Bembo, PIETRO

Bembo, PIETRO, one of the most celebrated Italian scholars of the 16th century, was born in Venice, May 20, 1470; having studied at Padua and Ferrara, he early devoted himself to polite literature. He edited the Italian poems of Petrarch, printed by Aldus in 1501, and the Terzerine of Dante, 1502. In 1506 he proceeded to the court of Urbino, where he resided until 1512, then went to Rome, and was made secretary to Pope Leo X. On the death of that pope, Bembo returned to Padua, where he became a liberal patron of literature and the arts, as well as a prolific writer himself. In 1529 he accepted the office of historiographer to the republic of Venice, and was also appointed keeper of St Mark's Library. In 1539 Bembo, who had taken only the minor ecclesiastical orders, was unexpectedly presented with a cardinal's hat by Pope Paul III., who afterwards appointed him to the dioceses of Gubbio and Bergamo. He died January 18, 1547. Bembo united in his character all that is amiable. He was the restorer of good style in both Latin and Italian literature. His taste is said to have been so fastidious with regard to style, that he subjected each of his own writings to forty revisions previous to publication. Some of them are marred by the licentiousness of the time. Among his works may be mentioned the Rerum Veneticarum Libri XII. (Venice, 1551; Italian ed. 1552); his little treatise on Italian prose, which marked an era in Italian grammar; Gli Asolani, a dialogue on Platonic love; Rime, a collection of sonnets and canzonets; and his Letters, Italian and Latin. His Tutte Opere were published at Venice in 4 vols. in 1729, and often since.