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LEONARDO BRUNI ARETINO, 1370? - 1444
Vita di Dante e Petrarca
On paper
Italy, 15th century
Marston MS 149, ff. 56v - 57r
The fame of Dante and Petrarch spread throughout Italy
early in the 15th century, spearheaded by people like
Leonardo Bruni and other humanist enthusiasts. Bruni’s
brief biography of Dante and Petrarch extols the literary
and intellectual merits of both men and judges one against
the other. For Bruni, both are great, and both have contributed
to the glory of Florence. If one (Dante) excels in the
active life and epic poetry, the other (Petrarch) equally
excels in the solitary life and lyric poetry. Although
it is by no means the only biography of Petrarch, Bruni’s
Vita appears frequently in Petrarch manuscripts,
offering an important and popular portrait of the poet.
In Marston MS 149, the lives of Dante and Petrarch are
bound with other works by Bruni, including the Italian
translation of his Commentary on the Punic War.
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