SERAFINO

AQUILA  DELL' (1466-1500), Italian poet and improvisatore, was born in 1466 at the town of Aquila, from which he took his name, and died in the year 1500 . He spent several years at the courts of Cardinal Sforza and Ferdinand, duke of Calabria; but his principal patrons were the Borgias at Rome, from whom he received many favours . Aquila seems to have aimed at an imitation of Dante and Petrarch; and his poems, which were extravagantly praised during the author's lifetime, are occasionally of considerable merit . His reputation was in great measure due to his remarkable skill as an improvisatore and musician . His works were printed at Venice in 1502, and there have been several subsequent editions .