Bonvesin Da La Riva

▪ Italian poet

born c. 1240, , Milan [Italy]

died c. 1315, , Milan

      Italian teacher, moralist, and poet, whose most important work, the vernacular poetry of Libro delle tre scritture (1274; “Book of the Three Writings”), described in three sections the pains of hell, the joys of heaven, and the Passion.

      A member of the Humiliati (Umiliati), a Milanese monastic order, Bonvesin taught grammar and wrote a great many moralistic and religious works in Latin and in the vernacular. Among his more interesting works are the Latin De quinquaginta curialitatibus ad mensam (“Concerning Fifty Gentilities for the Table”), which provides valuable information about the social mores and etiquette of his time, and De magnalibus urbis Mediolani (“Concerning the Great Works of the City of Milan”), a detailed description of the topography, demography, and architecture of Milan and its environs.

* * *