MIGNOSI, PIETRO. — Philosopher, born in Palermo on 28 June 1895, died in Milan on 15 July 1937.
He conceived art as a reflection of Revelation (Arte e Rivelazione, Palermo 1933) and as the “conquest of a religious centre of life” (Idee sull'arte, there 1931), and in accordance with this vision he shaped his activity as an original literary critic (L'eredità dell'Ottocento, Turin 1925; Profili e problemi, Palermo 1927; La poesia italiana di questo secolo, there 1929; Linee di una storia della poesia italiana, there 1933; Il segreto di Pirandello, there 1935); as a narrator who, moving within Verga’s artistic climate, resolves in a Christian manner the problems explored in novels and short stories (Il prossimo, there 1928; Perfetta letizia, Pistoia 1931; L'Azzalora, Catania 1931; Gioia d'agave, there 1934); and as a poet, Franciscanly inclined toward created beings (Levamen, Palermo 1922; Epica e santità, there 1925; Crescere, there 1931).
His thought, after an initial idealist crisis, ultimately took shape according to the doctrine of the Church (L'unità filosofica, there 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, there 1930; Schopenhauer, Brescia 1937). Through the journal Tradizione, which he founded in Palermo in 1928 and directed for eight years, he sought to defend the values of Christianity against contemporary deviations.