ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS AND RESPECTED PHILOLOGISTS OF HIS GENERATION

Erasmus of Rotterdam: «In Rome I saw Pietro Marso, long-lived rather than famous, approaching eighty years of age and nevertheless vigorous in mind and appearance. He seemed to me a man of integrity and integrity, and I could not help but admire his industriousness; at such an advanced age he was working on some commentaries on De Senectute and other works of Cicero. Traces of an ancient generation recurred in him»

Pietro Marso (Cese, 30 October 1441 – Rome, 30 December 1511) was an Italian philologist, orator and canon. Initiated into ecclesiastical life, Pietro moved to Rome at a rather young age, and there he became part of the famous humanistic academy that arose around the figure of Pomponio Leto. After a brief experience in Mantua with the Gonzaga lords as tutor to the young Ludovico, Pietro returned to Rome to resume teaching at the Sapienza, a position he held until his death with one of the highest salaries recorded among scholars of the time. At the same time as his philological and professorial activity, he consistently developed the art of oratory , to the point of entering the ranks of the greatest orators. His speeches and homilies in St. Peter's, the Sistine Chapel, Santa Maria Maggiore and San Lorenzo in Damaso, the church of which he was appointed canon and then vicar of Cardinal Raffaele Riario around 1500, have remained famous over time.