PASQUINO

Pasquino: translation

Popular name given to a badly damaged ancient statue discovered at Rome in the late 15th century and relocated to the Pi-azza Navona, where it still remains. The custom arose among students andhumanistsof decorating this statue with garlands during the an-nual celebration of St. Mark's Day (25 April). Poets and satirists stuck satirical verses, often criticizing and ridiculing prominent individuals, onto the statue, which (since its true identity as a statue of Menelaus guarding the body of his friend Patroclus was unknown) was nick-named "Master Pasquino." In 1509 the Roman printer Jacopo Maz-zocchi published a collection of these verses, which came to be known as "pasquinades." In the authoritarian and heavily censored at-mosphere of Renaissance Rome, these pasquinades provided a rare outlet for political criticism and satire, often sharply worded and in-decent. Annual volumes containing the past year's pasquinades con-tinued to be published until the 18th century.