FIRENZUO'LA, A'GNOLO, was born September 28, 1493, in the city of Firenze (Florence). He was christened Michelagnolo Girolamo, but his name was afterwards contracted to Agnolo. The family name was taken from the small town of Fireuzuola, in Tuscany, between Florence and Bologna, in a valley among the Apennines, near the source of the Sauterne. Negri, Niccron, and others who have followed them, appear to have been mistaken in stating that the family name was Nannini. Agnolo's father, Bastiano Giovannini da Firenzuola, and his grandfather Carlo da Firenzuola, were citizens of Firenze, and both of them held offices of trust in the city uuder the patronage of Cosmo de' Medici.
Agnolo Firenzuola lived in his native city till the age of sixteen, when he went to Siena, where he studied law with much labour but little satisfaction to himself ; he also studied at Perugia, and practised for a short time as an advocate at Rome. While yet a young man he left the law for the church, assumed the habit of the monks of Val lombrosa, and in 1525 was elected abbot of the monastery of Santa Maria Ermita, at Spoleto. He was afterwards appointed abbot of Sau Salvatore, at Prato, where he chiefly resided during the rest of his short life. The year of his death is not known, but it was probably about 1542 or 1543, since he dates the dedication of his • Discorsi degli Animali ' on the 9th of December 1541, and Lorenzo Scala, who pub lished the work in 1548, speaks of his death as having occurred a few years before 1548. Tiraboschi doubts if Firenzuola ever was an abbot, but gives no reason for disputing the authority of other writers as well as of documents, than that his life was not sufficiently pure for the sacred office : a vary insufficient reason as applied to the digni taries of the Church of Roma in those times. Scala calls him " Il Revercndo Abate Messer Agnolo Firenzuola :" and addressing himself to Pandolfo I'ucci, speaks of Agnolo as his "taro e virtuoso amico" (his dear and virtuous friend).
His works were published in 1548, as already stated, partly by Lorenzo Scala and partly by Carlo Firenzuola, Agnolo's brother : they consist of `Discorai degli Auimali ;" Ragionameuti; " Novella ; ' Epiatola in Lode delle Donne;" Dialogo dells Bellezze delle Donne ; ' Discacciamento delle Nuove Lettere; ' two comedies, I Lucidi' and La Trinuzia;" Asino d'Oro d'Apulejo rifatto in Lingua Florentine,' and 'Rime.' Firenzuola is entitled to a high place among the early Italian writers. His works have been frequently reprinted, both separately and collectively, and are still much read. His two comedies, regarded merely as specimens of dramatic dialogue, are not surpassed by any thing in the language. He has less power and originality of imagina tion than Ariosto, Machiavelli, and Divizio (Cardinal Bibbiena), who immediately preceded him, and Gelli, who was his contemporary ; but his dialogue is always natural, spirited, appropriate to the charac ters, and in purity of idiomatic Tuscan is unsurpassed by any other Italian author. He is one of the " testi di lingua," or writers of the
highest authority in the language, and as such is frequently quoted in the Vocabolario' of the Academy della Cruaca. I Lucidi' is an adaptation of the of Plautus, but the plot of La Trinuzia' (Triple Marriage) appears to have been invented by himself, except that the character of Rovino seems to have been modelled on that of Calandro, iu the Calanclria ' of Cardinal Bibhiena. Firen zuela'a two playa are free from the indecencies which pollute his 'Novelle.' They are printed in the second edition of Biagioli'a col lection of Italian classic writers, Tesoretto della Lingua Toscana,' Paris, 8vo, 1822, with copious notes in French explanatory of the difficult idioms.
The 'Novelle,' of which there are ten, are short tales in the manner of Boccaccio, inferior in invention and perhaps iu descriptive power, but of equal elegance of narrative and dialogue; some of them however are little less licentious than many of those of Boccaccio himself.
Firenzuola's version of tho ' Golden Ass' of Apuleius is partly adapted and partly translated. The time is changed from the 2nd century to the 15th; the Greek towns are converted into Italian towns, and the Lucius of the original work becomes Aguelo in the version. The leading circumstances are retained, but altered as far as is neces sary to suit the change of time and country ; the alteration however is by no means an Improvement of the original narrative, though the composition, as a specimen of Italian prose, is admirable.
Firenruola's other prose works, which are mostly In the form of dialogue, are delightfully written; his della Bellezze della Donne' especially, abounds in descriptions of exceeding delicacy, con veyed in a stale so graceful and flowing as to give to a series of remarks all the attraction of an interesting narrative. The Dis. eacciamento ' was written in opposition to the party who were thou attempting to introduce certain letters not previously in use into the Florentine alphabet, such as the letter K. Firenzuola, in a sonnet, addresses the literary reformers as " kandidi ingegni." As a writer of verse Firenzuola has considerable merit; his son nets indeed are less delicate in thought and expression than those of Tetrarch, but his satirical verses are of a high class, very effective, and in elegance and facility hardly inferior to those of Berth.
(Vito di Aanolo Firm–no:go, prefixed to his Opere, Pisa, 6 vole. Ifitno, 1816; Ginguen6, in Biographic Unirerselle ; Tinsboschi, Scoria della Letteratara Iteliana.)