Antoninus, Saint, of Florence

ANTONINUS, SAINT, OF FLORENCE (ANTONIO PIEROZZI): Archbishop of Florence; b. in that city 1389; d. there May 2, 1459. In 1404 he joined the Dominicans, and in 1436 was made prior of the monastery of San Marco in Florence. In 1439 he took part in the negotiations for union with the Greeks. In 1446, against his wish but at the express behest of Pope Eugenius IV., he was chosen archbishop. His blameless life and devotion to duty rendered him beloved by all, and his canonization by Adrian VI. in 1523 was looked upon as the just due of an untiring, humble, and exemplary bishop. He has been a favorite subject of Florentine art.

The humanistic tendency of the time had no effect upon Antoninus. He wrote certain works quite in the scholastic spirit, as: Summa theologica (4 parts, Venice and Nuremberg, 1477; ed. P. and B. Ballerini, Verona, 1740), based upon Thomas Aquinas, the first text-book of ethics, and still esteemed in Italy; Summa confessionalis or Summula confessionum (Mondovi, 1472); and Summa historialis or Chronicon ab orbe condita bipartitum (3 vols., Venice, 1480, and often; ed. P. Maturus, S. J., Lyons, 1587), a world-chronicle to 1457, uncritical and full of fables and legends, but showing industry and systematic arrangement. Here and there, as in judging of the great schism, he ventures to advance his own opinion and he questions the genuineness of the Donation of Constantine. A complete edition of Antoninus’ works, in four volumes, was published at Venice, 1474-75, and a second edition, in eight volumes, at Florence, 1741. In later years have appeared: Opera a ben vivere di Sant’ Antonino (Florence, 1858) and Lettere (1859).

K. Benrath.

Bibliography: A life, by Franciscus Castilionensis, and another by Leonardus de Serubertis are in ASB, May, i. 314-362; Quétif-Echard, Scriptores ordinis prœdicatorum, i. 817-819, Paris, 1719; Æneas Silvius, Commentarii, p. 50, Frankfort, 1614; Creighton, Papacy, i. 504; A. von Reumont, Briefe heiliger und gottesfürchtiger Italiener, pp. 135-150, Freiburg, 1877; idem, Lorenzo de’ Medici, i. 148, 176, 562-564, Leipsic, 1874, Eng. transl., i. 123, 151, 463-465, London, 1876.