Alberto da Carpi

Philologist and bibliophile of great fame, Alberto Pio of the Counts of Carpi was a student of Aldo Manuzio and almost certainly studied together with  Ludovico at the school of Gregorio Elladio da Spoleto. Alberto was an intellectual figure of vast knowledge and great courtesy, in possession of an important library. He owned a palace in Ferrara in the contrada San Pietro, not far from Santa Maria di Bocche where Ludovico lived. He almost certainly was in Ferrara between 1494 and 1500, but he was recorded there also in 1504, 1505 and 1506. On 15 January 1505 he gave a masked ball in honour of Lucrezia Borgia with a rich banquet, to which perhaps Ludovico also went. He was given diplomatic charges of the highest level at the French court of Louis XII. Towards the end of 1508 he went, as a representative of the King of France, to the court of Maximilian of Austria to receive the ratification of the League of Cambrai. In February 1510 he was invited to Roma, always as ambassador, to try and dissuade (without success) Julius II from absolving the Venetians. He met Ariosto in Rome in May 1510 and invited him to frequent the group of Roman intellectuals that regularly went to his palace. Their friendship lasted till November 1510 when it abruptly ended for political reasons: during negotiations over the control of Carpi, Alberto Pio unexpectedly had an emissary sent by Ludovico arrested.  In a subsequent phase, the poet, trying to further negotiate with Alberto, was double-crossed by his old friend. Despite the disappointment caused by Alberto’s crude political dexterity, the poet in any case lauded his extraordinary intellectual endowment in Orlando furioso XLVI, 17, vv. 1-2: “Veggo sublimi e soprumani ingegni / di sangue e d’amor giunti, il Pico e il Pio”. It should be remembered that Ludovico was also a friend of Alberto’s brother, Lionello Pio.