Alessandro Braccesi

Alessandro Braccesi was an Italian humanist, writer, and diplomat who lived from December 10, 1445, to July 7, 1503. Born in Florence, he came from a family that had fallen into poverty, which necessitated him starting work at an early age. He became a notary in 1467 and was employed by the Florentine Republic, undertaking diplomatic missions to various Italian cities, including Naples, Rome, Bologna, and Ferrara. Concurrently, Braccesi developed as a humanist scholar and poet. He compiled a collection of Italian poems, including love sonnets in the style of Petrarch and humorous sonnets, followed by elegies. He also gathered his Latin poems into a three-volume manuscript, featuring love elegies, poems about everyday life, and epigrams. Braccesi undertook significant translations into Italian, including Enea Silvio Piccolomini's *Historia de duobus amantibus*, which he adapted with a happy ending, and parts of Appian of Alexandria's *Histories*. He held various public offices, rising to become a chancellor and secretary, and served as Florence's ambassador to Siena. His most notable diplomatic mission was to Rome in 1497, where he navigated complex political and religious currents surrounding Savonarola and the Borgia papacy. After a period of disgrace, he regained trust and returned to diplomatic service, dying in Rome in 1503. He is buried in Santa Prassede.