Giovanni Fusari

Archpriest of Sant’Agata sul Santerno, in the region of Ravenna, and an old family friend of the Ariostos, a man who Ludovico had a great deal of affection for. He probably became a friend of the Ariostos in 1495, when Niccolò Ariosto was commissioner at Lugo di Romagna, not far from Sant’Agata. In 1499 Giovanni Fusari went to Ferrara and named  Niccolò Ariosto his attorney for the purchase of some houses. After the death of the poet’s father, Fusari continued to keep in touch with his friend’s sons, especially with  Ludovico for whom he had great esteem and admiration. The name of Giovanni Fusari is tied to the complex issue of the inheritance of the benefice of Sant’Agata sul Santerno. When Julius II died in1513, Ariosto went to Rome with the ambassadors of the House of Este to congratulate the new pope Leo X and try to procure himself an income. All he got was the promise that he could become beneficiary of  Sant’Agata sul Santerno but only when the current holder of the benefice, the family friend Giovanni Fusari, might die. An obvious allusion to the benefice of Sant’Agata and the problems linked to it is contained in Satires II, vv. 130-135. This benefice was much sought after and the archpriest Fusari consequently feared for his life. For this reason he had, a first time in 1503, renounced in favour of Bishop Felino Sandeo, and, a second time, after Sandeo’s death, he did the same in favour of Ludovico Ariosto. But the poet could not benefit from this benefice as long as  Fusari lived. The issues related to this benefice proved to be far more complex than foreseen and dragged on across the years until, in 1524, the poet renounced in favour of his fifteen year old son Virginio, who acquired the income at the death of  Fusari, presumably in 1527.