DOVIZI, BERNARDO. - Humanist, cardinal. Known as Bibbiena from the place where he was born on 4 Aug. 1470. His life was bound up with the fortunes of Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici, later Pope Leo X: he successively served as his private secretary, general treasurer, and in 1513 was elevated to the purple. Leo X employed D. as an adviser both in the organization of festivities and in political negotiations, and appointed him legate in 1516 to Charles V and two years later to Francis I. He died in Rome in 1520. The report of his having been poisoned is unfounded.
His moral character (“ambalissimus homo”) was defined by Bembo; his physical appearance is preserved in the portrait by Raphael at the Pitti Gallery. He is the author of many letters and of the comedy *Calandria*, in five acts, performed in 1513 at the court of Urbino and later (1518) in the Vatican. The work, variously judged for its comic thesis, is among the best literary comedies of the 16th century; it unfolds through immoral incidents and pranks and reflects not only the age in which it was written but also a particular conception of life devoted to pleasure, as may be seen, among other things, in the subjects of Venus and Love that he chose.
