MAGNIFICENZA. — Magnificenza, or munificence, denotes splendor in spending and giving. As a special virtue, magnificenza consists in the disposition of the will to accomplish great external works and is proper to certain souls, who seek to leave an imprint of their personality in the splendor of external works. Great works are not within everyone’s means, but only those of certain privileged persons, that is, the rich, rulers, or the great coordinators of the public good, by whom money is employed in noble enterprises.
But in order that this desire for greatness may not deviate, it must be driven not by pride and ambition, but by the glory of God and the common good. Thus the natural desire for greatness is rendered supernatural, and one attains the virtue of magnificenza. The virtue of magnificenza liberality (v.) because of the generosity it shares with it, with fortitude (v.) because of the common difficulty they both encounter (fortitude in the dangers in which it is manifested, magnificenza in the great expenses), magnanimity (v.), with which it shares the grandeur of its works. For magnificenza to be put into practice, certain favorable conditions are required: confidence, security, and also, although not necessarily, material goods.
The defects opposed to magnificenza are meanness or parsimony, which suppresses the heart’s impulses and does not know how to proportion expenses to the greatness of the work; and prodigality, which consists in squandering money without measure.