SANNAZARO, JACOPO (1458-1530), one of the poets of the Renaissance in Italy, was born in 1458 at Naples of a noble family, said to have been of Spanish origin, which had its seat at San Nazaro near Pavia. His father died during the boyhood of Jacopo, who was accordingly brought up in a very plain way at Nocera Inferiore. He afterwards studied at Naples under Pontanus, when, according to the fashion of the time, he assumed the name Actius Syncerus, by which he is occasionally referred to. After the death of his mother he went abroad, - driven, we are told, by the pangs of despised love for a certain Carmosina, whom he has celebrated in his verse under various names ; but of the details of his travels nothing is recorded. On his return he speedily achieved fame as a poet and place as a courtier, receiving from Frederick III. as a country residence the Villa Mergillina near Naples. When his patron was compelled to take refuge in France in 1501 he was accompanied by Sannazaro, who did not return to Italy till after his death (1504). The later years of the poet seem to have been spent at Naples without interruption or memorable incident. He died on April 27, 1530.

The Arcadia of Sannazaro, begun in early life and published in 1504, is a somewhat affected and insipid Italian pastoral, in which in alternate prose and verse the scenes and occupations of pastoral life are described. His now seldom read Latin poem. Dc Panic Virginie, which gained for him the name of the "Christian Virgil," appeared in 1526, and his collected South: e Canzani in 1530.