Giambattista Marino

Occupying a similar position in Italian literature to John Lyly’s in English and Luis de Góngora’s in Spanish, Giambattista Marino (1569-1625) applied the Baroque style that had also swept art and music in Europe to Italian poetry. His verse was widely imitated across Europe and featured extreme ornamentation, wordplay, and an ear for the musicality of his language. Marinism, which has enjoyed periodic resurgences in Italy, takes his style of writing as a point of inspiration.