Ludovico Ariosto, the author of Orlando Furioso, is considered to be one of the most eminent Italian poets and his name is held in the same veneration in his native country as that of Shakespeare is in England. Preferring comfort and indipendence to splendor and servility, he refused several invitations to live at the courts of crowned heads, and built a commodious, but small house, for his own residence, at Ferrara. He puts in the front of his house the following Latin inscription:
“Parva sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed non sordida, parta meo sed tamen aere domus.”
“Small is my humble roof, but well designed to suit the temper of the master’s mind; hurtful to none, it boasts a decent pride, that my poor purse the modest cost supplied.”
