PALMIERI, MATTEO. - Man of letters, b. in Florence of a plebeian family on 13 Jan. 1406, d. there on 13 Apr. 1475. He held high offices in the Republic (prior, gonfalonier of justice, ambassador) from 1432 until his death.
A learned humanist and writer in Latin, he worked, before Alberti, in favor of the vernacular, writing a noble dialogue on La vita civile, in which he imagines that in a villa in the Mugello, in 1430, Agnolo Pandolfino discusses the qualities necessary to form an excellent citizen of a well-ordered republic. Although the doctrines derive from Plutarch, Cicero and Quintilian, the dialogue is animated by a united love of family and country and is not unmindful of the reality of contemporary life. In it there flourish spontaneous reminiscences of Dante, whose footsteps P. later wearily trod in an arid didactic poem, La città di vita, in which is described a journey that he would have made at the time when he was ambassador to King Alfonso (1455), guided as far as the Elysian Fields by the Cumaean Sibyl, who was to instruct him on the origin and destiny of human souls according to the Neoplatonists and Origen. The work, composed from 1455 to 1464, was handed over by the author to the Guild of Notaries, on condition that it not be opened until after his death; condemned at that time by the theologians for its heretical opinion on the provenance of souls, it remained unpublished in the Laurentian Library.
Bibliography5 worksLa vita civile, edited by F. Battaglia, Bologna 1944; E. Frizai, «La città di vita», poema inedito di M. P., in Propagatore, 11 (1878), p. 1
BIBL.:La vita civile, edited by F. Battaglia, Bologna 1944; E. Frizai, «La città di vita», poema inedito di M. P., in Propagatore, 11 (1878), p. 140 ff. Studies: E. Bottari, M. P., in Atti dell'Arcademia Lucchese, 24 (1886), p. 408 ff.; A. Messeri, M. P. cittadino di Firenze del sec. XV, in Arch. stor. it., 5th series, 13 (1894), p. 257 ff.; G. Boffito, L'eresia di M. P., in Giorn. stor. d. lett. it., 37 (1901), p. 1 ff.; V. Zabughin, Storia del Rinascimento cristiano in Italia, Milan 1924, p. 153 ff.
Natali, Giulio. “Palmieri, matteo.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IX, col. 661. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952. https://azioneromana.com/article/palmieri-matteo.
MLA
Natali, Giulio. “Palmieri, matteo.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IX, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952, col. 661. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/palmieri-matteo.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec9_palmieri_matteo,
author = {Natali, Giulio},
title = {Palmieri, matteo},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {IX},
pages = {661},
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/palmieri-matteo}
}
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