LATINI, BRUNETTO. — Notary and man of letters, born in Florence around 1220, died there around 1294. In 1260 he was sent by the Florentine Guelphs to seek help, against Manfred’s forces, from Alfonso X of Castile.
After the defeat of the Guelphs at Montaperti, he went into exile in France, where he translated Cicero’s Rettorica and wrote the Tesoretto and Li livres dou trésor. Returning to Florence after the Guelph victory at Benevento (1266), he became notary and scribe of the Commune and held important offices. G. Villani (Cronica, VIII, 10) calls him «digrossatore de' Fiorentini in farli scorti in ben parlare ed in sapere guidare e reggere la Repubblica secondo la politica». Dante the judge condemns him for the unnatural sin; but Dante the man attests all his reverence for him, who taught him «come l'uom s'eterna» (Inferno, XV, 85).
The Tesoretto is an allegorical-didactic poem, unfinished, consisting of 2,240 heptasyllabic verses rhyming in pairs, which recounts a journey through the realms of Nature, the Virtues, and Love. In the same meter B. composed the Favolello, a kind of didactic letter to Rustico di Filippo concerning the duties of friendship. Li livres dou Trésor is a vast encyclopedia in French prose, consisting of three principal parts: the first deals with the origins of the world and the earliest histories, astronomy, geography, and natural history; the second with vices and virtues according to Aristotelian ethics; and the third with rhetoric and politics. The Tesoro was rendered into the vernacular by Bono Giamboni.