Agnolo Firenzuola

BIOGRAPHY

Agnolo Firenzuola was born at Florence . The family name was taken from the town of Fiorenzuola , situated at the foot of the Apennines , its original home.

The grandfather of Agnolo had obtained the citizenship of Florence and transmitted it to his family. Agnolo was destined for the profession of the Law , and pursued his studies first at Siena and afterwards at Perugia . There he became the associate of the notorious Pietro Aretino , whose foul life he was not ashamed to make the model of his own. They met again at Rome , where Agnolo practised for a time the profession of an Advocate , but with little success.

It is asserted by all his biographers that while still a young man he assumed the monastic dress at Vallombrosa , and that he afterwards held successively two Abbacies . Girolamo Tiraboschi alone ventures to doubt this account, partly on the ground of Firenzuola's licentiousness, and partly on the ground of absence of evidence; but his arguments are not held to be conclusive.

Firenzuola left Rome after the death of Pope Clement VII , and after spending some time at Florence, settled at Prato as abbot of San Salvatore .

His writings, of which a collected edition was published in 1548 , are partly in Prose and partly in Verse , and belong to the lighter classes of Literature . Among the prose works are ''Discorsi degli animali'', imitations of Oriental and Aesop ian fables, of which there are two French translations; ''Dialogo delle bellezze delle donne'', also translated into French; ''Ragionamenti amorosi'', a series of short tales in the manner of Boccaccio , rivalling him in elegance and in licentiousness; ''Discacciamento delle nuove lettere'', a controversial piece against Giangiorgio Trissino 's proposal to introduce new letters into the Italian alphabet; a free version or adaptation of '' The Golden Ass '' of Apuleius , which became a favorite book and passed through many editions; and two Comedies , ''I Lucidi'', an imitation of the '' Menaechmi '' of Plautus , and ''La Trinuzia'', which in some points resembles the ''Calandria'' of Cardinal Bibbiena .

His poems are chiefly Satirical and Burlesque . All his works are esteemed as models of literary excellence, and are cited as authorities in the vocabulary of the Accademia Della Cruspa . The date of Firenzuola's death is only approximately ascertained. He had been dead several years when the first edition of his writings appeared (1548).

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Agnolo Firenzuola