DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69942#0065
BEMBO.
Peter Bembo was born at Venice in 1470, and
commenced his studies at Florence, to which city his
father had been appointed ambassador. From Florence
he went to Sicily, and learned the Greek language under
Augustin Lascaris: he then proceeded to Ferrara, and
began a course of philosophy under Nicholas Leonicene.
A little time after he published his poems. They were
much admired for their taste and wit; but the antique ex-
pressions he introduced, although truly energetic, excited
some regret, as they impaired the sweetness and the
purity of the Tuscan idiom. He was also reproach-
ed for being as licentious in his writings as he was
dissolute in private life: for which indeed there was
but too much foundation. He lived with the utmost
publicity with a lady, whom he called his Muse, who
bore him three daughters and a son.
At this crisis Leo X. who had been elevated to
the pontificate, was desirous of a secretary capable
of seconding him in his views, and he turned his
eye upon Bembo, who, from that moment, became
no less sedulous in his duty than correct in his conduct.
He pretended that it was better to imitate any one ex-
cellent author, than to extract the substance of several
writers, whose merit merely consisted in their being es-
teemed good: for which reason, the phrases, ideas, and
expressions of Cicero were so familiar to him, that he
spake to the Father of Christianity the language of a
preacher of ancient Rome. He called Jesus Christ, a
Hero—and the Holy Virgin a Goddess, Dea Laure-
Peter Bembo was born at Venice in 1470, and
commenced his studies at Florence, to which city his
father had been appointed ambassador. From Florence
he went to Sicily, and learned the Greek language under
Augustin Lascaris: he then proceeded to Ferrara, and
began a course of philosophy under Nicholas Leonicene.
A little time after he published his poems. They were
much admired for their taste and wit; but the antique ex-
pressions he introduced, although truly energetic, excited
some regret, as they impaired the sweetness and the
purity of the Tuscan idiom. He was also reproach-
ed for being as licentious in his writings as he was
dissolute in private life: for which indeed there was
but too much foundation. He lived with the utmost
publicity with a lady, whom he called his Muse, who
bore him three daughters and a son.
At this crisis Leo X. who had been elevated to
the pontificate, was desirous of a secretary capable
of seconding him in his views, and he turned his
eye upon Bembo, who, from that moment, became
no less sedulous in his duty than correct in his conduct.
He pretended that it was better to imitate any one ex-
cellent author, than to extract the substance of several
writers, whose merit merely consisted in their being es-
teemed good: for which reason, the phrases, ideas, and
expressions of Cicero were so familiar to him, that he
spake to the Father of Christianity the language of a
preacher of ancient Rome. He called Jesus Christ, a
Hero—and the Holy Virgin a Goddess, Dea Laure-