Polydore Vergil
Italian humanist scholar, historian, priest and diplomat
1470 CE to 1555 CE
Polidoro Virgili, commonly Latinised as Polydorus Vergilius, or anglicised as Polydore Vergil (or Virgil), and often known as Polydore Vergil of Urbino (c. 1470 – April 18, 1555) is an Italian humanist scholar, historian, priest and diplomat who spends most of his life in England.
He is particularly remembered for his works the Proverbiorum libellus (1498), a collection of Latin proverbs; De inventoribus rerum (1499), a history of discoveries and origins; and the Anglica Historia (drafted by 1513; printed 1534), an influential history of England.
Vergil is sometimes referred to in contemporary documents as Polydore Vergil Castellensis or Castellen, and it has sometimes been assumed that he was a kinsman of his patron, Cardinal Adriano Castellesi.
However, it is more likely that the alias simply indicates that he was in Castellesi's service.
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Polydore Vergil was born at Urbino, or more probably at Fermignano, within the Duchy of Urbino.
His father, Giorgio di Antonio, owns a dispensary.
His grandfather, Antonio Virgili, "a man well skilled in medicine and astrology", had taught philosophy at the University of Paris; as does Polydore's own brother, Giovanni-Matteo Virgili, at Ferrara and Padua.
Another brother, Girolamo, is a merchant trading with England.
The niece of Polydore Vergil, Faustina, married Lorenzo Borgogelli, count of Fano, from whom descend the family of Borgogelli Virgili.
Educated at the University of Padua, and possibly at Bologna, Polydore had been urdained by 1496.
He was probably in the service of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, before 1498, as in the dedication of his Proverbiorum Libellus (April 1498) he styles himself Guido's client.
His second book, De Inventoribus Rerum, was dedicated to Guido's tutor, Lodovico Odassio, in August 1499.
At some point prior to 1502, Polydore had entered the service of Pope Alexander VI.
Vergil travels in 1502 to England as the deputy of Cardinal Adriano Castellesi in the office of Collector of Peter's Pence, and, in practice, the Cardinal's agent in a variety of affairs.