Fulvio Testi

Fulvio Testi (August 1593 in Ferrara – 28 August 1646 in Modena) was an Italian diplomat and poet who is recognised as one of the main exponents of 17th-century Italian Baroque literature. He worked in the service of the d'Este dukes in Modena, for whom he held high office, such as the governorship of Garfagnana. His poems tackle civic themes in solemn tones, showing Testi's lasting anti-Spanish and, consequently, pro-Savoia political passions. Accused of treason for having tried to set up diplomatic relations with the French court, he was imprisoned and died in jail soon after. One later literary critic wrote:

If he'd been born in a less barbarous age, and had had more time than he did to cultivate his talent, he would doubtless have been our Horace, and perhaps been hotter and more vehement and more sublime than the Latin man

The son of Giulio and Margherita Calmoni, Fulvio studied literature and philosophy with the Jesuits at Modena, and then studied poetry privately at Bologna. His sonnets, circulating in manuscript, had already earned him a certain amount of fame by 1611, before entering the services of the Este chancelry, as a scribe. His first volume of verses, published at Venice in 1613 and dedicated to his patron and lord Alfonso III d'Este, followed the well-established vein of the Baroque pastoral idyll and courtly Mannerist marinismo. That same year he traveled to Naples and Rome, forming a friendship with Alessandro Tassoni, and returned to Modena in the summer of 1614. In the autumn he married Anna Leni.

His Rime published in 1617, anticipated by their dedication to Carlo Emanuele, Duke of Savoy, the anti-Spanish octaves they contained, which were composed in 1615 and better known under the title Il pianto d'Italia, and characterized the injuries being suffered by the Spanish hegemony in Italy, to such a degree that the Spanish Resident at the Duchy of Modena tendered a remonstrance, in consequence of which the printer Giuliano Cassiani was arrested and the edition suppressed. Testi having fled the Duchy, was pronounced contumaceous and exiled. Nevertheless, on receipt of a plea for forgiveness, he was pardoned by Cesare d'Este, 5 February 1619. In the following summer, the Duke of Savoy in question, apprised of the troubles Testi had undergone, enrolled him in the Savoyard Order of Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro, while the Duke acknowledged his literary gifts as virtuoso di camera.

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