Jacopo Sannazaro (1458- 1530) was one of the most important poets of the Italian Renaissance. He was a member of the humanist academy of Pontano at Naples, and a courtier of distinction under the last three Neapolitan kings of the Trastámara dynasty. Among his vernacular works, the greatest is his Arcadia, in prose and verse, an inspiration to Sidney. But he was lauded most for his Latin. His Vergilian epic On the Virgin Birth was, with Vida's Christiad, among the greatest sacred poems of the age; his Piscatory Eclogues, which exchanged the shepherds of Vergil and Theocritus for the fishermen of the Bay of Naples, set the example for a small genre. The following pieces are all based upon Latin works, in hexameters or elegiacs. They are dedicated to the memory of Prof. Philip Ford, a champion of Renaissance Latin poetry, who died this year.

For the essence of humanism is the belief that nothing which has ever interested living men and women can wholly lose its vitality.
                                                                                      - Pater

To the Ruins of Cumae, Most Ancient of Cities
An Elegy

In this place
Where piled
Illustrious walls

    Cumae's fame,
    Of Tyrrhene Sea
    First glory;

Whither hied
From far shores
Foreign guests
...