[2] Nicola Villani is best known for his critical writings, in which he defended Giambattista Marino against the attacks of Tommaso Stigliani.
[3] Villani took up a moderate position in the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns that developed in Italy in the second and third decades of the 17th century.
While he ranked Marino above Dante and Petrarch, he considered Homer and Virgil superior to all modern poets.
Villani's Fiorenza difesa (Florence Defended), a regular, neoclassic epic inspired by Trissino and Chiabrera, was left incomplete at his death and published posthumously in 1641.
[4] He was a successful writer of Latin satires and Italian facetious compositions, highly appreciated during the 17th and 18th centuries.