(b Ragusa, between 1332 and 1334; d San Miniato, 1400). Italian writer and poet, the son of a Florentine merchant in Ragusa (now Dubrovnik). The family moved to Florence and Franco began writing love lyrics while in his early twenties, modelling his works after Dante and Boccaccio. In 1363 he launched an active career in politics and travelled widely as a podestà and merchant. A political upheaval, the death of his wife (1377) and his brother, Giannozzo (beheaded on 17 October 1379), were tragic events, the sadness of which is reflected in his late writings. He was also involved with Florentine companies of laudesi.
His major works are: Battaglia delle belle donne (1352–4), Sposizioni di Vangeli (1378–81), Trecentonovelle (begun not before 1392) and Libro delle rime (ed. F. Brambilla Ageno, Florence and Perth, 1990), begun in 1380 and continued until his death; the two rime are included in his autograph (I-Fl Ashburn.574). The autograph ascribes musical settings of 17 ballette, 14 madrigals and two cacce to the most distinguished composers active in Florence (Niccolò da Perugia, Francesco Landini, Gherardello, Lorenzo da Firenze, Donato da Cascia and Guilielmus de Francia), while other composers are mentioned whose music is totally lost (Ottolino da Brescia, Gherardello’s sons Jacopo and Giovanni and his brother Jacopo, and Sacchetti himself). Music actually survives for only 12 poems.
E. Li Gotti and N. Pirrotta: Il Sacchetti e la tecnica musicale del Trecento Italiano (Florence, 1935)
F.A. Gallo: ‘The Musical and Literary Tradition of Fourteenth-Century Poetry Set to Music’, Musik und Text in der Mehrstimmigkeit des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts: Wolfenbüttel 1980, 55–76
L. Zampese: ‘Le ballate e le cacce del Sacchetti’, Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, clx (1983), 321–43
L. Battaglia Ricci: Palazzo Vecchio e dintorni: studio su Franco Sacchetti e le fabbriche di Firenze (Rome, 1990)
A. Ziino: ‘Rime per musica e per danza’, Storia della letteratura italiana, ed. E. Malato, ii (Rome, 1995), 455–529
B.McD. Wilson: ‘Madrigal, Lauda, and Local Style in Trecento Florence’, JM, xv (1997), 137–77
W. THOMAS MARROCCO/GIANLUCA D’AGOSTINO