Francesco Matarazzo

As a teenager he was chosen to compose the Latin inscriptions that were inscribed beneath the portraits of famous citizens of Perugia that Braccio Baglione had painted to decorate his palace in the city.

After wide-ranging travels in the Mediterranean, he settled in Perugia circa 1475 where we find him designated as reverendi domini Perusinae civitatis secretarius dignissimus.

The rest of his life was spent in Perugia in an honourable position, in which, according to the usage of the time, political and literary employment were assigned to him in turns.

Concerning his death we have the chronicle of his friend Teseo Alfani, which reads: "On this Friday morning, August 20, 1518, before dawn, died the most excellent Francesco Matarazzo, who had been down with fever for about a month.

The Oddi family and its attendant army live in exile in the valley between Perugia and Assisi where they conduct a long and oppressive guerrilla war against their rivals; and in the process devastate the Umbrian land and impoverish the common citizen.