BELCARI, FEO. — Florentine writer, born into a noble family on 4 February 1410. Deeply religious in spirit, he also took part in the public life of his city: he was one of the priori and buonumini, and later gonfaloniere of the Compagnie del popolo. Having married, perhaps in 1435, Angiolella di Tommaso di Gherardo of the noble de' Placiti family, he raised his family as Christians; one of his daughters became a nun in the monastery of S. Brigida. He was a constant friend of the Medici household and addressed sonnets and dedications to Cosimo il Vecchio, to his sons Piero and Giovanni, and to Lorenzo il Magnifico. He died on 16 August 1484 and was buried in the sacristy of the church of S. Croce.
His works were inspired by deeply felt religious devotion, but are scarcely original. B. often limited himself to paraphrasing Latin sources, as in the Prato spirituale, a collection of lives of the saints, and in the Vita di frate Egidio. He achieved greater individuality in the Vita del b. Colombini, his best-known work, in which B., although making use of Giovanni Tavelli da Tossignano, went beyond the limits of compilation and drew directly upon documents, thus creating a celebration that was at once historical and fanciful; in its lively and limpid prose, the grace of the fourteenth century continues to animate the work, and for this reason it attracted the keen admiration of the purists in the last century.
B. also contributed to the revival of the lyric poetry of the laude and to the development of sacred drama. In addition to the serious and playful Rime, he composed Laudi spirituali, rich in sincere and ardent faith, though marked by weariness and deliberate adaptations, and Sacre rappresentazioni, including L'Annunziazione di Nostra Donna, II
giudicio finale, S. Giovanni Battista nel deserto, and Abraam e Isaac. The latter was performed in the church of S. Maria Maddalena in Cestelli in 1449, and revived in Florence in 1917 through the efforts of L. Rasi, with music by I. Pizzetti. All of them display a discerning artistry and a feeling of human tenderness which at certain moments gives life to genuine and effective verse.