Leonardo Bruni and Civic Humanism

This chapter describes how Leonardo Bruni (1370–1444), early identified as a radical (as he describes himself in an early dialogue), came to endorse many traditional values, while enriching them with elements of classical antiquity. The chapter contains an analysis of civic humanism and attempts to explain why Bruni came to be estranged from all the major Medicean humanists— Niccolò Niccoli, Carlo Marsuppini, Ambrogio Traversari, and finally Poggio. Also examined is the complicated question of Bruni’s relationship with the Medici after the latter came to power in 1434. Against most recent scholarship, it argues that Bruni retained an earlier endorsement of oligarchy and tradition and either opposed the Medici regime (the evidence here is complicated) or went into a state of intellectual isolation.