BURLAMACCHI, PACIFICO. - Dominican, devoted to the memory of Savonarola, b. at Lucca around 1465, inherited from his father and from his mother Angelica Bernardini his affection for the Dominican Order, to which he was enrolled on 18 March 1499 at S. Romano in Lucca, abandoning the mercantile trade to which he had previously devoted himself and changing the name Filippo to that of fra' Pacifico. He received the tonsure in 1500. From 1508 to 1510 he was prior of the convent of La Quercia (Viterbo), where Julius II declared that he would gladly canonize Savonarola. Having returned to Lucca, he was confessor of the Dominican nuns (1512-18) and subprior at S. Romano (1513-18). Venerated as a saint by his contemporaries, he d. at Lucca on 13 Feb. 1519.
An Italian Vita of Savonarola was attributed to him, published, with reworkings by T. Bottoni, at Lucca by Mansi in 1761 and by Di Poggio in 1764; new ed. by P. Ginori Conti, Florence 1937. However, after the investigations of L. Ranke (Hist. biogr. Studien, Leipzig 1877, pp. 346-357), of P. Villari (Saggi storici e critici, Bologna 1890, pp. 297-326; id., La Storia di G. Savonarola e dei suoi tempi, Florence 1910, introd.) and of R. Ridolfi (La bibliofilia, 37 [1935], pp. 401-18) it is held, against G. Schnitzer (Arch. stor. ital., 3rd series, 28 [1901], pp. 257-95; id., Savonarola, II, pp. 524-46) that the Italian Vita was written by an anonymous author around 1528 and depends on the Latin Vita.
Bibliography3 works
Angelo Walz