Bonfire of the Vanities

From Freepedia

This article is about the historical event; for the novel and film of the same name, see The Bonfire of the Vanities.

Bonfire of the Vanities refers to an event on 7 February 1497 when followers of the priest Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects in Florence, Italy, on the Shrove Tuesday festival.

The focus of this destruction was on objects considered sinful, including vanity items such as mirrors, cosmetics, fine dresses, and even musical instruments. Other targets included immoral books, manuscripts of secular songs, and pictures. Among the objects destroyed in this campaign were several original paintings on classical mythological subjects by Sandro Botticelli, who placed them in the bonfire himself.

Tom Wolfe's novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, published in 1987, makes reference to the original event, but is not a retelling of the story.