Girolamo Preti | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Girolamo Preti. From the book "Le glorie degli Incogniti", 1647 | |
| Born | 1582 |
| Died | 6 April 1626(1626-04-06) (aged 43–44) |
| Alma mater | University of Bologna |
| Occupations |
|
| Writing career | |
| Language | Italian language |
| Period | |
| Genres | |
| Literary movement | |
| Notable works | La Salmace |
Girolamo Preti (1582 — 6 April 1626) was an ItalianBaroque poet. He is considered one of the most accomplished of early 17th-century poets.[1]
Born in Bologna in 1582, he was destined for a legal career, but broke off his studies to devote himself toliterature. He became a member of the BologneseAccademia dei Gelati, founded in 1588 byMelchiorre Zoppio, and became friends with the poetCesare Rinaldi.[2] In 1609, he was made member of theAccademia degli Umoristi.[2] He became friends withGirolamo Aleandro,Antonio Bruni,Alessandro Tassoni and other members of the Academy.[2] In 1611 Preti was charged by cardinalFederico Borromeo to purchase volumes for the newly foundedBiblioteca Ambrosiana.[3] Later he put himself at the service of CardinalCarlo Emanuele Pio di Savoia and then of Alessandro Ludovisi (the futurePope Gregory XV).[1] Preti was one of the fewconcettisti to find favour in the Rome ofPope Urban VIII; he served as secretary to CardinalFrancesco Barberini, and was accompanying him on a Spanish embassy when he died suddenly in the spring of 1626.[2]
Preti was a very successful poet. His poems, which were first printed in Venice in 1614, were reprinted eight times during the first half of the 17th century (Venice 1624 and 1656; Bologna 1618, 1620, 1631 and 1644; Milan 1619; Rome 1625; Macerata 1646). His idyllLa Salmace was translated intoFrench,Spanish,English andLatin.[4] In 1647 a translation into English ofOronta di Cipro was made byThomas Stanley asOronta, the Cyprian Virgin.[5] It was published in several editions through 1651. He is best known for hisidylls, a genre which he established with the mythologicalSalmace of 1609, inspired by a story in the fourth book ofOvid'sMetamorphoses, and then extended to more straightforwardly amorous subjects.[4] HislyricPoesie (1614) is characterized by a cautious yet original adaptation of the models offered byGiambattista Marino, whom he knew from the early 1600s, when Marino was a frequent visitor to Bologna.[1] He makes moderate use of complexmetaphors andacutezze, inclining to a gently sensuous style, which captures physical detail (his description of thenymphSalmacis bathing is exemplary), while avoiding the more intense and disturbing erotic charge to be found in Marino.[4] His ideas were similarly conservative: in his brief treatiseIntorno all’onestà della poesia (1618) he reasserts theRenaissanceNeoplatonist view of the moral functions of love poetry.[2] Like many other of Marino’s friends, he was perplexed byL’Adone.[2]
Preti'ssonnet, 'Penna immortal...', proclaims his poetic debt to Marino, and his description of the mechanism of a clock is a famous example of the Marinist liking for difficult and unconventional subjects. But despite some stylistic flamboyance, he deplored the voluptuous tone in Marino and cultivated instead a more sentimental strain. His tenuous spirituality has made him appear to some as a precursor of theArcadian reaction against Baroque excesses.
