Sulle tracce di Francesco d'Amaretto Mannelli

This paper offers a revised profile of Francesco Mannelli, the well-known scribe who signed the “Ottimo codice” of the Decameron in 1384. New evidence refutes the belief that he or his father fled Florence for Valencia in 1387. Instead, Mannelli fled a decade later, following his involvement in a failed conspiracy against the Albizzi regime. This revision has two main consequences. On the one hand, Mannelli’s prolonged presence in Florence reinforces the hypothesis that he received at least part of his cultural education in the orbit of Coluccio Salutati and the Florentine Chancellery. On the other, it seems likely that after leaving Florence, Mannelli found refuge in Bologna, where he benefited from a family support network. His social ties in Bologna are again documented in the last years of his life, as recently discovered documents dating from the 1420s and 1430s shed new light on his family ties, particularly with his younger brother Ramondo, who was connected to the new Floren-tine humanist circles gathered around Leonardo Bruni.