SOURCE: Nichols, Fred J. Introduction to An Anthology of Neo-Latin Poetry, edited and translated by Fred. J. Nichols, pp. 1-84. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1979.

In the following excerpt, Nichols judges “Benacus” one of Bembo's finest poems in Latin.

The most influential figure of the generation of Latin poets which reached its literary maturity toward the end of the [sixteenth] century was Pietro Bembo (1470-1547). Bembo's fame as a literary figure, notably because of the part he played in enabling serious writers to regard Italian as a language worthy of cultivation, has obscured an appreciation of the consummate literary skill he displays in his own Latin writings. The very polish of his work has tended to put off modern critics who assume that such an attention to surface must entail a corresponding deficiency of substance.

His long poem “Benacus,” an encomium dedicated to Bishop Giberti of Verona...