Bonvesin da la Riva (; sometimes Italianized in spelling Bonvesino or Buonvicino; 1240 – c. 1313) was a well-to-do

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

ese lay member of the '' Ordine degli Umiliati'' (literally, "Order of the Humble Ones"), a teacher of (Latin) grammar and a notable Lombard poet and writer of the 13th century, giving one of the first known examples of the written

Lombard language Lombard (native name: ,Classical Milanese orthography, and . , Ticinese orthography. Modern Western orthography. or ,Eastern unified orthography. depending on the orthography; pronunciation: ) is a language, belonging to the Gallo-Italic family ...

. He is often described as the "father" of the Lombard language. He taught in

Legnano Legnano (; or ''Lignàn'') is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the north-westernmost part of the Metropolitan City of Milan, Province of Milan, about from central Milan. With 60,259, it is the thirteenth-most populous township in Lombardy. Le ...

and in

. His ''De magnalibus urbis Mediolani'' ("On the Marvels of Milan"), written in the late spring of 1288, languished unknown in a single manuscript in the

Biblioteca Nacional de España The Biblioteca Nacional de España (''National Library of Spain'') is a major public library, the largest in Spain, and one of the largest in the world. It is located in Madrid, on the Paseo de Recoletos. History The library was founded by ...

, Madrid, until 1894. Its eight chapters form a monument of civic pride typical of the

Italian commune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

s, written by a man in a position to offer an unrivalled statistical report of the city that he felt was exalted above all others, like the eagle among birds. In Milan, he counted the

belltower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

s (120) and the ''portoni'', massive front doors of houses (12,500), the city's lawyers (120), physicians (28), ordinary surgeons (at least 150), butchers (440) and communal trumpeters (6). His order, the ''Umiliati'', served as a kind of civil service in Milan, collecting taxes and controlling the communal treasury, so he was in a position to know. His long inventory of the fruits and vegetables that Milanesi were eating served as a rare source of ordinary fare for the historian of cuisine,Such as John Dickie, ''Delizia! The Epic History of Italians and Their Food'' (New York, 2008), pp 32-44. as his verses ''De quinquaginta curialitatibus ad mensam'' ("Fifty courtesies at Table"), written in the

for the instruction of those not proficient in Latin, serve the historian of

table manners Table manners are the rules of etiquette used while eating, which may also include the use of utensils. Different cultures observe different rules for table manners. Each family or group sets its own standards for how strictly these rules are ...

Other works

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

except where noted. *''

Liber di Tre Scricciur The ''Liber di Tre Scricciur'' (; "Book of the Three Scriptures") is an epic poem by Bonvesin da la Riva (1240-c.1313) written in the Lombard language. The poem is an imaginative vision of the afterlife, heaven and hell, and the passion of Christ. ...

'' (

) *''Disputatio musce cum formica'' *''Disputatio rosae cum viola'' *''De vulgare de elymosinis'' *''Laudes de Virgine Maria''

Notes

External links

* 1240 births 1313 deaths Italian poets Italian male poets Western Lombard language {{Italy-poet-stub