GIUSTINIAN, LEONARDO. - Poet, born in Venezia around 1388, died there in November 1446. He held important offices in his Republic, eventually becoming procurator of S. Marco.
An excellent connoisseur of Greek and Latin (his translations from Plutarch, political orations, and a life of St. Nicholas of Myra are extant), and in close correspondence with the humanists of his time, G. is nevertheless known 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, G.'s popular humor, in a felicitous linguistic blend rich in dialectal elements, achieves a finely poetic immediacy of feeling.
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, 2ª serie, 8 (1939), pp. 99-130 and 333-57 (v. dello stesso in Giorn. st. d. lett. ital., 110 [1937], pp. 197-252); B. Croce, Poesia popolare e poesia d'arte, 2ª ed., Bari 1926, pp. 211-14.