LATINI, BRUNETTO (c.1210-e.95). An Italian writer, born at Florence. He belonged to the party of the Guelphs, and was sent on an embassy to Alfonso X. of Castile in 1260. The Guelphs were defeated at .Alontaperti during his absence, and he had therefore to keep out of Tuscany. lie may have spent the next six or 'even years in France. but at any rate he was back in Tuscany again by 1269, holding office under Charles of Anjou. Occupying in turn various offices, he attained in 12S7 to the high rank of priore. A rather common misinterpre tation of a remark of Dante's (Inferno, :XV. 82 S7) has caused him to be regarded as the tutor of the great poet. There is good round for be lieving that runetto had cast horo scope; hut in the main Dante simply means that he had profited by the general influence which Brunetto Latini exercised upon the men of his time. Before his sojourn in France he had already written something: during that period he com posed the poem in Italian heptasyllables which he entitled the Tesoro, but which is now gen erally known by the name of Tesoretto, to dis tinguish it from the Italian translation of his Tresor. The Tesoretto is the earliest Italian
example of the allegorical and didactic poem so important in old French literature and there best represented by the Roman de la rose. It is incomplete, and may have been intended as an introduction to the eneyelopledie Lirres don tresor. This prose work. a compendium of inediawal lore, Brunetto put in French. because he esteemed this language more delightful and more widely known than Italian. Its subject matter was derived from various Latin and French sources: the work was probably com posed between 1262 and 1266. Consult: The edition of Li litres don trrsor be C'hahaille (Paris, 1563) : the editions of the Tesoretto by Grater ( Bologna, IS78-83) and by Wiese. in the Zeitsehrift fur romanisehe Philolopir. vol. vii.: Sundhy, Della rita e delle operc di Brunetto Latini, translated by Denier (Florence, 1884) : Alarchesini. Due sfudi hiografiei so Brunetto La tini (Venice, 1887) ; id., Brunetto Latini notaio (Verona. 1890).