TORINI, ANGELO (AGNOLO DI TORINO DE' BENCIVENNI DA FIRENZE). — Moral writer 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 and the return of the Papacy to Rome.
Of his works, the Due canzoni al Duca d'Atene (1342–43; published by C. Paoli in the appendix to the 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), an abridgment of the De contemptu mundi, composed at the suggestion of G. dalle Celle, might indicate the pessimism of maturity; instead, the Brieve meditazione dei benefici di Dio (ed. Zambrini, ibid. 1862), one of his prose works, gives us the fundamental tone of T.’s piety: delicate, attentive to the benefits of the « most excellent » God, grateful and trusting. These qualities are affirmed in the religious songs (among them La scaletta di 10 gradi, another on his own old age, and another of consolation to a friend) and in the sonnets (four of which freely yet faithfully render the prayer of St Thomas: Concede mihi, misericors Deus, quae tibi sunt placita). A sonnet and two songs to Urban V (1363–66) express his desire that Rome might have the Pontiff again and that the Church might recover its fateful seat. Three songs and 17 sonnets are found in Miscellanea di prose e rime spirituali antiche, edited by Zambrini (Imola 1879); 2 songs and 3 sonnets in Propugnatore, 14 [1881, 1], pp. 436–43); 2 sonnets in the « preliminari » to Paradiso degli Alberti (I, Bologna 1867, pp. 88 and 97), edited by A. Wesselofski.
T. imitates Petrarch and Dante, but with artistry. Heavy in the civic songs, he displays originality of exploration and candor in the religious verses.