, the son of Gregory Amaseo, Latin professor at Venice, was one of
, the son of Gregory Amaseo, Latin professor at Venice, was one of the most celebrated
Italian scholars of the sixteenth century. He was born at
Udina in 1489, and educated at first by his father and
uncle, but finished his studies at Padua, and in 1508 had
begun to teach the belles lettres there, when the war, occasioned by the league at Cambray, obliged him to leave
the place. He then went to Bologna, continued to teach,
and married, and had children, and was so much respected
that the city admitted him as a citizen, an honour which
his ancestors had also enjoyed. In 1530, he was appointed
first secretary to the senate, and was chosen by pope Clement VII. to pronounce before him and Charles V. a Latin
harangue on the subject of the peace concluded at Bologna between the two sovereigns. This he accordingly
performed, with great applause, in the church of St. Petrona, before a numerous audience of the first rank. He
continued to teach at Bologna, with increasing popularity,
until 1543, when he was invited to Rome by pope Paul III.
and his nephew cardinal Alexander Farnese. The pope employed him in many political missions to the court of the
emperor, those of the German princes, and that of the king
of Poland; and in 1550, after the death of his wife, pope
Julius III. appointed him secretary of the briefs, a place
which he did not long enjoy, as he died in 1552. He wrote
Latin translations of “Xenophon’s Cyrus,
” Bologna, Pausanias,
” Rome, Orationes,
” consisting of eighteen Latin speeches
on various occasions, Bonon. 1580, 4to. His contemporaries bestow the highest praises on his learning and
eloAlienee. His son Pompilio had perhaps less reputation,
but he too distinguished himself as Greek professor at Bologna, where he died in 1584. He translated two fragments of Polybius, Bologna, 1543, and wrote a history of
his own time in Latin, which has not been published.