Aretino, Leonardo Bruno

Aretino, Leonardo Bruno an Italian writer of the fifteenth century, was born at Arezzo. At the solicitation of Poggius, his intimate friend, he was made secretary of pope Innocent VII, and afterwards, in 1413, of John XXIII, with whom he attended the Council of Constance. Poggius addressed to him his celebrated letter upon the punishment of Jerome of Prague. After the council he was made chancellor of the republic of Florence, which office he held till his death, in 1443. He was buried in the Church of Santa Croce, where a fulsome epitaph adorns his splendid tomb. He was guilty of the dishonesty of translating the (Gothic) History of Procopius into Latin, and publishing it as his own; but the deceit was discovered shortly after his death. He wrote also, Contra Hypocritas Libellus, in Fasciculus Rerunt Expet. (Cologne, 1543) :-Historiea Florentince. Libri xii (Argentinse, 1610) :--Epistolarum Libri VIII (ibid. 1521; Basle, 1535, 8v6), etc. See Cave, Hist. Lit. ii, App. p. 122.