Adriani, John Baptist

, the son of the preceding, was born in 1513, or, as some say, 1511, and died at Florence in 1579. In his youth, he carried arms in defence of the liberties of his country, and afterwards devoted his time to study. For thirty years he taught rhetoric in the university of Florence, and enjoyed the friendship of the most celebrated of his contemporaries, Annibal | Caro, Varchi, Flaminio, and the cardinals Bembo and Contarini. His chief work, which forms a continuation of Guicciardini, is the history of his own time, entitled “Deir Istoria de' suoi tempi,” from 1536 to 1574. Florence, 1583, fol. This is a most scarce edition, and more valued than that of Venice, 1587, 3 vols. 4to. The abbé Lenglet du Fresnoy, Bayle, and particularly Thuanus, who has derived much assistance from this work, speak highly of his correctness as a historian. He had the best materials, and among others, some memoirs furnished by the grand duke of Tuscany, Cosmo I. who advised him to the undertaking. He is said to have written funeral orations on the grand duke, on Charles V. and the emperor Ferdinand; but we know only of his oration on the grand duchess, Jane of Austria, which was translated from Latin into Italian, and published at Florence in 1579, 4to. In 1567 he published “Lettera a Giorgio Vasari sopra gli antichi Pittori nominati da Plinio,” 4to. This letter, oa the ancient painters mentioned by Pliny, which is rather a treatise on painting, is inserted by Vasari in the second volume of his lives of the painters. Vasari speaks of him as an enlightened amateur of the fine arts, and one whose advice was of much importance to him when he was employed at Florence in the palace of the grand duke. ¹