ARRIGO DA SETTMELLO. - A poet of the 12th century. Scant are the details of his life. He was a cleric and 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 notes the imitation of Boethius and Ovid, but often spontaneous, lively, and immediate is the sentiment. The work is composed of 502 elegiac couplets and points to philosophy as a refuge from life’s evils. The author in several places shows himself to be a believer and a good Christian, yet the ideal of life he preaches is the Stoic one. A. is considered one of the most distant precursors of the Renaissance.
The elegy was widely read and studied in the 13th and 14th centuries and was familiarly called *l’Arrighetto*. Some traces of it remain even in Dante’s *Divine Comedy*.