Franco Sacchetti

Franco Sacchetti.

Franco Sacchetti (c. 1335 – c. 1400) was an Italian poet and novelist born in the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik).

He was the son of Benci di Uguccione, surnamed Buono, of the noble and ancient Florentine family of the Sacchetti and was born in Dubrovnik (Ragusa), Dalmatia or in Florence[1] about the year 1335. While still a young man he achieved repute as a poet, and he appears to have travelled on affairs of more or less importance as far as to Genoa, Milan and Ischiavonia. When a sentence of banishment was passed upon the rest of the house of Sacchetti by the Florentine authorities in 1380 it appears that Franco was expressly exempted, per esser tanto uomo buono ("because he is a real good man"), and in 1383 he was one of the eight, discharging the office of prior for the months of March and April.

In 1386 he was chosen ambassador to Genoa, but preferred to go as podestà to Bibbiena in Casentino. In 1392 he was podestà of San Miniato, and in 1396 he held a similar office at Faenza. In 1398 he received from his fellow-citizens the post of captain of their then province of Romagna, having his residence at Portico. The date of his death is unknown; most probably it occurred about 1400, though some writers place it as late as 1410.

He wrote sonnets, canzoni, madrigals, and other poems; his best known works are however his Novelle (short stories). They were originally 300 in number, but today only 258 remain, the rest having been lost. They were not fitted into any framework like that of Boccaccio's Decameron. The best of them are of a humorous character; and their style is more simple and colloquial than Boccaccio's. The story given as a specimen probably exists (under one form or another) in the folk tales of every European nation.

See also

• List of notable Ragusans

References

• Werner, A.. The Humour of Italy. London: W. Scott Ltd.. 
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.