Pietro Bembo | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 20 May 1470 (1470-05-20) Venice,Republic of Venice |
| Died | 18 January 1547(1547-01-18) (aged 76) Rome,Papal States |
| Occupation | priest, scholar, poet, and literary theorist |
| Language | Italian,Tuscan dialect |
| Genre | poetry, non-fiction |
| Literary movement | Renaissance literature,Petrarchism |
Pietro Bembo,O.S.I.H. (Latin:Petrus Bembus; 20 May 1470 – 18 January 1547) was a Venetianscholar, poet, andliterary theorist who also was a member of theKnights Hospitaller and a cardinal of the Catholic Church.[1] As an intellectual of theItalian Renaissance (15th–16th c.), Pietro Bembo greatly influenced the development of theTuscan dialect as a literary language for poetry and prose, which, by later codification into astandard language, became the modernItalian language. In the 16th century, Bembo's poetry, essays and books proved basic to reviving interest in the literary works ofPetrarch. In the field of music, Bembo's literary writing techniques helped composers develop the techniques ofmusical composition that made themadrigal the most important secular music of 16th-century Italy.[2]
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Pietro Bembo was born on 20 May 1470 to an aristocratic Venetianfamily. His fatherBernardo Bembo (1433–1519) was a diplomat and statesman and a cultured man who cared for theliterature of Italy, and erected a monument toDante Alighieri (1265–1321) in Ravenna.[3] Bernardo Bembo was an ambassador for theRepublic of Venice (697–1797), and was accompanied by his son, Pietro. During his father's ambassadorships toFlorence (1474–1476 and 1478–1480), Pietro acquired a love for theTuscan dialect, from which theItalian language developed.
Under the tutelage of theneo-Platonist scholarConstantine Lascaris (1434–1501), Pietro Bembo studiedGreek language for two years atMessina, and then studied at theUniversity of Padua. His later travels included two years (1497–1499) at theEste court at Ferrara, during the reign ofErcole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara (r. 1471–1505). For writers and composers, the city ofFerrara was an artistic centre where Bembo met the poetLudovico Ariosto (1474–1533); later, in the 1497–1504 period, Bembo wrote his first work,Gli Asolani (The People of Asolo, 1505), a poetic dialogue aboutcourtly love, which stylistically resembled the writing styles of the humanistsGiovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) andPetrarch (1304–1374). The poems were later set to music, which Bembo preferred to be sung by a woman to the accompaniment of alute, an artistic wish granted in 1505 when he metIsabella d'Este (1474–1539) in her response to having received a gift copy ofGli asolani.[4]
In the 1502–1503 period, Bembo again was in Ferrara, where he had a love affair withLucrezia Borgia (1480–1519), wife ofAlfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara (1476–1534), son of the previous duke. In the event, Bembo left the city of Ferrara when Ercole employedJosquin des Prez (1450–1521) as a composer to the chapel; fortuitously, Bembo left town just as theBlack Death plague killed most of the population of Ferrara in 1505, including the renowned composerJacob Obrecht (1457–1505).
In the 1506–1512 period, Bembo resided inUrbino, where he wroteProse della volgar lingua (Prose of the Vernacular Tongue, 1525), atreatise about composing and writing poetry in the vernacular language of theTuscan dialect. He accompaniedGiulio di Giuliano de' Medici (1478–1534) to Rome, where Bembo later was appointed Latin secretary toPope Leo X (r. 1513–1521), and also was made a member of theKnights Hospitaller, in 1514.[5] At the death of Pope Leo X in 1521, Bembo retired, with impaired health, toPadua and continued to write. In 1530, he accepted the office of officialhistorian of his nativeRepublic of Venice, shortly afterwards, Bembo also was appointed librarian of the basilica ofSan Marco di Venezia.[6]
On 20 December 1538,Pope Paul III (r. 1534–1549) made Bembo a cardinalin pectore (in secret). In 1538, Bembo receivedHoly Orders as a priest. Afterwards, Bembo's secret nomination as cardinal was published, and he then received the redGalero hat in apapal consistory on 10 March 1539, with the title ofCardinal Deacon of the church ofSan Ciriaco alle Terme Diocleziane, which occasion Bembo marked by commissioning aportrait fromTitian (1488–1576), the most important painter of theVenetian school. In the event, Cardinal Bembo was advanced to the rank ofCardinal Priest in February 1542, with title to the church ofSan Crisogono, changed two years later to that of theBasilica of San Clemente.[7] At Rome, Cardinal Bembo continued to write, and revised his earlier works, whilst studying theology and the history ofClassical antiquity (A.D. 8th–6th c.). Despite having been rewarded for his successful administration of thedioceses ofGubbio andBergamo, the Church did not promote Bembo tobishop.[7] In 1547, Pietro Bembo died at the age of 77 years, and was buried in the church ofSanta Maria sopra Minerva.[8]
As atheoretician of literature, Pietro Bembo instilled to theTuscan dialect theemotional effect that theAncient Greek language (A.D. 9th–6th c.) had upon the Greek listener, by using examples from the classically composed poetry ofPetrarch and the prose ofGiovanni Boccaccio, whilst foregoing the difficulties of translation and composition inherent to the pluri-lingualism ofDante Alighieri’s writing inThe Divine Comedy (1321). His works may be considered as an early instance of thePetrarchism movement within theRenaissance literature.[9] In the bookProse della volgar lingua (The Prose of the Vernacular Tongue, 1525) Petrarch is the model ofverse composition, and Bembo gives detailed explanations of the communicational functions ofrhyme andstress in the sounding of a word and the cadence of a line to achieve a balanced composition. That the specific placement of words within a line in a poem — based upon the writer’s strict attention to the sonic rhythm of vowels and consonant letters — would elicit from the Italian reader and listener the range of human emotions, from grace and sweetness to gravity and grief.[10] Bembo’s rules of poetical composition inProse of the Vernacular Tongue were basic to the development of the techniques of musical composition that made themadrigal Italy’s pre-eminent secular music in the 16th century.[11] His theories of musical composition were disseminated by theVenetian School, by composers such asAdrian Willaert, whose bookMusica nova (New Music, 1568) contains madrigal compositions derived from the linguistic theories of Bembo.[11]
As a writer, in the bookDe Ætna ad Angelum Chabrielem Liber (1496), Bembo tells how he and his father, Bernardo, climbed Mount Ætna and there found snow in summertime, a reality that contradicted the Greek geographer,Strabo, who said that snow was present only in winter; nonetheless, Bembo perceptively notes: “But first-hand inquiry tells you that it lasts, as does practical experience, which is no less an authority.”[12] Thetypeface forDe Aetna was the basis for theMonotype Corporation's "old-style serif" font called "Bembo". Bembo's edition ofTuscan Poems (1501), by Petrarch, and the work of lyric verseTerze Rime (1530) much influenced the development of the Tuscan dialect into the literary language of Italy. InGli Asolani (The People of Asolo, 1505) Bembo explained and recommendedPlatonic love as superior tocarnal love, despite his love affair with the marriedLucrezia Borgia (1480–1519);[13] besides dialogues, poems, and essays, Bembo published aHistory of Venice (1551).
As a priest, Bembo reaffirmed and promoted the Christian perfection ofRenaissance humanism. Deriving all from love, or the lack thereof, Bembo's schemas were appended as supplements[14][15] to the newly invented technology of printing byAldus Manutius in his editions ofThe Divine Comedy in the 16th century. Bembo's refutation of the pervasivepuritanical tendency to a profane dualisticgnosticism is elaborated inThe People of Asolo, his third prose book, which reconciled fallen human nature by way of Platonic transcendence that is mediated by Trinitarian love; Bembo dedicated that book to his lover Lucrezia Borgia.
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