Sebastiano Bagolino

He was born in Alcamo, in the province of Trapani, from Giovan Leonardo, a painter, and Caterina Tabone. His father, probably native of Verona, painted several frescoes for the churches in Alcamo. His mother came from a family quite rich and that gave the poet a fairly comfortable life. When a child he was introduced to painting and music, but he had a real aptitude for humanities: he studied letters and poetics with the famous poet and jurisconsult Marco Gentilucci from Spoleto who had com to Alcamo by chance and covered several important offices from 1576 to 1594. Tu quicumque mei ferris per saxa sepulcri, Attonitus lacrymes non rogo morte mea; Sed responsurae tantum iace verba favillae, ‘Et dicas : cinis hic num Bagolinus erat? “You, whoever you are, will go among the stones of my sepulchre, (I) astonished do not ask (you) tears for my death; but only ashes can words to re-echo for a dead man, and you might say: “was this ash by any chance Bagolino?” Alcamo has entitled him the Civic Library, a lower secondary school and a large square. A marble bust, realized by Giuseppe Bambina (a sculptor from Alcamo), was first placed in the homonymous square, then moved into the near small garden and later, in 1941, as they created an air-raid shelter underground, (together with the bust of Girolamo Caruso) in the garden located in Piazza Pittore Renda. Finally, as it had been ruined by vandals, they destroyed it. == Works ==

The best of Bagolino’s works is found in his 729 Latin poems, published in 1782 by Sir G.Triolo Galifi; they are collected in two volumes and can be consulted at the Civic Library in Alcamo. There are some with a religious and love theme and are full of fantasy and feeling; a third group is about events actually occurred in Alcamo and testified by the poet. Here is the list: • Sebastiani Bagolini Carmina: a collection • Eulogy of Francesco Ventimiglia, marquess of Geraci. • Libro sopra lo reggimento che fe’ ‘l Ventimiglia in Sicilia. • A latin prose on the origin of the Moncada family. • A book of Latin epigrams about the greatest figures of the Moncada Family. • Opus lyricum, recalled in two letters that Bagolino sent to Valguarnera. • A historical speech about the town of Alcamo. • Epistolarum familiarium liber (containing letters to Cardinal Petrocchini). • Version of Emblemas morales, lost except for some fragments. • De ratione Emblematum, a work against Ambrogio Beneventano • The Angelical Salutation, a series of religious works which include: 1.disegni di Christo (Christ’s plans) 2. The Salutation of Our Lady, that is Ave Maria. 3. A spiritual reasoning to Francesca Battiata 4. L'Anchore, a "spiritual reasoning" on the “ four anchores of the Evangelic perfection” • Vita P. Thomae Schiphaldi • Cornias, a book of unknown subject • Six songs of Carnalà • The Pinzochero, a writing against bad painters • Paragrafi, against an ignorant painter • Book of the Ephemeridi of Moncada • Cruena, Epactaria, Malleus, Psittacus (satyrical compositions) • Testamentum Bagolini ad Tertulliani exemplum. • In the Selecta epigrammata they published five Bagolini Carmina, elegiae et poemata alíquot ex Catullo, Ovidio, Tibullo, Propertio aliisque antiquis et recentioribus poetis (Panormi 1656). • The elegy Copa appeared in the tome XVIII of the Pamphlets of Sicilian authors in honour of the prince of Paternò (Palermo 1777, pp. 363 s.). • Pub. Sebastiani Bagolini Carminum, edited by Giuseppe Triolo (Panormi 1782) in two volumes. • La Piramide, ossia Dialogo di Sebastiano Bagolino Historico e Poeta alcamese sopra la Piramide fatta in Alcamo nell'Esequie di Filippo II Re di Spagna e di Sicilia, (a very pompous eulogy which describes a funerary monument which was erected for Filippo II In Alcamo). • lo Stracciabisaccie (from the name of a villa belonging to Vincenzo Tornamira), a mixture of vernacular prose and poems. • Sebastiani Bagolini Familiarium Epistolarum. • Il Moncada di Seb. Bagolino Alcamese, a document of courtly custom. Finally, in the sacristy of the Sanctuary of Madonna of Miracles, there is a monochrome drawing on canvas, made by Bagolino, depicting the founding of the fresco of Our Lady of Miracles, restored in 1947. == References ==