L'Eremita, l'uomo del Galateo

The Hermit is the most autobiographical work of the Galateo, a sort of Menippean satire; it recalls in the prologue the Apokolokintosis of Seneca. The author-character aspires to a social condition adequate to his rank of doctor and humanist, characterized by a life devoted to integrity, but this condition is denied to him. Paradise, where he shows up in the fiction, is a metaphor of this condition. The author engages those who are hostile to him, hided under the masks of saints and prophets, in a clashing controversy. The clash reveals the inconvenient conditions in which the church of his time is, but does not assure him the right recognition. This is obtained through St. Thomas, a metaphor of absolute wisdom, which tells him that the controversy does not take him to Paradise and suggests him to pray to the Virgin. The dialogue ends with the "surrender" of the Hermit, who obtains Paradise but after having inflicted a harsh lesson on the church of climbers and corrupt people and made it understand the urgency of a reform.