Gabriele Ariosto

Brother of Ludovico Ariosto, second son of Niccolò, was baptised in Reggio Emilia on 23 February 1477. He became paralysed at an early age and was unable to take up the ecclesiastical profession to which he had been destined. He moved to Ferrara in 1484. Being invalid, thanks to his father’s testament, he was given board and lodging guaranteed by the income from  the farms the family owned in Cona and Cogomaro, in the country outside Ferrara. He proved to be an able administrator for the family patrimony, for the period in which he held property in common, and managed also Ludovico’s personal affairs when the poet was away from Ferrara. He married in 1510 and had seven children whom he lived with in the paternal home, the magna domus which, in 1532, became his and of his brothers’ Galasso and Alessandro. He died in 1549. His literary undertakings belong to the latter part of his life: we should in particular remember  In obitu Ludovici Areosti fratris carmen, which contains news about Ludovico’s life, told with affection, and the short poem Singulare certamen. Perhaps Gabriele also wrote (or maybe it was his son Giulio) the manuscript of the Cinque Canti by Ludovico Ariosto, first published in an Aldine edition in 1545. Also tied to Ludovico’s literary career is the continuation of the play entitled  I Studenti, left unfinished by his brother and entitled to Gabriele Scolastica. The play was written in a style based on classical models, went to press in 1547 and was printed again, together with other plays by Ludovico, by Giolito in 1562. To Gabriele and his physical handicap are dedicated Ariosto’s verses 205- 210 in Satire I: "Ecci Gabriel; ma che vuoi tu ch’ei faccia? / che da fanciullo la sua mala sorte / lo impedì de li piedi e de le braccia. // Egli non fu né in piazza mai, né in corte, / et a chi vuol ben reggere una casa / questo si può comprendere che importe".