CESAROTTI, MELCHIORE Italian poet, was born on 15, 1730, at Padua, where he held the chair of rhetoric, and in 1768 the professorship of Greek and Hebrew. Cesarotti is best known as the author of an admirable translation (2 vols., 1763) of Ossian, which raised up many imitators of the Ossianic style. He also produced a number of prose works on aesthetics. He died at Padua on Nov. 3, 1808.
See the complete edition of his works (42 vols., Pisa, 1800-13) ; G. F. Barbieri, Memoirs (Padua, 181o) ; L. Alemanni, Un Filosofo delle lettere (Turin, 1894) .