Girolamo Fontanella (; – ) was an Italian

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

poet.

Biography

Little is known of Girolamo Fontanella's short but active life until 1632, when his first book, ''L'Incendio rinovato del Vesuvio'' was printed in Naples. He was born probably in

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia ( egl, Rèz; la, Regium Lepidi), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has abou ...

around 1612, but he spent most of his life in Naples. He was a member of the

Accademia degli Oziosi The Accademia degli Oziosi (Academy of the Idle) was the most famous Neapolitan literary academies of the Renaissance. History The Accademia degli Oziosi was founded in 1611 by Giovanni Battista Manso, Marquis of Villa. The Academy was official ...

, and worked as poet for the Viceregal Court, as suggested by his

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

dedicated to Fernando Afán de Ribera, Spanish

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

to the Holy See from 1625 to 1626 and future Viceroy of Naples and Sicily. Fontanella was a friend of the painter

Artemisia Gentileschi Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi (, ; 8 July 1593) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing profess ...

, to whom he dedicated various poems. He died in Naples between March 1643 and April 1644.

Works

Fontanella is considered one of the best writers of

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

verse of the 17th century. His poetry collection ''Ode'' (1633; second edition, revised and expanded, 1638) is influenced both by the

conceptismo ''Conceptismo'' (literally, conceptism) is a literary movement of the Baroque period in the Spanish literature. It began in the late 16th century and lasted through the 17th century, also the period of the Spanish Golden Age. ''Conceptismo'' is ch ...

of Giambattista Marino and Guido Casoni and by the neoclassic poetry of

Gabriello Chiabrera Gabriello Chiabrera (; 18 June 155214 October 1638) was an Italian poet, sometimes called the Italian Pindar. Endnote: The best editions of Chiabrera are those of Rome (1718, 3 vols. 8vo); of Venice (1731, 4 vols. 8vo); of Leghorn (1781, 5 vols., ...

and

Fulvio Testi Fulvio Testi (August 1593 in Ferrara – 28 August 1646 in Modena) was an Italian diplomat and poet who is recognised as one of the main exponents of 17th-century Italian Baroque literature. He worked in the service of the d'Este dukes in Modena, f ...

. His ''Nove cieli'' (1646), regarded by Benedetto Croce as akin to D'Annunzio's ''Laudi'', uses the conventions of conceptismo to create graceful miniature portraits, frequently incorporating moral dicta, while the ''Elegie'' (1645) turn to declamatory

pathos Pathos (, ; plural: ''pathea'' or ''pathê''; , for "suffering" or "experience") appeals to the emotions and ideals of the audience and elicits feelings that already reside in them. Pathos is a term used most often in rhetoric (in which it is c ...

. Many of his lyrics are included in

Benedetto Croce Benedetto Croce (; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952) was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician, who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. In most regards, Croce was a lib ...

's influential

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

of Baroque poetry.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * 1612 births 1644 deaths 17th-century Italian poets 17th-century Italian male writers Italian Baroque people Baroque writers Marinism {{italy-poet-stub