TORINI, ANGELO (AGNOLO DI TORINO DE' BEN-CIVENNI DA FIRENZE). — Moralist and religious poet, born at the beginning and died at the end of the 14th century. A disciple and friend of Giovanni dalle Celle and Luigi Marsili, he shared their ideals: reform of morals, return of the Papacy to Rome.
Of his works, the Due canzoni al Duca d'Atene (1342-43; published by C. Paoli in appendix to Memoria della signoria del Duca d'Atene in Firenze, Florence 1862, pp. 146-67), reveal a youthful confidence in earthly justice; the Breve raccoglimento della miseria umana (1373; ed. F. Zambrini, Bologna 1877), a reduction of the De contemptu mundi, composed at the suggestion of G. dalle Celle, might indicate the pessimism of maturity; instead the Breve meditazione dei benefici di Dio (ed. Zambrini, ibid. 1862), for its prose, gives us the fundamental tone of T.’s piety: delicate, attentive to the benefits of the “optimistic” God, grateful, trusting. These qualities are affirmed in his religious canzoni (among which La scaletta di 10 gradi, another on his own old age, another consolatory to a friend) and in his sonnets (four of which freely and faithfully translate the prayer of St Thomas: “Concede mihi, misericors Deus, quae tibi sunt placita”). A sonnet and two canzoni to Urban V (1363-66) express his desire that Rome regain the Pope and the Church its destined seat. Three canzoni and 17 sonnets are found in Miscellanea di prose e rime spirituali antiche edited by Zambrini (Imola 1879); 2 canzoni and 3 sonnets in Propugnatore, 14 [1881, I], pp. 436-43; 2 sonnets in the “preliminaries” to the Paradiso degli Alberti (I, Bologna 1867, pp. 88 and 97) edited by A. Wesselofski.
T. follows Petrarch and Dante, but with artistry. Heavy in his civic canzoni, he shows novelty of exploration and canzoni in his religious verse.