Poggio Bracciolini, Giovanni Francesco (1380–1459)

Italian scholar and humanist. He devoted himself to studying and unearthing classical manuscripts. Among his discoveries were orations of Cicero, plays by Plautus, Lucretius' De rerum natura, manuscripts by Quintilian, and fragments of Valerius Flaccus, Silius Italicus, and others. He himself wrote moral essays, a Historia florentina 1350–1455/History of Florence 1350–1455 1476, in imitation of Livy, and Liber facetiarum, a collection of humorous and often indecent stories directed chiefly against monks.

He was born in Terranuova d'Arezzo. He became secretary to the Roman curia about 1403, but showed no interest in church or political affairs.