BRACCIOLINI, POGGIO. This eminent scholar and contributor to the restoration of classical learning, was born at Terra-Nuova, a small town near Arezzo, Feb. 11, 1380. His father (a notary) had once been possessed of considerable property, but was ruined by circumstances which have not been recorded; and Poggio, after receiving a capital education in the usual branches then taught at the university of Florence (where he studied Latin under Gio. Malpighino, commonly called John of Ravenna), was at an early age thrown on his own resources. The inaccuracy of the commonly received opinion that he studied Greek under
the celebrated Manuel Chrysoloras, is proved by a letter of his, in which he states that he commenced his Greek studies at Rome in 1424, i.e., some years after the death of Chrysoloras.
Poggio set out for Rome in 1403, and was soon received by Pope Boniface IX. as apostolic secretary, an office of high trust; in which his talents and integrity must have been conspicuous, as he held the same situation under eight successive pontiffs. In the following year, under Innocent VII., he was able to introduce his excellent friend Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo into the office of apostolic scribe. On the death of Innocent, Italy was convulsed by the claims of rival popes; and Poggio embraced that opportunity of visiting his native country, where he received the patronage of Niccolo Niccoli of Florence, a munificent encourager of learned men, and where he remained until recalled to the apostolic secretaryship on the election of John XXII. In that capacity he accompanied the pope to the council of Constance in October 1414; and saw his master first suspended and finally deposed by the general council of the church, after they had brought to trial and executed—in defiance of the safe-conduct granted him by the emperor—the celebrated Bohemian reformer, John Huss. The deposition of the pope caused the dispersion of his officers; and though the affairs of Poggio were not in a very prosperous condition, he remained at Constance and its vicinity for a considerable time. He was a witness to the trials and execution of another martyr to the cause of reformation, Jerome of Prague; who, undeterred by the fate of Huss, presented himself before the council, and was twice tried by that body. Poggio has left us a vivid narrative of the genius and intrepidity of the martyr in his eloquent defence and terrible punishment. His admiration of the man has evidently converted the apostolic secretary into a powerful panegyrist of a condemned heretic. In a letter to his friend, Leonardo Aretino, he says:—“His voice was sweet, clear, and sonorous; his action dignified, and well adapted to express indignation, or to excite compassion—which, however, he neither asked nor wished for. He stood undaunted and intrepid; not merely contemning, but, like another Cato, longing for death. He was a man worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance.”
This part of the life of Poggio is that on which his chief claim to the gratitude of posterity rests. He now devoted his leisure and his resources to rescuing from the destruction with which the barbarism of Europe had well nigh consigned them, the precious remains of classic authors; and his diligent search for ancient MSS. in the mouldering archives of religious houses in several parts of Germany, Italy, and France, which he visited for this purpose, are creditable to his industry and his taste. A great number of MSS. were collected by his own hands, sometimes transcribed by him, or were procured by his means, and deposited in the libraries of Italy, then the only part of Europe where their value was truly estimated. To Poggio's zeal we owe the recovery of seven orations of Cicero, which we shall indicate in the order in which they appear in the Barbou edition of his works. 1. Pro Roscio Comodo; 2. De Lege Agraria, ad Senatum; 3. De Lege Agr., ad Populum; 4. De Lege Agr., ad Populum; 5. Pro C. Rabirio Perduellonis Reo; 6. In Lucium Pisonem; 7. Pro C. Rabirio Postumo. He also recovered the poem of Silius Italicus on the second Punic War; Vegetius de Re Militari; Lactantius de Ira Dei et Opificio Hominum; Tertullian; Nonius Marcellus; Ammianus Marcellini Historia; Lucretius; Columella; Julius Frontinus de Aquaductis; the eight books of Firmicus on Mathematica; Calpurnii Bucolica; Petronius Arbiter; and to the same indefatigable explorer we are indebted for bringing to light the astronomical poem of Manilius, the lyrics of Lucius Septimius, with the treatises of Caper, Eutychius, and Probus. It was also through Poggio that
Nicolas of Treves recovered twelve of the comedies of Plautus, and a fragment of Aulus Gellius.
These discoveries appear from a letter of F. Barbaro to have taken place before June 14. 1417; and it may easily be conceived that these researches were a heavy drawback upon the finances of Poggio. His difficulties were increased by the unexpected death of his friend and patron Zarabella, the Cardinal of Florence, which occurred in 1417. In this dilemma he accepted an invitation to come to England from Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester; but on arriving in London the magnificent promises of the cardinal vanished in air; and Poggio experienced the mortification of neglect among a people rude and illiterate, and utterly untinctured with the spirit of refinement that had been kindled in Italy. After spending four years in vain in England, in which a very paltry piece of preferment was all he could obtain, he returned to Italy in 1421, and again became apostolical secretary to Martin V.; and, on the death of that pontiff in 1431, to his successor Eugenius IV., who was obliged to retire to Florence, whither he was willingly followed by Poggio; but on the election of the able and excellent Nicolas V. in 1447, Poggio resumed his office of secretary at Rome. The cruelties of Pope Eugenius drew down on him the vengeance of his subjects, and he was ignominiously driven from his capital in 1433, and narrowly escaped with his life. His friends were arrested; and Poggio had the misfortune to fall into the hands of a noted condottiero, Piccinino, who compelled him to pay a large ransom for his freedom, which the narrowness of his finances rendered it very difficult for him to pay.
In 1436, Poggio, who had always steadily refused to enter into holy orders as a means of obtaining promotion, married Vaggia de Bondelmonti, daughter of a wealthy and honourable Tuscan family, with whom he lived very happily. Soon after his marriage he gave vent to his satisfaction in an elegant Latin dialogue, An seni sit uxor ducenda, in which he maintains the wisdom of the step which he had taken. By this lady he had five sons—Pietro Paulo, Giovanni Battista, Jacopo, Giovanni Francesco, and Filippo—and a daughter, Lucretia, who married into the family of the Bondelmonti.
On the appearance of the plague at Rome in 1450, the court left the city, and Poggio withdrew to Florence, at which time he wrote his Faccetta; a collection of stories, in the taste of that age, more remarkable for their humour than their delicacy. In 1453 he was chosen chancellor of Florence, which finally fixed his residence in his native country. He now turned his attention to the history of Florence, and composed his history of that republic; an elaborate and very eloquent work, in which he imitated Livy and other ancient historians, by explaining the secret springs of action in the characters he delineates, by speeches which he puts into their mouths. His statements are clear and well defined; and he is particularly happy in his delineation of character. It was translated into Italian by his unfortunate son Jacopo.
The works of Poggio Bracciolini have never yet been wholly published. This is to be regretted, especially with respect to his letters, which give interesting details of what he saw and heard. Many of these, from which much light might be expected on the contemporaneous state of Italy, Germany, France, and England, exist in the Riccardi Library at Florence, and other Continental collections, as we are informed by Tonelli, in the preface to his excellent translation of the life of Bracciolini by the Rev. William Shepherd, LL.D., an elegant English work, which has gone through two editions in Britain, and has been also well translated into French and German.
Poggio Bracciolini died at Florence on the 30th of October 1459, and was buried with public honours in the church of Sta Croce, next his accomplished friend Leonardo Aretino. A fine statue of him, by Donatello, exists in the cathedral of Florence.
The following is a list of his published works:—1. Dialogue on Avarice, 1431-32; 2. An Seni Sit Uxor Ducenda, 1436; 3. Oration on the Death of Niccolò Niccolini, 1437; 4. Dialogue on Nobility, 1440; 5. Oration on the Death of Lorenzo de' Medici, 1440; 6. Dialogue on the Unhappiness of Princes, 1440; 7. Oration on the Death of Cardinal di Sta Croce, 1443; 8. Eulogy of Leonardo Aretino, 1444; 9. Eulogy of Cardinal Julian di San Angelo, 1444; 10. Inaugural Address to Pope Nicolas V., 1447; 11. On the Vicissitudes of Fortune, 1447; 12. On Hypocrisy (in which he lashes the clergy), 1447; 13. Latin Translation of Xenophon's Cyropedia (which he declared a romance, not a history), 1445; 14. Latin Translation of Diogenes Siculus, 1448; 15. Liber Facetiarum, 1451; 16. Historia Deceptione Conventualis, 1451; 17. De Miseria Humanae Conditionis, 1452; 18. Translation of the Golden Ass of Apuleius (which he shows to be derived from Lucian), 1452; 19. Historia Florentina, 1456-57. (T. 8. T.)