CICOGNINI, IACOPD. - Writer, b. at Castrocaro in 1557, d. at Firenze in 1633. Having graduated in law at Pisa in 1600, he attempted many occupations in life, first as an ambassador in Rome to certain cardinals, then as governor in various cities of the Papal States; he finally gave free rein to his dramatic talent and composed in Firenze, between 1611 and 1624, with vigorous popular force, sacred representations: Il trionfo di Davide, L'arcangiolo Raffaello, Il martirio di s. Agata.
In these works, more than in the rustic stanzas or the secular dramas (his son Giacinto Andrea also composed theatrical works, being the first to spread in Italy the taste for Spanish theatre), lies the physiognomy of C. In his verses, which imitate those of Chiabrera, and in all his work as a writer, he wished to express a state of gloomy and melancholy restlessness (C. ended as a madman and a suicide), repeatedly seeking in the sacred themes of the Bible elevation and religious comfort.
Bitt.: M. Sterzi, I.C., La Spezia 1903; id., I.C., in Rassegna bibliografica della letteratura italiana, 33 (1925), pp. 114-23; C. Naselli, Il Martirio di s. Agata di un drammaturgo del Seicento: I. C., in Archivio star. per la Sicilia orientale, nuova serie 3-4 (1927-28), pp. 195-220. Giovanni Pallani