Background
Antonio Francesco Grazzini was born at Florence, Italy on the 22nd of March 1503, of good family both by his father's and mother's side.
Antonio Francesco Grazzini was born at Florence, Italy on the 22nd of March 1503, of good family both by his father's and mother's side.
Of his youth and education all record appears to be lost, but he probably began early to practise as an apothecary.
In 1540 Antonio Francesco Grazzini was one of the founders of the Academy of the Humid (degli Umidi) afterwards called " della Fiorentina, " and later took a prominent part in the establishment of the more famous Accademia della trusca. In both societies he was known as II Lasca or Leuciscus, and this pseudonym is still frequently substituted for his proper name.
II Lasca ranks as one of the great masters of Tuscan prose.
A number of miscellaneous poems, a few letters and Four Orations to the Cross complete the list of Grazzini's extant works. He also edited the works of Berni, and collected Tutti i trionfi, larri, mascherate, e canti carnascialaschi, andati per Firenze dal tempo del magnifico Lorenzo de' Medici fino all' anno 1559.
In 1868 Adamo Rossi published in his Ricerche per le biblioteche di Perugia three "novelle" by Grazzini, from a MS. of the 16th century in the "Comunale" of Perugia: and in 1870 a small collection of those poems which have been left unpublished by previous editors appeared at Poggibonsi, Alcune Foesie inedile.
Grazzini was temperamental, his life consequently enlivened or disturbed by various literary quarrels.