Leonardo Bruni[a] orLeonardo Aretino (c. 1370 – 9 March 1444) was anItalianhumanist, historian and statesman, often recognized as the most important humanist historian of the earlyRenaissance.[1] He has been called the first modern historian.[2] He was the earliest person to write using the three-period view of history:Antiquity,Middle Ages, andModern. The dates Bruni used to define the periods are not exactly what modern historians use today, but he laid the conceptual groundwork for a tripartite division of history.[3]
Leonardo Bruni was born inArezzo,Tuscany circa 1370. Bruni was the pupil of political and cultural leaderColuccio Salutati, whom he succeeded asChancellor of Florence, and under whose tutelage he developed his ideation ofcivic humanism. He also served as apostolic secretary to four popes (1405–1414).[2] Bruni's years as chancellor, 1410 to 1411 and again from 1427 to his death in 1444, were plagued by warfare. Though he occupied one of the highest political offices, Bruni was relatively powerless compared to theAlbizzi andMedici families. Historian Arthur Field has identified Bruni as an apparent plotter againstCosimo de' Medici in 1437 (see below). Bruni died in 1444 in Florence and was succeeded in office byCarlo Marsuppini.
Bruni's most notable work isHistoriarum Florentini populi libri XII (History of the Florentine People, 12 Books), which has been called the first modern history book.[2] While it probably was not Bruni's intention to secularise history, the three-period view of history is unquestionably secular, and so Bruni has been called the first modern historian.[2] The foundation of Bruni's conception can be found withPetrarch, who distinguished the classical period from later cultural decline, ortenebrae (literally "darkness"). Bruni argued that Italy had revived in recent centuries and could therefore be described as entering a new age.
One of Bruni's most famous works isNew Cicero, a biography of the Roman statesmanCicero. He was also the author of biographies in Italian ofDante andPetrarch.[4] It was Bruni who used the phrasestudia humanitatis, meaning the study of human endeavours, as distinct from those of theology and metaphysics, the source of the termhumanists.
As a humanist, Bruni was essential in translating into Latin many works of Greek philosophy and history, such asAristotle andProcopius. Bruni's translations of Aristotle'sPolitics andNicomachean Ethics, as well as the pseudo-AristoteleanEconomics, were widely distributed in manuscript and in print. His use ofAelius Aristides'Panathenicus (Panegyric to Athens) to buttress his republican theses in thePanegyric to the City of Florence (c. 1401) was instrumental in bringing the Greek historian to the attention of Renaissance political philosophers (seeHans Baron'sThe Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance for details). He also wrote a short treatise in Greek on the Florentine constitution.[5]
Bruni was one of the first Humanists to confront Plato's discussion of same-sex relationships.[6]
Bruni died in Florence in 1444, and is buried in a wall tomb byBernardo Rossellino in theBasilica of Santa Croce, Florence.[7]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
