Franco Sacchetti (; c. 1335 – c. 1400), was an Italian poet and novelist.

Biography

Born in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

or in Ragusa (modern

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranea ...

), he was the son of Benci di Uguccione, surnamed ''"Buono"'', a Florentine merchant of the noble and ancient family of the Sacchetti. He was married three times; first to Maria Felice Strozzi with whom he had two sons, Filippo and Niccolo. Franco’s second wife was Ghita di Piero Gherardini, his third wife was Giovanna di Francesco Bruni. He was the brother of Giannozzo Sacchetti, a follower of

Catherine of Siena Catherine of Siena (Italian: ''Caterina da Siena''; 25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380), a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, was a mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and on the Catholic Church ...

, who was executed following the Ciompi Revolt. While still a young man he achieved repute as a poet, and he appears to have traveled on affairs of more or less importance as far as to

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

and

Slavonia Slavonia (; hr, Slavonija) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria, one of the four historical regions of Croatia. Taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with five Croatian counties: Brod-Posavina, Osijek-Bar ...

. After 1363 he settled in Florence. When a sentence of banishment was passed upon the rest of the house of Sacchetti by the Florentine authorities in 1380 (after the

Ciompi The Ciompi Revolt was a rebellion among unrepresented labourers which occurred in the Republic of Florence, from 1378 to 1382.Cohn, Samuel K., Jr. ''Popular Protest in Late Medieval Europe: Italy, France, and Flanders''. Manchester, Manchester UP ...

revolt) it appears that Sacchetti was expressly exempted, ''per esser tanto uomo buono'' ("because he is a very good man"), and in 1383 he was one of the eight, discharging the office of prior for the months of March and April. In 1386 he was chosen ambassador to Genoa, but preferred to go as ''

podestà Podestà (, English: Potestate, Podesta) was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of Central and Northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a city ...

'' to

Bibbiena Bibbiena () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany (Italy), the largest town in the valley of Casentino. It is located from Florence, from Arezzo, from Siena, and from the Sanctuary of La Verna. There are approximately 11 ...

in Casentino. In 1392 he was podestà of

San Miniato San Miniato is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Pisa, in the region of Tuscany, Italy. San Miniato sits at an historically strategic location atop three small hills where it dominates the lower Arno valley, between the valleys of Egol ...

, and in 1396 he held a similar office at

Faenza Faenza (, , ; rgn, Fènza or ; la, Faventia) is an Italian city and comune of 59,063 inhabitants in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated southeast of Bologna. Faenza is home to a historical manufacture of majolica-ware glazed ea ...

. In 1398 he received from his fellow-citizens the post of captain of their then province of

Romagna Romagna ( rgn, Rumâgna) is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna, North Italy. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to th ...

, having his residence at

Portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cul ...

. The date of his death is unknown; most probably it occurred about 1400, though some writers place it as late as 1410. He wrote sonnets, canzoni, madrigals, and other poems; his best known works are however his ''Novelle ''(short stories). They were originally 300 in number, but today only 258 remain, the rest having been lost. They were not fitted into any framework like that of

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was some ...

's ''

Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; it, label= Italian, Decameron or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old it, Prencipe Galeotto, links=no ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Da ...

''. The best of them are of a humorous character; and their style is more simple and colloquial than Boccaccio's. The story given as a specimen probably exists (under one form or another) in the folk tales of every European nation. Sacchetti died at

around 1400. He has been defined as an author of Proto-Morlachism, a purported early stage of

Morlachism Morlachism or Morlacchism ( it, Morlacchismo; sh, Morlakizam or ) was a movement in Italian, Ragusan and Venetian literature that started in 1774 and lasted until the 1830s or 1840s. It consisted on the portrayal of the Morlachs (Vlachs from th ...

References

Attribution: *

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sacchetti, Franco 1330s births 1400s deaths Italian poets Italian male poets Italian novelists 14th-century people of the Republic of Florence Writers from Florence Italian male novelists

Biography

See also

References

Sources