CRESCIMBENI, GIAN MARIO. — Erudite man of letters, born at Macerata on 9 Oct. 1663, died at Rome on 5 March 1728. Canon and archpriest of S. Maria in Cosmedin, he devoted himself to his church and to the Accademia dell’Arcadia (v.), of which in 1690 he was among the principal founders and which for 38 years he led as general custodian under the name of Alfesibeo Cario.
His *Istoria della volgar poesia* (Rome 1698), the first attempt at a profile of Italian literature, betrays the author’s critical and synthetic incapacity, reducing itself to a miscellany of names and data insufficiently distinguished by simplistic and partisan judgments. Evident, indeed, is the apologetic intent of the work, in which Arcadian activity is understood as the regeneration of poetry in the vernacular, which, derived from Provençal and perfected by Petrarch, after the glories of the Cinquecento had faded into the delirium of the Seicentisti. Unquestionable, however, are in the *Istoria* the character of a repertory of information that would otherwise have been lost and a certain inspiration that at times enlivens it in the effort to vindicate Italian values. In the Venetian edition of 1730–31 there were added the *Commentari* and the nine dialogues *La beltà della volgar poesia*. With the *Arcadia* (Rome 1711), a pastoral novel in verse and prose in imitation of Sannazzaro, he narrated the fortunes of the Academy up to 1706, and with the *Rime* (1695 and 1723) he fused Petrarchism and Chiabrerism. He also wrote: *Istoria delle chiese di S. Maria in Cosmedin, di S. Giovanni e di S. Anastasia*; *Compendio della vita della Vergine*; *Notizie intorno ad A. Poliziano*; *Ragionamenti pastorali* and *Orazioni*. He translated into Italian the *Homilies* and *Orationes* of Clement XI.