NICCOLO

NICCOLI  DE' (1363–1437), Italian humanist, was born and died at Florence . He was one of the chief figures in the company of learned men which gathered round Cosimo de' Medici,who played the part of Augustus to Niccoli's Maecenas . Niccoli's chief services to classical literature consisted in his work as a copyist and collator of ancient MSS.; he corrected the text, introduced divisions into chapters, and made tables of contents . His lack of critical faculty was compensated by his excellent taste; in Greek (of which he knew very little) he had the assistance of Ambrogio Traversari . Many of the most valuable MSS. in the Laurentian library are by his hand, amongst them those of Lucretius and of twelve comedies ofPlautus . Niccoli's private library was the largest and best in Florence; he also possessed a small but valuable collection of ancient works of art, coins and medals . He regarded himself as an infallible critic, and could not bear the slightest contradiction; his quarrels with Filelfo, Guarino and especially with Traversari created a great sensation in the learned 'world at the time . His hypercritical spirit (according to his enemies, his ignorance of the language) prevented him from writing or speaking in Latin; his sole literary work was a short tract in Italian on Latin Orthography, which he withdrew from circulation after it had been violently attacked by Guarino . See the Life in Traversarii Epistolae (ed . L . Mehus, 1759) ; G . Voigt, Die Wiederbelebung des klassischen Altertums (1893); G .

Zippel,

Nicol() Niccoli (Florence, 1890) .