Toynbee "Brunetto Latino"
or Latini, Florentine Guelph, son of Buonaccorso Latini, born in Florence, c. 1220, died. 1294; he was a notary (whence the title of ser given him by D., [Inf. xv. 30, 101]), and is commonly supposed (from a misunderstanding of [Inf. xv. 82-85]) to have been D.'s master, which in the ordinary sense of the word he cannot have been, since he was about 45 when D. was born. It is uncertain at what period he began to take part in public affairs in Florence; he held an official position in 1253, and in the next year he attested, in his capacity of notary, two public documents (April 20 and Aug. 25) which are still preserved, and one of which is drawn up in his own handwriting. In 1260 he was sent on an embassy to Alfonso X of Castile (one of the candidates for the imperial crown) in order to induce him to assist the Guelphs against Manfred and the Ghibellines. While he was on his way back he learnt, from a student who had come from Bologna, the news of the decisive victory of the Ghibellines over the Florentine Guelphs at Montaperti (Sept. 4, 1260), and the consequent expulsion of the latter from his native city:

esso Comune saggio
ml fece suo messaggio
all'alto re di Spagna,
ch'or è re de la Magna
e la corona atende,
se Dio no llil contende. . .
E io presi campagna
e andai in Ispagna
e feci l'ambasciata
che mi fue ordinata;
e poi sanza soggiorno
ripresi mio ritorno,
tanto che nel paese
di terra navarrese,
venendo per la calle
del pian di Runcisvalle,
incontrai uno scolaio
su 'n un muletto vaio,
che venia da Bologna. . . .
Io lo pur dimandai
novelle di Toscana
in dolce lingua e piana;
ed e' cortesemente
mi disse immantenente
che guelfi di Firenza
per mala provedenza
e per forza di guerra
eran fuor de la terra,
e 'l dannaggio era forte
di pregioni e di morte.
({Tesoretto, 123-128, 135-147, 152-162.})

On the receipt of this disastrous news B. abandoned his intention of returning to Italy, and took refuge in France. He appears first to have gone to Montpellier ({Tesoretto, 2541}); he was in Paris in Sept. 1263, and at Bar-sur-Aube in April 1264, as we know from notarial documents in his handwriting under those dates. [See E. Scott, 'Brunetto Latini's Home in France', Athenaeum (Nov. 6, 1897), 635; J. Harting, 'Brunetto Latini in France', Athenaeum (Nov. 13, 1897), 674; P. Toynbee 'Brunetto Latini's "Tresor"', Athenaeum (Nov. 20, 1897), 710]. While in France he compiled his encyclopaedic work, the Livres dou Tresor, as he himself records:

Et se aucuns demandoit pour quoi cis livres est escris en roumanç, selonc le raison de France, puis ke nous somes italien, je diroie que c'est pour .ii. raisons, l'une ke nous somes en France, l'autre por çou que la parleure est plus delitable et plus commune a tous langages. ({Tresor i. 1.})

After Manfred's defeat and death at the Battle of Benevento (Feb. 26, 1265/6), and the consequent discomfiture of the Ghibellines of Tuscany, Brunetto returned to Florence and resumed his share in public affairs. In 1269 at Florence and in 1270 at Pisa he acted as notary to Guy de Montfort, Charles of Anjou's vicar in Tuscany; in 1273 he was secretary to the Florentine government ('scriba consiliorum Communis Florentiae'), and in 1275 he was president ('console') of the notarial guild; he was one of the commissioners and guarantors of the ephemeral peace patched up between the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Florence in 1280 by the Cardinal Latino; in 1284 (Oct. 13) he was one of the two syndics of the Florentine government for the conclusion of an offensive and defensive alliance with Genoa and Lucca against the Pisans, who in the previous August had been totally defeated by the Genoese in the great naval battle at Meloria; in 1287 (Aug. 15 to Oct. 15) he served in the office of prior and in 1289 he was appointed one of the public orators of Florence; he died in Florence, c. 1294. His influence and authority with the Florentines are attested by the fact that his name appears in no less than thirty-five public documents (between Oct 21, 1282, and July 22, 1292) as having been consulted by the government on various important matters, and for the most part it is recorded that his advice was followed. [See T. Sundby, Della vita e delle opere di Brunetto Latini (Firenze, 1884), tr. by R. Renier, with appendices by I. Del Lungo and A. Mussafia.]

Brunetto was buried in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Florence. His portrait, according to Vasari (in his Vita di Giotto), is one of those associated with that of D. in the fresco attributed to Giotto in the Bargello:

Giotto . . . ritrasse nella cappella del palagio del Podestà di Firenze Dante Alighieri, coetaneo ed amico suo grandissimo. . . . Nella medesima cappella è il ritratto, similmente di mano del medesimo, di ser Brunetto Latini maestro di Dante, e di messer Corso Donati gran cittadino di que' tempi.

Villani, in recording Brunetto's death, speaks of him as having been the first to introduce the systematic study of oratory and political science into Florence:

Nel anno 1294 morì in Firenze uno valente cittadino il quale ebbe nome ser Brunetto Latini, il quale fu gran filosofo, e fu sommo maestro in rettorica, tanto in bene sapere dire come in bene dittare. E fu quegli che spuose la Rettorica di Tullio, fece il buono e utile libro detto Tesoro, e il Tesoretto, e la Chiave del Tesoro, e più altri libri in filosofia, e de' vizi e di virtù, e fu dittatore del nostro comune. Fu mondano uomo, ma di lui avemo fatta menzione, perocch'egli fu cominciatore e maestro in digrossare i Fiorentini, e farli scorti in bene parlare, e in sapere guidare e reggere la nostra repubblica secondo la politica. ({Villani viii. 10.})

Brunetto's two best known works are the Livres dou Tresor (in which are comprised several of the treatises referred to by Villani), a sort of encyclopaedia of history, natural science, ethics, rhetoric, and politics in French prose (written between 1262 and 1266) [Tesoro_1]; and the Tesoretto, a didactic poem, written (in 1262 or 1263) in a popular style in Italian heptasyllabic couplets. To the latter, in which the favourite device of an allegorical journey is employed, D. was possibly indebted for some suggestions.

[On the life and works of Brunetto Latini, see Poeti del Duecento, ed. by G. Contini (Milano-Napoli 1960), ii, pp. 169-174; for the Trésor, see Li livres dou Tresor, ed. by F. J. Carmody (University of California Publications in Modern Philology xxii; Berkeley, Los Angeles, 1948); for the Teseretto, see Poeti del Duecento, ii, pp. 175-284.]

D. places Brunetto Latini in Round 3 of Circle VII of Hell, among those guilty of unnatural offences, ser Brunetto, [Inf. xv. 30, 101]; Brunetto Latino, [Inf. xv. 32]; un, [Inf. xv. 23]; quelli, [Inf. xv. 31]; lui, [Inf. xv. 34, 44]; el, [Inf. xv. 46]; lui, [Inf. xv. 50]; elli, [Inf. xv. 55]; lui, [Inf. xv. 80]; elli, [Inf. xv. 103] [Sodomiti]. As D. and Virgil proceed along the embankment on their way through Circle VII, they see a crowd of souls advancing towards them on the plain below, who look hard at them ([Inf. xv. 16-21]); one of them (Brunetto), recognizing D., gives an exclamation of surprise and takes hold of the skirt of his robe ([Inf. xv. 22-24]); D. looks at him closely and in turn recognizing him, leans down and addresses him by name ([Inf. xv. 25-30]); B. L. proposes to turn back and accompany D. for a while ([Inf. xv. 31-33]), to which D. gladly assents, with the approval of V. ([Inf. xv. 34-42]); not venturing to descend alongside of B. L., he walks parallel with him keeping his head bent down towards him ([Inf. xv. 43-45]); B. L. asks D. what brings him to Hell before he is dead, and who his guide is ([Inf. xv. 46-48]); D. having replied, B. L. tells him that if he follows his star he will become famous ([Inf. xv. 49-57]), and adds that if he himself had lived he might have helped D. in his task ([Inf. xv. 58-60]); he then foretells how the Florentines will repay the good D. does them by persecuting him ([Inf. xv. 61-69]), and how later both Bianchi and Neri will seek his hurt, but in vain ([Inf. xv. 70-78]); D. replies, expressing his reverence and gratitude for B. L.'s teaching ([Inf. xv. 79-87]), and declares that it will bear in mind his and other (i.e. those of Ciacco and of Farinata) predictions as to his own future in order that Beatrice may expound them, but that meanwhile he is prepared for evil fortune if it be in store for him ([Inf. xv. 88-96]); after a word of approval from V. ([Inf. xv. 97-99]) D. asks B. L. as to his companions ([Inf. xv. 100-102]); the latter replies 'that they were all clerks and great and famous men of letters', some of whom he names ([Inf. xv. 103-114]); then seeing another company approaching, he takes leave of D. recommending his Trésor to him, and speeds on to rejoin his companions ([Inf. xv. 115-124]).

It is not known on what grounds D. condemned Brunetto to this particular division of Hell; possibly, as in the case of Priscian, he is introduced merely as the representative of a class (litterati grandi, [Inf. xv. 107]) which was undoubtedly especially addicted in those times to the vice in question. Benvenuto testifies that it was prevalent to a terrible degree in Bologna while he was lecturing on the Divina Commedia there in 1375, to such a degree, indeed, that he felt himself bound, in spite of the odium and personal risk which he incurred by so doing, to bring the matter to the notice of the papal legate [Accorso, Francesco d': Prisciano]. Some think Villani's expression 'fu mondano uomo', as well as the phrase in the Tesoretto, 'sen tenuti / un poco mondanetti' ({Latini.Tesoretto.2560-2561}), point to the supposition that Brunetto had an evil reputation in this particular respect. It is noticeable, on the other hand, that vice of this nature is especially reprobated in the Trésor:

Chasteté est bele chose, pour ce que li chastes se delite de covenables choses, et au tens et en leu et a la quantité et a la guise ki covient. Mais li delis du siecle, desevrés de nature, est desmesureement blasmables plus ke avoutire, et ce est gesir avec les malles. ({Latini.Trésor.ii.33}) . . . Delit par male nature est gesir avec les malles, et des autres choses deshonorables. ({Latini.Trésor.ii. 40}) . . . De luxure vient avugletés de cuer, non fermeté, amour de soi meismes, haine de Deu, volenté de cest siecle, et despit de l'autre, fornication, avoutire, et pechiés contre nature. ({Latini.Trésor.ii. 131})

So also is it in the Tesoretto:

Ben è gran vituperio
commettere avolterio. . .
Ma tra qucsti peccati
son vie più condannati
que' che son soddomiti:
deh, come son periti
que' che contra natura
brigan cotal lusura!
({Latini.Tesoretto.2853-284, 2859-2864})

Others contend that the term mondano means nothing more than 'worldly' as opposed to 'spiritual'.

[See M. Scherillo, 'Brunetto Latini', in Alcuni capitoli della biografia di Dante (Torino, 1896), pp. 116-221; F. Mazzoni, SD, xxx (1951), 278-284; and V. Pernicone, GSLI, cxxviii (1951), 88-95.]

The question has been raised as to the correct form of Brunetto's surname, Latini or Latino; the former is most commonly used, but Brunetto himself (on occasion at least) preferred Latino, as appears from the Tesoretto, where the phrase 'io Brunetto Latino' occurs twice ({Latini.Tesoretto.i.70}, {Latini.Tesoretto.xx.5}), this form being assured in both cases by the rime. Latino is the form invariably used by Bono Giamboni in his translation of the Trésor, in which the name appears in the French equivalent Brunet Latin (i.e. Brunettus Latinus, in Italian, Brunetto Latino); as well as by Boccaccio in his Comento. On the other hand it is certain that the form Latini was also used, both by Brunetto himself and by his contemporaries. [See P. Toynbee, '"Brunetto Latino" or "Brunetto Latini,"' Academy, xxx (July 17, 1886), 44; 'Brunetto Latino or Brunetto Latini', Academy, xlvii (Feb. 9, 1895), 127.]

In his estimate of the Tuscans and their dialects, D. blames Brunetto (Brunettus florentinus), together with Bonagiunta of Lucca, Gallo of Pisa, and Mino Mocato of Siena, for having written in his own local dialect, V.E. I. xiii. 1.

©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press