Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai

Giovanni Rucellai (20 October 1475 – 3 April 1525), known as Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai (with a patronymic), was an Italian humanist, poet, dramatist and man of letters in Renaissance Florence, in Tuscany, Italy. A member of a wealthy family of wool merchants and one of the richest men in Florence, he was cousin to Pope Leo X and linked by marriage to the powerful Strozzi and de' Medici families. He was born in Florence, and died in Rome. He was the son of Bernardo Rucellai (1448–1514) and his wife Nannina de' Medici (1448–1493), and the grandson of Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai (1403–1481). He is now remembered mostly for his poem Le Api ("The Bees"), one of the first poems composed in versi sciolti (blank verse) to achieve widespread acclaim.

Life Giovanni Rucellai was born on 20 October 1475 in Florence, the fourth son of Bernardo Rucellai and Nannina de' Medici, sister of Lorenzo the Magnificent. He was proficient in Latin, Greek and philosophy; it is not known where or with whom he studied, except that he was a pupil of the philosopher Francesco Cattani da Diacceto.