Laudatio florentinae urbis

"Laudatio florentinae urbis" (Italian for "Praise of the City of Florence") is a panegyric delivered by Leonardo Bruni (c. 1403-4). The panegyric is modeled after Aristides' "Panathenaic Oration", [Thomas, Carol G. 1988. "Paths from Ancient Greece". Brill. ISBN 9004088466. p. 104.] particularly with references to Florence's values and external threats. [de Góis, Damião, and Ruth, Jeffrey S. 1996. "Lisbon in the Renaissance: A New Translation of the Urbis Olisiponis Descriptio". Italica Press, Inc. ISBN 0934977364. p. xxix.] It was first delivered immediately after Florence's victory over Milan. [Pertile, Lino, and Brand, Peter. 1996. "The Cambridge History of Italian Literature". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521666228. p. 138.]

The panegyric contains chronological contradictions with Bruni's other oration, "Dialogi". [Baron, Hans. 1968. "From Petrarch to Leonardo Bruni: Studies in Humanistic and Political Literature". Chicago-London: University of Chicago Press.]

The exact dating of the oration, as with other works of Bruni's dated by Baron, has been questioned by critics of Baron. [Hankins, James. 1995. "The "Baron Thesis" after Forty Years and Some Recent Studies of Leonardo Bruni." "Journal of the History of Ideas" 56 (2): 309-338.] [Seigel, Jerrold E. 1966. "'Civic Humanism' or Ciceronian Rhetoric?: The Culture of Petrarch and Bruni." "Past & Present" 34 (1): 3-48.] Some portions of the panegyric employed in its dating include references to the "occupation" of Bologna (June 1402, or rumors of collusion between Milan and Bologna in 1399) and the fading of Giangaleazzo Visconti (d. September 2, 1402) from Milan's political scene. [Baron, Hans. 1967. "Leonardo Bruni: "Professional Rhetorician" or 'Civic Humanist'?" "Past & Present" 36: 21-37.]

Bruni republished the panegyric in the 1430s at a time which the pope was contemplating transferring the Council of Florence to a different city; the republication was also contemporaneous with the Milanese panegyric of Piero Candido Decembrio, "De Laudibus Mediolanesium Urbis Panegyricus" (1436). [Witt, Ronald. 1970. "Cino Rinuccini's Risponsiva alla Invettiva di Messer Antonio Lusco." "Renaissance Quarterly" 23 (2): 133-149.]

References

ee also

*Civic humanism

External links

* [http://www.york.ac.uk/teaching/history/pjpg/bruni.pdf Full text translated to English]