Rome

Ariosto went to the pontifical city numerous times both during the papacy of Giulio II [1503-1513], and that of Leone X [1513-1521]. But it is with the second of these two popes that he entertained personal relations, instituted before Giovanni de’Medici was elected to the Holy See. During Giulio II’s reign, Ludovico, after a few minor missions, was in Rome in July and December 1509, in May 1510 and twice, with a stopover in Florence, in August 1510. During these embassies on behalf of Cardinal Ippolito Ludovico had to do some difficult mediation with the Pope, who was against the position taken up by the House of Este. After Giovanni de’ Medici’s election (March 1513) Ludovico went to Rome with a group of ambassadors from Ferrara to congratulate the new Pope, hoping at the same time to obtain some good post for himself. But all he got was the guarantee that he could succeed to the benefice of the parish of Sant’Agata sul Santerno, at the death of the current beneficiary, who was the archpriest Giovanni Fusari, a friend of the family. Ludovico again went to Rome, between June and July 1517, to obtain the income of the chancery of the bishopric of Ferrara and a part of that for Milan. He did another trip to Rome in December 1517, for matters concerning the benefice of Sant’Agata, a theme he discusses in Satire II. On 6 march 1519, his play I Suppositi was staged in the Vatican. In February 1520 he was back in Rome for the purpose of obtaining the legitimisation  of his son Virginio and to ask the Pope to lend a hand with the judicial matters that concerned him. He travelled to Rome more than once in November 1520, for matters concerning his benefices, and in April 1521 in order to deal with some paperwork for his brother Galasso. In 1524 Ludovico refused the post of official ambassador for Duke Alfonso I in Rome, even if this would have allowed him to establish himself in the pontifical city where his presence was by then in some way rooted. He probably passed through Rome one last time in 1531.