Vincenzo Borghini

• Honorific Prefix — Dom • Name — Vincenzo Borghini • Honorific Suffix — OSB • Born — 29 October 1515 • Birthplace — Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany • Died — 15 August 1580 • Place of death — Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany • Occupation — * Christian monk • Writer • Classical scholar • Historian • Title — Prior • Parents — Domenico Borghini and Mattea Borghini (née Capponi) • Era — Italian Renaissance • Religion — Roman Catholicism • Order — Benedictines • Ordination — 1641 • Resting Place — Church of the Innocenti, Florence

Vincenzo Borghini was born at Florence in 1515 of a noble family, and was ordained a Benedictine priest in 1540. He was an artistic advisor to the Medici, and was engaged with Giorgio Vasari in designing and selecting the decoration of the Studiolo of Francesco I Medici in the Palazzo Vecchio of Florence. He also provided Vasari with the iconographical programme for the ceiling paintings in the Salone dei Cinquecento (1563; Florence, Palazzo Vecchio) and acted as iconographic adviser to the Medici court for many public ceremonials in the 1560s and 1570s. After 1552, Borghini served as Spedalingo or Prior of the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence. He was the luogotenente of the Accademia del Disegno from 1563. He was one of the persons appointed to correct the Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by order of the Council of Trent, and performed this task for the edition of Florence, 1573. In the subsequent Annotazioni (1574), he explained the textual changes and examined Boccaccio's language. Borghini was the inspiration behind the foundation of the Accademia della Crusca (1583), suggesting to Cosimo I de' Medici the names of a committee, including its future president Lionardo Salviati. And the fundamental work he did on the Annotazioni would later form the basis for the work of Salviati and for the first Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca of 1611. Borghini died in 1580, after having refused, through humility, the archbishopric of Pisa, which was offered to him some time before his death.

Borghini’s work remains largely unpublished, mainly because of his unsystematic method of jotting down sporadic notes, and the difficulty of some of his handwriting. His best known work, the Discorsi di M. Vincenzo Borghini, was published posthumously in 2 volumes in 1584 and 1585, and reissued in 1755 with annotations. In these dissertations he treats of the origin of Florence, and of several interesting particulars of its history, of its families, of its coins, etc. Borghini's fame reached a new height in the 19th century, and selections from his manuscripts were published sporadically, notably La Ruscelleide (Città di Castello, Lapi, 1898), a bitter satire against Girolamo Ruscelli, and the brief autobiographical notes Ricordi intorno alla sua vita (Florence, Libreria Editrice Fiorentina, 1909).

Vincenzo Borghini is recorded as philologist, writer, christian monk and historian.