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Antonio Brucioli (born about 1498, died 6 December 1566) was an Italian humanist, religious thinker, publisher, and writer best known for his translation of the Bible into Italian. He was the first to publish an Italian translation ofAristotle'sPolitics. It became mandatory reading in the academies ofPadua not long after.[1]
In 1555 his Italian translation of the Bible was placed on theIndex of Forbidden Books byPope Paul IV. He was tried forheresy, convicted, and forced to recant.
Brucioli was born inFlorence at an unknown date. In his youth, Brucioli was a frequent attendee and contributor to the circle of humanists and scholars who met in the Orto Oricellari, a large garden in Florence. Among the distinguished thinkers with whom Brucioli developed relationships there, the names ofFrancesco Cattani da Diacceto,Luigi Alamanni, andNiccolò Machiavelli stand out.
In 1522 Brucioli, along with several other of the members of the Orto Oricellari, was implicated in a plot to assassinate CardinalGiulio Medici. Fleeing the city, Brucioli took refuge inLyon, where he began work on a collection of tracts on moral philosophy, a collection published in Venice in 1526. This body of works formed the core of hisDialogi, which he would expand over the course of the next two decades. During his stay in Lyons, he seems to have absorbed many of the religious ideas of the German reformers, adopting moderatelyLutheran theology in his translation of the Bible, a work which some said relied heavily onMartin Bucer.
After theSack of Rome and the flight of theMedici from Florence in 1527, Brucioli returned to his native city to take part in establishing theRepublic of Florence. However, as a political moderate and strict believer that theDominican friars ofSan Marco should keep out of state affairs, he quickly fell afoul of the dominantSavonarolan faction, being exiled from the city in 1528.
Brucioli spent much of the rest of his life inVenice, where he was twice tried forheresy. Having been first denounced in 1548 and found guilty of disseminating heretical materials (but not of heresy), he fled to the tolerant court ofFerrara and the protection of the duchess,Renée of France. From this point to the rest of his life, strictures on his ability to publish caused him great poverty. In 1549, we find him directing overtures toCosimo I de Medici hoping to be granted a stipend in exchange for regular reports on political activities. In 1555 his Italian translation of the Bible was placed on theIndex of Forbidden Books byPope Paul IV. While in Venice he was again tried for heresy, convicted, and forced to recant. He spent most of the remainder of his life under house arrest and in extreme poverty.
