Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) Italian priest and opponent of the Renaissance. Savonarola was born at Ferrara and studied at the university there. In 1475 he became a Dominican friar at Bologna and in 1482 was sent to Florence. He preached against the wealth of the Renaissance and its patrons such as the ruling Medici family. His apocalyptic sermons were hugely popular. He lambasted the institutions of the Church, but not its tenets of faith. In 1494 the Medici were overthrown and Savonarola emerged as leader of Florence. He gathered anything associated with moral laxity - pagan books, fine clothing and the like - and setting light to them in the Bonfire of the Vanities. After rioting ensued, he was excommunicated by Pope Alexander VI, was tried for heresy and burnt at the stake. This engraving comes from Giovo's Elogia vivorum literis illustratium, published at Basel in 1577.