Meanwhile, the Latin imitations of Roman, varied by occasional translations of Greek, comedies early led to the production of Italian translations, several of which were performed at Ferrara in the last quarter of the 15th century, whence they spread to Milan, Pavia and other towns of the north. Contemporaneously, imitations of Latin comedy made their appearance, for the most part in rhymed verse; most of them applying classical treatment to subjects derived from Boccaccio's and other _novelle_, some still mere adaptations of ancient models. In these circumstances it is all but idle to assign the honour of having been "the first Italian comedy"--and thus the first comedy in modern dramatic literature--to any particular play. Boiardo's _Timone_ (before 1494), for which this distinction was frequently claimed, is to a large extent founded on a dialogue of Lucian's; and, since some of its personages are abstractions, and Olympus is domesticated on an upper stage, it cannot be regarded as more than a transition from the moralities. A. Ricci's _I Tre Tiranni_ (before 1530) seems still to belong to the same transitional species. Among the earlier imitators of Latin comedy in the vernacular may be noted G. Visconti, one of the poets patronized by Ludovico il Moro at Milan;[27] the Florentines G. B. Araldo, J. Nardi, the historian,[28] and D. Gianotti.[29] The step--very important had it been adopted consistently or with a view to consistency--of substituting prose for verse as the diction of comedy, is sometimes attributed to Ariosto; but, though his first two comedies were originally written in prose, the experiment was not new, nor did he persist in its adoption. Caretto's _I Sei Contenti_ dates from the end of the 15th century, and Publio Filippo's _Formicone_, taken from Apuleius, followed quite early in the 16th. Machiavelli, as will be seen, wrote comedies both in prose and in verse.