Pietro Bembo,
O.S.I.H. (20 May 1470 – either 11 January or 18 January, 1547) was an
Italian scholar, poet,
literary theorist, member of the
Knights Hospitaller and a
cardinal. He was an influential figure in the development of the
Italian language, specifically Tuscan, as a literary medium, codifying the language for standard modern usage. His writings assisted in the 16th-century revival of interest in the works of
Petrarch. Bembo's ideas were also decisive in the formation of the most important secular musical form of the 16th century, the
madrigal.