Leonardo Montagna (1425/26 – 1484) was an Italian humanist poet. Montagna was born in

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

, between 22 November 1425 and 21 November 1426 as one of the four sons of Agostino and Imperatrice Faella. He was the godson of the Venetian senator Bernardo Giustiniani and was named after his godfather's father, also a senator and poet. Montagna moved to Venice in 1451 or 1452 and then to Rome in 1453. In 1453 or 1454, Montagna married the fourteen-year-old Bartolomea Zampolina, with whom he had twelve children, of which ten survived him. Although he became an apostolic scribe under Pope Calixtus III, his assignments were not of great importance. He left Rome in 1457 and began wandering from

Rieti Rieti (; lat, Reate, Sabino: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the administrative seat of the province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, as well as the modern capital of the Sabina re ...

and Verona to

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, Piceno,

Viterbo Viterbo (; Viterbese: ; lat-med, Viterbium) is a city and ''comune'' in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It conquered and absorbed the neighboring town of Ferento (see Ferentium) in its early history. ...

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and

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Veneti ...

, before finally returning to his hometown. Montagna's earliest known verses date from the 1450s. Written in

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

, they were dedicated to Alessandro Gonzaga and Barbara of Brandenburg, the brother and wife of Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua. He failed to enter the Gonzaga court, however, and went to

Spalato )'' , settlement_type = City , anthem = ''Marjane, Marjane'' , image_skyline = , imagesize = 267px , image_caption = Top: Nighttime view of Split from Mosor; 2nd row: Cathedral ...

in 1461. While living in the Balkans, Montagna met Catherine, the

dowager queen A queen dowager or dowager queen (compare: princess dowager or dowager princess) is a title or status generally held by the widow of a king. In the case of the widow of an emperor, the title of empress dowager is used. Its full meaning is clear ...

of Bosnia, with whom he formed a lasting friendship. He also became more closely associated with his old acquaintance, Lorenzo Zane, Archbishop of Spalato. Thanks to Zane, Emperor Frederick III made Motagna a

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

in 1470. Leonardo Montagna died in Verona shortly after 24 October 1484.

References

1420s births 1484 deaths Writers from Verona Italian poets Italian Renaissance humanists {{Italy-poet-stub