Leonardo di Piero Dati (1360 – 16 March 1425) was an Italian friar and humanist. He was Master General of the Dominican Order from 1414 to his death. He was a Prior of

Santa Maria Novella Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church. The chu ...

from 1401, and took part in the

Council of Pisa The Council of Pisa was a controversial ecumenical council of the Catholic Church held in 1409. It attempted to end the Western Schism by deposing Benedict XIII (Avignon) and Gregory XII (Rome) for schism and manifest heresy. The College of C ...

of 1409. Dati was the head of the Dominicans belonging to the Roman obedience during the Great Schism. At the time of the

Council of Constance The Council of Constance was a 15th-century ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church, held from 1414 to 1418 in the Bishopric of Constance in present-day Germany. The council ended the Western Schism by deposing or accepting the res ...

, Dati became Master General of a reunited

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

. Dati then focused on the internal reform of the order, authoring the tract ''Lamentationes de regularibus observantiis lapsis'', in which he expressed strong dissatisfaction with the laxity and confusion of the order. His sermons at

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

and

Constance Constance may refer to: Places *Konstanz, Germany, sometimes written as Constance in English *Constance Bay, Ottawa, Canada * Constance, Kentucky * Constance, Minnesota * Constance (Portugal) * Mount Constance, Washington State People * Consta ...

include references to literary texts, and he was well known as an author of commentaries on

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

. Leonardo also gave financial aid to his brother Gregorio, a Florentine merchant and diarist. Both Leonardo and Gregorio Dati are attributed authorship of '' La Sfera'' ("The Sphere"), an astronomical-geographic '' poemetto in ottave'', written in the second half of the 14th century, and a work much popular in its time. This work in verse gives information about the world, the marinaresche compass and other things, adding observations, notes about travel and designs. In some manuscripts of ''La Sfera'' there are designs representing ports, headlands, islands, linked by many lines. Dati's sermons on the feast of St. Francis (October 1416) and the feast of the

Circumcision of Jesus The circumcision of Jesus is an event from the life of Jesus, according to the Gospel of Luke chapter 2, which states: And when eight days were fulfilled to circumcise the child, his name was called Jesus, the name called by the angel before h ...

(January 1417) advocated respect for papal power and reform within the context of the established order. The earlier sermon touched off an exchange of polemical memoranda between Dati and supporters of conciliar supremacy. Dati then addressed issues raised in this exchange in the later sermon. Dati's discussion of

circumcision Circumcision is a surgical procedure, procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin ...

was traditional for his time, describing the Jewish rite as superseded by

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

. He is buried in the Cappella Rucellai at Santa Maria Novella. His tombstone is attributed to

Lorenzo Ghiberti Lorenzo Ghiberti (, , ; 1378 – 1 December 1455), born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence, a key figure in the Early Renaissance, best known as the creator of two sets of bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery ...

Works

Houghton MS Typ 155 - Gregorio Dati, La Sfera

* '' La Sfera'' * '' Trophaeum Anglaricum''

Sources

* Hillenbrand, Eugen. "Die Observantenbewegung in der deutschen Ordensprovinz der Dominikaner," in Elm, Kaspar, ed. Reformbemühungen und Observanzbestrebungen im spätmittelalterlichen Ordenswesen. Berliner Historische Studien, 14, Ordensstudien 6. Berlin, Duncker and Humblot, 1989: 232–233.

References

External links

The manuscript of ''La Sphera''
digital copy of the manuscript in the collections of The National Library of Finland
The text and commentary of ''Trophaeum Anglaricum''
(in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dati, Leonardo 1360 births 1425 deaths Italian Dominicans Italian Renaissance humanists Masters of the Order of Preachers