, whose proper name was Marcus Antonius Coccius, or vernacularly Marcantonio
, whose proper name was Marcus Antonius Coccius, or vernacularly Marcantonio Coccio, an
Italian historian and critic, was born in 1436, in the campagna of Rome, on the confines of the ancient country of
the Sabines, from which circumstance he took the name of
Sabellicus. He was a scholar of Pomponius Letus’s, and
in 1475, was appointed professor of eloquence at Udino, to
which office he was likewise appointed at Venice, in 1484-.
Some time after, when the plague obliged him to retire to
Verona, he composed, within the space of fifteen months,
his Latin history of Venice, in thirty- three books, whiqh
were published in 1487, entitled “Rerum Venetiarum ab
urbe condita,
” folio, a most beautiful specimen of early
printing, of which there was a copy on vellum, in the Pinelli library. The republic of Venice was so pleased with
this work as to decree the author a pension of 200 sequins;
and Sabellicus, out of gratitude, added four books to his
history, which, however, remain in manuscript. He published also “A Description of Venice,
” in three books a
“Dialogue on the Venetian Magistrates
” and two poems
in honour of the republic. The most considerable of his
other works is his rhapsody of histories: “Rhapsodiae Historiarum Enneades,
” in ten Euneads, each containing nine
books, and comprizing a general history from the creation to the year 1503. The first edition published at Venice in 1498, folio, contained only seven Enneads; but the
second, in Io04, had the addition of three more, bringing
the history down to the above date. Although there is
little, either in matter or manner, to recommend tins work,
or many others of its kind, to a modern reader, it brought
the author both reward and reputation. His other works
are discourses, moral, philosophical, and historical, with
many Latin poems; the whole printed in four volumes,
folio, at Basil in 1560. There is a scarce edition of his
“Epistolæ familiares, necnon Orationes et Poemata,
” Venice, Thesaurus.
” He died at Venice
in