Biondo, Flavio

BIONDO, FLAVIO. - Humanist and archaeologist, b. at Forlì in 1392, d. at Rome on 4 June 1463 (he added the second name later, by Latinizing the first).

He studied in his native city, where he lived until, in 1423, he was driven out by the factions. In 1434 he became apostolic secretary to Eugene IV, but having fallen into disfavor with Nicholas V, he wandered for a long time throughout Italy. In the De verbis romanae locutionis (1435) he maintained against Leonardo Bruni that Italian is the natural continuation of ancient Latin; with the Historiae ab inclinatione romanorum (1438-53) he gave us for the first time an organic history of the Middle Ages; L'Italia illustrata (from the Alps to Salerno, of 1453) is a systematic description of his homeland, bringing together classical data with contemporary ones (topography and biography); in the Roma triumphans (1457-59) he gave a treatise on the public and private institutions of the ancient Romans, often compared with contemporary ones. The Roma instaurata (1444-46) is the first treatise on the topography of ancient Rome, particularly classical, but also medieval and Christian: «basilicas quoque, templa et sacra, quas vocamus ecclesias, loca per quos pontifices vel alios christianos vel fundatae primo vel auctae vel fuerint instauratae ostendam». His work is in fact rich in information and of great merit, but of little use to modern scholars, since almost all the sources he drew upon are still available to us.

Antonio Ferrua