MARINI or MARINO GIAMBATTISTA Italian poet, was born at Naples on Oct. 18, 1569. After a riotous youth, during which he became known for his Canzone de' baci, he secured the powerful patronage of Cardinal Aldobrandini, whom he accompanied from Rome to Ravenna and Turin. An edition of his poems, La Lira, was published at Venice in 1602-14. His ungoverned pen and disordered life compelled him to leave Turin and take refuge from 1615 to 1622 in Paris, where he was favour ably recognized by Marie de' Medici. There his long poem Adone was published in 1623. Adone contains over 40,000 lines; the story of Venus and Adonis is overlaid with all kinds of digressions, mythological, descriptive, etc. Its smooth and polished verse and its fanciful style found many imitators. He died at Naples on March 25, 1625. The licence, extravagances and conceits of Marini, the chief of the school of "Seicentisti" (see ITALY: Literature), marked the close of a great era, and the beginning of a period of decadence. "Marinism" was in Italy what "Gon gorism" was in Spain. It was part of a general movement in favour of an artificial and ornamented style which was evident throughout western Europe.
Marini also wrote a religious epic, La strage degli innocenti (1633) and other works, of which a selection was edited by Zirardini (1862).
A new edition of his letters, Epistolario, appeared in 1924. See A. Gustarelli, La vita et l'opera di G. Marino (Leghorn, 1918).