was a personal friend, and Jonson hailed Florio as "loving father" and "ayde of his muses". Philosopher Giordano Bruno was also a personal friend; Florio met the Italian philosopher in London, while both of them were residing at the French embassy. Bruno wrote and published in London his six most celebrated moral dialogues, including La cena de le ceneri (The Ash Wednesday Supper, 1584), in which Florio is mentioned as Bruno's companion.

John Florio worked as tutor to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton;