Celso Cittadini was born in Rome into a family of noble origins which counted the poet Cecco Angiolieri among its ancestors.

As court secretary, he moved from Rome first to Parma to work for Duke Ranuccio, then to Urbino under Francesco Maria II Della Rovere, and finally to Milan to Cardinal Federico Borromeo.

[1] He returned to Rome in 1581, and following Petrarch's model wrote a songbook of madrigals and sonnets for the noblewoman Hippolita Calcagni known as Fiamma, entitled Rime platoniche.

[3] He made original use of epigraphic and literary evidence to argue that Latin evolved into the vernacular independently of the ‘barbarian’ invasions.

[4] In 1721, almost a hundred years after his death, Girolamo Gigli published a collection of his major works, plus the posthumous Degl'idiomi toscani.