Giovanni Rucellai
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Giovanni Rucellai (1475-1525) was an Italian humanist, poet, dramatist and man of letters. He was also an important figure in the fields of commerce and politics, being in his lifetime the third richest man in Florence, a situation that was added to by his marrying into the powerful Strozzi and Medici families. As the effective head of the Rucellai family, he commissioned the building of the Palazzo Rucellai, designed by Leon Battista Alberti. He was a cousin of Pope Leo X.
He was born in Florence, and died in Rome. He is now remembered mostly for the blank verse poem Le Api (the bees).
[Note: this article confuses Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai (1475-1525) and his grandfather Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai (1403-1481). It was Giovanni di Paolo who built the Palazzo Rucellai, etc. See the respective articles in the Italian Wikipedia.]
