Giovanni Cinelli, born in 1625, taught
medicine at Florence and was illustrious for his literary productions. He
allied himself with Antonio Magliabecchi, who afforded him opportunities
of research in the library of the Grand Duke. He began the great work
entitled _Bibliotheca volans_, the fourth section of which brought
grievous trouble upon its author. It was all caused by an unfortunate note
which attacked the doctor of the Grand Duke. This doctor was highly
indignant, and reported Cinelli to the Tribunal. The book was publicly
burnt by the hangman, and Cinelli was confined in prison ninety-*three
days and then driven into exile. His misfortunes roused his anger, and he
published at his retreat at Venice a bitter satire on men of all ranks
entitled _Giusticazione di Giovanni Cinelli_ (1683), exciting much
hostility against him. He died at the age of seventy years in the Castle
of San Lorenzo, A.D. 1705, and his _Bibliotheca volans_ was continued and
completed by Sancassani under the fictitious name of Philoponis.
Nicholas Francus, an Italian poet of the sixteenth century, was a graceful
writer and very skilled in the Latin, Greek, and Etruscan languages, but
incurred a grievous fate on account of his severe satire on Pope Pius IV.
The stern persecutor of Carranza, the powerful Archbishop of Toledo, was
not a person to be attacked with impunity. The cause of the poet's
resentment against the Pope was the prohibition of a certain work,
entitled _Priapeia_, which Francus had commenced, describing the feasts of
Priapus.
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