Trifone Gabriel
[1][2] He appeared not only in the painting Giovanni Borgherini and His Tutor but also in profile on the recto of a bronze medal by Danese Cattaneo (with a woman beside a spring and a quotation from Psalm 23.4 on the reverse).
Trifone's contemporaries admired him, holding him to be a model 15th century humanist whose "thousand rare gifts" made him an authoritative example of intellectual and moral life, uncontaminated by the world of early Renaissance courtiers.
He was also mentioned and praised by several other writers such as Ludovico Ariosto (who included him among his closest friends in the 46th canto of "Orlando Furioso") and Anche Girolamo Muzio (who invoked his aid in his Arte Poetica as a "master of the language"), whilst Bembo and Benedetto Varchi also dedicated sonnets to him.
His great authority, moral rectitude and cultural interests all meant he was offered prestigious roles such as Bishop of Treviso and Patriarch of Venice, which he always refused, preferring a sober and contemplative life.
He was granted special dispensation from the papal curia in 1515 thanks to Bembo allowed him to break his ordination vow not to read "pagan" (i.e. secular) books.
[4] Many came to him for advice and teaching, from young students to noted intellectuals and humanists such as Bembo himself, Sperone Speroni, Francesco Sansovino, Monsignor Della Casa, Giovanni Borgherini, Ludovico Ariosto, Bernardo Tasso, Gaspara Stampa, Vittore Soranzo, Benedetto Varchi, Pietro Aretino, Giulio Camillo Delminio, Girolamo Muzio and Gabriel's distant relation Gabriele de' Gabrielli.
He was known as "Venice's Socrates" since - like the ancient Greek philosopher of that name - he preferred to impart verbal lessons to his pupils and so left behind no written texts.
In 1581 Vincenzo Scamozzi was commissioned to produce a tomb monument for Gabriel, admiral Carlo Zen and doge Lorenzo Celsi, all buried in the church.
After his return to Venice and then Padua, where Angelo frequently attended the local university, Bembo wrote his first work De Aetna, then published by Aldo Manuzio in February 1496 (1495 according to the Venetian calendar).
