CRESCIMBENI, GIAN MARIO. — Man of letters and scholar, born at Macerata on 9 October 1663, died at Rome on 8 March 1728. Canon and archpriest of S. Maria in Cosmedin, he lived devoted to Arcadia (v.), of which he was among the principal founders in 1690 and which he governed for 38 years as general custodian under the name of Alfesibeo Cario.
His Istoria della volgar poesia (Rome 1698), the first attempt at an outline of Italian literature, reveals the author’s critical and synthetic incapacity, reducing itself to a jumble of names and data insufficiently differentiated, with simplistic and partisan judgments. The work’s apologetic intention is in fact evident: Arcadian activity is understood as a regeneration of poetry in the vernacular, which, derived from Provençal poetry and perfected with Petrarch, had, after the splendours of the sixteenth century, been clouded by the seventeenth-century delirium. Nevertheless, the Istoria undeniably possesses the character of a repertory of information that otherwise would have been lost, as well as a certain inspiration that at times animates it in its effort to vindicate Italian values. The Venetian edition of 1730–31 included additions, namely the Commentari and the 9 dialogues on La bellezza della volgar poesia. In Arcadia (Rome 1711), a pastoral novel in verse and prose imitating Sannazzaro, C. narrated the history of the Academy up to 1706; in his Rime (1695 and 1723), he blended 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 the vernacular the Omelie and Orazioni of Clement XI.