Benvenuto Rambaldi da Imola, or simply and perhaps more accurately Benvenuto da Imola ( la, Benevenutus Imolensis; 1330 – 1388), was an Italian scholar and historian, a lecturer at Bologna. He is now best known for his commentary on

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

's ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...

.''

Life

He was born in

Imola Imola (; rgn, Jômla or ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, located on the river Santerno, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The city is traditionally considered the western entrance to the historical re ...

, into a family of legal officers. In 1361–2 he was working for Gómez Albornoz, governor of

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

and nephew of Cardinal Egidio Albornoz.Deborah Parker, ''Commentary and Ideology: Dante in the Renaissance'' (1993), p. 184
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In 1365 he went on a diplomatic mission on behalf of the city, to

Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...

and

Pope Urban V Pope Urban V ( la, Urbanus V; 1310 – 19 December 1370), born Guillaume de Grimoard, was the head of the Catholic Church from 28 September 1362 until his death in December 1370 and was also a member of the Order of Saint Benedict. He was the on ...

.Christopher Kleinhenz, ''Medieval Italy: an encyclopedia, Volume 1'' (2004), p. 107
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At the time members of the Alidosi family dominated Imola, and other citizens looked to the papacy for a change. The petition brought by Benvenuto and others failed; the local political situation at home caused him to move on without returning, going to Bologna, where he made a living as a teacher. He was made the subject of accusations there of indecency, which may have been connected to lectures on the ''Inferno'';Richard Lansing (editor), ''The Dante Encyclopedia'' (2000), pp. 97–8. on the other hand Benvenuto himself had made accusations to the papal legate in Bologna of improper teacher-student relationships of others. While previously in Bologna he may have lectured officially, and did teach some classical authors, his later lectures were in a private house, that of the grammarian

Giovanni de Soncino Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * '' Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend ...

. In 1373 he visited

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

and there heard

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so we ...

lecture on Dante. From 1375 he was based in

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

.Michael Caesar, ''Dante: The Critical Heritage'' (1995), p. 176
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There he had the protection of

Niccolò II d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara Niccolò II d'Este (1338 – 26 March 1388) was lord of Ferrara, Modena and Parma from 1361 until his death. He was the son of Obizzo III, who had ruled in Ferrara from 1317 to 1352. After inheriting his lands from Aldobrandino III, he allied ...

, whom he had met in Avignon.

Works

An early humanist, he still wrote in

medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functioned ...

. His commentary on Dante was known as the ''Comentum super Dantis Aligherii comoediam''.

Charles Eliot Norton Charles Eliot Norton (November 16, 1827 – October 21, 1908) was an American author, social critic, and Harvard professor of art based in New England. He was a progressive social reformer and a liberal activist whom many of his contemporaries c ...

considered that Benvenuto's commentary on Dante had "a value beyond that of any of the other fourteenth-century commentators". It exists in three versions: one published in 1875, one from his time in Ferrara, and a third published in 1887 (edited by James Philip Lacaita). The second (Ferrara) version is a source for his theory that the ''Divine Comedy'' combines the three genres of

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

tragedy Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

and

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

. It influenced

Juan de Mena Juan de Mena (1411–1456) was one of the most significant Spanish poets of the fifteenth century. He was highly regarded at the court of Juan II de Castilla, who appointed him ''veinticuatro'' (one of twenty-four aldermen) of Córdoba, ''sec ...

, in particular, via

Giovanni da Serravalle Giovanni da Serravalle, also known as Giovanni de Bertoldi (c. 1350 – 1445), was a Sammarinese Franciscan and humanist, who became bishop of Fermo and bishop of Fano (1417–1445).Averroes Ibn Rushd ( ar, ; full name in ; 14 April 112611 December 1198), often Latinized as Averroes ( ), was an Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psycholog ...

and

Hermannus Alemannus Hermannus Alemannus (Latin for Herman the German) translated Arabic philosophical works into Latin. He worked at the Toledo School of Translators around the middle of the thirteenth century (from approximately 1240 to 1256) and is almost certainly ...

, as well as Boccacio. Other works were: *''

Romuleon The ''Romuleon'' was a Latin work describing the history of Rome, compiled by Benvenuto da Imola in the mid-fourteenth century from a number of earlier texts. It was later translated into French by two separate writers: * The '' Romuléon'' of J ...

'', a Latin compendium of Roman history. It was an extensive compilation in ten books, made in the period 1361–4 for Gómez Albornoz. Frédéric Duval (editor), ''Le Romuleon en François'' (2000), pp. xi–xiii
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At the end of the 15th century it was rewritten by

Adamo Montaldo Adamo is both a masculine given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Adamo Abate (c. 990 – 1060–1070), Italian medieval Benedictine abbot and saint, a promoter of the unification of the Southern populatio ...

. It covered the history from the

foundation of Rome The tale of the founding of Rome is recounted in traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves as the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth. The most familiar of these myths, and perhaps the most famous o ...

Constantine the Great Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...

. :This work is not connected to the ''

Gesta Romanorum ''Gesta Romanorum'', meaning ''Deeds of the Romans'' (a very misleading title), is a Latin collection of anecdotes and tales that was probably compiled about the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th. It still possesses a two-fold l ...

'', but sometimes went under the title ''De Gestis Romanorum'', or in its French version ''Des fai(t)s des Romains''. It circulated in a small number of manuscripts of high quality; the first French translation (1460) was by

Jean Miélot Jean Miélot, also Jehan, (born Gueschard, Picardy, died 1472) was an author, translator, manuscript illuminator, scribe and priest, who served as secretary to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy from 1449 to Philip's death in 1467, and then to hi ...

, for

Philip the Good Philip III (french: Philippe le Bon; nl, Filips de Goede; 31 July 1396 – 15 June 1467) was Duke of Burgundy from 1419 until his death. He was a member of a cadet line of the Valois dynasty, to which all 15th-century kings of France belonge ...

and it was transcribed by

David Aubert David Aubert (before 1413 – working 1449-79) was a French calligrapher who transcribed and adapted courtly romances and chronicles for the court of the Duke of Burgundy. In addition to finely presented works, illuminated at Bruges and other c ...

. Another followed in 1466 by

Sébastien Mamerot Sébastien Mamerot (between and 1440 – 1490) was a French clergyman, scholar, novelist, and translator. Biography Originally from Soissons, Mamerot served as clergyman and secretary to Louis de Laval, governor of Dauphiné (1448–1458), Champ ...

, for

Louis de Laval Louis de Laval (1411 – 21 August 1489) was a French nobleman, soldier, politician and bibliophile. Life A member of the House of Laval, Louis was born in 1411. He was the third son of the Baroness Anne de Laval (1385–1466), Anne de Laval and B ...

, seigneur de Châtillon. Six manuscripts of Miélot's ''Romuléon'' are known. *A commentary on

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

's ''

Eclogues The ''Eclogues'' (; ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil. Background Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by offer ...

(Bucolics)'' and ''

Georgics The ''Georgics'' ( ; ) is a poem by Latin poet Virgil, likely published in 29 BCE. As the name suggests (from the Greek word , ''geōrgika'', i.e. "agricultural (things)") the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example ...

''. Benvenuto was critical of the ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan_War#Sack_of_Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to ...

'' commentary of Ciones de Magnali (known as Zono). He also disapproved of the classical commentary of

Servius Servius is the name of: * Servius (praenomen), the personal name * Maurus Servius Honoratus, a late fourth-century and early fifth-century grammarian * Servius Tullius, the Roman king * Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the 1st century BC Roman jurist See ...

. *Commentaries on

Lucan Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (3 November 39 AD – 30 April 65 AD), better known in English as Lucan (), was a Roman poet, born in Corduba (modern-day Córdoba), in Hispania Baetica. He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imperial ...

Valerius Maximus Valerius Maximus () was a 1st-century Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes: ''Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX'' ("Nine books of memorable deeds and sayings", also known as ''De factis dictisque memorabilibus'' ...

, and the tragedies of

Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born in ...

; *''Augustalis libellus'', a work on Roman emperors, with scope from

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

to the

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...

Wenceslas.Catherine J. Castne, ''Biondo Flavio's Italia Illustrata: Northern Italy'' (2005), p. 278
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He also wrote on

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...

's ''Carmen Bucolicum''.

Notes

External links

WorldCat pageA review (in Italian) devoted to Benvenuto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rambaldi Da Imola, Benvenuto 1320 births 1388 deaths People from Imola Italian male writers 14th-century Latin writers Dante scholars