Matteo Palmieri
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Matteo Palmieri (1406 – 1475) was an Italian humanist and historian from Florence. He is best known for his work Della vita civile (On Civic Life) which advocated civic humanism, and his influence in restoring the Italian vernacular to the same level as Latin.[1]
[edit] Biography
Palmieri was born to a middle-class family who held prominent positions in the city. He was educated in Florence and like his father pursued a career in civil service becoming a well known and respected public official between 1432 and 1475 holding many posts and titles. [1]
Palmieri firmly believed in the humanist ideal that virtue was a combination of both learning and political action, and so in concordance with his political life, he was also an author.[1] He wrote in both Latin and Italian. Among his Latin works are Librie de temporibus (Book of Epochs), a chronicle of the history of the world from the time of creation to his present day; the De captivitate liber (The Capture of Pisa), an account of the Florentine capture of Pisa in 1406; and a biography of Niccolò Acciaioli, translated to Italian by Donato Acciaioli.
In Italian Palmieri wrote a 3-book poem La città di vita (The City of Life) in 1465, which is an imitation of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. The poem was unpublished in his lifetime, and was condemned by the Church as heretical, thus after his death in 1475, Palmieri's body was removed from the Church of San Pier Maggiore and an effigy of him burned.[1]
Palmieri's most well known work as a humanist is Della vita civile (On Civic Life; 1528), composed in 1429 and circulted between 1435-1440.[1] It is a treaties discussing the qualities of the ideal citizen. It is written as series of dialogs in four books, set in a country house in Mugello during the plague of 1430, with Agnolo Pandolfini as the main speaker. It discusses the physical and intellectual development of children, the moral life of a citizen, the contrasting tensions between what is useful and what is honest. It draws on both classic writers such as Cicero, Quintilian and Plutarch, as well as Palmieri's own personal experiences as a civil servant. His primary emphasis and advocacy is on the need for a good education and taking an active part in the life of the city.[1] Education at an early age he considered crucial to improve the human capacity to do good for others and the community.
