Short answers, pulled from the story.
Flavio Biondo (1392-1463) was an Italian Renaissance humanist historian. He is considered one of the first archaeologists and one of the first historians to divide history into three periods: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern.
Biondo's major works include De Roma instaurata (Rome Restored, 1444-1448), De Roma triumphante (Rome Triumphant, 1479), Italia illustrata (Italy Illuminated, published 1474), and the Historiarum ab Inclinatione Romanorum Imperii (published Venice, 1483). The last, a history of Europe in thirty-two books, is considered his greatest achievement.
During a brief stay in Milan, Biondo discovered and transcribed the unique surviving manuscript of Cicero's dialogue Brutus.
Biondo was appointed secretary to the Cancelleria under Pope Eugene IV in 1444 and accompanied Eugene into exile in Ferrara and Florence. After Eugene's death he served Pope Nicholas V, Pope Callixtus III, and Pope Pius II.
The work covers European history from the plunder of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 to contemporary Italy in 1442. It was written between 1439 and 1453 and published in Venice in 1483.
Taking the ancient Greek geographer Strabo as his model, Biondo presented Italy as a unified peninsula rather than a collection of separate regions. The work, based on his personal travels, covered fourteen Italian regions and recorded each location's topography, place-name etymology, and historical changes across time.