Giovanni Cavalcanti (poet)

Among several members of the extended Florentine patrician family the Cavalcanti [Voluminous genealogical material in the Raccolte Pucci and Sebregondi in the Archivio di Stato in Florence is supplemented by kinship alliances testified to in family archives of the Manelli, Riccardi, Compagni, Strozzi, Guicciardini, Capponi, Antinori, and Galilei. The most prosperous time for the Cavalcanti bank was during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, when the Cavalcanti had offices in Rome. As Medici supporters (and residents of the district of Santa Croce), the family’s status in Florence was prone to sudden changes, and some of the Cavalcanti were exiled in the fifteenth century along with Cosimo the Elder. ( [http://sscm-jscm.press.uiuc.edu/v9/no1/coelho.html#ch4 Victor Anand Coelho, "The Players of Florentine Monody in Context and in History, and a Newly Recognized Source for Le nuove musiche" "Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music" 9.1 (2003)] ).] holding the name Giovanni, the Florentine poet Giovanni Cavalcanti (1444-1509) was a member of the Platonic Academy of Florence that met in the Villa Medici at Careggi under the guidance of Marsilio Ficino. Ficino and Cavalcanti were particular friends: Giovanni Cavalcanti lived for many years with Ficino at his villa, and Marsilio dedicated his essay "De amore" (1484) to Cavalcanti, who had urged him to compose it. Ficino introduced the concept of "Platonic love" and addressed many letters to his "Giovanni amico mio perfettisimo" ("Giovanni my most perfect friend").

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