HENRY OF SETTIMELLO. - Poet of the 12th century. Information about his life is scarce. He was a cleric and also enjoyed honors and comforts, but later fell into disgrace. To console himself he wrote the famous Elegia de diversitate fortunae et philosophiae consolatione, which is the only work of his that has come down to us (ed. A. Marigo, Padua 1926). In it one notices the imitation of Boethius and Ovid, but often the feeling is spontaneous, vivid and immediate. The work is composed of 502 elegiac couplets and in it philosophy is pointed out as a refuge from the ills of life. The author in several passages shows himself to be a believer and a good Christian, but the ideal of life preached is the Stoic one. A. is considered one of the most distant precursors of the Renaissance.

The elegy was much read and studied in the 13th and 14th centuries and was familiarly called the Arrighetto. Some trace of it remains also in Dante's Commedia.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: A. Monteverdi, Un poeta italiano del sec. XII, in Riv. d'Italia, 1925, p. 98; E. Bonaventura, A. da S., in Studi Medievali, 4 (1912-13), pp. 110-92.

Giambattista Salinari

@incollection{ec2_arrigo_da_settimello, author = {Salinari, Giambattista}, title = {Arrigo da Settimello}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {23--24}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/arrigo-da-settimello} }

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Henry of Settimello

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