Tassoni
ALESSANDRO, an Italian poet; born in Modena in 1565; studied law in Bologna and Ferrara; became secretary of Cardinal Colonna in 1597; and accompanied him to Spain in 1600.
In 1612 he entered the service of Carlo Emanuele of Savoy, for whom he had a high regard, but he was soon forced by the intrigues of his political enemies to give up his post. In 1626 he obtained the office of secretary to Cardinal Lodovisio, and after the cardinal's death was appointed in 1632 chamberlain to Francis I. of Modena. By his hostile "Considerazioni sopra le Rime del Petrarca" (Modena, 1609) he acquired the name of "Petrarchomastix"; in his "Pensieri Diversi" (Rome, 1612) he made a similar attack on Homer and Aristotle, and maintained that in everything-in in literature as well as in science the moderns had the pre-eminence; and in the "Secchia Rapita" (Paris, 1622), a mockheroic poem ostensibly describing the contest that arose from the rape of a Bolognese bucket by the people of Modena, he treats everything ancient as old-fashioned, and indulges in hilarious but cynical mockery of the general round of human life. His patriotism was severely wounded by the encroachments of the Spanish power, and in his "Filippiche" (Lat. ed. 1878), and his "Manifesto" (1855), he laments the decay of Italian independence. He died in Modena in 1635. The "Secchia Rapita" is his most popular work; it is regularly reprinted from time to time.