MARIANO DA GENAZZANO. - Of the Hermits of St. Augustine, orator, b. at Genazzano in 1450, d. at Sessa on 14 Dec. 1498. After some years of teaching, he devoted himself to preaching in northern and central Italy, renowned especially in Florence.

He enjoyed the friendship and intimacy of Lorenzo the Magnificent and of the Florentine humanist circles; for his manners and his eloquence, very elegant, not averse to rhetorical refinements, he was widely praised by Poliziano. He was one of the most bitter opponents of Savonarola and contributed to his downfall.

In Florence and elsewhere he erected convents of his Order, in which he held various offices and of which he was vicar general for the Congregation of Lombardy (1497). From Alexander VI he obtained that the office of sacristan of His Holiness be assigned to a religious of his Order (a privilege that still endures).

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: F. Cavicchi, Una raccolta di poesie italiane e latine per la morte di fra M. da G., in Giornale storico della letterat. ital., 40 (1902), pp. 151 ff.; D. Perini, Un emulo di fra Girolamo Savonarola: fra M. da G., Rome 1917; G. Calogero, Gli avversari religiati di G. Savonarola, Rome 1934; A. Galletti, L'Eloquenza, Milan 1938, pp. 378-80.

Piero Sannazzaro

@incollection{ec8_mariano_da_genazzano, author = {Sannazzaro, Piero}, title = {Mariano da Genazzano}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {150}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/mariano-da-genazzano} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

About this entry