Iovianus Pontanus

Giovanni Pontano, known in Latin as Jovianus Pontanus, was an Italian Neo-Latin poet, historian and statesman of the fifteenth century. He matters because he became one of the foremost exponents of humanism, writing a supple and lively Latin at a time when that language still carried learned culture.

He was born at Cerreto di Spoleto, in the Duchy of Spoleto, amid the civic feuds that troubled Italian towns. His father was killed in one such brawl, and his mother took him to Perugia, where he received his first schooling. After failing to recover the family property, he settled in Naples at twenty-two, and the city remained his main base. Through Antonio Beccadelli he entered the chancery of Alfonso the Magnanimous, who made him tutor to his sons and a trusted adviser. After Beccadelli's death in 1471 he led the literary circle that came to bear his name, the Accademia Pontaniana.

His output includes erotic and domestic verse, treatises on astrology, ethics and politics, and dialogues portraying the customs of his day. He lost his first wife, Adriana Sassone, in 1491, along with several of his children, and his last years were lonely; he spent them revising and editing his writings. His legacy lies in a personal, carefully crafted Latin, and he is often placed alongside Angelo Poliziano as one of the great humanist writers of Italy.