Giannozzo Manetti

Manetti was an eyewitness of the dedication of Santa Maria del Fiore on 25 March 1436, of which he left a record, the Oratio de Secularibus et Pontificalibus Pompis in Consecratione Basilicae Florentinae.

His views on Florentine relations with Venice proved unpopular among the ruling class, and he put himself into voluntary exile, spending the last years of his life in Naples.

He is now remembered principally as the author of De dignitate et excellentia hominis libri IV ("On the Dignity and Excellence of Man in Four Books"), completed in manuscript in 1452 or 1453.

He also wrote a commentary on Aristotle and biographies of Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Pope Nicholas V, Francesco Petrarca, Seneca, and Socrates.

Manetti's circle of humanist intellectuals included Carlo Marsuppini, Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo Bruni, Francesco Filelfo, Niccolò de' Niccoli, Palla Strozzi, and Lorenzo Valla.