ABSTRACT
In 1476, Lorenzo de' Medici addressed a letter to Federigo of Aragon, accom panying a collection of Tuscan verse known as the Raccolta Aragonese.1 The letter reviews the history of poetry from its origins, culminating in the exam ples of refined language and style represented in the volume. Lorenzo was one of the key figures in the movement towards the rehabilitation of ver nacular poetry. He strongly advocated study of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, the 'three crowns of Florence', while his own poetry consciously adopts the vocabulary and verse forms of the dolce stil novo. In the same year as the letter, Lorenzo and the mathematician Antonio del Tuccio Manetti formed a scheme to have Dante's remains returned to Florence. The plan never suc ceeded, but the initiative eventually led to the restoration in May 1483 of Dante's tomb in S. Pier Maggiore in Ravenna.2
