Niccolò de' Niccoli (1364 – 22 January 1437) was an Italian

Renaissance humanist Renaissance humanism was a revival in the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term ''humanist'' ( it, umanista) referred to teache ...

. He was born and died in

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 ...

, 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. His lack of critical faculty was compensated by his excellent taste; in

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 ...

(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 Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into En ...

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 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 ...

. Thanks to the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici, Niccoli was able to build up his personal library of 800 manuscripts. He was generous with lending out his books since he had multiple copies of several Classical texts. His generosity lasted past his death, for in his will, he wished for his personal library to be open to not only scholars but to the general public as well. This would be the basis of the library that Cosimo de' Medici built in

San Marco San Marco is one of the six sestieri of Venice, lying in the heart of the city as the main place of Venice. San Marco also includes the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Although the district includes Saint Mark's Square, that was never admin ...

. Niccoli's private library was bettered only by that of Cosimo de' Medici who was the pioneer of the first Florentine public library which was the largest in Europe at that time. Niccoli also possessed a small but valuable collection of ancient works of art, coins and medals. He regarded himself as an infallible critic, and could not bear the slightest contradiction; his quarrels with Francesco Filelfo,

Guarino da Verona Guarino Veronese or Guarino da Verona (1374 – 14 December 1460) was an Italian classical scholar, humanist, and translator of ancient Greek texts during the Renaissance. In the republics of Florence and Venice he studied under Manuel Chrysol ...

and especially with Traversari created a great sensation in the learned world at the time. His hypercritical spirit (according to his enemies, his ignorance of the language) prevented him from writing or speaking in

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 ...

; his sole literary work was a short tract in Italian on ''Latin Orthography'', which he withdrew from circulation after it had been violently attacked by Guarino. His fame as a Latin stylist was extensive, and many authors would submit to him their manuscripts prior to publication for correction;

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. ...

called him the "censor of the Latin tongue". He is also regarded as the inventor of the cursive script, known today as Italic or Cancelleresca. This came about from his enduring study of ancient manuscripts and the numerous copies he made. Niccoli decided he would vary his copied manuscripts by using tilted lettering and as a result later on, when Italian printers first used

Italic type In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, italics normally slant slightly to the right. Italics are a way to emphasise key points in a printed ...

, they chose Niccoli's lettering style. Niccoli was buried in the Basilica of Santo Spirito in Florence. He was in a great deal of debt prior to his death, after which Cosimo offered to cover all of his outstanding payments to debtors in exchange for control over his collection of 800 manuscripts valued at around 6,000 florins. He never married, preferring to fill his houses with manuscripts, coins, statuary, vases, and gems.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Niccoli, Niccolo De Italian Renaissance humanists Book and manuscript collectors 1364 births 1437 deaths 15th-century people of the Republic of Florence

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