5 Geniuses of Renaissance Italy You Should Read

Dante Alighieri, 1265 – 1321

Occupation: Statesman, poet, language theorist, political theorist

Dante was a major poet of the Renaissance in Italy. His Divine Comedy is considered to be the greatest literary work in the Italian language.

http://leopoldclassiclibrary.com/book/the-divine-comedy-i-hell-57c57886a4dcd

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), 1304 – 1374

Occupation: Scholar, poet

Petrarch was one of the earliest humanists and poets in Renaissance Italy. His rediscovery of Cicero's letters is claimed to be the beginning of Renaissance era in Italy. Francesco Petrarca was one of the founders of the modern Italian language and creator of a traditional model for lyrical poetry. Read his sonnets — the best examples of this genius of literature.

http://leopoldclassiclibrary.com/book/the-letters-of-cicero-to-atticus-book-i-with-notes-and-an-eassy-on-the-character-of-the-author
http://leopoldclassiclibrary.com/book/one-hundred-sonnets-translated-after-the-italian-of-petrarca-with-the-original-text-notes-and-a-life-of-petrarch

Giovanni Boccaccio, 1313 – 1375

Occupation: Writer, poet

Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet and one of the greatest Italian humanists. He wrote a number of notable works, with his most famous work, The Decameron, being a masterpiece of Italian and world prose.

http://leopoldclassiclibrary.com/book/the-decameron-vol-ii

Leonardo da Vinci, 1452 – 1519

Occupation: Polymath

Leonardo is the prime exemplar of the "Universal Genius" or "Renaissance Man". He had achievements in many different areas of art and science: painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. His mural painting The Last Supper is one of the world's most famous paintings.

http://leopoldclassiclibrary.com/book/renaissance-masters-the-art-of-raphael-michelangelo-leonardo-da-vinci-titian-correggio-and-botticelli
http://leopoldclassiclibrary.com/book/leonardo-da-vinci
http://leopoldclassiclibrary.com/book/observations-on-leonardo-da-vincis-celebrated-picture-of-the-last-supper

Niccolò Machiavelli, 1469 – 1527

Occupation: Historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, writer

Niccolò Machiavelli was an Italian historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, and writer. He was for many years a senior official in the Florentine Republic and wrote a historical account of Florence. "Machiavellianism" is a widely used negative term used to characterize unscrupulous politicians of the sort Machiavelli described most famously in The Prince — his famous political treatise that is first work of modern political science.

http://leopoldclassiclibrary.com/book/the-florentine-history-in-two-volumes-volume-i
http://leopoldclassiclibrary.com/book/the-prince-and-other-pieces