TORINI, Angelo (Agnolo di Torino de' Bencivenni da Florence). - 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 of 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 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; the Brieve meditazione dei benefici di Dio (ed. Zambrini, ibid. 1862), on the other hand, for [the best] of his prose works, gives us the fundamental tone of T.'s piety: delicate, attentive to the benefits of the "most excellent" God, grateful, trusting. These qualities are affirmed in the religious canzoni (among them La scaletta di 10 gradi, another on his own old age, another consolatory to a friend) and in the sonnets (four of which render with free fidelity the prayer of St. Thomas: Concede mihi, misericors Deus, quae tibi sunt placita). One sonnet and two canzoni to Urban V (1363-66) express his desire that Rome should recover the Pontiff and the Church its fateful seat. Three canzoni and 17 sonnets are to be found in the Miscellanea di prose e rime spirituali antiche edited by Zambrini (Imola 1879); 2 canzoni and 3 sonnets in the Propugnatore, 14 [1881, 1], 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. imitates Petrarch and Dante, but with art. Heavy in the civil canzoni, he has novelty of exploration and candor in the religious verses.