Pietro Bembo: Difference between revisions

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While still a boy he accompanied his father to [[Florence]], and there acquired a love for that [[Tuscany|Tuscan]] form of speech which he afterwards cultivated in preference to the dialect of his native city. Having completed his studies, which included two years' devotion to [[Greek]] under [[Constantine Lascaris|Lascaris]] at [[Messina]], he chose the ecclesiastical profession.

After a considerable time spent in various cities and courts of Italy, where his learning already made him welcome, he accompanied [[Giulio de Medici]] to [[Rome]], where he was soon after appointed secretary to [[Pope Leo X|Leo X]]. On the pontiff’spontiff's death he retired, with impaired health, to [[Padua]], and there lived for a number of years engaged in literary labours and amusements. In [[1529]] he accepted the office of historiographer to his native city, and shortly afterwards was appointed librarian of St Mark's.

The offer of a cardinal’scardinal's hat by [[Pope Paul III]] took him in [[1539]] again to Rome, where he renounced the study of classical literature and devoted himself to theology and classical history, receiving before long the reward of his conversion in the shape of the bishoprics of [[Gubbio]] and [[Bergamo]]. He died on [[January 18]] 1547.

Bembo, as a writer, is the ''beau ideal'' of a purist. The exact imitation of the style of the genuine classics was the highest perfection at which he aimed. This at once prevented the graces of spontaneity and secured the beauties of artistic elaboration. One cannot fail to be struck with the [[Cicero]]nian cadence that guides the movement even of his Italian writings.