Giovan Battista Marino
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Giovan Battista Marino (October 18, 1569 - March 25, 1625) was an Italian poet who was born in Naples.
The Cambridge History of Italian Literature thought him to be "one of the greatest Italian poets of all time". He is considered the founder of the school Marinism, later called Secentismo, characteristic by its uses of extravagant and excessive conceits.
After a somewhat disreputable youth, during which he became known for his Canzone de' baci, he secured the powerful patronage of Pietro Cardinal Aldobrandini, whom he accompanied from Rome to Ravenna and Turin. An edition of his poems, La Lira, was published at Venice in 1602-1614.
His ungoverned pen and disordered life compelled him to leave Turin and take refuge from 1615 to 1622 in Paris, where he was favourably recognized by Marie de' Medici. There his long poem Adone was published in 1623. He died at Naples.
His poetry was innovative and tried to impress by the marvellous and unusual. His style was imitated so much that there developed a whole literary movement, Marinismo or Secentismo. Marino made many contacts in Italian and French literary and artistic circles, and he was said to have influenced Nicolas Poussin.
At the end of the century his style was much criticised by the members of the Academy of Arcadians, which considered it the symbol of a period of decadence in the history of Italian literature.
[edit] Works
- La Lira (1608/14)
- L'Adone (1623)
