Little is known of Girolamo Fontanella's short but active life until 1632, when his first book, L'Incendio rinovato del Vesuvio was printed in Naples.
[2] He was a member of the Accademia degli Oziosi,[1] and worked as poet for the Viceregal Court, as suggested by his sonnet dedicated to Fernando Afán de Ribera, Spanish ambassador to the Holy See from 1625 to 1626 and future Viceroy of Naples and Sicily.
[7] His Nove cieli (1640), regarded by Benedetto Croce as akin to D'Annunzio's Laudi, uses the conventions of conceptismo to create graceful miniature portraits, frequently incorporating moral dicta, while the Elegie (1645) turn to declamatory pathos.
Colours, shapes and movements he conveys in a dynamic language rich in striking imagery, with a penchant for the slightly exotic: the carnation, the glow-worm, coral, a beautiful girl swimming.
Many of his lyrics are included in Benedetto Croce's influential anthology of Baroque poetry.