Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai

Renaissance man of letters

Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai (20 October 1475 – 3 April 1525) 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 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.