Born in Bologna in a local noble family, Filippo Beroaldo studied with
Francesco Puteolano, who worked at the University of Bologna as a professor of rhetoric and poetry, and was active as editor of early printed editions of
Ovid,
Catullus and
Tacitus. On the return of Puteolano to Milan, Berolado was made the new professor of rhetoric and poetry in 1472, despite being only 19 years old. In 1475, he left Bologna and travelled to Parma and Paris, where he befriended
Robert Gaguin, but by 1479 he was back in Bologna, where he would remain as professor until he died in 1505. Beroaldo was a very popular teacher. It was said that up to 300 students followed his lectures, and that 200 students left the university after his death. His students included some of the children of
Giovanni II Bentivoglio,
Filippo Beroaldo the Younger (1472–1518, cousin of Beroaldo),
Hermann von dem Busche,
Polydore Vergil,
Andrzej Krzycki,
Jodocus Badius, and
Giovanni Battista Pio, who both later became professors at Bologna. Berolado also sometimes worked as a diplomat for Bentivoglio. He is considered to be the leading Italian humanist from 1494 on, after the death of
Poliziano. ==Work==