Cirni, Antonio Francesco, 1520?-1583

Italian nobleman, who was a sailor, secretary, politician, and chronicler. He was born in Olmeta di Tuda in Corsica around 1520. He studied at the Università di Pisa, then served as a secretary to the Medici family in Florence and in naval ventures against the Ottoman Turks, after which he produced his Successi dell'armata della Maestà catolica destinata all'impresa di Tripoli di Barbaria, della presa di le Sheaf e progressi dell' armata turchesca (1560), which he dedicated to Francesco de' Medici (1541-1587). Perhaps his most notable work is a history of the 1565 Siege of Malta, entitled Commentarii di Antonfrancesco Cirni, Corso, ne' quali si descrive la guerra ultima di Francia, la celebrazione del Concilio Tridentino, il soccorso d'Orano, l'impresa del Pignone, et l'Historia dell'assedio di Malta (1567). From the 1560s onward, he was involved in peaceful diplomatic relations between the Republic of Genoa and his native Corsica and held government positions in Corsica. He died in 1583.