Donizo (also Domnizo, Donizone) of

Canossa Canossa ( Reggiano: ) is a ''comune'' and castle town in the Province of Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is where Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV did penance in 1077 and stood three days bare-headed in the snow to reverse his exco ...

, was an Italian

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

and author in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. His work is an important source on Matilda of Tuscany and her

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

, and also on

Gregorian Reform The Gregorian Reforms were a series of reforms initiated by Pope Gregory VII and the circle he formed in the papal curia, c. 1050–80, which dealt with the moral integrity and independence of the clergy. The reforms are considered to be na ...

and the

Investiture Controversy The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest ( German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops ( investiture) and abbots of mona ...

more generally.

Life

Donizo was born ''c''.1071/2, perhaps at Canossa or at Parma. He became a monk at the Benedictine monastery of Sant’Apollonio of Canossa ''c''.1086/7. By 1136 he was abbot of the monastery.

Works

He composed several works in Latin, including the ''Enarratio Genesis'', a fragmentary commentary on the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...

, of which 378

leonine verse Leonine verse is a type of versification based on internal rhyme, and commonly used in Latin verse of the European Middle Ages. The invention of such conscious rhymes, foreign to Classical Latin poetry, is traditionally attributed to a probably ap ...

s remain. His most famous work is the ''Vita Mathildis'' (''Life of Matilda''), written in leonine hexameters. The ''Life'' is divided into two books, the first of which entitled, ''De Principibus Canusinis'' (‘'On the princes of Canossa’'), concentrates on the ancestors of Matilda of Tuscany, and their possession of the castle of Canossa; the second book focuses on Matilda herself. The ''Vita Mathildis'' was written between 1111 and 1115. It was completed shortly after Matilda died in July 1115 and was thus hastily re-dedicated to Empress Matilda. There are many later medieval epitomes (or versions) of Donizo's ''Life of Matilda''.Fourteenth-century manuscript of Donizo's ''Vita Mathildis''
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Notes

References

*P. Golinelli, ‘Donizone (Domnizo, Donizo)’, in
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
' - Volume 41 (1992) *Donizo of Canossa, ''Vita Mathildis'', in ''Vita di Matilde di Canossa'', ed. and (Italian) trans., P. Golinelli (Milan, 2008) {{authority control Italian Christian monks 11th-century Italian writers 12th-century Italian writers 12th-century Latin writers Italian male writers Matilda of Tuscany