GONNELLA, PIETRO. - Poet and writer of the Minorite order, born in Tortona c. 1300, died in the 14th century. Learned and pious, a writer of considerable merit, he composed various poetic works, both published and unpublished.
The first of these, whose authenticity is not without doubt, are collected in *Poésies populaires latines du moyen âge* (Paris 1847, pp. 10-21), edited by Du Méri, and in *Latéinische Hymnen des Mittelalters* (I, Freiburg in Br. 1853, pp. 411-13), edited by Mone; the others were noted by Sbaraglia (d. 1764) as existing in the O. F. M. Conv. Library of the convent of St Francis in Turin and are today preserved, at least in part, in the National Library of that city. Among the most important are: *Meditations animae fidelis de contemptu mundi, de timore mortis, de poena peccatoris, de gaudio electorum* (published); *Carmina de nativitate Domini*, *Opus de vocabulis quod Apiarium nuncupatur* (unpublished, the latter preserved in the National Library of Turin, E. III. 26).