CHAPTER II.

LEONARDO BRUNI ARETINO AND THE FLORENTINE HUMANISTS. FRANCESCO FILELFO. COSIMO DE’ MEDICI. NEXT to Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo Bruni and Ambrogio Traversari were those who did most effective service to the knowledge of classic antiquity. Leonardo Bruni[339] was descended from a burgher family in Arezzo, whence he derived the name of Aretino, which, after having been held in honour, was dragged through the mud a century later by one of his own countrymen. Although eleven years older than Poggio, and instructed in G…