Pietro Bembo, O.S.I.H.

(May 20, 1470 – either January 11 or January 18, 1547) is an Italian scholar, poet, literary theorist, member of the Knights Hospitaller and a cardinal.

He is 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 assist in the sixteenth-century revival of interest in the works of Petrarch.

Bembo's ideas are also decisive in the formation of the most important secular musical form of the sixteenth century, the madrigal.