BOCCACCIO WAS PART OF TEMPLAR SECRET SOCIETY

BOCCACCIO WAS PART OF TEMPLAR SECRET SOCIETY

(AGI) - Florence, Italy, March 23 - Giovanni Boccaccio belonged to a Templar secret society, as reported by Renzo Manetti in the book "Le Madonne del Parto. Icone templari" (Edizioni Polistampa). With historical research, the author goes through the history of the monastic order of the Girolamini, founded by Bartolommeo Bononi da Pistoia who in 1334, after buying "terrain and houses" in an area just outside of Florence, amid the antique Templar possessions, lived together with other monks under the rules of Saint Augustine (who was one of the first cavaliers in the Temple) with the name Girolamini. Many Florentine families helped the monastery, and Boccaccio, in his 1374 will, left the majority of his goods, as did Templars, to the Order. The volume is centred on a period in which the first images of the Madonna, waiting to deliver her child, begin to appear. These accompany the flourishing of Humanism, ending with the mysterious figure painted by Piero della Francesca in the city that bears the name of the sepulchre. According to Manetti, these Madonnas allude to a secret fraternity, forced to hide, which held the mystery of Knowledge. "Just like the bosom of the Madonnas the Word is hidden, waiting for a time to manifest itself, so the heirs of the Templars hid their secret, waiting for a new season of tolerance." Manetti’s focus of analysis was in particular the "Madonna del Parto di Bellosguardo": painted by Taddeo Gaddi between 1334 and 1348, it was the first of such images to be painted in Tuscany. (AGI) - 231702 MAR 05