Marco Girolamo Vida or Marcus Hieronymus Vida (1485? – 1566) was an Italian humanist, bishop, and poet. Born at Cremona, Vida joined the court of Pope Leo X and was given a prior at Frascati. He became bishop of Alba in 1532. He wrote a considerable amount of Latin poetry, both secular and sacred, in classical style, particular the style of Virgil. Among his best-known works are the didactic poem in three books, De arte poetica (On the Art of Poetry), partly inspired by Horace, and Scacchia Ludus (The Game of Chess), translated into many languages over the centuries. Both poems were first published in 1527. His major work was the Latin epic poem Christiados libri sex (The Christiad in Six Books), in the style and much of the language of Vergil. He began work on it under Pope Leo X in the 1510s but did not complete it until the early 1530s. It was published in 1535, well after the pope's death.
References
- For a biography, background, comments on the main poems, and full study of theChristiad, see M. Di Cesare, Vida's Christiad and Vergilian Epic, New York: Columbia University Press, 1964.
- For a detailed bibliography of editions and translations of all his works, see M. Di Cesare, Bibliotheca Vidiana, Florence: Sansoni, 1974.)
- A translation of his De arte poetica by Christopher Pitt can be found in the 19th volume of the collection English Poets edited by Alexander Chalmers
