Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/774

BRA Ammianus Marcellinus, the three grammarians, Capro, Eutichius, and Probus, and, according to Ginguené, Lucretius, Manilius, Frontinus, and Quintilian. During the disputes which distracted Italy and catholicity, respecting the succession of the popes, Poggio lost and recovered his lucrative office, and finally, under Martin V., fearing the resentment of that pontiff, against whose election he had spoken at the council of Constance, he fled to France, and from thence to Winchester, putting himself under the protection of Beaufort, the bishop of that diocese, who received him with the utmost courtesy. On his return to Italy, he spent his time in writing satires against the monks and preachers of that epoch, whether they were bishops or members of the sacred college. In 1434 Poggio resolved to revisit Tuscany, and after many vicissitudes, he fixed his residence in Florence, expecting the patronage of Cosimo de Medicis. This sovereign having been expelled from the Tuscan territory by his fellow-citizens, Poggio undertook to defend him against the attacks of Filelfio, the greatest Hellenist of that time. The dispute soon degenerated into mutual abuse, and the correspondence of these two illustrious scholars remains only to show how far Italy was in their day from possessing that spirit of politeness which distinguished the wise and sober criticism of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Cosimo having been reinstated, Filelfio fled to Sienna, whither a satire from the pen of Poggio, the severest ever dictated by hatred and vengeance, followed the fugitive. This unfortunate and unmanly war lasted for several years, and engaged both Poggio and Filelfio in many disputes, by which, however, literature gained some exquisite poetical satires from two of the greatest classics of that age. Poggio having disposed of a copy of Titus Livius at a very high price, he bought with the proceeds a very handsome villa, near Florence, ornamented it with the rarest archæological antiquities, and wearied of a bachelor's life, he married at the age of fifty-five a very young lady called Selvaggia Buondelmonti, by whom he had a very numerous family. It is supposed that to this circumstance the literary world owes his work, entitled "An senio sit uxor ducenda," which he wrote in answer to many attacks from his numerous enemies. In 1437 Poggio published a collection of letters, by which his reputation as a writer was vastly increased. This collection was dedicated to his friend Nicoló Nicoli, who died soon after, and whose death induced Poggio to write a funeral oration, which has been handed down to posterity as a model of elegance and eloquence. This eminent man wrote many funeral orations in praise of one Lorenzo de Medicis, of Cardinal Albergato di Santa Croce, of Leonardo Bruni Aretino. These compositions, and the answers to the severe and often unjust criticism of the implacable Filelfio, kept him busy from 1440 to 1447, the year in which his friend Tomaso di Sarzana, a literary man of great merit, was elected pope under the name of Nicholas V. This pontiff recalled Poggio to Rome, and restored him to his former rank and office of apostolic secretary, a favour which he felt so deeply that he wrote and dedicated to that sovereign, in token of gratitude, his treatise on the "Misfortunes of Princes." He wrote also three books on the vicissitudes of fortune. At the suggestion of this pope, Poggio translated into Latin the first five books of Diodorus Siculus, and Xenophon's Cyropædia. In 1450 the plague having desolated the Roman estates, and Rome itself being threatened, Poggio left the eternal city and retired to Terra Nuova, where, in imitation of Boccacio, he wrote many jocose, and very often most obscene tales, taken from ancient manuscripts, and afterwards reproduced by La Fontaine. A more useful work issued from his pen, the fruit of his many conversations with eminent personages, entitled "Historia Disceptativa Convivalis," perhaps a parody of Dante's Convito. His reputation, now at its zenith, and the favour and friendship of the Medicis family, incontestably proclaimed him the worthy successor of Carlo Aretino, the chancellor of Tuscany. His irascible nature, however, hurried him into an unworthy warfare with that eminent latinist, Lorenzo Valla, and curious to say, Filelfio, who had been lately reconciled with Poggio, smoothed the path to a friendly meeting between these two personages, and succeeded in removing all obstacles to their final reconciliation. To this circumstance we owe the publication of Poggio's philosophical dissertation, entitled "De Miseria Humanæ Conditionis;" soon followed by a translation in Latin of Lucian's (Lucius sive asinus). Finally, profiting by the free access he had to all the archives of the state, and having in his long public career acquired a thorough knowledge of things and men, he wrote in Latin the "History of Florence." This work, which the author intended to review and enlarge, has remained very imperfect, on account of his death, which carried him off at the age of seventy-nine, on the 30th of October, 1450. All biographers agree that Poggio's sincerity was very remarkable, and that he contributed more than any other writer to the literary progress of the fifteenth century. Florence put an imperishable seal on his fame, by erecting a splendid tomb to his memory in the church of Santa Croce, the pantheon of Italy.—A. C. M.  BRACCIOLI,, born at Ferrara in 1698. He studied under Parolini and Crespi. He painted for churches. His best works are a "Flagellation," and "Christ Crowned with Thorns." He died in 1762.—W. T.  BRACCIOLINI,, a celebrated Italian poet, was born of a noble family at Pistoja in 1566. While yet in his youth, he was admitted a member of the Academy of Florence, where his talents gained him a great number of friends, although his sordid avarice annihilated almost all his better qualities. Cardinal Barberini, afterwards Urban VIII., appointed him secretary to his brother. Cardinal Antonio Barberini, who brought him to France, where he was admitted a member of various literary academies. Anxious to surpass Tasso and Tassoni, he wrote two poems—a heroic one, entitled "La Croce Racquistata," in thirty-five books, and the other in imitation of La Secchia Rapita, entitled "Lo Scherno degli Dei." Tiraboschi admits that although both these productions are by far inferior to the two inimitable models, yet they are until now the next in merit. He wrote also many other poems, such as one at the election of Pope Urban VIII., in twenty-three cantos, so much thought of by that sovereign, that he allowed Bracciolini to add to his family escutcheon the arms of Barberini's family, and to style himself henceforth, Bracciolini dalle Api. "L'Assedio della Rocella," an heroic poem in twenty cantos, was written by Bracciolini whilst sojourning in France with Cardinal Antonio Barberini, and many passages are cited by Dell' Ongaro as models of poetry. The versatility of his genius is exhibited in some fables and tragedies, but these are not his best compositions. On the death of Urban VIII. he retired to his native place, where he died in 1645.—A. C. M.  BRACELLI,, was born towards the end of the fourteenth century at Sarzana in Tuscany, then under the dominion of Genoa. Nicholas V., his countryman, called him to Rome, and offered him many honours; but he preferred the protection of the Ligurian republic, of which he became chancellor. He wrote the history of Genoa from 1412 to 1444. A classic reader will easily perceive in that history, written in Latin, a studied and not unsuccessful imitation of the style of Cæsar's Commentaries. It has gone through many editions. He is also the author of "De Clavis Genuensibus Libellus;" "Descriptio Liguriæ;" "De Præcipuis Genuensis Urbis Familiis," &c. The date of this illustrious man's death is not certain, although Monnoye, a French author, has fixed that event in 1447.—A. C. M.  BRACELLI,, an Italian painter and engraver, born at Genoa. He was a pupil of Paggi, and painted history in his manner. He engraved plates for Borozzio's architectural work in a neat stiff style, and died in 1609.—W. T.  BRACTON,, the earliest writer on English law, lived in the thirteenth century. He was most probably a native of Devonshire. He studied at Oxford, and took the degree of doctor of laws. He rose to great eminence as a lawyer, and in 1244 Henry III. appointed him one of the judges itinerant. His great work, "De legibus et consuetudinibus Angliæ," was first printed in 1569. A very carefully prepared edition, collated from various MSS., was issued in 1640. The treatise is divided into four parts. The author displays a very full acquaintance with the Roman lawyers and canonists. So manifestly, indeed, is his style influenced by these writers, that he has been accused of a want of fidelity as an exponent of the English code. But, notwithstanding the attempts that have been made to detract from his merit, there can be no doubt that, as far down as the days of Coke, Bracton was justly looked on as the chief source of legal knowledge.—J. B.  BRADE,, an English musician, resident at Hamburg at the commencement of the seventeenth century. He was a proficient on the viol, and published "Paduanen, Galliarden, Canzonetten," &c., Hamburg, 1609, in 4to; "Neue Paduanen 