Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro
Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro | |
---|---|
Born | 1300 |
Died | 31 March 1342 |
Other names | Roberti of Roberti, Dennis |
Occupation | Priest |
Known for | Petrarch's confessor |
Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro
Life
Dionigi joined the Order of Hermits at the Augustinian monastery in
He acquired the ranks of diffinitor and magister sacrae paginae, although these are rarely attested because he may have left the University of Paris.[1] He travelled widely: in 1329 he went on an unspecified diplomatic mission for Cardinal Napoleone Orsini, in 1332 he was in Venice, in 1333 he spent much time in Avignon where he met Petrarch. There he taught at the College which the Augustinians ran, and in 1335 he was in Grasse. In 1337 he went to Florence; in October 1338 he went to Naples, and he remained in that kingdom the rest of his life.[3]
At Naples, he lived in the Augustinian convent, and was witness to a deed gift of land made by the Neapolitan nobleman Walter to build a church in honor of S. Giovanni Battista, executed 11 October 1339.
He won the favor of King
He died on 31 March 1342 and was buried in the local church yard of Agostino alla Zecca.[1] Petrarch wrote his epitaph.[A]
Petrarch
Dionigi had been Petrarch's confessor during his stay in Avignon, and Petrarch wrote three letters to him. Much of what we know about Dionigi is inferred from this correspondence; and is correspondingly uncertain. Moschella holds, for example that he was introduced to Petrarch in 1333, by Giacomo Colonna; but there has been other speculation that Petrarch met Dionigi in Paris.
Dionigi recommended
Petrarch addressed his long account of his
Dionigi also arranged Petrarch's visit to Naples in February 1341, when King Robert examined him for his fitness for the laurel.[7]
Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio had lived in Naples, and been welcome in the court of King Robert, since 1327, when he was fourteen. He returned to Florence, probably at the end of 1340, and wrote a letter there, bemoaning the death of his "reverend father and teacher", Dionigi; whose death "left nothing for him in the world." Dionigi had introduced him to the works of Augustine, Seneca, and Petrarch; Branca presumes that he had also taught him vernacular poetry and rhymed prose.[8]
Works
Most of Dionigi's writings are lost; but we have
- A commentary on the first book of Peter Lombard's Sententiae (on which, as was common, he had given his baccalaureate lecture)
- a treatise on logic (Compendiuni logicae juxta Doctrinam em ac funds),
- a commentary on Aristotle's Economics,
- a commentary on Valerius Maximus (printed in Strasbourg in the 1470s).
Some other commentaries have been attributed to Dionigi.[9]
Bibliography
Footnotes
- ^ DBI, p.196, col. 1; Branca implies that Dionigi died the previous year, since he dates Boccaccio's letter about his death August 28, 1341. Epitaph: Flere Libet, sed fairs Vetor ..., Epistolae Metricae, I, 13
Endnotes
- ^ a b c d e f g h Biographical Dictionary of Italian - Volume 40 (1991)
- ^ Cronica of Giovanni Villani , lib. X, ch. 86
- ^ DBI, p.195, col. 1
- ^ Branca, p.36; DBI, p. 196, col. 1,
- ^ DBI, p.195, col. 2; quoting the mention in the Cronica Aquilana of Buccio di Ranallo of "frate Dionisio che lo re abe mandato/ per fare questa pace il ebbe commendato"
- ^ Benoit XII, Lettres communes by SM Vidal, II, Paris 1903, p. 234, No 7641
- ^ Bishop, pp, 142, 162, Moschella, passim. The letters are Epistolae fam. IV,1, Epistolae metrici I,4, Ep. fam. IV,2. The letter to King Robert is Ep. fam. IV,3.
- ^ Branca, pp.35-7, 56, 224. The letter is Boccaccio's Epistle V.
- ^ DBI p.196, col. 2
References
- (in Italian) Maurizio Moschella, "Dionigi da Borgo Sansepolcro", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI), Vol. 40, pp. 194–197.
- Morris Bishop, Petrarch and his World, Indiana University Press, 1963.
- Vittore Branca, Boccaccio : the man and his works, translated by Richard Monges ; cotranslator and editor Dennis J. McAuliffe; New York University 1976. (A collected and revised version of Branca's Boccaccio Medievale, of 1956)