GIOVANNI PIETRO ARRIVABENE. POET AND THEOLOGIAN

Abstract

The author in this short essay introduces to the academic and scientific community an unpublished poem of Peter Arivabene, a learned poet who lived in the second half of the fifteenth century. The codex, which contains the poem is kept in the Library of Palazzo Piccolomini in Pienza, where Prof. Orazio Antonio Bologna saw it for the first time on October 12th, 2012. Becoming acquainted with the contents of the codex and believing to give a valuable contribution to the knowledge of the poet, he transcribed, translated and published the contents of the codex. In this study, for the first time, Giovanni Pietro Arrivabene is mentioned as a poet, because Humanism and Renaissance’s scholars already knew him but only as the secretary of Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga and as the abbreviator and secretary in the Vatican curia from 1482, where he remained until 1491 under the popes’ service. The long poem, begun around 1459 when the poet was about 20 years old, was completed after the diet of Mantua, which ended on January 19th, 1460. The fine poem reveals a deep and refined culture even though there are uncertainties and redundancies peculiar to youth.