Padua

This city enters Ariosto’s life mainly in the latter years of his career as a courtier. Ludovico went there several times to accompany Duke Alfonso I d’Este, as of 1518, and it was there that he often met his friend Pietro Bembo. Furthermore, it was at the university of Padua that his son, Virginio, began his studies in law as of 1531, followed closely by his father who paid him several visits. The city of Padua, as a source of doctrine and paideia, is mentioned in Satire VI, where the poet addresses Bembo asking him to find a good tutor for his son Virginio, at the time fifteen: "s’in Padova o in Vinegia è alcun buon greco, / buono in scïenzia e più in costumi, il quale / voglia insegnarli, e in casa tener seco" (vv. 13-15). In September 1531 Ludovico fell ill at Bagni d’Abano, where he was on mission, and was taken to Guasparro Obizi’s house in Padua, where he was lovingly looked after. The poet’s ties with Padua were very strong, due to Ludovico’s activity as theatre director for the Este Court: for carnival in 1532 he directed in Ferrara both the staging of his play Lena and another play by Ruzante, with a company of actors from Padua. This was not an isolated case, as there were many contacts between Ludovico and the world of Paduan  theatre, which rotated around  Ruzante. Padua was not an autonomous renaissance court like Ferrara or Mantua as, despite being culturally active and attracting artists and intellectuals (who gravitated around the prestigious university), it was under the government of the Republic of Venice and was tied to the fate of that state, which, at the beginning of the XVI century  was bound up in the very tough war against the league of Cambrai. It was indeed in the acutest phase of the anti-Venetian war, in 1509, that Padua was pointlessly occupied by the League’s troops, event followed at distance by Ariosto, in his capacity as courtier for Ippolito d’Este.