GIOVANNI BATTISTA

ADRIANI (1513-1579)  , Italian historian, was born of a patrician family of Florence, and was secretary to the republic of Florence . He was among the de-fenders of the city during the siege of 1530, but subsequently joined the Medici party and was appointed professor of rhetoric at the university . At the instance of Cosimo I. he wrote a history of his own times, from 1536 to 1574, in Italian, which is generally, but according to Brunet erroneously, considered a continuation of Guicciardini . De Thou acknowledges himself greatly indebted to this history, praising it especially for its accuracy . Adriani composed funeral orations in Latin on the emperor Charles V. and other noble personages, and was the author of a long letter on ancient painters and sculptors prefixed to the third volume of Vasari . His Isloria dei suoi tempi was published in Florence in 1583; a new edition appeared also in Florence in 1872 . See G . M . Mazzucchelli, Gli Scrittori d' Italia, i. p . 151 (Brescia, 1753) .