Niccolò De' Niccoli
Niccolò de' Niccoli (1364 – 22 January 1437) was an Italian Renaissance humanist. He was born and died in Florence, Italy, and was one of the chief figures in the company of learned men which gathered around the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici. Niccoli's chief services to classical literature consisted in his work as a copyist and collator of ancient manuscripts; he corrected the text, introduced divisions into chapters, and made tables of contents. Achievements His lack of critical faculty was compensated by his excellent taste; in Greek (of which he knew very little) he had the assistance of Ambrogio Traversari. Many of the most valuable manuscripts in the Laurentian Library are by his hand, amongst them those of Lucretius and of twelve comedies of Plautus. The pursuit of ancient manuscripts was a dangerous and expensive task; agents working in the field at the time included Poggio Bracciolini. Thanks to the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici, Niccoli was able to build up his ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Leonardo Bruni
Leonardo Bruni or Leonardo Aretino ( – March 9, 1444) was an Italian humanist, historian and statesman, often recognized as the most important humanist historian of the early Renaissance. He has been called the first modern historian. He was the earliest person to write using the three-period view of history: Antiquity, Middle Ages, and Modern. 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. Biography Leonardo Bruni was born in Arezzo, Tuscany circa 1370. Bruni was the pupil of political and cultural leader Coluccio Salutati, whom he succeeded as Chancellor of Florence, and under whose tutelage he developed his ideation of civic humanism. He also served as apostolic secretary to four popes (1405–1414). 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 politi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
1364 Births
Year 1364 ( MCCCLXIV) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * February 15 – Joint kings Magnus Eriksson and Haakon Magnusson of Sweden are both deposed by noblemen, who instead elect Magnus's nephew Albrekt of Mecklenburg the new king of Sweden. * February 20 – David II of Scotland marries Margaret Drummond. * April 8 – Charles V becomes King of France. * May 12 – The Jagiellonian University is founded in Kraków. * July 28 – Battle of Cascina: Forces of the Republic of Florence, led by Galeotto Malatesta, defeat those of Pisa. * August 6 – Ignatius Saba I becomes the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Tur Abdin. * September 10 – Philip of Anjou becomes Titular Emperor of Constantinople and Prince of Taranto. * September 29 – Battle of Auray: The Breton War of Succession ends, with the victory of the House of Montfort over Charles of Blois. Date unknown * Vladislav I (al ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Book And Manuscript Collectors
A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, mostly of writing and images. Modern books are typically composed of many pages bound together and protected by a cover, what is known as the ''codex'' format; older formats include the scroll and the tablet. As a conceptual object, a ''book'' often refers to a written work of substantial length by one or more authors, which may also be distributed digitally as an electronic book (ebook). These kinds of works can be broadly classified into fiction (containing invented content, often narratives) and non-fiction (containing content intended as factual truth). But a physical book may not contain a written work: for example, it may contain ''only'' drawings, engravings, photographs, sheet music, puzzles, or removable content like paper dolls ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Italian Renaissance Humanists
Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ..., a Romance language *** Regional Italian, regional variants of the Italian language ** Languages of Italy, languages and dialects spoken in Italy ** Italian culture, cultural features of Italy ** Italian cuisine, traditional foods ** Folklore of Italy, the folklore and urban legends of Italy ** Mythology of Italy, traditional religion and beliefs Other uses * Italian dressing, a vinaigrette-type salad dressing or marination * Italian or Italian-A, alternative names for the Ping-Pong virus, an extinc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Codex Ravennas 429
Codex Ravennas 429 of Ravenna’s Classense Library, dated to the mid- tenth century, is the oldest manuscript to preserve all eleven extant comedies of Aristophanes. About a quarter of the Lysistrata and the entirety of the Thesmophoriazusae survive the medieval period only in this codex and copies made from it. In 1423, Giovanni Aurispa brought the codex to the humanist Niccolò de' Niccoli in Florence. Bernardo Giunti later used it for the first printed edition of ''Lysistrata'' and ''Thesmophoriazusae'' in 1516. The manuscript's provenance is unknown between then and 1712, when the abbot Pietro Canneti brought it from Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ... to the library of the Monastery of Classe in Ravenna. Simone Beta, ''La donna che sconfigge la guerra: ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Florin
The Florentine florin was a gold coin (in Italian ''Fiorino d'oro'') struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains () of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a purchasing power difficult to estimate (and variable) but ranging according to social grouping and perspective from approximately 140 to 1,000 modern US dollars. The name of the coin comes from the ''Giglio bottonato'' ( it), the floral emblem of the city, which is represented at the head of the coin. History The ''fiorino d'oro'' (gold florin) was minted in the Republic of Florence after the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade disrupted the minting of fine gold coins in the Byzantine Empire. It came to be accepted across Europe like the Byzantine Solidus had been. The territorial usage of the ''lira'' and the florin often overlapped; where the lira was used for smaller transactions (wages, food purchases), the florin was for la ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Santo Spirito, Florence
The Basilica di Santo Spirito ("Basilica of the Holy Spirit") is a church in Florence, Italy. Usually referred to simply as Santo Spirito, it is located in the Oltrarno quarter, facing the square with the same name. The interior of the building – internal length – is one of the preeminent examples of Renaissance architecture. History Early history The land for the Augustinian church and convent was donated by Speziale and Acolti to Aldebrandino, a prior of the Augustinian establishment in Arcetri in 1250. The plot was located on the south bank of Arno in the ''sesto'' (one of the six ''sestieri'' of Florence) Oltrarno, within the communal walls of 1173–1175, but in a sparsely populated area. It became more accessible with construction of the Holy Trinity bridge ( Ponte Santa Trinita) in 1252. The Augustinians started the church and the convent in the same year, incorporating an old church of San Romolo in the complex. It was originally dedicated to Mary, All Sai ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Italic Type
In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Along with blackletter and roman type, it served as one of the major typefaces in the history of Western typography. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, italics normally slant slightly to the right, ''like so''. Different glyph shapes from roman type are usually usedanother influence from calligraphyand upper-case letters may have Swash (typography), swashes, flourishes inspired by ornate calligraphy. Historically, italics were a distinct style of type used entirely separately from roman type, but they have come to be used in conjunction—most fonts now come with a roman type and an oblique type, oblique version (generally called "italic" though often not true italics). In this usage, italics are a way to emphasise key points in a printed text, to identify many types of creative works, to cite foreign words or phrases, or, when quoting a speaker, a way to show which w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Chancery Hand
The term "chancery hand" can refer to either of two distinct styles of historical handwriting. A chancery hand was at first a form of handwriting for business transactions that developed in the Lateran chancery (the ) of the 13th century, then spread to France, notably through the Avignon Papacy, and to England after 1350. This early "chancery hand" is a form of blackletter. Versions of it were adopted by royal and ducal chanceries, which were often staffed by clerics who had taken minor orders. A later cursive "chancery hand", also developed in the Vatican but based on humanist minuscule (itself based on Carolingian minuscule), was introduced in the 1420s by Niccolò Niccoli; it was the manuscript origin of the typefaces we recognize as '' italic''. Blackletter chancery English chancery hand In medieval England each of the royal departments tended to develop its own characteristic hand: the chancery hand used in the royal chancery at Westminster from the mid-centur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Italic Script
Italic script, also known as chancery cursive and Italic hand, is a semi-cursive, slightly sloped style of handwriting and calligraphy that was developed during the Renaissance in Italy. It is one of the most popular styles used in contemporary Western calligraphy. History Italic script is based largely on Humanist minuscule, which itself draws on Carolingian minuscule. The capital letters are the same as the Humanist capitals, modeled on Roman square capitals. The Italian scholar Niccolò de' Niccoli was dissatisfied with the lowercase forms of Humanist minuscule, finding it too slow to write. In response, he created the Italic script, which incorporates features and techniques characteristic of a quickly written hand: oblique forms, fewer strokes per character, and the joining of letters. Perhaps the most significant change to any single character was to the form of the ''a'', which he simplified from the two-story form to the one-story form ⟨ɑ⟩ now common to most handw ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
The Story Of Civilization
''The Story of Civilization'' (1935–1975), by husband and wife Will and Ariel Durant, is an eleven-volume set of books covering both Eastern and Western civilizations for the general reader, with a particular emphasis on European (Western) history. The series was written over a span of four decades. The first six volumes of ''The Story of Civilization'' are credited to Will Durant alone, with Ariel recognized only in the acknowledgements. Beginning with ''The Age of Reason Begins'', Ariel is credited as a co-author. In the preface to the first volume, Durant states his intention to make the series in five volumes, although this would not turn out to be the case. The series won a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1968 with the tenth volume in the series, ''Rousseau and Revolution''. The volumes were best sellers and sold well for many years. Sets of them were frequently offered by book clubs. An unabridged audiobook production of all eleven volumes was produced ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |