Niccolò Forteguerri

Born in Pistoia in 1674, Niccolò Forteguerri was an Italian priest, poet, and man of letters. He studied in Rome and moved in learned circles there, building a reputation for elegant Latin and Italian writing.

He is chiefly remembered for Ricciardetto, a comic-heroic poem that plays with the traditions of chivalric epic. The poem’s lively tone, humor, and literary energy made it the work most closely associated with his name.

Forteguerri died in 1735. Though not as widely read today as some of his contemporaries, he remains an interesting figure in Italian literary history for the way he brought scholarship, satire, and storytelling together.