Niccolò Ariosto

Ludovico’s father, son of Rinaldo, was born in Ferrara circa 1433. He soon became orphan and was entrusted to the care of his paternal uncle Giacomo. In 1462 he entered the service of the Gonzaga family, with which the Ariosto family was on good terms. Between 1464 and 1471 he was the go-between for the Este court in Ferrara and the court of the Gonzagas in Mantua. The relationship of reciprocal trust suffered a setback when in 1471, after Borso’s death, ordered by Ercole d’Este, he in Mantua attempted to poison Nicolò d’Este the would be successor to Borso, backed by the Gonzagas. In December 1471 his career with the Gonzagas came to an abrupt end and he was obliged to go back to Ferrara. Despite the fact that the plot had failed, Ercole I d’Este recompensed him by appointing him  commander of the citadel of Reggio. The post, obtained in January 1472, allowed him to come into contact with Boiardo. In 1473 he married the twenty-year-old Daria Malaguzzi Valeri  who bore him ten children; he also had an eleventh daughter, Anna, born out of wedlock. Between1474 and 1480 he bought several farms in the countryside around Reggio, causing polemics over his economic  brashness. In 1480 he was transferred to Rovigo as commander. During the war that began in 1482 between the Republic of Venice and the House of Este, he was forced to abandon Rovigo. He moved to Masi in the Polesine, where he had a farm, later succeeding in having himself appointed army quartermaster. In 1486 he bought the post of judge of the XII Savi (12 Sages) and became head of the Ferrara municipal administration. Faced with the people of Ferrara’s discontent at his behaviour,  he stepped down in 1488 and became commander of Modena for two years. He went back to Ferrara in 1492 and in 1496 obtained the post of commissioner for Romagna, a highly remunerative post that he however quickly lost due to the hardness and opacity of his behaviour. Up until  1499 he was excluded from public office but returned as treasurer in the middle of that year.  He died in February 1500.