In contrast to him, JACOPO NARDI was a bitter opponent of the Medici family, and in his _History of Florence_ from 1494 to 1531 he paints them in the blackest colours. So determined an adversary of the ruling dynasty could not be suffered to remain in Florence. He was driven into banishment, and took refuge in Venice, where he died after the middle of the Century. As a biographer he distinguished himself by his life of Antonio Giacomini.
The Sixteenth Century was fertile in historians, for we have to chronicle the name of another in BERNARDO SEGNI. He wrote the _History of Italy_ from 1527 to 1555, or three years before his death. Dealing with contemporary events, he could not treat his subject with the requisite independence, and living a quiet and studious life, it is difficult to see how he could gather reliable information, or have access to important documents.
VINCENZO BORGHINI was a laborious antiquarian, who wrote a book on the _Origin of the City of Florence._
GIAMBATTISTA ADRIANI professed to continue Guicciardini's work in his _History of his Own Times,_ but it is complete in itself, and has many merits, both of style and subject. Adriani was celebrated in his day as a public speaker, and his _Latin Orations_ were so much admired that they were translated into Italian as soon as they were held. He died in 1579.
CAMILLO PORZIO who survived until 1603, wrote several historical monographs concerning the Kingdom of Naples.
Skilful as they were in all the arts of composition, the writers of the Sixteenth Century too frequently indulged in redundant prolixity. Conscious of this defect, BERNARDO DAVANZATI determined to cultivate the opposite quality of laconic conciseness. He was brilliantly successful. He translated Tacitus, that great model of brevity, and boasted that his rendering contained fewer words than the original without sacrificing a particle of the sense. He wrote a book on the Reformation in England, a Funeral Oration on Cosimo I, and several treatises on finance and agriculture.
In reviewing the writers of this Epoch, we are struck with the number and merit of the historians. The other Prose Writers appeal but faintly to modern readers. With the exception of BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE, who, in his _Cortegiano_ gives us a pleasing picture of the more refined circles of Italian society, and of Vasari and Benvenuto Cellini, they do not disclose much of the manners and customs of their age. No Boccaccio arose to portray for future times the men and women of his day.