PASSAVANTI, JACOPO. - Dominican, orator, writer, b. in Florence around 1302 to Banco and Francesca Tornaquinci, died there on 15 June 1357. He entered the convent of S. Maria Novella around 1317; he studied in Paris from 1330 to '33; he was a lecturer in philosophy in Pisa, master of theology in Siena and in Rome; preacher in Florence in '40; prior in Pistoia and S. Miniato in 1341-45; at the end of '45 prior in Florence, where he was appointed vicar general of the diocese from '50 to '52.
He was an exemplary religious, bold and sure in speaking the truth, an experienced and learned counselor in difficult cases. He took care of the convent's library and, with artistic taste, supervised the Opera of S. Maria Novella, suggested and directed its frescoes, and at the behest of Niccolò Acciaiuoli also concerned himself with the construction of the Certosa. A prolific and fervent orator, he so pleased with his sermons, especially those on Confession, of Lent 1354, that many begged him to "reduce them, into a certain order in the vernacular writing." He therefore composed, in the two years preceding his death, the Specchio di vera penitenza (Florence 1495; ed. edited by F. L. Polidori, ibid. 1864; edited by M. Lenardon, ibid. 1925) "for those who are not lettered," proposing, and perhaps beginning, a parallel treatise "in Latin for the clergy" on the manner of hearing confessions, which however he did not have time to draft.
The Specchio is divided into 5 distinctions: the I demonstrates what Penitence is; the II its incentives and the III the impediments to Penitence; the IV the parts of Penitence (contrition and attrition); the V treats of Confession in 7 chapters concerning the dispositions of the penitent and the requirements and duties of the confessor. The V distinction is followed by short treatises on pride and humility, on vainglory and vain knowledge, on diabolical knowledge (magic) and on dreams. These are pages nourished with solid doctrine, interwoven with patristic and scholastic citations and punctuated by "examples" from well-known sources (Elinando, Caesarius, Bede, Jacques de Vitry) which P. chooses among the gloomiest to impress the sinner, and which his art renders phosphorescent. Some are very brief, others have the core and vigor of a powerful novella (Beatrice, Thais, the infernal hunt, the old hermit tempted by the devil-woman). P. knows how to touch with icastic concision nefarious sins, letting their gravity be glimpsed, without unhealthy suggestion.
P.'s muse is not only terror (De Sanctis) but also hope. His tales, predominantly in red and black, also have some gilded margin, especially where the Madonna intervenes. The aesthetic value of the Specchio is in the "examples," yet they cannot be detached from the dogmatic and preceptive context of which they are part, and which is distinguished by clarity of observation, precision of psychological analysis, sobriety of reasoning, melancholy and sometimes wit of an austere morality, not rigid. In the treatises the examples thin out, but the review of superstitions, magic, false interpretations of dreams offers a folkloric interest of the first order. The Specchio is important for P.'s judgments on the mission of the learned, on humanistic studies and on the Italian dialects. Translations of a homily of Origen and of two orations of Titus Livy were attributed to P., but without foundation.
Bibliography10 works
Maria Sticco
