Bracciolini, Poggio 125bows and arrows SeeWEAPONS AND WEAPONRY.
boyar Boyar,a Turkish word, was used to identify rich
landholders or prominent officials, free but not necessar-
ily noble, of a prince in eastern Europe. They could be
living in the countryside or in a town and usually were
expected to play a role in military affairs with bands of
retainers. Their adherence to a lord was voluntary, and
they could honorably switch allegiances, without loss of
property or status, except during a war. Such betrayals
could be punished with death, blinding, or imprisonment
with loss of possessions. They were paid with booty from
war, granting of titles, income from offices of state, or
gifts of landed property.
In 14th- and early-15th-century Muscovy the boyars
were usually members of certain families who were coun-
cillors of the prince. They served in a rotation of perhaps
a dozen at a time. This group grew and changed in the
15th century as new men were appointed by the princes,
who tried to ally them more closely with himself and
avert the possibility of an individual family’s surpassing
his own in power and prestige. As this occurred, their
ability to change their allegiances vanished as they
became more and more the creatures of the ruling house.
See alsoDUMA;IVA NIII.
Further reading:Robert Craig Howes, trans., The
Testaments of the Grand Princes of Moscow(Ithaca, N.J.:
Cornell University Press, 1967); Janet Martin, Medieval
Russia, 980–1584 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1995); George Vernadsky, Kievan Russia (New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1959); George Ver-
nadsky, The Mongols and Russia(New Haven, Conn.: Yale
University Press, 1953).
Brabant, duchy of Brabant was a territory formed
from medieval Lotharingia, a frontier zone between East
and West Francia, and is now part of central BELGIUM.In
the late ninth century, in the first mention of the region
the local aristocracy was asserting itself against a weaken-
ing Carolingian state. In the late 10th century, the counts
of Louvain formed a new principality comprising Hain-
ault and Brabant centered on their hometown of Louvain.
From then on, the duchy of Brabant lay between FLAN-
DERSin the west and Liège and the lands of the emperor
in the east.
In the 12th century, they obtained the defunct title
of duke of Lower Lorraine and the still viable title of
marquis of Antwerp. The principality was soon called
the duchy of Brabant. This family kept the duchy until it
passed to the house of Luxembourg by marriage in 1355
and then to the dukes of BURGUNDYin 1388. A center of
cloth production it included a network of rich commer-
cial cities such as Brussels and Antwerp. These towns
grew richer on the production of linen, luxury textiles,
tapestries, and mercenary soldiers. It was among the
richest possessions of the dukes of Burgundy in the 15th
century.
Further reading:Henry Stephen Lucas, John III, Duke
of Brabant, and the French Alliance, 1345–1347(Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 1927); David Nicholas,
Medieval Flanders(New York: Longman, 1992); Henri
Pirenne, Early Democracy in the Low Countries: Urban
Society and Political Conflict in the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance, trans. J. V. Saunders (1915; New York:
Harper & Row, 1963).Bracciolini, Poggio(Gian Francesco, Poggio di Guc-
cio, Poggius Florentius)(1380–1459)Florentine human-
ist, famous for his reform of handwriting
Poggio di Guccio was born in Florentine territory at
Terranova in the upper Arno Valley. His later surname
was never used during his life, and he was commonly
called Poggius Florentius. By 1402 he was working as a
NOTARYin FLORENCE. In stories told later in the century
he was already at that time copying in a new cleared
script that he had developed himself. This style of new
script, actually basically a revival of Caroline script, was
soon called lettera antica. It struck an immediately
favorable cord with his contemporaries, who were look-
ing for a new neat hand to allow them to read more eas-
ily the classical texts with which they were becoming
fascinated.
In 1404, he had gained a position in the papal chan-
cellery as secretary, he worked there for almost 50 years.
He maintained his position in the papal administration
despite the turbulence of the Great SCHISM(1378–1417)
and multiple popes, wisely switching sides when need be.
At the same time he spent time combing the libraries of
Europe for manuscripts containing classical Latin texts.
He was successful in locating and in bringing to light
manuscripts of Cicero, Lucretius, Ammianus Marcellinus,
and Quintilian, and to a lesser extent those of the fathers
of the church. These were the fundamental texts of inter-
est in a revival of interest or renaissance of study of late
antique learning and culture that was occurring at the
time. His duties and travel for the papal curia searching
for manuscripts took him to VENICE, northern Europe,
and even for a short exile in England.
At the same time he himself started to write, produc-
ing interesting treatises in dialogue form on social and
ethical questions. In 1435 at age 55 he married Vaggia
Buondelmonti, member of an old but no longer wealthy
Florentine family, while still comfortably employed in the
papal court. They had six children. He wrote frequently
of humorous and pretty women but always displayed a
serious Christian morality, unlike many of his contempo-
rary humanists and members of the papal household.
In 1453 he became chancellor of the city of Florence,
following in the tradition of some of the most eminent
humanists of the century. His later years were marred by