GIUSTINIAN, LEONARDO. - Poet, b. in Venice ca. 1388, d. there in Nov. 1446. He held important offices in his Republic, up to that of procurator of St. Mark.

An excellent connoisseur of Greek and Latin (there survive by him translations from Plutarch, political orations, and a life of St. Nicholas of Myra), in close correspondence with the humanists of his time, G. nevertheless has a name, in Italian literature, as a poet of strambotti, contrasti, and canzonette (see the edition of the Poesie, edited by B. Wiese, Bologna 1883). In these, more than in his sacred lauds, poor in invention, the popular vein of G., in a happy linguistic blend rich in dialectal elements, attains an immediacy of feeling that is finely poetic.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: B. Fenigstein, L. G. venezianischer Staatsmann, Humanist und Vulgärdichter, Halle 1909; A. Oberdorfer, Di L. G. umanista, in Giorn. st. d. lett. ital., 56 (1910), pp. 107-20; M. Dazzi, L. G. poeta popolare d'amore, Bari 1934; G. Billanovich, Alla scoperta di L. G., in Annali d. Scuola norm. sup. di Pisa, 2nd series, 8 (1939), pp. 99-130 and 333-57 (see by the same author in Giorn. st. d. lett. ital., 110 [1937], pp. 197-252); B. Croce, Poesia popolare e poesia d'arte, 2nd ed., Bari 1926, pp. 211-14.

Giorgio Petrocchi

@incollection{ec6_giustinian_leonardo, author = {Petrocchi, Giorgio}, title = {Giustinian, leonardo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {832}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/giustinian-leonardo} }

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Giustinian, Leonardo

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