BRUTO, Giovanni Michele

Very good, clean copy, handsomely bound, of Giovanni Michele Bruto’s controversial history of Florence. Born in Venice, Bruto (1517-92) was a Hermit of St Augustin and a historiographer. He soon left the convent and started a life of frequent travels, during which he encountered humanists like Reginald Pole. In the 1550s, the Papal printer, Paulus Manutius, first substituted Bruto’s name with an alias due to suspicions of heresy which would accompany him throughout his life. In 1562, Bruto was in Lyon, in touch with circles upholding anti-Medicean views—ideas which also pervade ‘Florentinae Historiae’. The preface is a long and complex apology of the volume, contextualising it within the Western historiographic tradition from ancient authors like Livy to more recent ones like Paolo Giovio. Giovio’s ‘Historiae’ (c.1520s), caught between praise and criticism of the Medici, is often cited as an inspiration. Leaving historical chronology in the background, Bruto examines the recent history of Florence through its civic and national policy and the character of its governors, none of whom is spared criticism. For instance, in the course of three pages, Cosimo de’ Medici is called ‘fortunatus’, powerful and magnanimous as well as seriously flawed with vice and cupidity. The Medici sought to curb the circulation of this work by seizing and destroying numerous copies, hence its relative scarcity.

Wiguleus Hund of Lautterbach was a Bavarian jurist and historian. He held numerous political offices including that of imperial counsellor to Duke Albrecht V, ambassador of Duke William IV to Emperor Charles V, and negotiator on the recall of the Jesuits in the early 1550s. He was the author of three antiquarian ‘Stammen Bücher’ of Bavarian princely and aristocratic families.

Christian Gobel von Hofgiebing (1590- 1658) was a Bavarian doctor of law and imperial councillor to Duke Albrecht V.