Francesco Maria Molza (18 June 1489 in Modena – 28 February 1544 in Modena) was an Italian poet of the Renaissance. He has been described as "one of the most promising of contemporary authors".[1]
Pope Leo X, known as the Medici Pope, carried on his family's tradition of patronage of the arts begun by his great-grandfather Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence. Upon hearing of the generosity of this new pope, Francesco Maria Molza abandoned his family – parents, wife, and children – and moved to Rome where he became infatuated with a woman and wrote poems to her; he wrote the pastoral poem La ninfa Tiberina in praise of Faustina Mancini and went through a series of various amours. He was at one point attacked and seriously wounded by a would-be assassin. After Leo's death, he moved to Bologna where he joined the entourage of Ippolito de' Medici.[2] He wrote five novellas, four of which were published in Lucca after his death in 1549.
He died in 1544 of syphilis.