[2] 1429 – 15 July 1477), a protégé of Cardinal Bessarion, was a Neapolitan-born humanist at the court of Pope Pius II, whose funeral oration he wrote,[3] followed by a biography, flattering but filled with personal reminiscence, written ca 1470-77.
The famous four epigrammatic lines on a sleeping nymph Huius nympha loci..., thought to be of Roman origin[4] until revealed as a product of Renaissance humanism by Theodore Mommsen, were identified as Campani's from a note in a manuscript in the Bibliotheca Ricciardiana, Florence.
[6] Giovanni Battista Campani was born at Cavelli, near Galluccio, in the province of Caserta, to a family of very modest condition, in the midst of the war between Angevin and Aragonese contenders for the Kingdom of Naples.
[8] Having been part of the loyal embassy sent on the city's behalf to Pope Callixtus III in 1455, on his return was called to the chair of rhetoric at the University of Perugia, 16 November 1455.
[9] Under Sixtus IV he was appointed governor of Todi (1472) and Città di Castello (1474), but his public comparison of papal military activities with the Turks resulted in his permanent disgrace.