GIOVANNI

MARIO

See also:

• GIOVANNI MARIO CRESCIMBENI (1663-1728)

CRESCIMBENI (1663-1728)  , Italian critic and poet, was born at Macerata in 1663 . Having been educated by a French priest at Rome, he entered the Jesuits' college of his native town, where he produced a tragedy on the story of Darius, and versified the Pharsalia . In 1679 he received the degree of doctor of laws, and in 168o he removed again to Rome . The study of Filicaja and Leonico having convinced him that he and all his contemporaries were working in a wrong direction, he resolved to attempt a general reform . In 1690, in conjunction with fourteen others, he founded the celebrated academy of the Arcadians, and began the contest against false taste and its adherents . The academy was most successful; branch societies were opened in all the principal cities of Italy; and the influence of Marini, opposed by the simplicity and elegance of such models as Costanzo, soon died away . Crescimbeni officiated as secretary to the Arcadians for thirty-eight years . In 1705 he was made canon of Santa Maria; in 1715 he obtained the chief curacy attached to the same church; and about two months before he died (1728) he was admitted a member of the order of Jesus . His principal work is the Istoria della volgar poesia (Rome, 1698), an estimate of all the poets of Italy, past and contemporary, which may yet be consulted with advantage . The most important of his numerous other publications are the Commentarij (5 vols., Rome, 1702-1711), and La Bellezza della volgar poezia (Rome, 1700) .