Editing Pietro Bembo (section)

==Life==
[[File:Pietro Bembo by Cranach the Younger.png|thumb|right|Bembo in the habit of a [[Sovereign Military Order of Malta|Knight of Malta]]. ([[Lucas Cranach the Younger]])]]
[[File:Valerio Belli, Pietro Bembo, 1470-1547, Cardinal 1538 (obverse), probably 1532, NGA 45010.jpg|alt=Proper left profile of Bembo, as a medal in bronze, 3.45 cm., ca. 1523, by Valerio Belli, National Gallery of Art in Washington.|thumb|right|The obverse face of a bronze coin features the left profile of Bembo. ([[Valerio Belli]], ca. 1532)]]

'''Pietro Bembo''' was born on 20 May 1470 to an aristocratic Venetian [[Bembo (family)|family]]. His father [[Bernardo Bembo]] (1433–1519) was a diplomat and statesman and a cultured man who cared for the [[literature of Italy]], and erected a monument to [[Dante Alighieri]] (1265–1321) in Ravenna.<ref>{{cite CE1913|wstitle=Pietro Bembo|volume=2|first=Edmund |last=Burke}}</ref> Bernardo Bembo was an ambassador for the [[Republic of Venice]] (697–1797), and was accompanied by his son, Pietro. During his father's ambassadorships to [[Florence]] (1474–1476 and 1478–1480), Pietro acquired a love for the [[Tuscan dialect]], from which the [[Italian language]] developed.

Under the tutelage of the [[Neoplatonism|neo-Platonist]] scholar [[Constantine Lascaris]] (1434–1501), Pietro Bembo studied [[Greek language]] for two years at [[Messina]], and then studied at the [[University of Padua]]. His later travels included two years (1497–1499) at the [[Duke of Ferrara and of Modena|Este court]] at Ferrara, during the reign of [[Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara]] (r. 1471–1505). For writers and composers, the city of [[Ferrara]] was an artistic centre where Bembo met the poet [[Ludovico Ariosto]] (1474–1533); later, in the 1497–1504 period, Bembo wrote his first work, ''[[Gli Asolani]]'' (''The People of Asolo'', 1505), a poetic dialogue about [[courtly love]], which stylistically resembled the writing styles of the humanists [[Giovanni Boccaccio]] (1313–1375) and [[Petrarch]] (1304–1374). The poems were later set to music, which Bembo preferred to be sung by a woman to the accompaniment of a [[lute]], an artistic wish granted in 1505 when he met [[Isabella d'Este]] (1474–1539) in her response to having received a gift copy of ''Gli asolani''.<ref>Haas, Grove online</ref>

In the 1502–1503 period, Bembo again was in Ferrara, where he had a love affair with [[Lucrezia Borgia]] (1480–1519), wife of [[Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara]] (1476–1534), son of the previous duke. In the event, Bembo left the city of Ferrara when Ercole employed [[Josquin des Prez]] (1450–1521) as a composer to the chapel; fortuitously, Bembo left town just as the [[Black Death]] plague killed most of the population of Ferrara in 1505, including the renowned composer [[Jacob Obrecht]] (1457–1505).

In the 1506–1512 period, Bembo resided in [[Urbino]], where he wrote ''Prose della volgar lingua'' (''Prose of the Vernacular Tongue'', 1525), a [[treatise]] about composing and writing poetry in the vernacular language of the [[Tuscan dialect]]. He accompanied [[Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici]] (1478–1534) to Rome, where Bembo later was appointed Latin secretary to [[Pope Leo X]] (r. 1513–1521), and also was made a member of the [[Knights Hospitaller]], in 1514.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/elencodeicavali00bonagoog#page/n4/mode/1up|title=Elenco dei Cavalieri del S.M. Ordine di S. Giovanni di Gerusalemme, 1136-1713|first=Francesco|last=Bonazzi|publisher=Libreria Detken & Rocholl|place=Naples|year=1897|page=37|language=it}}</ref> At the death of Pope Leo X in 1521, Bembo retired, with impaired health, to [[Padua]] and continued to write. In 1530, he accepted the office of official [[historiography|historian]] of his native [[Republic of Venice]], shortly afterwards, Bembo also was appointed librarian of the basilica of [[San Marco di Venezia]].<ref>[http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/itali/autoren/bembo_itali.html University of Mannheim "Italian Authors"]</ref>

On 20 December 1538, [[Pope Paul III]] (r. 1534–1549) made Bembo a cardinal ''[[in pectore]]'' (in secret), who then returned to Rome{{who?|date=December 2022}}. In 1538, Bembo received [[Holy Orders]] as a priest. Afterwards, Bembo's secret nomination as cardinal was published, and he then received the red ''[[Galero]]'' hat in a [[papal consistory]] on 10 March 1539, with the title of [[Cardinal Deacon]] of the church of [[San Ciriaco alle Terme Diocleziane]], which occasion Bembo marked by commissioning a [[Portrait of Cardinal Pietro Bembo|portrait]] from [[Titian]] (1488–1576), the most important painter of the [[Venetian painting|Venetian school]]. In the event, Cardinal Bembo was advanced to the rank of [[Cardinal Priest]] in February 1542, with title to the church of [[San Crisogono]], changed two years later to that of the [[Basilica of San Clemente]].<ref name=CathHierPieBem>{{Cite web|last=Cheney |first=David M.|title=Pietro ''Cardinal'' Bembo, O.S.Io.Hieros.|website=[[Catholic-Hierarchy.org]]|url=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bbembop.html |access-date=February 14, 2019}} [[Wikipedia:SPS|{{sup|[''self-published'']}}]]</ref> At Rome, Cardinal Bembo continued to write, and revised his earlier works, whilst studying theology and the history of [[Classical antiquity]] (A.D. 8th–6th c.). Despite having been rewarded for his successful administration of the [[diocese]]s of [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Gubbio|Gubbio]] and [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Bergamo|Bergamo]], the Church did not promote Bembo to [[bishop]].<ref name=CathHierPieBem/> In 1547, Pietro Bembo died at the age of 77 years, and was buried in the church of [[Santa Maria sopra Minerva]].<ref>''Catholic Encyclopedia'', p.0000.</ref>