Bernardino Rota [1509-1575], was a Neapolitan gentleman and a successful, sought after writer of both Italian and Latin poetry. His Piscatory Eclogues received contemporary praise, but his sonnets are more remembered today as a reflection of Southern Italian taste for Classicism and Petrarchan poetry. As a parallel to Petrarch's Laura, his verses mourned the death of his beloved wife Porzia Capece.