ACCOLTI, FRANCESCO. - Known as l'Aretino, brother of Benedetto, b. at Arezzo around 1416-1418, d. at Siena in 1484 or shortly thereafter. He taught law at Ferrara from 1448 to 1461, except for the year 1455-56, when he was lecturer at the Studium of Siena. From 1462 to 1466 he was secretary to Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan; after the latter’s death, he was again lecturer in civil and canon law at Siena (1467-79), then at Pisa (from 1479 until at least 1484).
He wrote various legal works: commentaries on the Digest, Consilia seu responsa, commentaries on Book II of the Decretals of Gregory IX, etc. He was regarded by his contemporaries as the “prince of jurists,” perhaps more for his lectures than for his writings.
He also carried on considerable literary activity: he translated Leonardo Bruni’s Guerra gotica (Venice 1528), and composed many poems in Italian. Other works were attributed to him by early biographers, perhaps erroneously.