GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA
& The Trial of Fire

Synopsis

Once Italy was divided into small independent states lead by the Roman Church, Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican friar from Ferrara, rails against the corruption of habits perpetrated by the rulers and fueled by the sinful and lustful lifestyle of the Roman Church.

The script recounts the last eight years (1490/1498) of political-religious strifes in Florence, experienced by Hieronymus Savonarola. He, without assuming institutional roles, established in Florence what is known as the Savonarolian Republic. 

He lashed out at Lorenzo de' Medici and the leading figures of the Florentine Commune, his sermons and prophecies anticipated the Lutheran Reformation and became a no-holds-barred struggle against Pope Borja. 

Arrested after a bloody battle inside the Convento di San Marco, he was imprisoned and then condemned to death on purpose-built false exhibits. Condemned to hanging, his body, along with that of two of his followers, was burned on Piazza della Signoria and the ashes thrown into the Arno.

Bibliographic sources:

A. Bianchi - Giovini, Il Diario di Burcardo, Libreria Speciale delle Novità, Firenze, 1861.

C. Carridori, Girolamo Savonarola, Casa Editrice Nerbini, Firenze, 1928. 

G. Revere, I Piagnoni e gli Arrabbiati, Tipografia Vincenzo Guglielmini, Milano, 1843.

P. Antolini, La vita di Fra’ Girolamo Savonarola, Stabilimento Tipografico di G.Monti, Bologna, 1875. 

P. Burlamacchi O.P,, La vita del Padre Fra Girolamo Savonarola, Tipografia Gio. Silvestri, Milano, 1847.