The film, starring major Hollywood actors such as Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffiths, and Bruce Willis, is about a hit skip accident caused by a rich White stockbroker that is subsequently tried and acquitted for the crime, nothing to do with the original basis for the name of the book and film. In fact, this incident inspired the title of a Tom Wolfe novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) and a subsequent feature film based on the book by the same title (1990).

This painting shows the Florentine preacher Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498) denouncing frivolous possessions and activities, in preparation for a bonfire of vanities. Little evidence exists that such public burnings ever accomplish the purification of a culture that is sought by the fanatics doing the burning. Misguided people have engaged in burning books and other articles that they have seen as contrary to their view of what is “proper,” “right,” or “moral” throughout history, and of course the Florence incident was not the first or largest of these burnings, though it is one of the more famous examples.

On February 7, 1497, the followers of Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola of Florence, Italy, gathered and burned a large quantity of objects they referred to as “vanities,” objects such as cosmetics, books, artwork, mirrors, fancy clothes, playing cards, and musical instruments, any objects these religious zealots thought could lead people to sin.

The bonfire of the vanities novel