture with great success. Having conic to France, he was a witness of the war between Charles the hardy, duke of Burgundy, and the Swiss, the history of | which he was requested to write, but declined it, as he thought it did not become him to speak ill of princes, or to tell what was not true. It appears by his letters that he married young, was extremely fond of his wife, and had many children. Yet he was accused of illicit amours, which it is said kept him poor. He is supposed to have died about 1503. There have been three editions of his works, two at Rome, one in 1503, fol. “Opuscula Elisii Calentii, poetae clarissimi;” and a third at Basil, 1554. They consist of elegies, epigrams, epistles; the battle of the frogs, imitated from Homer; satires, fables, &c. &c. His poem of the battle between the rats and the frogs, from Homer, was reprinted in 1738 at Rouen, in a collection, 12mo, of select fables of la Fontaine put into Latin verse, published by the abbe Saas. Calentius composed this poem at eighteen years of age, and finished it in seven days. ¹