Giovanni Nesi

Giovanni Nesi (1456–1506) was a Florentine philosopher of the Renaissance.

Life Nesi was born in Florence on 14 January 1456 to Francesco di Giovanni Nesi and Nera di Giovanni of the . His father served as one of the nine priori in 1456 and 1476. His family's wealth allowed Nesi to devote himself to letters and in 1495 he reported to the catasto that he did not have to work. He was a disciple of Donato Acciaiuoli and Marsilio Ficino and joined the Platonic Academy. He was prominent enough to be included in Ugolino Verino's De illustratione Urbis Florentiae. Verino also dedicated an epigram to him, Ad Ioannem Nesium, quomodo a peccatis sit abstinendum.

Nesi was a piagnone—a supporter of Girolamo Savonarola—and was actively involved in the Florentine Consulte e Pratiche. He served two terms as priore in May–June 1485 and January–February 1503 and two terms as one of the eight ufficiali of the in 1497 and 1499. From 11 July 1505 to 5 January 1506, he was podestà of Prato, where he reformed the local statutes.

Sermons Between 1472 and 1486, Nesi preached a series of sermons in vernacular Tuscan before the lay .

Ioannis Nesii adulescentuli oratiuncula, preached before the on 13 December 1472

In the Symbolum nesianum, Nesi explains to the Camaldolese friar Paolo Orlandini the imagery he used in the Oraculum.

Nesi wrote two collections of poems, Canzoniere (1497–1498) and the incomplete Poema in terza rima (1499).