The Florentine statesman and historian, who wrote, in Italian, a lengthy history of Italy in his own day. Boccalini (see p. 81, 1. 4) tells a story of a Spartan citizen, who, having said in three words what might have been said in two, was sentenced to punishment, but offered the alternative of reading Guicciardini's history of the Pisan war. He read the first few pages; but then begged for the severest punishment, so as to escape from a continuation of the dreary task.