DONIZIONE of CANOSSA. – A Benedictine who lived between the 11th and 12th centuries. Around 1090 he entered the monastery of Canossa, of which he later became abbot.
Besides a mediocre Enarration Genesis, in 1114 he composed a poem in Latin hexameters on the life of Countess Matilda, in two books. Rough in style and clumsy in its classical imitation, the work nonetheless has the interest of a document on the customs and mentality of the time. D. makes use of earlier sources, such as Rangero, the author of De Anulo et Baculo. – See plate CXV.
BIBL.: Vita Mathildis a D. scripta, ed. Luigi Simeoni, in RIS, n. ed., V. II, Bologna 1940. Studies: L. Simeoni, La Vita Mathildis di D. e il suo valore storico, in Atti e mem. d. dpr. st. patria p. le prov. mod., 7a serie, 4 (1927), pp. 18-64; N. Grimaldi, D. il cantore di Canossa e dei principi Canusini, Reggio 1928; id., La contesa Matilde e la sua stirpe feudale, Firenze 1929; F. Ermini, La memoria di Virgilio e l'altercatio fra Canossa e Mantova nel poema di D., in Studi mediev., 3a serie, 5 (1932), pp. 187-97; N. Ferraro, D., il cantore di Matilde, in Convivium, 10 (1938), pp. 643-61.