FREZZI, Federico. — Dominican, theologian, and man of letters, born in Foligno around the mid-14th century; taught theology in Florence, Pisa, and Bologna; became bishop of Foligno in 1404; died in Constance, where he had gone for the Council, in 1416.
In imitation especially of Dante, but also of Petrarch and Boccaccio, he wrote (from before 1394 until around 1403) a poem of 74 cantos in terza rima: the Quadriregio, that is, the four kingdoms—of Love, of Satan, of Vices, and of Virtues (the last three recalling Dante’s three kingdoms)—in which, through allegories and personifications drawn from the events of his own spiritual life, he offers instruction and invites all to rise to the supreme Truth. The poem is on the whole dry and contrived, despite the formal qualities that earned it fame and preserve its memory.