Brunetto Latini

Brunetto Latini (c.1210 - 1294) was a Florentine philosopher, scholar and statesman.

He was born in Florence, the son of Buonaccorso Latini. He belonged to the Guelph party. After the disaster of Montaperti he took refuge for some years (1261-1268) in France, but in 1269, he returned to Tuscany and for some twenty years held successive high offices. Giovanni Villani says that he was a great philosopher and a consummate master of rhetoric, not only in knowing how to speak well, but how to write well. He was the author of various works in prose and verse.

While in France he wrote in French his prose Tresor, a summary of the encyclopaedic knowledge of the day (translated into Italian as Tesoro by Bono Giamboni in the 13th century), and in Italian his poem Tesoretto, rhymed couplets in heptasyllabic metre, a sort of abridgment put in allegorical form, the earliest Italian didactic verse.

He is famous as the friend, teacher and counsellor of Dante Alighieri, who immortalized him in The Divine Comedy (see Inferno, XV. 82-87).