BRACCIOLINI, FRANCESCO. — Poet, born at Pistoia on 26 November 1566; he studied law at his father’s wish, but soon felt attracted to poetry and gave such proofs of his ability that, barely twenty years old, he was enrolled in the Florentine Academy, proving himself a poet of fertile inspiration and vivid imagination.
Among the poetic compositions of this period, particular mention should be made of the pastoral fable L'Amoroso sdegno, some passages of which, together with other poems, were published at Milan in 1597. He remained in Florence for four years, where he became acquainted with Maffeo Barberini, the future Urban VIII. In 1590 he moved to Rome, then to Naples and Genoa, where he became intimate with Chiabrera and Grillo. From 1595 to 1602 he was in Milan in the retinue of Cardinal Federico Borromeo; he then returned to Rome and was taken on as secretary by Maffeo Barberini, who brought him with him to France. In Paris he published the first fifteen books of La Croce riacquistata (ed. Ruelli 1605), one of the most noteworthy heroic poems of the seventeenth century, although overly similar in structure and development to Gerusalemme liberata. After leaving France, he withdrew to Pistoia and devoted himself entirely to poetry; he completed La Croce riacquistata (published at Venice in 1611); wrote numerous poems (notably the Sonetti in vita ed in morte della Lena Fornaia), four tragedies, and epic poems. But his name is above all associated with Scherno degli dèi (Florence 1618), a facetious poem, judged by many to be no inferior to Secchia rapita, which gave rise to lively controversy among contemporary critics over whether the honor of having introduced the “mock-heroic poem” into Italian literature should be attributed to B. or to Passoni; modern scholars have resolved the question in favor of the latter. In 1622, when Maffeo Barberini ascended the papal throne, B. joined him in Rome. He was received with many honors and lived comfortably, also entering the service of Cardinal Antonio Barberini as secretary; he composed further poems and dramas and published, in honor of the Pontiff, L'Elezione di Urbano Papa VIII.
Upon the death of his benefactor, which occurred in 1644, he returned to his native Pistoia, where he died on 31 August 1645.