Serafino dell'Aquila

Serafino dell'Aquila or Aquilano (6 January 1466 – 10 August 1500), also called by the family name dei Ciminelli, was an Italian poet and musician.

Leaving for Rome in 1484, he entered the service of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza and formed a connection with the literary circle of the Papal Apostolic Secretary Paolo Cortese [eo; es; fr; it; nl], where he became friendly with Vincenzo Colli (il Calmeta), his eventual biographer.

There he became a member of the Academy of Pontano, where he associated with Jacopo Sannazaro, Pier Antonio Caracciolo and Benedetto Gareth (il Chariteo), whose eight-lined strambotti he took as model for his own.

[1] Because Serafino chanted his poems to his own lute accompaniment and often improvised the words as part of his performance, texts were taken down by others at the time and spread in manuscript, or sometimes in print.

[4] But Wyatt was also to translate or adapt Serafino’s work directly, being especially drawn to his use of the epigramatic strambotto, a form he introduced into English verse.

[5] For the extravagant image of the breaking heart being like an exploding cannon, he is only indebted to Serafino for the idea in his “The furious gonne in his rajing yre”.