The Historiae Florentini populi by Poggio Bracciolini : Genesis and Fortune of an Alternative History of Florence

This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original in pagination and typographic details. Author(s): Title: Year: Version: Copyright: Rights: Rights url: Please cite the original version: CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The Historiae Florentini populi by Poggio Bracciolini : Genesis and Fortune of an Alternative History of Florence © Author, 2020 Published version Merisalo, Outi Merisalo, O. (2020). The Historiae Florentini populi by Poggio Bracciolini : Genesis and Fortune of an Alternative History of Florence. In R. Ricci, & E. L. Pumory (Eds.), Poggio Bracciolini and the Re(dis)covery of Antiquity: Textual and Material Traditions : Proceedings of the Symposium Held at Bryn Mawr College on April 8-9, 2016 (pp. 25-40). Firenze University Press. Atti, 38. https://doi.org/10.36253/978-88-6453-968-3.05 2020 Roberta Ricci (edited by), Poggio Bracciolini and the Re(dis)covery of Antiquity: Textual and Material Traditions. Proceedings of the Symposium Held at Bryn Mawr College on April 8-9, 2016, © 2020 Author(s), content CC BY 4.0 International, metadata CC0 1.0 Universal, published by Firenze University Press (www.fupress.com), ISSN 2704-6230 (online), ISBN 978-88-6453-968-3 (online PDF), DOI 10.36253/978-88-6453-968-3 THE HISTORIAE FLORENTINI POPULI BY POGGIO BRACCIOLINI. GENESIS AND FORTUNE OF AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY OF FLORENCE Outi Merisalo Abstract: During the last years of his life, Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459), former Apostolic Secretary and Chancellor of Florence, was working on a long text that he characterized, in a letter written in 1458, as lacking a well-defined structure. This was most probably his history of the people of Florence (Historiae Florentini populi, the title given in Jacopo’s dedication copy to Frederick of Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino), revised and published posthumously by Poggio’s son, Jacopo Bracciolini (1442-1478). Contrary to what is often assumed, Poggio’s treatise was not a continuation, nor even a complement, to Leonardo Bruni’s (1370-1444) official history of Florence. It concentrates on the most recent history of Florence from the fourteenth-century conflicts between Florence and Milan through Florentine expansion in Tuscany and finally reaching the mid-fifteenth century. This article will study the genesis and fortune of the work in the context of Poggio’s literary output and the manuscript evidence from the mid-fifteenth century until the first printed edition of the Latin-language text by G.B. Recanati in 1715. Keywords: Florence,Italian humanism,manuscript tradition,historiography,Medici 1. The Genesis of the Historiae Florentini populi The last years of Poggio Bracciolini’s long life were marked by a reversal of fortune that left him at odds with the Medici regime. After decades of faithful service to Cosimo the Elder (1389-1464), he had been appointed Chancellor of the Republic, a successor to his friend Carlo Marsuppini (1399-1453). Only three years later, in 1456, he was relieved of his duties due to the chaotic state of the Chancellery, the direction of which had proved to exceed his interest and capacities1. In the summer of 1458, Poggio alluded to a work he was preparing: But while many things may be listed as having delayed my writing, one thing has been left unsaid. It has rather long kept me particularly busy, as, the end approaching, I willingly and industriously set out to finish the work that I had begun and for which, as it happens with weaving a web, I had only put the threads in place. It is still lacking a well-defined structure, but I hope to complete it soon. Of course, we are told to revise our text several times before publication in order not to expose ourselves to slanderers. This reason has kept me from attending to other business2. 1 For Poggio and the Medici, see Field, 2017: 284ff; Black, 1985: 170; also see Fubini, 1990:298. 2 All translations are mine unless otherwise indicated. Original Latin text: «Sed cum multa recenseantur, a quibus proficisci potuerit scribendi tarditas, una omissa res 26 OUTI MERISALO While Poggio is conscious of his time rapidly coming to an end («cum finis iam adesset»), he is doing his utmost to finish the work he had started on. This work is far from complete: he has started weaving («tantummodo sum orsus») a web («tela»), but this work lacks «textura»3. The word «textura» is rare in ancient texts. It occurs seven times in Lucretius and a few times in Plautus, Propertius, Lucan, Seneca minor, Ammianus Marcellinus and Martianus Capella. Its sense ranges from ‘spider’s web’ (Plautus and Seneca) to ‘structure’ (Lucan and Ammianus). Lucretius uses this term for the structure of the universe4. In the sense ‘construction, structure’, it may also be found in the Vulgate5. Consequently, it seems to refer here to a well-defined, finished structure. Poggio is preoccupied with the reception of the text, throwing in a possible reference to Horace6, then mentions his fear of «detractores», no doubt in reference to his recent skirmishes with Valla and his disciples7, which stimulates him to refine his text with particular care. He expresses his confidence in managing to finish his task in near future («sed ea brevi, ut spero, perficietur»). As far as we know, Poggio was not busy with anything else of this importance in the period preceding his death. Consequently, the «opus absolvendum» is most probably the Historiae Florentini populi, a history of the Florentine people from the middle of the fourteenth century, with a brief treatment of Antiquity and the Middle Ages8. est, que precipua me occupatum tenuit diutius in scribendo, ut cum finis iam adesset, cupidus ac studiosus incubui ad absolvendum inceptum opus, quod, tanquam in tela accidit, tantummodo sum orsus. Textura adhuc caret; sed ea brevi, ut spero, perficietur. Sepius enim repetere iubemur que scribimus antequam edantur, ne qua detur detractoribus obloquendi occasio. Hec causa extitit que me ab reliquis distraheret curis», Letter to Domenico Capranica, Ep. 9.45.7-19, Bracciolini, 1984 3 For metaphorical uses of the more common derivates of texere, see Viljamaa, 2007. 4 E.g. Lewis & Short 1879: «s.v. textura»: «A web, texture»: aranearum, Plt. Stich. 2, 2, 24; Minervae, Prop. 4 (5), 5, 23; Sen. Ep. 20.121.22 («Non vides quam nulli mortalium imitabilis illa aranei textura»); figuratively, ‘a construction, structure’: «quam tenui constet textura (i.e. animi natura)», Lucr. 3.209; Luc. 9.777 («uincula neruorum et laterum textura»); Amm. 23.4.1 («contegitur coriis bubulis virgarumque recenti textura atque limo asperguntur»). 5 Jerome, Vulg. Ex. 28.8, «ipsaque textura et cuncta operis varietas erit ex auro et hyacintho et purpura coccoque bis tincto et bysso retorta», and 15. 6 Ars poetica (1863), 386-90: «Siquid tamen olim / scripseris, in Maeci descendat iudicis auris / et patris et nostras, nonumque prematur in annum /membranis intus positis; delere licebit / quod non edideris; nescit uox missa reuerti»; translated by Smart & Buckley: «But if ever you shall write any thing, let it be submitted to the ears of Metius [Tarpa], who is a judge, and your father’s, and mine; and let it be suppressed till the ninth year, your papers being laid up within your own custody. You will have it in your power to blot out what you have not made public: a word once sent abroad can never return». 7 For the famous exchange of invectives, see Merisalo, 2006: 67-76. 8 Contrary to what is often assumed, Poggio’s treatise was not a continuation, nor even a complement, to Leonardo Bruni’s (1370-1444) official history of Florence. For Poggio’s friendship and somewhat ambivalent attitude to Bruni, see now Field, 2017: 293. 27 THE HISTORIAE FLORENTINI POPULI 2. Jacopo di Poggio’s Edition: The Manuscript Tradition Poggio’s last work has been transmitted in five manuscripts, three of which are datable to the fifteenth century and two to the sixteenth century. Two of the fifteenth-century copies are Florentine luxury manuscripts, and one, maybe the most interesting, is a modest paper manuscript also originating in Florence. Four manuscripts transmit a text which is quite obviously an edition of Poggio’s work by his son Jacopo (1442- 1478), a talented Latin author, an exquisite humanist scribe and one of the unfortunate members of the Pazzi conspiracy of 14789. In 147210 Jacopo published Poggio’s text, entitled Historiae Florentini populi11, with a dedicatory letter to his father’s old friend, Frederick of Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. In the dedicatory letter, Jacopo gives the following information on the genesis of the text: Poggio, getting on in years, retiring, as it were, from business, was giv- en leave by the Pope to return from Rome to his native country. In order to enhance the memory of such an eminent city he wrote the first draft of a history of Florence from the first war with John, Archbishop of Milan, until the peace made with Alfonso through the mediation of Pope Nicholas. He left this work incomplete at his death12. Jacopo here uses the term «commentarium», emphasizing the incomplete character13 of the text left behind by Poggio, «morte preventus». 9 For Jacopo’s biography, see Merisalo, 2013b: 57-64, and Merisalo, 2013a: 131-36 with inclusive bibliography (in particular Bausi, 2011: 131-32). 10 The edition may be dated on the basis of the following passage of the dedicatory letter: «And since this year, thanks to your valour, the Volaterrans, a most ancient people of Etruria, who, trusting the difficult mountain ground and the very nature of the site, had rebelled against us, were subjected to our power»; «Cumque hoc anno tua uirtute Volaterrani, antiquissima Etrurie ciuitas, montis asperitate et loci natura freti imperio nostro rebelles sub iugum uenerint», quoted according to Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, ms. lat. Z.392(=1684), f. 4 (see below). Frederick’s siege of Volterra took place in 1472. 11 This is the title in Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, ms. Urb. lat. 491, folio 5r as well as ms. lat. Z. 392 (=1684), folio 4r. In Urb. lat. 491, the title of the preface, however, has the variant «Iacobi Poggii Florentini in historias Florentinas Poggii patris. prohemium» on folio 1r. The title is always in the plural. 12 «Poggius enim ingrauescente etate tamquam emeritis stipendiis, cum Roma, ubi magna cum laude uixerat, uenia a Pontifice impetrata in patriam reuertisset, ut memorie tante urbis consuleret, inter priuata publicaque negocia commentaria rerum Florentinarum, a primo bello cum Iohanne Mediolanensi Archiepiscopo usque ad pacem cum Alfonso per Nicolaum pontificem factam, morte preuentus reliquit», ms. lat. Z.392 (=1684), f. 3v. 13 Lewis & Short, 1879: «s.v. commentarius», «As the title of a book on any subject, but esp. historical, which is only sketched down or written without care», the bestknown examples being no doubt Caesar’s Gallic War (Commentarii de bello Gallico). The neuter plural «commentaria» may be interpreted as «commentary-type account»; for a parallel, see e.g. Cicero, Brutus 44.164. 28 OUTI MERISALO Despite his hopes of finishing the Historiae, Poggio quite obviously had not succeeded in perfecting his «textura»14. The same information is provided by the dedicatory letter in Jacopo’s vernacular translation of this edition (see below). Since our father had written in his old age, to the glory and honour of his native country, a history of Florence from the first war with Archbishop John Visconti in 1350 until the peace made with Naples and King Alfonso, and he had left that work incomplete at his death15. Frederick’s dedication copy, Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, ms. Urb. lat. 49116, is a luxury manuscript copied by Gundisalvus Hispanus, who identified himself on f. 163v by the colophon «Deo gratias. G. Hispanus». This was the apostolic protonotary Gundissalvus Fernandez de Heredia (d. 1511). After studies of Canon Law at Pisa in 1473-1474, he was ordained bishop of Barcelona in 1478 and of Tarragona in 1490. He is known to have worked as a member of the team of scribes used by Vespasiano da Bisticci, responsible for producing one manuscript for Frederick of Montefeltro between 1469 and 1474, and two between 1475 and 1482. He was also the scribe for three manuscripts for Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, for four manuscripts for Lorenzo de’ Medici, two for Pierfrancesco de’ Medici and two for Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, son of King Ferdinand (de la Mare, 1985: 503n31). Jacopo’s stylish humanistic hand is also present in the margins of almost every leaf17. The volume is richly decorated by the Master of the Hamilton Xenophon, who was active between 1460 and 1480, and worked in the workshop of Francesco d’Antonio del Chierico in Florence at least until 1478. The Master also collaborated in the decoration of the celebrated Urbino Bible (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, ms. Urb. lat. 1)18. The version of the Historiae Florentini populi consists of eight books, preceded by Jacopo’s dedicatory letter. Jacopo presents remarks on the usefulness of history: 14 This does not exclude Poggio making his materials available to other scholars, cf. Rubinstein, 1958-1964: 20 and note. 15 «Auendo adumque nostro padre nella ultima eta, per gloria et honore della patria, scripta una hystoria fiorentina dalla prima guerra auuta collo arciuescouo Giouanni de Bisconti nel McccL.ta : fino alla pace facta a Napoli appresso al Re Alfonso, et quella preuenuto dalla morte lasciata inperfecta», Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, ms. Palatino Baldovinetti 62, f. 2v. 16 Digitized at https://digi.vatlib.it/view/ms.S_Urb.lat.491. 17 Cf. Michelini Tocci, 1981: 527 and n74 as well as de la Mare, 1985: 503n31. 18 Garzelli, 1985: 1.157ff. See also Ferretti (2003), who identifies Francesco Rosselli as a collaborator for the decoration of the manuscript. 29 THE HISTORIAE FLORENTINI POPULI From this, the great usefulness to mankind of history, [that] most faithful guardian of things, may be gauged, as well as the degree to which those having led most famous lives, are in her debt, since she alone keeps them constantly in our minds. Through the knowledge of history, let us be inspired by the memory of famous deeds to strive after immortality and learn from other people’s deeds and individuals’ lives the[ir] plans, manners, fortune’s changes and uncertain outcomes of wars19. The text brings to mind Poggio’s preface to De varietate fortunae. In fact, it parallels Poggio’s observations on the function of history. [History] alone brings into our view the deeds and virtues of famous men so that we may imitate them. Through history, things past are brought again before our eyes and those habitually destroyed by antiquity are brought back as if they were new. It may well be said that nobody would know anything about ancient deeds of excellent men far removed from our own time, if they were not brought to people’s attention by works of literature and history20. Poggio’s statement, «Consequently, history must be considered to be of great utility to humans»21, corresponds to Jacopo’s «the great usefulness to mankind of history»22, whereas «This diligent guardian and faithful memory of things past»23 corresponds to Jacopo’s «[that] most faithful guardian of things»24. 19 «Hinc quantum utilitatis generi humano historia fidissima rerum custos afferat, quantumque omnes, qui haud in obscuro aetatem egere illi debeant, cum ea sola presentes nobis illos semper faciat, intelligi potest. Cuius e cognitione clarissimorum facinorum memoria ad immortalitatis studium excitemur, atque ex aliorum operibus et uniuscuiusque uita, consilia, mores, fortunae uarietates, et incertos bellorum euentus cognoscamus», ms. lat. Z.392 (=1684), f. 1v. 20 «hec sola illustrium uirorum facta uirtutesque nostro in conspectu ad imitandum proponit […] cuius ope preterita representantur nobis et que uetustas solet delere, reddit tanquam recentia. Nullus quippe priscas et ab etate nostra remotas excellentium uirorum gestas res nosset, nisi litterarum monumentis et historie munere in luce hominum uersarentur», Bracciolini, 1993, Proemium 8-13. 21 «Magnam igitur utilitatem afferre mortalibus historia censeri debet», Bracciolini, 1993, Proemium 4-5. 22 «quantum utilitatis generi humano», see n19 above. 23 «Hec diligens custos et fida preteritorum memoria», Bracciolini, 1993, Proemium 7-8. 24 «historia fidissima rerum custos», see n19 above. History as «magistra vitae» («life’s teacher») is of course one of the central humanist «topoi» going back to Cicero, 1860, De oratore 2.36 «Historia vero testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriae, magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis, qua voce alia nisi oratoris immortalitati commendatur?», trans. by Watson, p. 92: «By what other voice, too, than that of the orator, is history, the witness of time, the light of truth, the life of memory, the directress of life, the herald of antiquity, committed to immortality?». For the reality of humanist historiography, see Ianziti, 2011: 10. 30 OUTI MERISALO The expression «fortune’s changes»25 is of course a direct reference to Poggio’s treatise. Jacopo, after lamenting the disappearance of great patrons, such as Alfonso of Aragon and Pope Nicholas V, proceeds to a tribute to Frederick as a new great patron of learning and an appropriate dedicatee for the book since he had been a friend of Poggio’s26. In view of Jacopo’s subsequent anti-Medicean activities and Frederick’s role in the Pazzi conspiracy, the dedicatory letter is quite an early sign of Jacopo’s political positioning27. Jacopo outlines his own contribution to Poggio’s text as follows: «My main occupation, as soon as my age would permit it, has been to preserve the memory of our state and the memory of many famous men. Thus, I have built up a text out of one divided into eight books and handed it over to posterity to read»28. In the phrase «omnia in octo digesta libros […] in unum corpus redigere», the participle «digesta» may be interpreted as referring either to 25 «fortunae uarietates», see n19 above. 26 «I would not doubt that with the passing of this very holy and wise man [Nicholas V] both Latin and Greek letters could with good reason be said to have perished, unless, after the death of this man, deplored, by all the good people, you had not set out, alone among your contemporaries, to support gifted men with your wealth and tell them, by word and encouragement, to keep faith and not be demoralized. Thus, glorious Prince Frederick, since you are the only one of our age not merely encouraging intellects but also combining military science with eloquence and rhetoric, having progressed in philosophy to a point that it is almost impossible to reach for a man employed in other business, regularly writing texts both at home and at war, so that you seem to ignore nothing, nor should anything be totally new to your mind, I have decided to send you the work of my most excellent father, which contains the recent history of Italy. To whom should I dedicate it rather than a person who was his friend and, being himself a learned man, supports and follows up learned men?»; «Cum quo sanctissimo ac sapientissimo homine [Nicholas V] Latinas simul et Grecas litteras periisse merito dicere non dubitarem, nisi tu post suppremum illius diem bonis omnibus deflendum unus extitisses, qui prestanti ingenio uiros tuis opibus sustentares dispersosque ac tanti uiri morte pene attonitos tuis uerbis et cohortationibus bene sperare ac bono esse animo iuberes. Itaque, Illustrissime Princeps Federice, cum solus hac nostra etate sis, qui non modo ingeniis faueas, uerum etiam ad rei militaris scientiam, eloquentiam, et dicendi copiam addideris, in philosophia tantum profeceris, quantum ocioso homini uix conceditur, assidueque domi, ac militie aliquid scribas, aut legas, historias uero preteritorum temporum ita teneas, ut nihil tibi incognitum esse constet, ne quid omnino nouum animo tuo sit, optimi parentis uigilias quibus proxime etatis per Italiam res geste continentur, ad te mittere decreui. Cui enim illa potius dedicarem, quam ei qui et familiaritate secum iunctus fuit, et doctus ipse doctos colit et obseruat?», ms. lat. Z. 392 (=1684), folios 3-3v. For Frederick’s authentic interest in learning, cf. e.g. Rinaldi, 2013: 341-55. 27 For the political implications of Jacopo’s literary activities, see Merisalo, 2013b. 28 «Mihi uero, ut primum per etatem licuit, ne nostre rei publice plurimorumque clarorum uirorum memoria deperiret, nihil fuit potius quam omnia in octo digesta libros summa cum diligentia in unum corpus redigere ac legenda posteris tradere», ms. lat. Z. 392 (=1684), folio 3v. 31 THE HISTORIAE FLORENTINI POPULI Poggio’s original revision or to Jacopo’s editorial work. Jacopo’s vernacular translation (see below) puts it in clearer terms that Jacopo had not only transformed Poggio’ «commentaria» into a homogenous text, but had also been the one to divide the text into eight books: as soon as [my] age and many occupations would permit me, in order to preserve the memory of our city and the deeds of many excellent men in Italy, I have concentrated on making a continuous narrative of [the text], and after having divided it into eight books with the greatest care, publishing it and giving a copy of it to whomever would wish to be informed29. Jacopo’s edition, including the preface to Frederick, was soon reproduced in a Florentine luxury parchment manuscript, now Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, ms. lat. Z.392 (=1684). The textual hand is an elegant Italic. In the margins and sometimes in the text a nearcontemporary hand added corrections, and a reader in the seventeenth or eighteenth century provided some annotations in the margins. Images of putti on the first folio are reminiscent of those by Mariano del Buono and his workshop. Mariano worked for Vespasiano da Bisticci between 1470 and 148030. The coat of arms that is also on the first folio has not yet been identified31. The manuscript later belonged to G.B. Recanati (1687-1734), who used it for his 1715 edition (see below). The text of the Marciana manuscript is an exact copy of the Urbino text apart from occasional spelling variants and especially the presence or absence of diphthongs. The treatise is absent from fifteenth-century Medici collections, which is easily explained by Jacopo’s anti-Medicean stance. However, an early sixteenth-century manuscript of the Historiae entered the Medici private library in 1568. The manuscript, Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. LXV, 40, is on paper, and it was part of the extensive book collection owned by Canon Antonio Petrei (d. 1570)32 that became part of the Medici library in that year. Petrei was a teacher and noted bibliophile who collected autographs of Boccaccio and Petrarch (Morandini, 29 «come prima et per l’eta et per molte occupationi m’e stato licito, achioche la memoria della cicta nostra et le opere di molti prestantissimi huomini per Ytalia non manchassi, a nessuna altra cosa o piu dato opera che a ridurla insieme, et diuisola con somma diligentia in octo libri, mandarla in luce et farne copia a ciascuno desideroso d’intendere», Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, ms. Palatino Baldovinetti 62, folio 2v. 30 For Mariano, see Garzelli, 1985, vol. 2, plate 689 (Garzelli, 1985: 1.193): a Corvinianus, New York Library, Spencer Collection 27, posterior to 1464. 31 They are not Recanati arms, contrary to Valentinelli’s supposition (Valentinelli, 1873: 280, ad Cod. 314 «membr., saec. XV, a. 293, l. 200 [Z.L., CCCXCII]. P.»). 32 Ex-libris on folio 1: «A[n]t(onii) petrej can(onici) floren(tini)». 32 OUTI MERISALO 1986: 23). The version transmitted in his copy descends from the Urbino version. The volume is characterized by numerous hands, some of them rather inexperienced; in fact, this volume might have been produced as a series of writing exercises. The fourth manuscript, now Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, ms. V.G. 34, was written on Italian paper dating from the 1520s-1530s. The writing is in several hands, both Transalpine (one definitely Germanic) and Italian, most of them essentially Gothic hybridae, some all’antica cursives. All the marginal hands are Italian (Merisalo, 2013b: 60n18; Merisalo, 2016: 203-04). Just like the Petrei manuscript, this volume might be a school exercise. It belonged to the Farnese library and seems to have been used by cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520-1589), grandson of Pope Paul III and one of the most powerful political and ecclesiastical figures of the Counter-Reformation33. In the inventory made at the death of the cardinal in 1589, it figures as number 13 of the books listed for the «Guardarobba del sig. cardinale» in the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome. It was number 27 in the inventory of Latin-language manuscripts compiled after the transfer of the Farnese library to Parma in 1653, and it was number 167 in the Rutinelli inventory of 1737 following the final move of the possessions of the extinct Farnese dynasty to Bourbon Naples in 173634. While these four manuscripts do not provide substantive information on Jacopo’s editorial work, there is a modest, late-fifteenth-century paper manuscript which does. The manuscript, the Palatino Capponiano 64, is now at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence. The library of Marquis Vincenzo Capponi, including an extensive collection of manuscripts collection put together in the eighteenth century by Canon Giovan Vincenzo Capponi, was incorporated into the Palatine library in 1854 (Fava, 1939: 123). Folios 1-88 of the Capponi manuscript contain books 1-4 of the Historiae Florentini populi, written in elegant italics. The codicological unit in question is datable to the end of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century.35 Consequently, it was not produced in Poggio’s or Jacopo’s lifetime, but was copied from an earlier volume that has not yet been found. The unit is bound together with parts of Leonardo Bruni’s corpus Demosthenicum and excerpts of a translation into Italian of Petrarch’s De remediis utriusque fortune. Poggio’s text, devoid of title and Jacopo’s preface, is preceded by a very short preface in the first person: 33 For a concise biography, see Merisalo, 2016: 195-196. 34 For the history, including subsequent inventories, of the Farnese library, see Fossier, 1982: 2. 35 The watermarks most resemble Briquet 3393, Florence 1503-1505. 39 THE HISTORIAE FLORENTINI POPULI Bracciolini P. 1993, De varietate fortunae. 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