(Gian Francesco) Poggio Bracciolini (February 11, 1380 ? October 30, 1459) was one of the most important Italian humanists. He recovered a great number of classical texts, mostly lying forgotten in German and French monastic libraries, and disseminated copies among the educated world.
Poggio Bracciolini was born at the village of Terranuova, since 1862 renamed in his honour Terranuova Bracciolini, near Arezzo in Tuscany.
He studied Latin under John of Ravenna, and Greek under Manuel Chrysoloras. His distinguished abilities and his dexterity as a copyist of manuscripts brought him into early notice with the chief scholars of Florence. Coluccio Salutati and Niccol? de' Niccoli befriended him; at the age of twenty-one he was received into the Florentine guild of the Arte dei giudici e notai and in the year 1402 or 1403 he was received into the service of the Roman Curia. His functions were those of a secretary; and, though he profited by benefices conferred on him in lieu of salary, he remained a layman to the end of his life. It is noticeable that, while he held his office in the curia through that momentous period of fifty years which witnessed the Councils of Konstanz and of Basel, and the final restoration of the papacy under Nicholas V, his sympathies were never attracted to ecclesiastical affairs.
The greater part of Poggio's long life was spent in attendance to his duties in the papal curia at Rome and elsewhere. But about the year 1452 he finally retired to Florence, and on the death of Carlo Aretino (Marsuppini) in 1453 was appointed chancellor and historiographer to the Republic. On the proceeds of a sale of a manuscript of Livy in 1434, he had already built himself a villa in the Valdarno, which he adorned with a collection of antique sculpture (notably a series of busts meant to represent thinkers and writers of Antiquity), coins and inscriptions, works that were familiar to his friend Donatello. In 1435-36 he had married a girl of eighteen, Selvaggia dei Buondelmonti, of the noble Florentine family. His declining days were spent in the discharge of his honorable Florentine office, editing his correspondence for publication and in the composition of his history of Florence. He died in 1459, and was buried in the church of Santa Croce. A statue by Donatello and a portrait by Antonio del Pollaiuolo remain to commemorate a citizen who chiefly for his services to humanistic literature deserved the notice of posterity.
In the way of many humanists of his time, Poggio himself wrote only in Latin, and translated works from Greek into that language. His letters are full of learning, charm, detail, and amusing personal attack on his enemies and colleagues. It is also noticeable as illustrating the Latinizing tendency of an age which gave classic form to the lightest essays of the fancy. Poggio, it may be observed, was a fluent and copious writer in the Latin tongue, but not an elegant scholar. His knowledge of the ancient authors was wide, but his taste was not select, and his erudition was superficial. His translation of Xenophon's Cyropaedia into Latin cannot be praised for accuracy.
Poggio Bracciolini
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Gianfrancesco_Poggio_Bracciolini.jpg
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/human21Pogio.jpg
Poggio Bracciolini was born at the village of Terranuova, since 1862 renamed in his honour Terranuova Bracciolini, near Arezzo in Tuscany.
He studied Latin under John of Ravenna, and Greek under Manuel Chrysoloras. His distinguished abilities and his dexterity as a copyist of manuscripts brought him into early notice with the chief scholars of Florence. Coluccio Salutati and Niccol? de' Niccoli befriended him; at the age of twenty-one he was received into the Florentine guild of the Arte dei giudici e notai and in the year 1402 or 1403 he was received into the service of the Roman Curia. His functions were those of a secretary; and, though he profited by benefices conferred on him in lieu of salary, he remained a layman to the end of his life. It is noticeable that, while he held his office in the curia through that momentous period of fifty years which witnessed the Councils of Konstanz and of Basel, and the final restoration of the papacy under Nicholas V, his sympathies were never attracted to ecclesiastical affairs.
The greater part of Poggio's long life was spent in attendance to his duties in the papal curia at Rome and elsewhere. But about the year 1452 he finally retired to Florence, and on the death of Carlo Aretino (Marsuppini) in 1453 was appointed chancellor and historiographer to the Republic. On the proceeds of a sale of a manuscript of Livy in 1434, he had already built himself a villa in the Valdarno, which he adorned with a collection of antique sculpture (notably a series of busts meant to represent thinkers and writers of Antiquity), coins and inscriptions, works that were familiar to his friend Donatello. In 1435-36 he had married a girl of eighteen, Selvaggia dei Buondelmonti, of the noble Florentine family. His declining days were spent in the discharge of his honorable Florentine office, editing his correspondence for publication and in the composition of his history of Florence. He died in 1459, and was buried in the church of Santa Croce. A statue by Donatello and a portrait by Antonio del Pollaiuolo remain to commemorate a citizen who chiefly for his services to humanistic literature deserved the notice of posterity.
In the way of many humanists of his time, Poggio himself wrote only in Latin, and translated works from Greek into that language. His letters are full of learning, charm, detail, and amusing personal attack on his enemies and colleagues. It is also noticeable as illustrating the Latinizing tendency of an age which gave classic form to the lightest essays of the fancy. Poggio, it may be observed, was a fluent and copious writer in the Latin tongue, but not an elegant scholar. His knowledge of the ancient authors was wide, but his taste was not select, and his erudition was superficial. His translation of Xenophon's Cyropaedia into Latin cannot be praised for accuracy.
Poggio Bracciolini
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Gianfrancesco_Poggio_Bracciolini.jpg
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/human21Pogio.jpg