MIGNOSI, PIETRO. — Philosopher, b. Palermo June 28, 1895, d. Milan July 15, 1937.
He conceived art as the reflection of Revelation (Arte e Rivelazione, Palermo 1933) and as “the conquest of a religious centre of life” (Idee sull’arte, ibid. 1931), a vision that informed his work as an original literary critic (L’eredità dell’Ottocento, Turin 1925; Profili e problemi, Palermo 1927; La poesia italiana di questo secolo, ibid. 1929; Linee di una storia della poesia italiana, ibid. 1933; Il segreto di Pirandello, ibid. 1935); as a narrator who, moving within the artistic climate of Verga, resolves Christianly the problems raised in his novels and short stories (Il prossimo, ibid. 1928; Perfetta letizia, Pistoia 1931; L’Azzalora, Catania 1931; Gioia d’agave, ibid. 1934); and as a poet Franciscanly inclined toward creatures (Levamen, Palermo 1922; Epica e santità, ibid. 1925; Crescere, ibid. 1931).
After an initial idealistic crisis, his thought definitively took shape according to the doctrine of the Church (L’unità filosofica, ibid. 1920; I limiti della religiosità, Rome 1924; Etica del cristianesimo, Messina 1925; Schelling, Milan 1925; Critica dell’identità, Palermo 1926; L’idealismo, Milan 1927; Conoscenza e trascendenza, Palermo 1927; Ragione e Rivelazione, ibid. 1930; Schopenhauer, Brescia 1937). With the journal Tradizione, which he founded in Palermo in 1928 and directed for eight years, he sought to defend Christian values from contemporary deviations.