Editing Matteo Maria Boiardo (section)

==Career==
[[File:Title page of Herodotus' history of the Greek and Persian Wars 1502.jpg|thumb|left|Italian translation of [[Herodotus' Histories]] by Count Matteo Maria Boiardo, published in [[Venice]] in 1533.]]
Up to the year of his marriage to Taddea Gonzaga, the daughter of the Count of Novellara (1472), he had received many marks of favour from [[Borso d'Este]], Duke of Ferrara, having been sent to meet [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick III]] (1469), and afterwards visiting [[Pope Paul II]] (1471) in the train of Borso. In 1473 he joined the retinue which escorted [[Eleanor of Naples, Duchess of Ferrara|Eleonora of Aragon]], the daughter of [[Ferdinand I of Naples|Ferdinand I]], to meet her spouse, [[Ercole I d'Este|Ercole]], at [[Ferrara]].

In 1476 Boiardo returned to Ferrara to become Duke Ercole's companion; here he witnessed the unfolding of Niccolò d'Este's conspiracy against Ercole, his cousin, whose victory Boiardo promptly celebrated in his ''Latin'' Epigrammata. In 1478 Boiardo married Taddea dei Gonzaga of Novellara, by whom he had six children.  

In 1481 Boiardo was invested with the governorship of Reggio, an office which he filled with noted success till his death, except for a brief interval (1481–86) when he was governor of [[Modena]]. The outbreak of war between Ferrara and Venice, the vicissitudes of which are reflected in his ''Ecloghe volgari'', and his concern for his native Scandiano, forced him to relinquish the post.

In 1487 Ercole appointed Boiardo ducal emissary for [[Reggio Emilia|Reggio]], an office which he was to hold until his death, and which has left us the largest nucleus of his ''Lettere'', mostly of an administrative nature. When [[Charles VIII of France]] invaded Italy, in September 1494, Boiardo's health had deteriorated. He died in Reggio on 19 December, his death, with that of [[Poliziano]] and [[Giovanni Pico della Mirandola]] in the same year, marking the end of an era.