Book Chapter

Florence 1438: The Encomium of the Florentina Libertas Sent by Poggio Bracciolini to Duke Filippo Maria Visconti

  • Ann Mullaney
  • Massimo Zaggia

This article presents the critical editions of two texts: a letter by the Duke of Milan Filippo Maria Visconti (but written on his behalf by Pier Candido Decembrio) sent to Poggio Bracciolini on 28 July 1438; and the response written by Poggio on 15 September. Poggio’s letter contains a brief treatise in praise of Florence and of the Florentina libertas. The documents illuminate a crucial episode in the history of Italian Humanism. The article opens with the discussion of these two letters in their wider historical and intellectual context: on the one hand, the characteristically Florentine «civic humanism» which constitutes the background of Poggio’s positions; on the other, the political and cultural competition between Florence and Milan during the first half of the 15th century.

  • Keywords:
  • Poggio Bracciolini,
  • letters,
  • Pier Candido Decembrio,
  • Encomium of Florence,
  • civic humanism,
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Massimo Zaggia

University of Bergamo, Italy

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  2. Baker N.S., Maxson, B.J. (eds.) 2015, After Civic Humanism: Learning and Politics in Renaissance Italy, Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Toronto.
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  5. Bracciolini P. 1538, Opera, ed. by H. Bebel, H. Petri, Basilea.
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  8. Field A. 1998, Leonardo Bruni, Florentine Traitor? Bruni, the Medici, and an Aretine Conspiracy of 1437, «Renaissance Quaterly», LI (4), 1109-50.
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  10. Figliuolo B. 2016, Un paio di spigolature archivistiche bolognesi su Poggio Bracciolini, «Bullettino dell’istituto storico italiano per il medio evo», 118, pp. 386-88.
  11. Folts J.D. Jr. 1976, In Search of the ‘Civil Life’: An Intellectual Biography of Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459), PhD thesis, University of Rochester.
  12. Fubini R. 2003, Storiografia dell’Umanesimo in Italia da Leonardo Bruni ad Annio da Viterbo, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Roma.
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  14. Hankins J. 1996, Humanism and the Origins of Modern Political Thought, in J. Kraye (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 118-41.
  15. Hankins J. 2017, Leonardo Bruni’s Laudatio Florentine urbis, Dante, and ‘Virtue Politics’, «Bullettino dell’istituto storico italiano per il medio evo», 119, pp. 333-57.
  16. Ianziti G. 2007, Poggio, Bruni e le Storie Fiorentine, «Humanistica», 2, 13-26.
  17. Komorowski M. 2012, The Diplomatic Genre before the Italian League: Civic Panegyrics of Bruni, Poggio, and Decembrio, in A. Moudarres and C. Purdy Moudarres (eds.), New Worlds and the Italian Renaissance: Contributions to the History of European Intellectual Culture, Brill, Leiden-Boston, pp. 47-72.
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  • Publication Year: 2020
  • Pages: 1-24
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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  • Publication Year: 2020
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Florence 1438: The Encomium of the Florentina Libertas Sent by Poggio Bracciolini to Duke Filippo Maria Visconti

Authors

Ann Mullaney, Massimo Zaggia

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/978-88-6453-968-3.04

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2020

Copyright Information

© 2020 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Poggio Bracciolini and the Re(dis)covery of Antiquity: Textual and Material Traditions

Book Subtitle

Proceedings of the Symposium Held at Bryn Mawr College on April 8-9, 2016

Editors

Roberta Ricci

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

220

Publication Year

2020

Copyright Information

© 2020 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/978-88-6453-968-3

ISBN Print

978-88-6453-967-6

eISBN (pdf)

978-88-6453-968-3

Series Title

Atti

Series ISSN

2239-3307

Series E-ISSN

2704-6230

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