1475-1524. Italy. Florentine patrician, merchant and historian. Like the rest of his family he was not really rich, but he made his career as a follower of the Medici regime. After 1494 he favoured the religious ideas of Girolamo Savonarola, though he remained a critic of the political development during this period. When the Medici returned to Florence in 1512, he had already held some of the important offices, and again profited from the reinstalled Medici regime. His writings, all in Italian, include a journal and a town chronicle.

In 1500 he started writing his Ricordi (Memoirs) descr…