PRUDENZANI, SIMONE (SIMONE di GOLINO di PRUDENZANO). — From Di Prodo (Orvieto), he took part in the public life of Orvieto from 1387 to about 1440. He is known only for his literary activity.
Il Sollazzo (Liber solatii) is a collection of 18 ballads which, together with novelle taken from the fabliaux, lash the 7 deadly sins and 11 derivative ones. Each vice, embodied in a person, is punished by the mockery of men. Lively, witty, anticlerical, and plump to the point of obscenity, they nevertheless have a moral purpose, confirmed by the concluding acrostic. Il Saporetto (Liber saporetti) consists of 186 sonnets divided into 4 parts, in addition to the Introduzione, which describes the six ages of man. The 1st and 2nd (Mundus placidus and Mundus blandus) represent the merry life at the court of Pierbaldo, lord of Buongoverno, who asks his friend Bonare to send him his son Sollazzo to sing the ballads of the little book bearing that name and cheer the company. The banquets and dinners, the songs and dances, and the hunting expeditions of the joyous court are described with such a display of detail and precision of language (Umbrian) as to make the poem valuable for the history of customs, music, and language. In the 3rd part (Mundus tranquillus) the author transforms himself «from worldly into Catholic»; in a series of sonnets paired as proposal and response, he sets the superficial objections of the pleasure-seeking man against the observations of the sage, who demonstrates the superiority of virtue. The 4th part (Mundus meritorius) is an apology for Christian asceticism, the path to paradise. In 44 alternating sonnets, catechism and prayers are presented: many of them render liturgical prayers in verse, and not ineffectively. In these last two «worlds» there abound motifs of interest for the history of casuistry, piety, and Dante’s fortunes. The organic unity of the work is, according to P., expressed by the title: «Sacci ch'ello se chiama Saporetto - D'erbette prima et puoi le spetie metto»: thus, a light dish at first, then seasoned with virtue. Its poetic value is almost nil; its cultural contribution considerable; its spiritual significance most notable: a reasoned ascent from the pleasure-seeking life, «not, however, so that it exceed the measure», to the meritorious Christian life. Like Sacchetti (whom he nevertheless falls far short of), P. initiates, in his own manner, the humanistic equilibrium.