POGGIO BRACCIOLINI

Poggio Bracciolini (born February 11, 1380, Terranuova, Tuscany [Italy]—died October 30, 1459, Florence) was one of the most influential humanists, active in Italy in the first half of the fifteenth century.  He wrote a number of important treatises; and as a member of the Roman Curia under seven Popes, he travelled widely in Europe, even to England, and maintained a vast correspondence with many of the most significant cultural important figures of the time. But his significance lies also in other areas; for in his travels he was able to rediscover many classical texts, buried in monastic libraries, and in making copies of these he devised a new form of script that was to become the basis for the printed texts that would appear a few years later.

Bryn Mawr College has a particular connection to Poggio for our alumna Phyllis Goodhart Gordon studied his work, collected valuable materials about him, and produced a translation of some of the letters he wrote to his friend Niccolò Niccoli, a fellow Florentine and humanist.