AMALTHEO, the name of three brothers, who were all distinguished in Italy as Latin and Italian poets. They were the sons of Francesco Amaltheo, Professor of Belles Lettres at Sadie, and flourished about the middle of the sixteenth century.
Girolamo, or Jerome, was horn at Oderzo, in the Trevisan, in 1506. His father instructed him in the Latin and Greek languages, as well as in the arts and sciences of the times; and such was his progress in these studies, that he was soon created doctor of philo sophy and medicine in the university of Padua. In the 26th year of his age (1532,) he was appointed to teach medicine in that seminary, and in the following year he was chosen 1«:turer on moral philosophy. in this slum tion, however, he did not continue long. Ile returned to Oderzo, and in 1536 settled as a physician in Ceneda, from N\ bleb her( moved to Serravalle in 1539. here his reputation was so great, that in 1542 he was solicited by the queen of Poland to he her physician; but he de clined this honour, and continued in the exercise of his profession at SerravaIle. The infirmities of age had now begun to render the duties of a physician too laborious, and he therefore determined to n. tire in 1558 to his na tive city, where he died on the 13th September, 1571,in the 67th year of his age, amid the regrets of all N\ knew him. ilk fellow citizens were so sensible of his talents and villues, that they erected a monument to his memory, •,‘ ith the following epitaph : Muretus, in a letter to Lambinus, considers Amalthco as the best Italian poet and physician that was then olive. Ills Gigantomachia has been much admired ; and the fol lowing epigram on " Aeon and Leonilla" has been highly praised : Luntine Aron dextro, capta est Leonilla sinistro literal Nincere uterque llg Os Pane Auer, lumen quod babes concede sorori; Sic tit ezecug Amor, sic erit ilia Venus.
The following translation, which may be acceptable to many of our readers, conveys the meaning though not the point of the original: Of the right eye fair Aeon was bereft, And Leonilla too had last the left ; Vet beauty, greater than the gods can show, Smiled on their cherub cheeks with heae enly glow.
Then, lovely Acon, do not now deny To Leonilla thy hcart-piercing eye ; That thou blind Cupid, by the gift, may prove, And she may stand confessed the Queen of Love.
Giai»liatista, or John Baptist Amalthco, was born at Odcrzo, in the year 1525. He studied at Padua, and made such an early and rapid progress in the belles 'cures, and in the Latin and Greek languages, that he has received the highest encomiums from the most cele lu'ated writers, and has been honoured with a place in Scuitetus's Tea'ro dell' erudita Giovenai, " Theatre of learned young men." In 1546, he was called to Venice to instruct the youth of the noble family of Lippomana. It appears, however, from his letters, that he left this situation about 1550, when he went to 111ilan ; and that in 1554, he accompanied the Venetian ambassador Mi chele to England. In 1560, he was made secretary to the republic of Ragusa. In 1561, he returned to Venice ; and in the same year he went to Rome, at the request of his friend Paulus Manutius. Here his lite rary reputation obtained him universal notice ; and he was appointed to many lucrative places and pensions, which he enjoyed till the day of his death. He was made a Roman citizen ; secretary to Pius IV. ; a knight of the order of Jesus Christ ; and secretary to the car dinals deputed to the council of Trent. Being seized with catarrh, he died at Rome, in the month of February He wrote eclogues, elegies, and epigrams, both in the T...atin and Italian language. Ile began a tragedy . called In ; and his letters are published in the Ruceol d, lie Lettere Volgari di deacon Venez. 1567.
Cornelio Amaltheo was also a good Latin poet. Ile was employed along with Paulus Manutius, and }loggia no, to reduce the Roman Catechism into pure Latin.