Annibale Malaguzzi

Ariosto’s cousin, son of Valerio Malaguzzi, from Reggio Emilia, is the dedicatory of as many as two Satires, the third and the fifth, and has a key role in Orlando furioso XLVI, 18, 5-6: ‘Annibal Malaguzzo, il mio parente, / veggo con l’Adoardo…’. Annibale was born on 21 February 1482; in the period from 1508 to 1509 he certainly lived in Ferrara, where he spent his time courting ladies of doubtful modesty. In January 1509, Ludovico put him forward for the vacant post of chancellor at the court of Ippolito d’Este (following Federico Panciera’s death) but he was not accepted. Malaguzzi, disappointed at not having been able to set himself up in Ferrara, returned to Reggio where he instead became a brilliant public officer, holding many important posts. He married, it is not sure quite when (perhaps before 1521) Lucrezia Pio, a member of an important family from Carpi, giving up his considerable ecclesiastical income. Annibale had met Lucrezia Pio at Carpi, where his brother Sigismondo had been, from 1519 to 1522, the podestà. It was indeed the news that his cousin Annibale was about to marry that prompted Ariosto to conceive Satire V, in which he at some length discusses and dispenses advice on marriage, judging the pros and cons, and in the end lauding it. Malaguzzi returned to Ferrara in 1524 finding a place to live in Santa Maria di Bocche, perhaps with his cousins. Although he would seem to have not been endowed with vast knowledge or intellect, Annibale entertained correspondence with Isabella d’Este as the intermediary for the elite of Reggio. Annibale and Lucrezia Pio had two daughters, in 1528 and in 1529, Virginia e Valeria, who both died still children, and two sons, Orazio and Flaminio, born in 1531 and in 1536. But only Orazio lived to become adult, as his brother Flaminio also died young.