BENIVIENI, GIROLAMO. - Humanist and poet, b. in Florence on 6 Feb. 1453, d. there in 1542. He was on close terms of friendship with the Medici family, with Poliziano, with Ficino and especially with Pico della Mirandola, beside whom he lies buried in the church of St. Mark. He had vast culture and mastery of verse, so much so as to stand foremost among the poets of his time and to be regarded by B. Varchi as the second restorer of Italian poetry. At times, however, he seems unclear, by reason of the dense Platonic teaching that enters into his rhymes. From the time he went over to Savonarola, he inspired almost all his works with religious subjects and became the official poet of the Savonarolan demonstrations.

Among his compositions we recall the allegorical little poem Amore sull'amore umano, the Canzone de lo amore celeste e divino commented on by Pico, various lauds and moral songs.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: C. Re, G. B. fiorentino, Città di Castello 1906 (excellent); A. Pellizzari, Un asceta del Rinascimento. La vita e le opere di G. B., in Dal Duecento all'Ottocento, Naples 1914, pp. 258-60; V. Rossi, Il Quattrocento, 2nd ed., Milan 1934, p. 281.

Angelo Walz

@incollection{ec2_benivieni_girolamo, author = {Walz, Angelo}, title = {Benivieni, girolamo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1352}, 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/benivieni-girolamo} }

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Benivieni, Girolamo

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