Giambattista Marini

Giambattista Marini (or Marino) (October 18, 1569 - March 25, 1625), Italian poet, was born at Naples on the 18th of October 1569.

After a somewhat disreputable youth, during which he became known for his Canzone de' bad, he secured the powerful patronage of Cardinal Aldobrandini, whom he accompanied from Rome to Ravenna and Turin. An edition of his poems, La Lira, was published at Venice in 1602-1614.

His ungoverned pen and disordered life compelled him to leave Turin and take refuge from 1615 to 1622 in Paris, where he was favourably recognized by Marie de 'Medici. There his long poem Adone was published in 1623. He died at Naples on the 25th of March 1625.

The licence, extravagance and conceits of Marini, the chief of the school of "Secentisti", were characteristic of a period of literary decadence.

See M Menghini, G. B. Marini (Rome, 1888).

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.