This was done by Franciscus Arsillus--a man who needed
the patronage neither of pope nor prince, and who dared to speak his
mind, even against his colleagues. The epigram survived the pontificate
of Paul III only in a few rare echoes, while epigraphy continued to
flourish till the seventeenth century, when it perished finally of
bombast.
In Venice, also, this form of poetry had a history of its own, which we
are able to trace with the help of the 'Venezia' of Francesco
Sansovino. A standing task for the epigram-writers was offered by the
mottoes (Brievi) on the pictures of the Doges in the great hall of the
ducal palace--two or four hexameters, setting forth the most noteworthy
facts in the government of each. In addition to this, the tombs of the
Doges in the fourteenth century bore short inscriptions in prose,
recording merely facts, and beside them turgid hexameters or leonine
verses. In the fifteenth century more care was taken with the style; in
the sixteenth century it is seen at its best; and then coon after came
pointless antithesis, prosopopceia, false pathos, praise of abstract
qualities-- in a word, affectation and bombast. A good many traces of
satire can be detected, and veiled criticism of the living is implied
in open praise of the dead. At a much later period we find a few
instances of deliberate recurrence to the old, simple style.
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