Martelli Nicolò

Nicolò (or Niccolò) Martelli was the scion of a wealthy family of merchants from Florence. At the age of fourteen he was sent to Rome to make practice in the trade. Here he met his idol, Pietro Aretino, who encouraged him to compose poems. Back in Florence he took over the family business.

In 1531, exiled for a few months in Prato, he met the “letterati” Baldinaccio Martellini, Pandolfo Martelli, and Agnolo Firenzuola, and had a love affair with Maria Minerbetti, wife of Tommaso Minerbetti, Duke Cosimo de' Medici's local representative. In 1536 he married Lucrezia di Francesco Ciampelli. In 1540 he founded, together with Giovanni Mazzuoli, Antonio Grazzini and many others, the Accademia degli Umidi (cf. M. Maylender, Storia delle Accademia d'Italia, Bologna, 1930, V, pp. 363-367), which a year later was transformed into the more institutional Accademia Fiorentina (cf. Plaisance, Une première affirmation de la politique culturelle de Côme Ier: la trasformation de l'Academie des ‘Humidi' en Académie Florentine (1540-1542), in: “L'Accademia e il suo principe”, Roma, 2004, p. 140, 185-186).

Martelli remained member of the academy with the name of “Gelato” and in 1544-45 was appointed consul. In 1543 he travelled to France in search of business venture, following the footsteps of his friend Luigi Alamanni, but already after a month he returned to Florence to assume the new position as mayor of Impruneta. He died in Florence in 1555.

Martelli was the author of many occasional pieces dedicated to members of the Medici family. He also wrote love verses addressed to Maria Minerbetti and several comical compositions. His entire poetic production remained unpublished, except the Stanze sopra le nozze del duca Cosimo Medici secondo (Firenze, 1539).