BERNI, FRANCESCO (14971536)

This article appears in Volume V03, Page 802 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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BERNI, FRANCESCO (14971536) , Italian poet, was born about 1497 at Lamporecchio, in Bibbiena, a

district

DISTRICT

lying alongthe Upper Arno. His family was of good descent, but excessively poor. At an early age he was sent to Florence, where he remained till his 19th year. He then set out for Rome, trusting to obtain some assistance from his uncle, the Cardinal Bibbiena. The cardinal, however, did nothing for him, and he was obliged to accept a situation as clerk or secretary to Ghiberti, datary to Clement VII. The duties of his office, for which Berni was in every way unfit, were exceedingly irksome to the poet, who, however, made himself celebrated at Rome as the most witty and inventive of a certain club of literary men, who devoted them-selves to light and sparkling effusions. So strong was the admiration for Berni's verses, that mocking or

burlesque

BURLESQUE (Ital. burlesco, from burla, a joke, fun, playful
trick
- TRICK
)

poems have since been called poesie bernesca. About the year 1530 he was relieved from his servitude by obtaining a canonry in the

cathedral

CATHEDRAL

of Florence. In that city he died in 1536, according to tradition poisoned by Duke Alessandro de' Medici, for having refused to poison the duke's

cousin

, Ippolito de' Medici; but considerable obscurity rests over this story. Berni stands at the head of Italian comic or

burlesque

BURLESQUE (Ital. burlesco, from burla, a joke, fun, playful
trick
- TRICK
)

poets. For lightness, sparkling wit, variety of form and fluent diction, his verses are unsurpassed. Perhaps, however, he owes his greatest fame to the recasting (Rifacimento) of Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato. The enormous success of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso had directed fresh attention to the older poem, from which it took its characters, and of which it is the continuation. But Boiardo's

work

WORK

, though good in plan, could never have achieved wide popularity on account of the extreme ruggedness of its style. Berni undertook the revision of the whole poem, avowedly altering no sentiment, removing or adding no incident, but simply giving to each line and stanza due gracefulness and polish. His task he completed with marvellous success; scarcely a line remains as it was, and the general

opinion

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

has pronounced decisively in favour of the revision over the

original

ORIGINAL

. To each

canto

CANTO (from the Lat. cantus, a song)

he prefixed a few stanzas of reflective verse in the manner of Ariosto, and in one of these introductions he gives us the only certain information we have concerning his own life. Berni appears to have been favour-ably disposed towards the Reformation principles at that time introduced into Italy, and this may explain the bitterness of some remarks of his upon the church. The first edition of the Rifacimento was printed posthumously in 1541, and it has been supposed that a few passages either did not receive the author's final revision, or have been retouched by another hand.
A partial

translation

TRANSLATION

of Berni's Orlando was published by W. S. Rose (1823).

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