Girolamo Fontanella (; – ) was an Italian

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

poet.

Biography

Little is known of Girolamo Fontanella's short but active life until 1632, when his first book, ''L'Incendio rinovato del Vesuvio'' was printed in Naples. He was born probably in

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia (; ), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until Unification of Italy, 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 172,51 ...

around 1612, but he spent most of his life in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

. He was a member of the

Accademia degli Oziosi The Accademia degli Oziosi (Academy of the Idle) was the most famous Neapolitan literary academies of the Renaissance. History The Accademia degli Oziosi was founded in 1611 by Giovanni Battista Manso, Marquis of Villa. The Academy was officia ...

, and worked as poet for the Viceregal Court, as suggested by his

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

dedicated to Fernando Afán de Ribera, Spanish

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

to the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

from 1625 to 1626 and future

Viceroy of Naples This is a list of viceroys of the Kingdom of Naples. Following the conquest of Naples by Louis XII of France in 1501, Naples was subject to the rule of the foreign rulers, first for a short time by the King of France and later by Spain and the Hab ...

and

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. Fontanella was a friend of the painter

Artemisia Gentileschi Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi ( ; ; 8 July 1593) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished 17th century, 17th-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing professional ...

, to whom he dedicated various poems. He died in Naples between March 1643 and April 1644.

Works

Fontanella is considered one of the best writers of

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

verse of the 17th century. Of all the Marinists he is the most original in his imagery and the most persistent in his search for new directions. His poems appeared in 3 volumes – ''Ode'' (1638), ''Nove cieli'' (1640) and ''Elegie'' (1645). His poetry collection ''Ode'' (1633; second edition, revised and expanded, 1638) is influenced both by the

conceptismo ''Conceptismo'' (literally, conceptism) is a literary movement of the Baroque period in the Spanish literature. It began in the late 16th century and lasted through the 17th century, also the period of the Spanish Golden Age. ''Conceptismo'' is ...

Giambattista Marino Giambattista Marino (also Giovan Battista Marini) (14 October 1569 – 26 March 1625) was a Neapolitan poet who was born in Naples. He is most famous for his epic '. The ''Cambridge History of Italian Literature'' thought him to be "one of ...

and

Guido Casoni Guido Casoni (1561 — 30 May 1642) was an Italian Baroque poet, jurist, and writer. He was a forerunner of Marinism, anticipating the tastes and values of the Baroque years before Seicentismo became the leading fashion in Italian literature. Bi ...

and by the neoclassic poetry of

Gabriello Chiabrera Gabriello Chiabrera (; 18 June 155214 October 1638) was an Italian poet, sometimes called the Italian Pindar. Endnote: The best editions of Chiabrera are those of Rome (1718, 3 vols. 8vo); of Venice (1731, 4 vols. 8vo); of Leghorn (1781, 5 vols., ...

and

Fulvio Testi Fulvio Testi (; August 1593 in Ferrara – 28 August 1646 in Modena) was an Italian diplomat and poet who is recognised as one of the main exponents of 17th-century Italian Baroque literature. He worked in the service of the d'Este dukes in Mode ...

. His ''Nove cieli'' (1640), regarded by Benedetto Croce as akin to D'Annunzio's ''Laudi'', uses the conventions of conceptismo to create graceful miniature portraits, frequently incorporating moral

dicta In legal writing, a (Latin 'something that has been said'; plural ) is a statement made by a court. It may or may not be binding as a precedent. United States In United States legal terminology, a ''dictum'' is a statement of opinion conside ...

, while the ''Elegie'' (1645) turn to declamatory

pathos Pathos appeals to the emotions and ideals of the audience and elicits feelings that already reside in them. ''Pathos'' is a term most often used in rhetoric (in which it is considered one of the three modes of persuasion, alongside ethos and ...

. Fontanella's verse is emotionally slight, but pictorially lively. Colours, shapes and movements he conveys in a dynamic language rich in striking imagery, with a penchant for the slightly exotic: the carnation, the glow-worm, coral, a beautiful girl swimming. Many of his lyrics are included in

Benedetto Croce Benedetto Croce, ( , ; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952) was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography, and aesthetics. A Cultural liberalism, poli ...

's influential

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

of Baroque poetry.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * 1610s births 1644 deaths 17th-century Italian poets 17th-century Italian male writers Italian Baroque writers Marinism People from the Papal States {{italy-poet-stub