The facetie, as a literary form, has an ancient lineage, while, if we regard it merely as a humorous tale or jocular anecdote, its history must be almost as old as the first laughs and smiles of prehistoric man. To go back no further, we may trace it in a direct line through Latin literature, to the Greek apopthegm. Facetiae, in the literary sense, are also to be found in Oriental literature, espeically the Persian and the Arabian. The Greek apopthegm and its Roman successor had a different character from the Florentine facetia, but the difference is one rather of matter than form. The ribald, licentious note is not so common in the classic facetaie, and the historical anecdotes treating of kings, princes, and persons of high estate were mostly reverent and often adulatory. Satire and disrespect appeared in the humorous tales of Poggio and his peers. The apopthegm was, as a rule, a brief narrative, as often as not enclosing a moral lesson in an historical anecdote. Or else it was the saying of some wise or great man.
This short work by the Italian humanist Poggio Bracciolini deals with the triumph of the Republic of Venice, then its its economic and political zenith. He extols the republic for its industry and for clearing the seas of pirates. He noted of the rights bestowed on average citizens and the antiquity of the state, which by then spanned back until the early Carolingian era. His praises have clear political overtones for the age he lived in, as republican fervor was gripping many Italian city-states, who sought to create greater distance between themselves and the Imperial administration in Germany.
Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459) was a pioneer of Quattrocento humanism. He rediscovered many manuscripts of lost Latin classics in libraries north of the Alps, yet spent most of his career as apostolic secretary at the Curia, before returning to Florence as chancellor. His numerous writings document the growth and concerns of the humanist movement and provide an extremely valuable insider perspective on the political and ecclesiastical affairs of his day. Poggio was present at the Church Council of Constance, where in 1417 he delivered a funeral oration for Cardinal Francesco Zabarella. Later in his life, Poggio revisited the genre to write fictitious orations eulogising five of his close friends. The numerous extant manuscripts of these texts demonstrate the enduring appeal of Poggio’s obituary rhetoric, which contributed much to the codification of the genre. The eulogies set forth the characters and careers of six luminaries of the early Quattrocento. Three are intimately connected with the humanist movement in Florence: the scholar and chancellor Leonardo Bruni, the reclusive intellectual arbiter Niccolò Niccoli, and Lorenzo de’ Medici the Elder, the right hand of his brother Cosimo, who established the Medici hegemony. The other two lamented friends, Cardinals Niccolò Albergati and Giuliano Cesarini, represent, just like Zabarella, Poggio’s ideals for Church leadership.
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