AFFÒ, IRENEO. - Man of letters, born at Busseto (Parma) in 1741, died at Parma in 1797. He was a Friar Minor and until 1777 taught at Ferrara and Guastalla.
Drawing extensively on the work of Quadrio, he composed a Dizionario precettivo ed istorico della poesia volgare (Parma 1777), a collection of the so-called Cantici volgari di s. Francesco (Guastalla 1777), and the Memorie degli scrittori e letterati parmigiani (5 vols., Parma 1789–97), considered his best work and subsequently continued by A. Pezzana. In 1793 he published the Storia di Parma, left unfinished at the year 1346. He also practised poetry, though with very modest results. He edited an edition of Poliziano’s Orfeo, esteemed by Carducci and I. Del Lungo. But A.’s greatest merit remains his diligent scholarly devotion to the cultivation of local traditions and civic memories.