IMPERIAL, FRANCISCO. - Spanish poet of Italian origin, b. in Genoa around 1360, d. between the first and second decade of the 15th century in Seville, where his father, a jeweler, had moved for business reasons.

Among the most notable poets of the Cancionero de Baena (ed. F. Michel, I, Leipzig 1860), he introduced the hendecasyllable into Spanish poetry, thus initiating the Italianizing current, and pursued elegance of style and, often, didactic aims. Sensitive to the charm of Dante's poetry, he was its first imitator in the land of Spain, and he chose it as his guide in the Decir a las siete virtudes (no. 250 of the aforementioned Cancionero), an allegorical vision modeled on passages from the last two canticles of Dante's Commedia.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: M. Chaves, Micer F. I. (apuntes bibliográficos), Seville 1869; A. Farinelli, Appunti su Dante in Spagna nell'età media, in Giorn. st. lett. it., suppl. 8 (1905), pp. 2-4 and passim; id., Italia e Spagna, I, Turin 1929, p. 339; id. ibid. 1929, p. 151; M. Menéndez y Pelayo, Historia de la poesía castellana, I, Madrid 1911, pp. 377-429; id., Antología de poetas líricos castellanos, ibid. 1918, p. LXVII.

Enzo Navarra

@incollection{ec6_imperial_francisco, author = {Navarra, Enzo}, title = {Imperial, francisco}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {1709}, 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/imperial-francisco} }

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Imperial, Francisco

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