BONFADO, JACOPO. - Italian man of letters and humanist, b. at Salò on Lake Garda around 1500, d. in 1550. He is numbered among the first followers of the Protestant movement in Italy. He was a friend of Pietro Carnesecchi and in a letter written to him from Salò he recalls with heartfelt nostalgia the days spent with him in Naples; he was a great admirer of Giovanni Valdés; he wrote the annals of the Genoese republic (Annalium Genuensium libri quinque, Pavia 1586) and also Lettere e poesie volgari (Genoa 1870). He died by beheading at Genoa, not for heresy, but on very grave charges of immorality. The court of Rome wrote to the government of Genoa complaining because « although (B.) alleged that he was a priest, they had put him to death without giving him time to prove this ».

BIB.: C. Cantù, Gli eretici d'Italia, I, Torino 1865, p. 424; III, 1866, p. 149; G. Paladino, Opuscoli e lettere di riformatori italiani del Cinquecento, Bari 1913; C. Niccolini, Tre lettere inedite di J. B., in Giorn. star. della letter. ital., 74 (1919), p. 81 ff.; F. Lemmi, La Riforma in Italia, Milano 1939, pp. 42-44.

Camillo Crivelli

@incollection{ec2_bonfado_jacopo, author = {Crivelli, Camillo}, title = {Bonfado, jacopo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1853--1854}, 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/bonfado-jacopo} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Bonfado, Jacopo

About this entry