Bembo Pietro, *20 May 1470 Venice, †18 January 1547 Rome, Italian poet, humanist, cardinal since 1539. Major works: philosophical dialogues Gli Asolani (1505), treatise Le prose della volgar lingua (1525), songs, sonnets, published in the collection Le rime (1530), among others. Bembo, having left the poetic trend known as Ciceronianism (a return to Roman rhetoric), practiced stylization modeled on the poetry of the Italian Trecento, remaining under the influence of Petrarch (Petrarchism) and, to a lesser extent, Boccaccio. He believed that beauty lies in harmony, i.e., in the appropriate selection and arrangement of parts, but also in grace (una grazia), which is achieved through a kind of carelessness. He created a sophisticated, exaggerated, and elegant style, deliberately artificial, using clever wordplay, leading to mannerism. He wrote in the Tuscan dialect. His works achieved great popularity; he became the arbiter of artistic taste of his era; he had several imitators (Bembism). Bembo’s style led to a more elaborate version of the frottola and the formation of a new form of musical madrigal in the 16th century. According to D.T. Mace, the madrigal is a musical realization of Bembo’s principles set out in Le prose. Bembo’s strambotti and sonetti – with idealized erotic themes – were adapted by composers associated with the court of Isabella d’Este in Mantua. Works with texts by Bembo were included in the frottoli books published by O. Petrucci. Madrigals to Bembo’s texts were composed by J. Arcadelt, G. Conversi, B. Donato, G. de Ponte, A. Gabrieli, G.P. Palestrina, M. da Gagliano, M.A. Ingegneri, Ph. de Monte, C. de Rore, J. de Wert, and C. Monteverdi.
Literature: D.T. Mace Pietro Bembo and the Literary Origins of the Italian Madrigal, “The Musical Quarterly” LV, 1969 no. 1; J. Shearman Mannerism, Harmondsworth 1967, Polish ed. Manieryzm, trans. M. Skibniewska, Warsaw 1970.
