Bonfire of the Vanities
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the historical event; for the novel see The Bonfire of the Vanities, for the film see The Bonfire of the Vanities (film).
The most famous Bonfire of the Vanities (Italian: Falò delle vanità) took place on 7 February 1497, when followers of the priest Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects in Florence, Italy, on the Shrove Tuesday festival.
The focus of this destruction was on objects considered sinful, including vanity items such as mirrors, cosmetics, fine dresses, and even musical instruments. Other targets included immoral books, manuscripts of secular songs, and pictures. Among the objects destroyed in this campaign were several original paintings on classical mythological subjects by Sandro Botticelli, who placed them in the bonfire himself.
Such bonfires were not invented by Savonarola, however, they were a common accompaniment to the outdoor sermons of San Bernardino da Siena in the first half of the century.
[edit] Cultural references
- Tom Wolfe's novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, published in 1987, makes reference to the original event, but is not a retelling of the story.
- The event plays a part in Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason's novel The Rule of Four as the motivation for the writing of a Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.
- It is also portrayed in some detail in George Eliot's novel Romola.
- It is portrayed in Timothy Findley's novel Pilgrim (1999).
- Sarah Dunant's novel The Birth of Venus, a work of historical fiction, describes Florence in the time of Savonarola, including the Bonfire of the Vanities.
