GONNELLA, PIETRO. - Minorite poet and ascetical writer, b. at Tortona c. 1300, d. in the 14th century. Learned and pious, a man of letters of merit, he was the author of various poetic works, both published and unpublished.
The former, whose authenticity is not beyond doubt, are collected in the Poésies populaires latines du moyen âge (Paris 1847, pp. 10–21) edited by Du Méril, and in the Lateinische Hymnen des Mittelalters (I, Freiburg im Br. 1853, pp. 411–13) edited by Mone; the latter were reported by Sbaraglia (d. 1764) as being in the O. F. M. Conv. Library of the convent of S. Francesco in Turin and are now preserved, at least in part, in the National Library of that city. Among the most important are: Meditationes 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peccatoris, de gaudio electorum (published); Carmina de nativitate Domini, Opus de vocabulis quod Apiarium nuncupatur (unpublished and preserved, the latter, in the National Library of Turin, E. III. 26).