- Franco Sacchetti
Franco Sacchetti, (c. 1335 – c. 1400) was a Ragusan Italian poet and novelist.
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 inFlorence [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/515218/Franco-Sacchetti#tab=active~checked%2Citems~checked&title=Franco%20Sacchetti%20--%20Britannica%20Online%20Encyclopedia] 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 toGenoa ,Milan andIschiavonia . 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 " toBibbiena in Casentino. In 1392 he was podestà ofSan Miniato , and in 1396 he held a similar office atFaenza . In 1398 he received from his fellow-citizens the post of captain of their then province ofRomagna , 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.ee also
*
List of notable Ragusans References
*cite book|title=The Humour of Italy|first=A. |last=Werner|location=London|publisher=W. Scott Ltd.
*1911
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