Acciaioli, Donato

was of an illustrious family, being descended on the father’s side from Justin, nephew to Justinian emperor of Constantinople, and also from the dukes of Athens, Bohemia, and Corinth. His ancestors bad enjoyect very honourable posts in the kingdom of Naples, and had also been viceroys of Sicily, and generals. Some of them had filled very high employments in the republic of Florence, had been ambassadors to several powers of Europe, were related to all the princes of the Morea and adjacent islands, raised to the dignity orcardinal; and had erected several splendid Carthusian monasteries in Florence, Naples, &c. Our author, the son of Neri Acciaioli and Lena Strozzi, was born at Florence in 1428. His first preceptors were James Ammanati, afterwards cardinal of Pavia, and Leonard d‘Arezzo. He afterwards studied Greek under Argyropilus, and became one of the first Greek scholars of his time. He was one of the celebrated literary parties at which Lorenzo de Me.lici presided. Excelling in rhetoric, philosophy, and mathematics, he would have attained a very high rank in the republic of letters, if his weak state of health, and the part he took in the affairs of his country, had not interrupted his studies. He filled several employments in the state, and gave universal satisfaction. In 1475 he was gonfalonier, or ensign of the republic, and died in 1478 at Milan, when on his way to Paris as ambassador from the Florentines. This circumstance was a subject of the sincerest grief to the Florentines, who well knew how to appreciate the virtues of their fellow-citizens, and omitted no opportunity of inciting the patriotism of the living, by the honours they bestowed on the memory of the dead. A sumptuous funeral was decreed to his remains, which were brought to Florence for that purpose. Lorenzo de Medici and three other eminent citizens were appointed curators of his children, and the daughters had considerable portions assigned them from the public treasury. The celebrated Angelo Politian wrote his epitaph, and Christopher Landino pronounced the funeral oration. His works are: | 1. “Expositio super libros Ethicorum Aristotelis, in novam traductionem Argyropili,Florence, 1478, fol. 2. “In Aristotelis libros octp Politicorum commentarii,Venice, 1566, 8vo. 3. In the Latin translation of Plutarch, he translated the lives of Alcibiades and Demetrius, and added to the same collection those of Hannibal and Scipio from his own pen, with a life of Charlemagne. 4. “The Latin history of Florence, by Leonard d'Arezzo, translated into Italian,Venice, 1473, fol. and often reprinted. He left some other works, orations, letters, and miscellanies, both in prose and verse, which have not been committed to the press. 1

1

Gen. Dict.—Moreri.—Roscoe’s Life of Lorenzo.—Sax. Onomasticon.— Biographie Universelle.