Cesare Orsini (Latin: Cæsar Ursinus; 1572 – c. 1640) was an Italian Baroque poet.
[2] He lost his parents at a young age and was raised and educated by his uncle Francesco Baldassarri, a learned cleric.
In his twenties, he left his native country in search of fortune and traveled among the courts of northern Italy, serving as secretary to several nobles and prelates.
[4] The macaroneae have a paradoxical character, following the Baroque tradition: five consist in the praise respectively of the art of stealing, of ignorance, of madness, of lies and of ambition; another deals bitterly with the tricks of whores; the final is a funeral lamentation for a pink cat killed by a soldier, and a lamentation for the gout that afflicted the author.
[3] They were praised by French critic Charles Nodier, according to whom, "si Folengo est l'Homère de la poésie macaronique, César Ursinus en fut, plus de cent ans après, le Virgile.