AGNOLO

FIRENZUOLA (1493-c. 1545)  , Italian poet and litterateur, was born at Florence on the 28th of September 1493 . The family name was taken from the town of Firenzuola, situated at the foot of the Apennines, its original home . The grandfather of Agnolo had obtained the citizenship of Florence and transmitted it to his family . Agnolo was destined for the profession of the law, and pursued his studies first at Siena and afterwards at Perugia . There he became the associate of the notorious Pietro Aretino, whose foul life he was not ashamed to make the model of his own . They met again at Rome, where Firenzuola practised for a time the profession of an advocate, but with little success . It is asserted by all his biographers that while still a young man he assumed the monastic dress at Vallombrosa, and that he afterwards held successively two abbacies . Tiraboschi alone ventures to doubt this account, partly on the ground of Firenzuola's licentiousness, and partly on the ground of absence of evidence; but his arguments are not held to be conclusive . Firenzuola left Rome after the death of Pope Clement VII., and after spending some time at Florence, settled at Prato as abbot of San Salvatore . His writings, of which a collected edition was published in 1548, are partly in prose and partly in verse, and belong to the lighter classes of literature . Among the prose works are—Discorsi degli animali, imitations of Oriental and Aesopian fables, of which there are two French translations; Dialogo delle bellezze delle donne, also translated into French; Ragionamenti amorosi, a series of short tales in the manner of Boccaccio, rivalling him in elegance and in licentiousness; Discacciamento delle nuove letlere, a controversial piece against Trissino's proposal to introduce new letters into the Italian alphabet; a free version or adaptation of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, which became a favourite book and passed through many editions; and two comedies, I Lucidi, an imitation of the Menaechmi of Plautus, and La Trinuzia, which in some points resembles the Calandria of Cardinal Bibbiena . His poems are chiefly satirical and burlesque .

All his works are esteemed as

models of literary excellence, and are cited as authorities in the vocabulary of the Accademia della Crusca . The date of Firenzuola's death is only approximately ascertained . He had been dead several years when the first edition of his writings appeared (1548) . His works have been very frequently republished, separately and in collected editions . A convenient reprint of the whole was issued at Florence in 2 vols. in 1848 .