Andrea Ammonio

Who was Andrea Ammonio?

Andrea Ammonio was an Italian cleric and Latin poet born in Lucca, held in high esteem by Erasmus, a friend of his. Sent to England by the Pope, he became Latin secretary to Henry VII of England and a prebendary of Salisbury.

Born into one of the oldest families in Lucca, he was later given the hellenized name "Ammonio". At the University of Bologna, he studied under Oliverius Jontus of Montegallorum, a teacher there from 1494 to 1498. Ammonio then went to Rome. By 1506, he was in England, probably travelling with Silvestro Gigli, another Luccanese, who had been sent by Pope Julius II in 1505 to give gifts to Henry VII and who became bishop of Worcester. In 1509 he became Latin secretary to William Blount, Lord Mountjoy, and by 1511 he was secretary to Henry VIII. That year, in Paris, Erasmus showed Blount the manuscript of a book of Ammonio's poems dedicated to Blount, who thought the dedication was too excessive and asked that it be changed. That was done, and Erasmus soon had the book printed.

On February 3, 1512, he received a prebend in the Cathedral of St. Stephen, Westminster, and later received a canonry at Worcester. Also in 1512, he was with the English expeditionary force in France when it won the Battle of the Spurs. On April 12, 1514, he became an English citizen, and in 1515 Pope Leo X appointed him subcollector of papal taxes in England, after Ammonio had conspired against Polydore Vergil for the post. Not yet 40 years old, Ammonio died suddenly in 1517 of the "sweating sickness" in London.