Benedetto Varchi

Born in Florence to a family that had originated at Montevarchi, he frequented the neoplatonic academy that Bernardo Rucellai organized in his garden, the Orti Oricellari; there, in spite of the fact that Rucellai was married to the elder sister of Lorenzo de' Medici, republican ideals circulated, in the context of revived classical culture, that culminated in a plot in 1513 to subvert Medici rule in Florence.

[2] With his return to Medici patronage, he became a member of the Accademia fiorentina, occupied with studies of linguistics, literary criticism, esthetics, and philosophy, but also, as became a Renaissance humanist in botany and alchemy.

His tract L'Hercolano, in the form of a dialogue between the writer and a conte Ercolano, discussed the Tuscan dialect as it was spoken at Florence, in the vulgar rather than in Latin, an innovation in works of linguistics; it was published posthumously, in 1570.

One critic mocked him in a satire: "O father Varchi, new Socrates ... his arms open and his trousers down, this is how your Bembo is waiting for you in the Elysian Fields".

"[4] In 1545, Varchi was arrested and tried for pederasty, and was eventually pardoned by Cosimo de' Medici upon the intercession of his many friends.