Poggio
Name: Giovanni Francesco Poggio Bracciolini
Nickname/Alias: also known as Gian Poggio; Poggius
Achievements: Led Renaissance search for lost classical manuscripts
Born: February 11, 1380; Terranuova, near Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy
Died: October 30, 1459; Florence, Italy (Aged 79)
Field & Discipline: Philosophy; Humanist
Language: Italian; Latin
Father: Guccio Bracciolini
Mother: Jacoba Frutti (m. c. 1372)
Siblings: Brother (name unknown); Caterina
Spouse: Vaggia de Buondelmontis (m. 1436)
Children: Several children
Education: Arezzo and Florence
Major Work:
“The Vagaries of Fortune”
Life & Times:
During Poggio's early years in Florence in the late 1390s, he met [a pal of] Niccoli* who was also interested in the search for lost classical texts, and became a lifelong friend and correspondent. While working in Florence in this capacity, Poggio invented the humanist script (based on “Caroline minuscule”), that, after a generation of polishing by scribes, served the new art of printing as the prototype of "Roman" fonts.
In 1403 Poggio entered the service of Pope Boniface IX in Rome. was immediately successful papal court (Curia), and by 1404 had been made an apostolic secretary, a position he held for the next fifty years (with only one five-year break in England).
Poggio joined the Curia during a stormy period of its history. Between 1403 and 1417, when Martin V was elected Pope at the Council of Constance, there were three anti-popes. Poggio worked for one of them (John XXIII) and accompanied him to the Council of Constance, where he was deposed.
It was this period of turmoil in the Church that gave Poggio his great opportunity during 1415-17 to visit the monasteries of Langres, Cluny, Fulda, and St. Gall and to make the great manuscript discoveries that made his name.
In 1418 Poggio received papal permission to travel to England, where he spent the next five years scouring the monasteries. However, the inadequacy of the English libraries
was a constant source of disappointment, and he made no important finds. In 1423, he returned to Rome. He was now becoming known throughout Europe as a great stylist and influential member of the papal bureaucracy.
By 1430, Poggio had established himself as a famous classical scholar, known internationally for his discoveries, and had established a large network of
correspondents across Europe.
He also became known as a notable controversialist, and in attacks on such scholars as [attacked work of] Valla*, he inspired lifelong hatreds.
His literary talents were recognized first at the Council of Constance (1414-17), for the eloquence of his funeral orations, and his first moral tract: “On Avarice” was published in 1429. In the course of the next 30 years he produced eight more such essays. Meanwhile, he also continued the “History of Florence” begun by Leonardo Bruni, modelled on Livy's history of Rome.
In 1439, Poggio also published a work which was very personal to him: “Should an old man take a wife?” which he wrote to justify his marriage, at the age of 56, to an 18-year-old girl of wealth and good family. All his friends, including Pope Eugenius IV, were critical of this marriage, which took place in 1436, and said it would end in failure, but it
appears that the couple were happy together and had several children.
In 1451 appeared the work for which he was best and most widely known for centuries, his “Facetiae” (written 1438-51), a collection of 273 short, humorous, often indecent tales, containing vigorous satires on monks, clerics, and rival scholars such as Valla.
His classical interests extended to the study of ancient buildings and the collecting of inscriptions and of sculpture.
In June 1453, Poggio left the Curia and succeeded Carlo Aretino as chancellor of the Republic of Florence, an appointment he held until his death. His last years were spent in this office and in writing the official history of Florence. During the last years of his life his works were spread across Europe by the newly developed printing presses.
Extra Connections: Knew [knew] Bessarion* .
[a patron was] Cosimo de’ Medici the Elder* published his collected manuscripts.
Corresponded with [corresponded with] Nicholas of Cusa*.
Knew [knew] Nicholas V* before he became Pope.
Assessment: A major player in the development of Renaissance thought.
Oneliner: Poggio Bracciolini, major Renaissance scholar
Bibliography:
- Encyclopedia Britannica.
- Gordon, Phyllis Walter Goodhart (trans. & ed), Two Renaissance Book Hunters: The Letters of Poggius Bracciolini to Nicolaus de Niccolis, New York & London: Columbia University Press, 1974.
- New Catholic Encyclopedia.