Giannozzo Manetti (1396 – 1459) was an Italian politician and diplomat from

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

, who was also a humanist scholar of the early

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

. Manetti was the son of a wealthy merchant. His public career began in 1428. He participated in municipal government as a member of the advisory council, as an ambassador, and in various gubernatorial positions in the city. Manetti was an eyewitness of the dedication of

Santa Maria del Fiore Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

on 25 March 1436, of which he left a record, the ''Oratio de Secularibus et Pontificalibus Pompis in Consecratione Basilicae Florentinae''. His views on Florentine relations with

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

proved unpopular among the ruling class, and he put himself into voluntary exile, spending the last years of his life in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

.Martines, Lauro (2011). ''The Social World of the Florentine Humanists, 1390-1460''. University of Toronto Press. p. 7. He was a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

ist and a translator of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

; he also studied

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

so that he could read the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

nic commentaries. These readings convinced him that the Bible needed translation anew from the early manuscripts. After his death, Manetti's sizable library found its way into the

Biblioteca Vaticana The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...

. As an author, Manetti's style was an imitation of

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

. He is now remembered principally as the author of ''De dignitate et excellentia hominis libri IV'' ("On the Dignity and Excellence of Man in Four Books"), completed in manuscript in 1452 or 1453. It was a response to Pope Innocent III's '' De miseria humane conditionis''. His ''Pistoiese History'', composed in 1446–47, was the first contemporary critical response to

Leonardo Bruni Leonardo Bruni (or Leonardo Aretino; c. 1370 – 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. ...

's innovative and monumental ''History of the Florentine People''. He also wrote a commentary on

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

and

biographies A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

, Giovanni Boccaccio,

Pope Nicholas V Pope Nicholas V ( la, Nicholaus V; it, Niccolò V; 13 November 1397 – 24 March 1455), born Tommaso Parentucelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 March 1447 until his death in March 1455. Pope Eugene made ...

Francesco Petrarca Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

, and

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...

. Manetti's circle of humanist intellectuals included

Carlo Marsuppini Carlo Marsuppini (1399–1453), also known as Carlo Aretino and Carolus Arretinus, was an Italian Renaissance humanist and chancellor of the Florentine Republic. Biography Marsuppini was born in Genoa into a family from Arezzo, but grew up and ...

Poggio Bracciolini Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (11 February 1380 – 30 October 1459), usually referred to simply as Poggio Bracciolini, was an Italian scholar and an early Renaissance humanist. He was responsible for rediscovering and recovering many classi ...

Francesco Filelfo Francesco Filelfo ( la, Franciscus Philelphus; 25 July 1398 – 31 July 1481) was an Italian Renaissance humanist. Biography Filelfo was born at Tolentino, in the March of Ancona. He is believed to be a third cousin of Leonardo da Vinci. At th ...

Niccolò Niccoli Niccolò is an Italian male given name, derived from the Greek Nikolaos meaning "Victor of people" or "People's champion". There are several male variations of the name: Nicolò, Niccolò, Nicolas, and Nicola. The female equivalent is Nicole (name), ...

Palla Strozzi Palla di Onofrio Strozzi (1372 – 8 May 1462) was an Italian banker, politician, writer, philosopher and philologist. Biography He was born in Florence into the rich banking family of the Strozzi. He was educated by humanists, learning Greek ...

, and

Lorenzo Valla Lorenzo Valla (; also Latinized as Laurentius; 14071 August 1457) was an Italian Renaissance humanist, rhetorician, educator, scholar, and Catholic priest. He is best known for his historical-critical textual analysis that proved that the ''Do ...

Bibliography

* ''Apologeticus'', as ''A Translator's Defense'' ed. Myron McShane, Translated into English by Mark Young. Harvard University Press. 2015. defense of the study of Hebrew * ''Biographical Writings'', ed. Stefano U. Baldassarri and Rolf Bagemihl, I Tatti Renaissance Library, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2003. . * ''De dignitate et excellentia hominis'', ed. Elizabeth R. Leonard, Padua, Editrice Antenore, 1974. . * ''De terremotu'', ed. Daniela Pagliara, Florence, SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2012. . * ''De vita ac gestis Nicolai quinti summi pontificis'', ed. Anna Modigliani, Fonti per la storia d'Italia, Rome, Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo, 2005. . * ''Historia Pistoriensis'', critical edition by Stefano Ugo Baldassarri and Benedetta Aldi, historical commentary by William J. Connell, Edizione Nazionale dei Testi della Storiografia Umanistica, Florence, SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2011. . * ''On the Dignity of Man'', in ''Two Views of Man: Pope Innocent III - On the Misery of Man ; Giannozzo Manetti - On the Dignity of Man'', ed. and trans. Bernard Murchland, New York, Ungar, 966 * ''Un episodio del proto-humanismo español: tres opúsculos de Nuño de Guzmán y Giannozzo Manetti'', ed. Jeremy N. H. Lawrence, Salamanca, Biblioteca española del Siglo XV-Diputaciòn de Salamanca, 1989. * ''Vita Socratis et Senecae'', ed. Alfonso De Petris, Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1979. * ''On Human Worth and Excellence'', edited by Brian P. Copenhaver, Harvard University Press, 2018 (The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 85)

References

*Baldassarri, Stefano Ugo (2008). ''Dignitas et excellentia hominis : atti del Convegno internazionale di studi su Giannozzo Manetti : Georgetown University-Kent State University, Fiesole-Firenze, 18-20 giugno 2007'', Florence: Le Lettere. . *Connell, William J. (2002). "Il cittadino umanista come ufficiale nel territorio : una rilettura di Giannozzo Manetti," in Andrea Zorzi and William J. Connell, eds., ''Lo stato territoriale fiorentino (secoli XIV-XV) : ricerche, linguaggi, confronti : atti del seminario internazionale di studi, San Miniato, 7-8 giugno 1996'', Pisa: Pacini, pp. 359–383. *Eck, Caroline (1998). "Giannozzo Manetti on Architecture: The ''Oratio de Secularibus et Pontificalibus Pompis in Consecratione Basilicae Florentinae'' of 1436". ''Renaissance Studies'', 12:4, pp. 449–475. *Grout, Donald Jay, and Palisca, Claude V. (2001). ''A History of Western Music'', 6th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. . *Smith, Christine and Joseph F. O'Connor (2006). ''Building the kingdom : Giannozzo Manetti on the material and spiritual edifice'', Tempe: ACMRS. .

External links

Manetti
at Humanistic Texts
Selected works
at Biblioteca Italiana {{DEFAULTSORT:Manetti, Giannozzo 1396 births 1459 deaths 15th-century people of the Republic of Florence Italian Renaissance writers Christian Hebraists Dante Alighieri Ambassadors of the Republic of Florence