Benedetto Collucio, Jacopo Piccolomini, and other distinguished men. From 1441 to 1444 he became secretary to Pope Eugenius IV., on the recommendation of Lorenzo di Medici. He subsequently was made secretary to the Florentine republic, which office he filled till his death, on the 24th April, 1453, in his fifty-fourth year. Carlo Aretino is described by one of his biographers as "modest, temperate, a man of few words, of a handsome presence, thoughtful, and somewhat melancholy." Besides many orations, he translated the Batrachomyomachia into Latin hexameters, a performance that is highly spoken of. He also translated the "Odessey" and part of the "Iliad" into Latin, and composed several original poems in that language.—J. F. W.
ARETINO, Giovanni, flourished in the fifteenth century. He was surnamed Tortellius. He was chamberlain to Pope Nicholas V. He wrote a book "De Potestate Literarum." It is affirmed that his learning was insignificant, and that he would never have been heard of, if he had not held an office so near the person of the pope.
ARETINO, Giovanni Appoloni, a distinguished musician of the sixteenth century. Many of his madrigals have been published.
ARETINO, Leonardo, so called because he was of Arezzo, and better known under this designation than that of his family name, Brunus or Bruni, was born about 1370. He was an able Greek scholar, and contributed much to the restoration of classical literature in Italy. He translated into Latin some of the lives of Plutarch, and the ethics of Aristotle. He composed three books of the Punic war, as a supplement to those which are wanting in Livy. He is blamed for having appropriated to himself some writings which he had only translated from the Greek of Procopius. He died at Florence in the year 1443. Gesner, in his Bibliotheca, gives a catalogue of his works; and it is confidently affirmed that a large collection of his MS. letters is extant in the library of the university of Oxford. In the year 1434, he was secretary to Pope Innocent VII. He had previously been appointed (in the year 1413) secretary to Pope John XXIII., and accompanied him to the council of Constance. He was frugal and conscientious in his habits; and though mixed up with the fierce schisms of the popedom, he maintained his integrity to the last.—T. J.
ARETINO, Pietro, one of the many celebrities who owe their birth and cognomen to the town of Arezzo in Italy. He was the natural son of Luigi Bacci, a gentleman of that town. He was born on the 20th of April, 1492. Of the earlier part of his life there is little to be commemorated, having followed the trade of a bookbinder, in which occupation he seems to have gained a knowledge of letters. Before he had attained his twentieth year he commenced writing, and amongst other publications he wrote a sonnet against indulgences, which was received with such disfavour that he was forced to fly from Arezzo to Perugia. He subsequently wandered throughout Italy for some years, and at length settled at Rome, where he attached himself first to Pope Leo X. and afterwards to Clement VII. Here he formed the acquaintance of some of the greatest men of his age; and it is said that, at a subsequent period, he was recommended for a cardinal's hat, and was very near obtaining that high distinction. During his stay at Rome, he occupied himself in the production of many of his works, the greatest portion of which are characterized by their gross licentiousness and impudent and slanderous attacks on men of rank. At length he composed sixteen sonnets upon the sixteen obscene pictures of Giulio Romano, but their grossness was so intolerable that he was obliged to fly from Rome; and placing himself under the protection of the celebrated captain of "the black band," Giovanni di Medici, he accompanied him to Milan, where he succeeded in ingratiating himself with Francis I., who gave him a costly gold chain as a mark of his regard. Pietro attempted to regain the favour of his Roman patrons, but failed by reason of an amour with one of the domestics of a high official of the pope. In 1527 he went to Venice, in which city he remained till his death. During this period he occupied himself in writing, not only licentious and satirical pieces, but also works on morality and divinity. The production of these last cannot be attributed to any sentiment of real piety: this his disgraceful life and morals, which he never abandoned, show to be impossible. He was actuated solely by the love of money, upon the acquisition of which he was mainly intent; and, indeed, one of his literary pursuits was the composition of fulsome and mean letters to great and wealthy men soliciting pecuniary aid. In this he was singularly successful, and there were few potentates of Europe from whom he did not receive gifts or pensions. In this course of life Aretino lived to his sixty-fifth year, when, in 1555, death surprised him in the very indulgence of his libertine thoughts. He was buried in the church of St. Luca in Venice.
Time has done ample justice to the memory of this man by stripping him of the high reputation which he had unduly acquired as a man of letters, and exhibiting him to the world in his disgusting moral deformity, as impudent, sensual, gross, and profligate; one who abused and prostituted his genius to the worst purposes. That he was possessed of excellent natural abilities and of some learning is not to be denied, but he was in this last respect greatly inferior to many of his contemporaries; and the titles of "Divino" and "Flagello de' principi," by which he was known, appear to us now as if conferred rather in derision than in honour. Whether the former title was originally assumed by himself (to which his impudence was quite equal) or conferred upon him by his admirers, certain it is that he used it on all occasions, and invariably affixed it to his signature. The latter title was a piece of empty braggadocio. He had not the courage, though he had the will, to assail princes, save when they were powerless to avenge themselves, as in the case of Clement VII. He was content to satisfy his malignant nature by attacking men of genius and distinction, whose rank was not sufficiently elevated to make them formidable, or likely to mar his worldly prospects. Yet such an arrant poltroon was he, that he constantly skulked and concealed himself in dread of chastisement from those he libelled. In this he was not always successful.
The works of Aretino are enumerated and described very fully by Mazzuchelli; they are difficult to be procured, and not worth procuring. Those in prose amount to thirteen in number, his poetical compositions are sixteen; besides these, four other works are attributed to him, but without sufficient authority. His dramatic pieces alone can be considered to have much merit. Of Aretino's "Dialogues," we hesitate not to say, that but for their licentiousness and immorality, they would excite no feeling but contempt. His theological pieces exhibit gross ignorance. His poetical compositions are of unequal merit; many of them are extremely gross, others are satirical—the fit expression of his malevolent nature; and one, a tragedy in blank verse, "L'Orazia," the Abbé Ginguené speaks of in terms of very high commendation.—J. F. W.
ARETINO, Ranuccio, lived in the fifteenth century, was apostolic secretary to Nicholas V. He was a good classical scholar, and has left some translations of Greek works into Latin.
ARETINO. See Guido.
ARETINUS, Franc., a learned lawyer, who flourished at Siena in 1443, and came to Rome in the time of Sextus IV.
ARETINUS, Franc., an excellent Greek scholar of the fifteenth century, who translated some of Chrysostom's commentaries and sermons.
ARETINUS, Paulus, an Italian physician of the latter part of the sixteenth century, published "Responsoria Hebdomadæ Sanctæ," &c., Venice, 1567, and "Sacra Responsoria," &c., Venice, 1574. Nothing is known of his life.
ARETIUS, Benedict, born at Berne about 1505, was celebrated as a Swiss preacher and botanist. He was appointed in 1548 professor of logic in the university of Marbourg, but he soon relinquished that office and returned to Berne. In 1563 he became professor of languages. He was an ardent Calvinist and an able theologian. He kept up a correspondence with Conrad Gesner and other scientific men, and he prosecuted botanical science. He made frequent trips to the Swiss mountains for the purpose of herborizing, and he published an account of the flora of Stockhorn and Niessen, two mountains in the canton of Berne. He published also theological works of merit, of which the best known are his Commentary on the New Testament and his "Problemata Theologica." He wrote also on medicine and astronomy. The name of Aretia is given to a genus of primulaceous plants. Aretius died on 22nd April, 1574.—J. H. B.
AREUS, the name of two kings of Sparta:—Areus I., twenty-sixth king of Sparta, succeeded his grandfather Cleomenes II. in 309 b.c., and reigned till 265 b.c., when he fell in a battle against the Macedonians.—Areus II., grandson of Areus I., reigned as a child for eight years under the tutelage of his uncle Leonidas II., 265-256 b.c.
