Background
Leonardo Bruni was born in Arezzo, Tuscany circa 1370.
(Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444), the leading civic humanist of...)
Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444), the leading civic humanist of the Italian Renaissance, served as apostolic secretary to four popes (1405-1414) and chancellor of Florence (1427-1444). He was famous in his day as a translator, orator, and historian, and was the best-selling author of the fifteenth century. Bruni's History of the Florentine People in twelve books is generally considered the first modern work of history, and was widely imitated by humanist historians for two centuries after its official publication by the Florentine Signoria in 1442. This edition makes it available for the first time in English translation.
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( The cycle of disciplines now known as the humanities em...)
The cycle of disciplines now known as the humanities emerged in their modern form during the Italian Renaissance as the result of an educational movement begun by humanist teachers, writers, and scholars of the early Quattrocento. The movement argued for the usefulness of classical literature as an instrument for training young men and women, not only in the arts of language and eloquence, but also in civic virtue and practical wisdom. This volume contains four of the most important theoretical statements that emerged from the early humanists' efforts to reform medieval education. The four texts are Pier Paolo Vergerio, "The Character and Studies Befitting a Free-Born Youth"; Leonardo Bruni, "The Study of Literature"; Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), "The Education of Boys"; and Battista Guarino, "A Program of Teaching and Learning". The Vergerio and Guarino texts appear in English for the first time.
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Leonardo Bruni was born in Arezzo, Tuscany circa 1370.
Leonardo studied law and philosophy in Florence and later, under the influence of Jean de Ravenne and Chrysoloras, he became absorbed in the study of the classics. Bruni was the pupil of political and cultural leader Coluccio Salutati.
Leonardo served as apostolic secretary to four popes (1405-1414). Bruni's years as chancellor - 1410 to 1411 and again from 1427 to his death in 1444 - were plagued by warfare. Though he occupied one of the highest political offices, Bruni was relatively powerless compared to the Albizzi and Medici families. Historian Arthur Field has identified Bruni as an apparent plotter against Cosimo de' Medici in 1437. Bruni died in 1444 in Florence and was succeeded in office by Carlo Marsuppini.
His important work - New Cicero, a biography of the Roman statesman Cicero. He was also the author of biographies in Italian of Dante and Petrarch. It was Bruni who used the phrase Studia humanitatis, meaning the study of human endeavors, as distinct from those of theology and metaphysics, which is where the term humanists come from.
As a humanist Bruni was essential in translating into Latin many works of Greek philosophy and history, such as Aristotle and Procopius. Bruni's translations of Aristotle's Politics and Nicomachean Ethics, as well as the pseudo-Aristotelean Economics, were widely distributed in manuscript and in print.
( The cycle of disciplines now known as the humanities em...)
(Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444), the leading civic humanist of...)
