His work additionally includes two clever jeux d'esprit: La Ficheide, in praise of figs, and a eulogy of the big nose of Leoni Ancona, a local figure.

His poetry is noted for the freedom and grace of its versification, so that many claim that he brought verso sciolto to its highest form in Italy.

[1][full citation needed] Caro's fame was diminished because of the virulence with which he attacked Lodovico Castelvetro in one of his canzoni, and by his meanness for denouncing him to the Church for translating some of the writings of Philipp Melanchthon, an associate of Martin Luther.

[1][full citation needed] In 1555 Caro was installed as a "knight of grace" (a member not taking religious vows) of the Order of Malta by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese.

Annibal Caro published a translation of the Aeneid of Vergil, which was much admired by contemporaries, and still is read with pleasure by the lovers of the Italian language.