r "u different occasions, he was always brought hack
without ransom to the camp of Ferdinand, out of respect for his genius. < >n his return to Naples the king lav- ished his favors upon him, bestowed upon him riches and dignities, and intrusted him with the conduct of the most important matters of state. In 1 182 a war. which hade fair to become general, having broken out between the Venetians and the duke of Ferrara, Pon- tano brought about a reconciliation of the belligerents. lie was equally successful in compounding the difficul- ties that had arisen between Ferdinand and pope Inno- cent VIII. Put on his guard against, the negotiator, the pope exclaimed, "I treat with Pontano: is it meet that truth and good faith should abandon him who never abandoned them?" He became al that time iir-t minister, and remained in that high position under Alfonso II (who erected to him a statue) and Ferdinand II. When < hark - VI II of France approached Napli - al the head of a French army. Pontano sent him forthwith the keys of the city, harangued the king at his corona- tion, and dishonored himself by the insults and asper- sions which be cast in this speech al his royal benefac- tors. When Ferdinand return* d. he contented himself w iih deprh ing Pontano of his offices. The fallen min- ister found in his retreat move happiness than be had enjoyed in the tumuli of public business, and when Louis XII. alter the conquest of the kingdom of Naples, offered to put him again at the head of the government. this new Diocletian preferred his literary life to royal grandeur. Il was in his reireal thai he wrote most of
the works he has left, lie died at Naples in August,
1503. Mosl of his works deal with moral subjects, and
abound in sound precepts ami judicious reflections. Hia history ol the Neapolitan war is a masterpiece, suffi- cient alone to immortalize iis author. His Latinity is pure and elegant, his style noble and harmonious. \\\~, poetical work- excited envy and conquered it. lie an- dimself, like Horace, the eternity of his fain.': '•Tie- ri motesl posterity," he said, -will speak ol Pon- tano, ami celebrate his name." Erasmus, i hough a par- simonious distributor of praise to the Italian.-, ha- ac- knowledged Pontano's merit in the Ciceronians. Ii must he recorded also thai Pontano had the merit of correcting the manuscript, then the only one. of Catul-
lu-: I hat we owe to him the di-co\eiy of Donat's com-
mentaries on Virgil, and of Rhemuius Palcemon's (iram- mar. In his physical treatises he first signalled the law of continuity, and Beems to have been the firsl among
tin- moderns who. alter He rim-, declared the milky
way to he composed of an infinity of small siars. His poems, some of which unfortunately are spoiled by ob- scenities, were published al Venice (1505 8,2 vols.8vo)
and at Florence (1514, 2 vols. 8vo). His prose writings were published at Venice (1518-10. ." vol-. 4to) and at Florence | 1520, 1 vol-. 8vo). Hi- Works were edited at. Naples (1505 12,6 vols, fol.), and more completely at Basle (1556, I vol-. 8vo). Hi- prose writings comprise the following works; /;, Obedientia : — Dt Fortitudine:— DePrincipe: J>> Liber alitate : /<< Beneficenlia:—De Magnificentia:—DeSplendore: I ( enientia: De Prudentia:—De Magnanimitati : />• Foiiuna: — De Immanitate:—Dt Aspiratione: Dialogiv; full of spirit, hut blamed for their obscenity by Erasmus himself:— lh Sermom : -/;<//! libri viquod Ferdinandvs Neapoli- tanorum rex cum Joanne Andoyavenst duo gessit; this pamphlet was primed separately | V. nice, I'd'.'. Ito), and ha- been translated into Italian : Centum Ptol tentiee commentariis illustrate. : /<■ rebus calestibus:— />< /iiim. The poetry of Pontano comprises, Urania, seu (Ii stellis: — Meteora:—De hortis Hesperidarum: — Pastorales pompa : — Bucolica : . I morum libri ii : - lh mi,,,,-, conjugali:—Tumulorum libri ii : —Dt divinis laudibus : lit ndi easyllaba :— Lyrici vt rsus : — I.i idani libri ii: — Epigrammata. Hoefer, \ iv. Biog. Generate, -. \. See llallam. Literary History, i. 129 sq. ; Koscoe, /.in A. eh. ii and xx: Niceron, Memoires, vol. viii; Tiraboschi, Storia delta Letter, //id. s. v.
Pontanus, Georg-Baethoud von Mi: vitenbebg, a learned Bohemian prelate, was horn al Unix about the middle of the L6th century. He had scarcely taken order- when he achieved a reputation by his eloquence in the pulpit, as well as for his remarkable Lai in verses, for which last-named attainment he was in 1588 crowned with the poetical laurels by the emperor Rudolph. Ap- pointed canon of the cathedral of Prague in 1582, he afterwards hecame provost and vicar-general in the same city. He exercised a greal and happy influence on the important questions then under debate in Bohe- mia. He died in 1616. His works are. I >, ,■ Triumph i/i.-i Piiiliii/rn (Frankf. 1G05, -Ito): — Biblinlln I: i/>r l'n- digten aus alien inul neuen Sckriflstellern (Cologne, 1608, fol.) -.—Dasfromme Bohmen (Frankf. 1608, fol.); a selection of the most remarkable acts of piety ol' the princes and prelates of Bohemia: — Scanderb vita Georgii Cas/riottr (Hanau. lij(i!>. Svo): a number
of Latin poems:— a g 1 edition of the tnatisc De ge-
miiii.< rerum proprietatibus of Bartholomew Anglicus (Frankf. 1601, 8 vo).— Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, s. v.