1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bruni, Leonardo

BRUNI, LEONARDO (1369–1444), Italian scholar, author of the History of Florence, was born at Arezzo, and is generally known as Leonardo Aretino. He was secretary to the papal chancery under Innocent VII. and John XXII. From 1427 to his death in 1444 he was chancellor to the republic of Florence. He was buried at the expense of the state in Sta Croce, where his laurelled statue is still to be seen. He was the first to free the history of Florence from its fabulous elements, but his book, though not unintelligent, only repays very laborious study. The only Latin edition is Historiarum Florentinarum libri xii . . . exempto in lucem edit. stud, et op. Sixti Brunonis (Argentor. 1610, fol.). A translation into Tuscan was published by Donato Acciajuoli in 1476 at Venice, was republished at Florence in 1492, and again, with Sansovino’s continuation, at Venice in 1561.