Cesare Rinaldi was born in Bologna on 12 December 1559. Ten years older than
Marino, Rinaldi was a forerunner of the new
concettist and
Marinist poets, and perhaps can be best described as a poet poised between a
Mannerist style and a new interest in the concetto and the image. He played an important role in transforming the late lyric style of
Torquato Tasso into the highly sensuous and conspicuously ingenious poetry for which Marino is famous. His earliest volume of poems was published in 1588. His verse is characterized by extended metaphors which went well beyond the orthodox Petrarchist canon. His
Lettere, published in two different editions in 1617 and 1620, were widely read. Although he did not become a member of the new
Accademia dei Gelati, founded in Bologna in 1588 by
Melchiorre Zoppio, and did not participate in the polemics and controversies that broke out more than two decades later over Marino's poetry, he had ties of friendship with younger Bolognese poets like
Girolamo Preti,
Claudio Achillini and
Ridolfo Campeggi as well as with Marino. He took an interest in music (
Monteverdi, for example) and in art, and acquired works for his “museo”—a large
collection that was more on the order of a “
Wunderkammer” than a collection primarily devoted to painting and sculpture. Rinaldi was a member of the
Accademia degli Incogniti of Venice and of the Accademia degli Spensierati of Florence. His house in Bologna became a meeting point for writers and artists. He was a friend both to Ludovico and to
Agostino Carracci and he often frequented the
Accademia degli Incamminati. He wrote a
sonnet for Agostino Carracci's funeral. As
Carlo Cesare Malvasia relates, Rinaldi acquired the famous
Bacchus and Ariadne from
Ludovico Carracci, and his letters indicate that he acted as intermediary in acquiring pictures for various people, including Marino. In his later years, Rinaldi became a friend and patron of
Guido Reni, who gave him his famous
Mary Magdalen (now lost), and he wrote several poems in praise of Guido's art. ==Style and legacy==