Encyclopedist Brunetto Latini's extremely successful Li livres…
1266 CE
Encyclopedist Brunetto Latini's extremely successful Li livres dou tresor, written in French and directed to the Italian upper class, is the first attempt to reach a secular rather than an exclusively scholarly market.
Born in Florence in 1220 to a Tuscan noble family, the son of Buonaccorso Latini, he belongs to the Guelph party.
A notary and a man of learning, much respected by his fellow citizens and famed for his skill as an orator, he expounds the writings of Cicero as guidance in public affairs.
He was of sufficient stature to have been sent to Seville on an embassy to Alfonso X of Castile to seek help for Florence against the Sienese; the mission was unsuccessful.
On his return from Spain, traveling along the Pass of Roncesvalles, he describes meeting a student from Bologna astride a bay mule, who told him of the defeat of the Guelphs at the Battle of Montaperti.
Exiled from his native city as a result, Latini has taken refuge for some years (1260–1266) in France working as a notary—in Montpellier, Arras, Bar-sur-Aube and Paris.
While in France, he had written his Italian Tesoretto and in French his prose Li Livres dou Trésor, both summaries of the encyclopedic knowledge of the day.
The latter is regarded as the first encyclopedia in a modern European language.
He returns to Tuscany in 1266 when the political situation allows.
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