Ludovico da Bagno

Ludovico da Bagno, or di Bagno, was a gentleman from Mantua and a great friend of Ariosto, to the point that he was the godfather of the poet’s second son, Virginio. He belonged to a noble family from Mantua that became linked to the Ariosto family  in 1516 and 1517 due to the joint wedding of the brothers Antonio and Ruggero di Ricciardo Guidi da Bagno with Lucrezia and Costanza, daughters of Rinaldo, a cousin of Ludovico Ariosto. He entered the court of Ippolito thanks to Isabella d’Este and the poet Antonio Tebaldeo, at the time an esteemed councillor of the Este family. Bagno soon made his mark: in 1506 he became Cardinal Este’s secretary and archpriest of Melara. In August 1510 he went to Rome as ambassador to the court of Julius II, a few days before the poet, but was harshly treated by the Pope because of tensions with Cardinal Ippolito and the House of Este in general. Ludovico da Bagno obtained the ecclesiastical benefice for San Gemignano and Martino in Montericco as well as that for San Gervasio and Protasio di Camolo in the dioceses of Reggio. In 1512 he was appointed rector of the church of San Michele in Ferrara,  a post he held till 1539. He is the dedicatory, together with Alessandro Ariosto, of Satire I. Whilst the poet refused to follow Cardinal Ippolito to Hungary, Ludovico da Bagno and Ariosto’s younger brother, Alessandro, decided to accompany him to the bishopric of Agria. Before leaving, Bagno dictated his will, as did the man of letters Celio Calcagnini and many other courtiers afraid of the trip. The dangers involved in the difficult adaptation to a different climate, strange food, and so on, are described in Satire I, were what dissuaded the poet from accompanying  the Cardinal to Agria with Ludovico da Bagno. In Satire I, 2 Ludovico is called ‘compar mio Bagno’.