Fulvio Testi

Fulvio Testi 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. Poetically, alongside Gabriello Chiabrera, he was the major exponent of the Hellenizing strand of Baroque classicism, combining Horatianism with the imitation of Anacreon and Pindar. 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. According to Giacomo Leopardi: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