Ugolino Verino: Carmen in Laudem Beati Antonii

In this hexameter poem Ugolino Verino (1438–1516) celebrates Antonino Pierozzi, the Dominican archbishop of Florence who died in 1459 and was venerated as a saint. Verino presents himself as the poet who sang the triumphs of the Franks and the heroes of heaven, now turning to a fellow citizen. He tells of Antonino’s parents Niccolò and Tommasa, his tenacious memory, his avoidance of idle boys, his attendance at church and his entry into the Order of St Dominic. The later part recalls the events of 1459, when Pope Pius II passed through Florence on his crusading journey, and the archbishop’s death on 2 May of that year.

The poem is a verse life of a saint written by a humanist who knew Florence in Antonino’s lifetime, and it combines biographical detail with the conventions of hagiography and classical epic. Antonino, author of a famous Summa of moral theology and founder of charitable institutions, was canonised in 1523, and Verino’s poem is an early witness to his cult among Florentines. The title here follows the subject, Antoninus. The poem itself calls him Antonius, the form used in the title, and refers to Florence as the city of Sulla.