FIRENZUOLA, AGNOLO , Italian poet and litterateur, was born at Florence on Sept. 28, 1493. He studied law at Siena and afterwards at Perugia, where he became the associate of the notorious Pietro Aretino, and copied his licen tious way of living, though he is stated to have worn the monastic habit for a time. Firenzuola practised for some time as an advo cate at Rome, and eventually settled at Prato as abbot of San Salvatore. His writings are of great importance in the history of Italian literature because they are written in Tuscan just as the literary style began to emerge from popular speech. He wrote Discorsi degli animali, imitations of Oriental and Aesopian fables; Dialogo delle bellezze donne (Eng. trs. 1892); Ragionamenti amorosi, a series of short tales in the manner of Boccaccio (Eng. trs. 1889) ; Discacciamento delle nuove lettere, a controversial piece against Trissino's proposal to introduce new letters into the Italian alphabet ; a free version of the popular Golden Ass of Apuleius; and two comedies, I Lucidi, an imitation of the Me naechmi of Plautus, and La Trinuzia, which in some points resem bles the Calandria of Cardinal Bibbiena. His poems are chiefly satirical and burlesque.
The best edition of his collected works is that by Bianchi (Florence, 1848).