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Perotti, Nicolas

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an Italian prelate and philologist, was born at Sassoferrato, in Umbria, in 1430. He became professor in the University of Bologna, where he was educated. His translation of the first five books of Polybius, the only ones then known, recommended him to the protection of pope Nicolas V. Shortly after he went to Rome, and was appointed apostolic vicar. In 1458 he obtained the archbishopric of Siponto or Manfredonia; but he continued to reside at Rome. The duties of governor of Umbria, to which he was appointed in 1465, and those of governor of Perugia in 1474, did not cause him to neglect literary labors. He died Dec. 13, 1480. Perotti was one of the contributors to the Renaissance. His principal works, very useful in the 15th century and now quite curious, are a Latin Grammar, Rudimenta Grammatices (Rome, 1473, fol.), and a commentary upon Martial, which forms a kind of argumentative Lexicon of the Latin language, Cornucopia, sive Commentaria linguae Latinae (Venice, 1489, 1499, 1513, 1526, fol.). We have also a treatise from Perotti, De Generibus Metrorum (ibid. 1497, 4to), and an edition of the Historia Nafturalis of Pliny. The works of Perotti are counted among the most ancient monuments of printing. Some fables from Phedra were published after one of his manuscripts, and critics have even regarded him as the author of the whole collection which bears the name of this poet; but it is a hypothesis without probability, and favored by none of the mediocre Latin verses which remain of Perotti. See Paul Jove, Elogia; Niceron, Memoires, vol. 9; Bayle, Dictionaire; Tiraboschi, Storia de la Letteratura Italiana, 6:11, 408; Apostolo Zeno, Dissertaz. Tossiane, vol. i; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 39, 623.