Guicciardini
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
FRANCESCO (gwechär-dēnē), an Italian historian; born in Florence, March 6, 1482. The combined studies of law and literature engrossed his attention at first; and at the age of 23 he was elected Professor of Law at Florence, where he also practiced as an advocate. His apprenticeship served in Spain (1512-1514), he became papal ruler of Modena and Reggio under Leo X. and Clement VII., and afterward of Parma in 1521, the Romagna in 1523, and Bologna in 1531. Retiring from the service of the Pope in 1534, he was instrumental in securing the election of Cosmo de' Medici as duke of his native city, Florence. But, being disappointed in his ambitious design of acting as mayor of the palace to this young prince, Guicciardini withdrew to Arcetri, and busied himself with the composition of an analytical history of Italy between 1494 and 1532. He died in Arcetri, in May, 1540. GUIDO ARETINUS (gwē'dō a-ri-tī nus), or GUY OF AREZZO (ä-ret'sō), a French musician; born near Paris in 990; went to Arezzo as a Benedictine monk. He greatly influenced musical studies, and almost every discovery made in in music for 150 years has been attributed to him, including that of descant, counterpoint, and the spinet. He is said to have invented the principle on which the construction of the stave is based, and the hexachord, solmisation, and the "Harmonic or Guidonian Hand," a mnemonic method of indicating the order of the musical sounds on the fingerjoints of the left hand. Guido left writings explanatory of his musical doctrines, especially the "Micrologus" and the "Antiphonarium." He died in Avellana in 1050.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The outline Collier's gave in 1921 still holds: the Florentine lawyer turned papal governor of Modena, Reggio, Parma, the Romagna and Bologna, who retired to Arcetri and wrote his history of Italy from 1494 to 1532. What has shifted is which of his writings people read. The private papers recovered from the family archive and printed in the nineteenth century — above all the terse maxims of the "Ricordi," the "Storie fiorentine" and the "Dialogo del reggimento di Firenze" — are now studied as closely as the "Storia d'Italia," and Guicciardini is routinely set beside Machiavelli as a founder of modern political history rather than treated as a chronicler of his own times. Modern readers usually meet the history through Costantino Panigada's critical Italian edition and Sidney Alexander's English abridgement of 1969. One flat error survives in the adjoining notice: Guido of Arezzo was not "a French musician, born near Paris" but an Italian monk, trained at Pomposa.
Written for this edition, 2026.