Antonio Beccadelli (poet)
Antonio Beccadelli | |
---|---|
Born | 1394 Palermo, Sicily, Italy |
Died | January 1471 (aged 76–77) Naples, Italy |
Occupation | Poet, scholar, diplomat, chronicler |
Antonio Beccadelli (1394–1471), called Il Panormita (poetic form meaning "The
He helped his father with his business until he became consumed with enthusiasm for humanistic studies.
Travels
Beccadelli traveled to numerous Italian cities, and became a student of
He became a guest of the
Beccadelli and King Alfonso
In 1434, he entered the service of Alfonso V of Aragon at Naples. Alfonso was a great patron of the arts, and in this city Beccadelli founded the academy Porticus Antoniana, later known as the Accademia Pontaniana, after Giovanni Pontano. In Naples, Beccadelli began a close friendship with Pontano, and introduced the young scholar to the royal chancery of King Alfonso.
Beccadelli and Alfonso shared a great love of culture, and Beccadelli accompanied Alfonso during the vicissitudes of the king's career. When Alfonso became a prisoner in the hands of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, in 1435, Alfonso persuaded his captor to let him go by making it plain that it was the interest of Milan not to prevent the victory of the Aragonese party in Naples. Beccadelli, with his former connection to the Milanese court, played a role in these negotiations.
Alfonso had been betrothed to
It is known that Beccadelli himself was married twice.
After Alfonso's death, Beccadelli remained close to the Crown of Aragon, and served Ferdinand I of Naples. Alfonso had entrusted Beccadelli with the instruction of his son and successor.
Beccadelli died in January 1471 at Naples.
Hermaphroditus
Beccadelli is most famous for his bawdy masterpiece Hermaphroditus (1425), a collection of eighty-one
This work was greeted with acclaim by scholars but subsequently condemned and censured as obscene by Christian apologists.
Amongst those who praised this work was Guarino da Verona, who called Beccadelli a poetic scion of the Sicilian writer of antiquity, Theocritus.
Beccadelli's critics included the theologian Antonio da Rho (1395–1447), a
Other works
He also wrote the Gaulish Epistles (Epistulae gallicae) (1474) and the Campanian Epistles (Epistulae campanae) (1474)
He compiled The Sayings and Deeds of King Alfonso (De dictis et factis Alphonsi regis). He became a kind of
He also wrote the chronicle Liber Rerum Gestarum Ferdinandi Regis (1438–1458).
Palazzo del Panormita
The Palazzo del Panormita, in Naples, belonged to him. It was built in the second half of the fifteenth century under the direction of the architect Giovan Filippo de Adinolfo, and sold at the end of the seventeenth century to Giacomo Capece Galeota.
Palermo
A marble plaque on the Via Puglia in Palermo reads:
IN QUESTO
CHE FU ANTICO PALAZZO
DE' BECCADELLI BOLOGNA
NACQUE DI QUELLA STIRPE
ANTONIO DETTO IL PANORMITA
ONORE DI SUA CITTÀ E D'ITALIA
NEL XV SECOLO[2]
In English: "In this (building), which was the ancient palace of the Bologna De'Beccadelli family, was born of that family Antonio, called "the Palermitan" (the one from Palermo), the pride of his city and of Italy, in the 15th century."
Notes
- ^ "As much as the King surpasses the nobles, as much as the Sun conquers the stars, so Lucretia surpasses the brides of Campania."
- ^ "Plaque description". Archived from the original on May 14, 2003.
Books
- Colangelo, Francesco (1820). Vita di Antonio Beccadelli, soprannominato il Panormita (in Italian). Naples: Angelo Trani.
- Holt Parker (ed.), Antonio Beccadelli, "The Hermaphrodite". (The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 42.) Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2010
External links
- (in Italian) Panormita
- (in Italian) Antonio Beccadelli Panormita
- (in English) Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Early Renaissance Invective and the Controversies of Antonio da Rho
- (in Italian) Palazzo del Panormita
- (in English) Eugene O'Connor, "Panormita's reply to his critics: the 'Hermaphroditus' and the literary defense"