BRACCIOLINI, FRANCESCO (1566-1645), Italian poet, was born at Pistoia, of a noble family. On his removing to Flor ence, he was admitted into the academy there, and devoted him self to literature. At Rome he entered the service of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, and when his patron was elected pope, Urban VIII., Bracciolini was made secretary to the pope's brother, Cardinal Antonio. On the death of the pontiff he returned to Pistoia. Bracciolini is principally noted for his mock-heroic poem Lo Scherno degli Dei, published in 1618, similar but confessedly inferior to the contemporary work of Tassoni, Seccliia Rapita. Of his serious poems the most celebrated is La Croce Racquistata.
For the Italian humanist Poggio Bracciolini see P0GGI0.