sēdulitātem ... dīgnam dūxerit

[phil]

In a summary of the life of Sulla:

[ille] litterīs Graecīs atque Latīnīs ērudītus et virōrum litterātōrum adeō amāns, ut sēdulitātem etiam malī cūiusdam poētae aliquō praemiō dīgnam dūxerit ; nam cum ille eppigramma in eum fēcisset eīque subiēcisset, Sulla statim praemium eī darī iussit, sed eā lēge, nē quid posteā scrīberet.

He was learned in Greek and Latin literature, and so loving of literary men, that he ?led? the worthy earnestness even of a certain bad poet, by some reward ; for when he (the poet) had composed an inscription for him, and submitted it to him, Sulla immediately ordered a reward to be given, but on the condition that he never write anything again.

I'm assuming that 'sedulitatem ... dignam' agree, and that they are wrapping up an idea related to 'worthy earnestness', but I can't make out exactly what. And my dictionary has about 25 meanings for 'ducere', and I can't get one to make sense here.

Once more I throw myself on the patience of the Textkit community for help! Cheers, Phil.

[adrianus]

that he considered a dedication of even some bad poet as worthy of some reward

[thesaurus]

In a summary of the life of Sulla:

[ille] litterīs Graecīs atque Latīnīs ērudītus et virōrum litterātōrum adeō amāns, ut sēdulitātem etiam malī cūiusdam poētae aliquō praemiō dīgnam dūxerit ; nam cum ille eppigramma in eum fēcisset eīque subiēcisset, Sulla statim praemium eī darī iussit, sed eā lēge, nē quid posteā scrīberet.

He was learned in Greek and Latin literature, and so loving of literary men, that he ?led? the worthy earnestness even of a certain bad poet, by some reward ; for when he (the poet) had composed an inscription for him, and submitted it to him, Sulla immediately ordered a reward to be given, but on the condition that he never write anything again.

I'm assuming that 'sedulitatem ... dignam' agree, and that they are wrapping up an idea related to 'worthy earnestness', but I can't make out exactly what. And my dictionary has about 25 meanings for 'ducere', and I can't get one to make sense here.

You're very close. "duco" is often used to mean "I think/regard/consider," so "he was so loving of [devoted to] literary men that he thought/considered the attentiveness of even a certain bad poet [to be] worthy of some prize."

So "sedulitatem," which means something like very close attention, is the subject of the reported speech. The adjective "dignus,a,um" is used with a dative in Latin.