Dominici, Giovanni (1357-1419)

Italian cleric and opponent of Coluccio Salutati's humanist circle. He was a Dominican friar and prior of San Marco, Florence. In an attempt to bring the Great Schism to an end, he tried to persuade Pope Gregory XII to negotiate with the antipope, but subsequently decided to support him and Gregory made him a cardinal in 1408. Dominici's apparent volte-face attracted the mockery of Poggio Bracciolini in his Contra Hypocritas.

Dominici's Lucula Noctis/The Firefly (1405) was a diatribe against the classical reading habits of Salutati and his followers. Dominici argued that ancient pagan authors could only confuse, not enlighten, a Christian. He did not accept the humanists' defence: that their interest in the classical world was compatible with, and an assistance to, their understanding of Christianity.