BAILARDO (BARLIARIO), PIETRO. — In popular tradition, the legend of this strange character, a Salernitan astronomer and necromancer who died at the stake in 1149 after abjuring his errors, has remained alive to this day. Particularly vivid is the memory of a miracle that, on the occasion of his death, was supposedly performed by a crucifix—a miracle whose account is already found in the XXVII Sermone evangelico of Franco Sacchetti, and which inspired two popular «stories» in ottava verse, printed several times over the last two centuries. Some scholars have believed, but erroneously, that he could be identified with Pietro Abelardo.
BIBL.: A. D'Ancona, Un filosofo e un mago: Pietro Abelardo e P. B., in Varietà storiche e letterarie, Milan 1883; G. Pansa, La leggenda di P. B. in Salerno, in Miti, leggende e superstizioni dell'Abruzzo, II, Sulmona 1927. Paolo Toschi