Biondo, Flavio (1392-1463)

Italian historian and archaeologist. One of the first historians to study physical remains as well as documents, he wrote four major works that provided a detailed and imaginative interpretation of the history of Ancient Rome, Italy, and the Middle Ages in Europe. His works influenced not only other historians, but also artists, notably Mantegna.

Born at Forlì and educated at Cremona, he was caught up in the politics of the time and lived in exile in Imola, Ferrara, and Venice until Pope Eugenius IV employed him in the papal Curia in 1433.

Though he had little interest in the speculative side of the Renaissance, he was the first historian who showed a real understanding of the gap separating the classical from the medieval world. He published three volumes which collected the antiquities of Italy as far as they were then known: Roma instaurata 1440-63, which describes the geography and history of early Rome; Roma triumphans 1456-60, which describes the customs and institutions of Ancient Rome; and Italia instaurata 1456-60, which describes the early history of Italy. The effect of these books was to stimulate topographical research and encourage the study of local history through physical remains.

Biondo's last work, left incomplete at his death, was his Historiarum ab inclinatione Romane imperii decades in 42-two history of Europe covering the period 410-1441.