LATINI, Brunetto. — Notary and man of letters, born in Florence c. 1220, died there c. 1294. In 1260 he was sent by the Florentine Guelphs to seek aid, against the forces of Manfred, from Alfonso X of Castile.
After the defeat of the Guelphs at Montaperti, he went into exile in France, where he translated Cicero’s *Rhetorica* and wrote the *Tesoretto* and *Li livres dou trésor*. Returning to Florence after the Guelph victory at Benevento (1266), he served as notary and scribe of the Commune and held important posts. G. Villani (*Cronica*, VIII, 10) calls him « the polisher of the Florentines in matters of good speech and in knowing how to guide and govern the Republic according to political wisdom ». Dante the judge condemns him for the sin of sodomy; but Dante the man bears witness to his deep reverence for him, who taught him « how man makes himself eternal » (*Inferno*, XV, 85).
The *Tesoretto* is an allegorical-didactic poem, unfinished, of 2,240 hendecasyllabic verses rhyming in couplets, which recounts a journey through the realms of Nature, the Virtues, and Love. In the same metre B. composed the *Favolello*, a kind of didactic letter to Rustico di Filippo on the duties of friendship. *Li livres dou Trésor* is a vast French prose encyclopedia, consisting of three main parts: the first treats of the origins of the world and early history, astronomy, geography, and natural history; the second of vices and virtues according to Aristotelian ethics; the third of rhetoric and politics. The *Treasury* was vulgarized by Bono Giamboni.