CHAPTER II.LEONARDO BRUNI ARETINO AND THE FLORENTINE HUMANISTS. FRANCESCO FILELFO. COSIMO DE’ MEDICI.Nextto Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo Bruni and Ambrogio Traversari were those who did most effective service to the knowledge of classic antiquity. Leonardo Bruni[339]was descended from a burgher family in Arezzo, whence he derived the name of Aretino, which, after having been held in honour, was dragged through the mud a century later by one of his own countrymen. Although eleven years older than Poggio, and instructed in Greek by Chrysoloras at Florence, he did not appear till much later in the Papal exchequer, owing, it seems, to his being disgusted with events passing at Constance. He remained at home when Pope Martin V. returned, and the office of chancellor was there bestowed on him in 1427, a post he filled with dignity till his death on March 8, 1444, at the age of seventy-five. Like Coluccio, Poggio, Gregorio Correr, the highly educated kinsman of Pope Gregory XII., and others, he laid the foundation of a criticism which kept his fame alive for centuries in the emendation of manuscripts; while by the translationof Greek authors into the Latin language, he made them accessible to a larger circle of readers, among whom a knowledge of Greek had not found its way. Everyone who had any pretensions to cultivation understood Latin more or less. All speeches on festive occasions, and even some private conversations, were in Latin. Official documents were drawn up in the same language, and most business transactions were conducted in it. Pope Martin V. spoke Latin with his Tuscan secretaries, even when angry at the rudeness of the Florentine street boys. But Greek remained a subject of study which never, even in the happiest times, extended beyond a circle privileged by exceptional knowledge and position. Though Leonardo Aretino wrote a small treatise in Greek[340]on the Florentine constitution, he composed his principal works in Latin. His history of Florence, extending from the origin of the city to the strife with Gian Galeazzo Visconti, was, so to say, completed by Poggio’s last work, which concludes with the year 1455. Men of the fifteenth century, who longed to see the classical form of historiography employed on events at home, attributed an imaginary value to this work, and believed that Florence could rival Athens, and her two historians, statesmen as well as scholars, might compete with Thucydides and Xenophon. Whoever wishes to study Florentine history will not turn to the Latin historians of the humanistic epoch, whose style, however, exercised a decided influence not merely on contemporary works in the vulgar tongue, but on much later writings. The importance attributed to these works is shown by the excellent Donato Acciaiuoli having been publicly commissioned to translate into Italian the history of his master Leonardo, which had been bought by the State, while Poggio’s son Jacopo did the same with that of his father. The veneration in which Leonardo Aretino was held was expressed by a grant of the rights of citizenship to him in 1416, by theimmunity from taxation decreed in his favour twenty-three years later, by the purchase of his principal work,[341]and by the laurel wreath at his funeral, a distinction granted to many deserving men. On March 9, Alamanno Rinuccini wrote to Giovanni de’ Medici, Cosimo’s son, then residing at the baths of Petriolo:[342]‘I do not doubt that letters and messengers will have outstripped this letter in speed, but for the sake of our mutual friendship I will speak of him who quitted this life but yesterday. How could I be otherwise than deeply moved when so many undying virtues are suddenly removed from our sight, virtues which were not only an adornment to him in whom they shone, but sufficed as an ornament and benefit to the whole town? Who felt and exercised such beneficence towards all, friends and strangers? who assisted friends with advice like him? who distinguished himself by excellent qualities and knowledge to such a degree? It is amongst ancient Romans we must search to find men who resemble him.’Ambrogio Traversari,[343]born in 1386, the son of poor peasants at Portico, a little village of Tuscan Romagna, was younger than Leonardo by seventeen years, than Poggio by six. If he were one of Chrysoloras’ scholars,[344]it must have been at a very youthful age. At all events, he attained an unusual knowledge of Greek, while he was considered the best Latinist in Florence equal to Leonardo; joint praise which the latter, who laid claims to the first undivided place, took so amiss that he quarrelled with his rival and friends about it. As a boy, Ambrogio entered the order of the Camaldolese monks, in which he attained to the highest honours. When a man, the fame of his virtues and knowledge attracted all who were interested in learned studies in Florence to the convent of the Angeli in Via degli Alfani. This church, which has been lately restored, is at present disused for Divine worship, and empty. Like the great mother-housein the Casentino, the city convents have been taken from the Camaldulese, who seemed to have grown with Tuscan history, and yet fell a sacrifice to a revolution of which there is yet no history. But whoever enters the pillared court is reminded by the marble bust of Ambrogio Traversari of the time when this spot was a centre of brilliant intellectual light illuminating the houses of Florentine patricians, and through them the whole world. The most illustrious and talented men flocked to Fra Ambrogio (as formerly to Marsigli), who not only gave lectures for the clergy and laity on Greek and Latin language and literature, but discussed philosophical and theological questions in public conferences. In addition to the various works of his regular calling he was employed in the translation of Greek writings, especially the Fathers of the Church. Cosimo de’ Medici testified to his skill therein when he related how Fra Ambrogio dictated the Latin translation of St. Chrysostom’s ‘Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul’ to Niccolò Niccoli, who wrote a ready hand, so quickly that the latter was hardly able to follow him, Cosimo, who, with his brother Lorenzo, was one of the most frequent visitors to the convent of the Angeli, assisted Fra Ambrogio, who was not rich, with money as well as books. The latter translated for Cosimo. Diogenes Laertius’ ‘Lives of Philosophers,’ a work which he, having devoted himself entirely to theological studies, undertook unwillingly, but yet could not refuse to his generous friend. The men whom the two Medici met most frequently at Traversari’s were Niccolò Niccoli, Carlo Marsuppini, and Gianozzo Manetti. Such a lover of books as Niccoli had never been seen in Florence. The son of an affluent merchant, he devoted himself when independent zealously to literature; while he displayed scarcely less sympathy for art, with the most famous disciples of which he stood in intimate relations. Like Fra Ambrogio’s cloister, his house was a centre for literary effort and learned conversation. At the commencement of the dialogue ‘De Infelicitate Principum,’ Poggio describes his meeting Cosimo de’ Medici andMarsuppini at the time when he was at Florence in the suite of Pope Eugenius IV. A conversation on the instability of human things afforded the opportunity for holding the dialogue mentioned. Poggio observed then, among other things, that during his thirty-four years’ service at the Papal court he never remained more than two years in one and the same place. Thoroughly versed in the Latin language, and instructed in philosophy and theology under the guidance of Marsigli, Niccoli was one of those who caused Chrysoloras to be summoned to Florence, and was one of his most earnest scholars. His knowledge was extensive also in other branches; no one was more at home in geography. His love for books became a passion. He had agents everywhere, and manuscripts came to him from all sides. If he could not obtain possession of the originals, he borrowed and copied them himself. His copy of Lucretius, kept in the Laurentian library, after another manuscript of Poggio had been lost, became the original of all which were written in the fifteenth century. He employed all his fortune on his library—no mere ornament to his house, nor was it dead capital. Liberal and sympathetic, he placed his treasures at the disposal of all. Many owed their progress in studies to him. Where his own means did not suffice, he persuaded friends to purchase, especially Cosimo de’ Medici, who cherished a great affection for him, and in 1420, when he quitted Florence on account of the pestilence, took him and Marsuppini to Verona. Neither Cosimo nor his brother could refuse him anything. When he had expended so much that his income no longer sufficed to support the modest household which he maintained with a single aged servant (he had not wished to marry, in order not to be interrupted in his studies), the two Medici commissioned their banking agents to pay him as much as he might demand, and to put it to their account. Niccoli repaid the friendship they always showed to him. In 1433 he expressed himself so unguardedly against Cosimo’s enemies, that he would have shared their fate had not thechange come soon. He was the most open-hearted man in the world—cheerful, conversational, eloquent, accessible to all, and obliging. By sincere sympathy he richly compensated for the irritability of his temper, which more than once led him into mistakes and often exposed him to literary attacks. His exterior was dignified, his dress careful. Beside books, his house was full of objects of art of various kinds; and if his food was of the simplest, he loved to decorate his table with delicate porcelain, crystal, and fine table-linen. He was the first to conceive the idea of a public library, and caused the manuscripts which Boccaccio had bequeathed to the convent of Sto. Spirito, and which were treasured up in coffers, to be laid open for common use by having book-shelves and reading-desks made at his own expense. We shall speak later on of the way in which his own library was disposed of.Through Niccoli, Carlo Marsuppini[345]was brought into contact with the Medici, which proved the turning-point of his whole life. His intimate relation with them is shown by the fact that at Cosimo’s wish he made the funeral oration on the death of his mother Piccarda. Born at Arezzo of affluent parents, at the end of the fourteenth century (his grandfather was secretary to King Charles VI. of France, and governor of Genoa conjointly with the Marshal of Boucicault), he came in early youth to Florence, where he attained considerable knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages and literature, made himself a famous name, as a public teacher, by his eloquence and excellent memory, and subsequently became chancellor. The numerous official duties he undertook in later years hindered him from cultivating literature as much as he desired. Thus he laid aside the metrical translation of the Iliad, which aroused in Pope Nicholas V. the wish to have the author near him, that he might devote himself undisturbed to Homer. After sometime it was taken up by a greater poet and Latinist, who, however, also left his task unfinished.How honourable was the position held by both Leonardo Bruni and Carlo Marsuppini is shown by the beautiful monuments erected to them, as well as the laurel bestowed on them after death. Giannozzi Manetti had greater literary and political importance than the latter.[346]He was descended from an illustrious family, and was born in 1396. While he devoted himself to science with as much zeal as if he considered study the main duty of his life, he developed an activity in public affairs which extended his connections beyond the narrow limits of his country throughout all Italy. He learnt Greek with Traversari; Latin he spoke and wrote with equal elegance, so that he made impromptu speeches at festivals, as at the Emperor Frederick III.’s entry into Florence, when he answered Eneas Silvio Piccolomini’s address extempore. To aid his theological studies he learned Hebrew, then a rarity, and disputed with Jewish scholars over the words and meaning of the Holy Scriptures. With three books he was so familiar that he might almost be said to know them by heart. They were the Epistles of St. Paul, Augustine’s ‘City of God,’ and Aristotle’s ‘Ethics.’ He translated the New Testament, and wrote a treatise on the Psalter. He devoted himself likewise to contemporary history, in which his extensive circle of personal friends was of great assistance to him. Continually employed in embassies, in which he did his native city essential service, he investigated with unusual acuteness the nature of sovereigns and governments. He has delineated Pope Nicholas V. and King Alfonso, while he attempted biographies of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, and celebrated the merits of distinguished contemporaries like Leonardo Bruni and Giannozzo Pandolfini in memorialspeeches. More perhaps than others of the time was he subject to that literary pedantry (a strange feature in a statesman) which appeared so strongly in the eulogy of Bruni, for example, that Poggio Bracciolini felt himself obliged to treat the same subjects in a freer and more independent manner. Manetti’s many services to the State in peace and war were ill requited. When in Cosimo de’ Medici’s later years the party came to the helm who suffered no independent position outside their own circle, Giannozzo Manetti, who could not be injured otherwise, was ruined by taxes, and ended his days in a foreign country.The men we have mentioned, whose activity extends beyond the limits of the fifteenth century, were the most illustrious of those on whom Manuel Chrysoloras exercised direct or indirect influence. If we return to their training-time, we find the university so flourishing at the beginning of the century that undisturbed continuance of its prosperity might have been prophesied. In 1401, especially famous among its teachers of jurisprudence was Paolo di Castro, whose name was considered to rank only second to that of Bartolo di Sassoferrato. He was variously employed by the Government, and took a prominent share in reforming the Florentine statute law; a reform at which several clever lawyers, like Bartolommeo da Soncino and others, worked for years. This revised code, concluded and accepted in 1415, remained in force till the abolition of all the numerous civil corporate and individual rights in the time of the Grand Duke Leopold I.[347]Citizens of the most illustrious families gave instruction then, as later. Not only youths but men of mature age filled the lecture-rooms, for literary and scientific knowledge was considered necessary in the higher ranks, where wealth excluded the necessity of gaining bread byscholarship. It was a noble emulation; and many, amid the sudden changes which brought rich families to beggary, did find means of subsistence in what they had once only regarded as an ornament of life. How many found the studies which delighted their youth the comfort of age in desolation and exile! The favourable prospects of the university did not last, however. Soon after 1404 the school seems to have been closed for eight years, in consequence of the disturbance and expense caused by the Pisan war and the oppression of King Ladislaus. After its being re-opened, Guarino of Verona was for a short time professor of Greek, a knowledge of which he had gained from Giovanni of Ravenna, and then perfected in Constantinople. In the spring of 1414 we meet with Palla Strozzi as one of the reformers, an office which he again undertook in the year 1428. On both occasions he rendered great services to the state, as it was he who obtained from Pope Martin V. the taxation of the clergy for purposes of public instruction.We have made the acquaintance of Palla Strozzi in our description of political life in his native city. His family was noble, and he ennobled it still more by the high character and position he attained. He had learned the Latin language thoroughly in his youth, and his longing for a knowledge of Greek had essentially contributed to the appointment of Chrysoloras. He entered the Greek’s circle of scholars, and took care to procure books and means of assistance from Constantinople and the Levant. His house was prudently kept, his sons most carefully instructed. Giovanni of Imola was their first tutor, and then Tommaso of Sarzana, who was destined for high honours. The perplexities in which this excellent man was involved in the disturbances of 1433-34 have been already related. The heads of the opposite party could hardly have considered him dangerous, but he was inconvenient to them. They said they wished for no court of appeal in Florence,[348]and Cosimo de’ Mediciwho yet had had more opportunities than others of knowing Palla’s great qualities and honest intentions, was not magnanimous enough to lay aside hatred and envy and restore him to his home. In his influential days the guidance of the State was placed in the hands of men who were interested in intellectual as well as political matters. Rinaldo degli Albizzi was occupied all his life with public affairs, perhaps more than any other citizen. If we consider that for more than fifteen years he was the real and, so to say, hereditary head of the aristocratic party, we scarcely understand how he could possibly undertake one embassy after another, commission after commission. The astonishment increases when we review the numberless reports and memoranda composed during his missions, which lasted to the beginning of 1433. They are some of the oldest of the large collection of documents the Republic can boast of. They are memorials drawn from the cultivated mind of an acute observer and practised business man, who treats the smallest things with the same conscientious care as the greatest; a virtue which was peculiar to this time and people, and the brilliant results of which are displayed in various fields. The vulgar tongue, in general still excluded from the treatment of scientific questions, or even political affairs, as far as it was a question of real representation (even in the discussions of the guilds it was first employed in 1414), appears here with a precision and skill which forms a prelude to the political writings of Lorenzo de’ Medici and Machiavelli. That Rinaldo selected Tommaso of Sarzana as well as Palla Strozzi to be the tutor of his sons shows what value he placed on good training, such as he had enjoyed himself. A physician who united medical science with philosophical studies, Giovanni Baldi de’ Tambini of Faenza, teacher at the Florentine university, and burgher of the city, in intimate connection with Rinaldo and Cosimo de’ Medici in their youth, has noted a disputation which he held with the latter on the question as to whether science was opposedto the Christian faith. The illustrious youth replied in the affirmative, like Pietro Pomponazzo a century after him, and supported his opinion by expressions of Aristotle.[349]His eloquence was praised by several of his contemporaries; Giovanni Cavalcanti says expressly that he maintained the honour of eloquence in Florence. It is more than probable that he wrote political poems.[350]Leonardo Aretino addressed a treatise on war to him. Among those who were active at the university we do not find his name; but we find among its promoters Niccoli, as well as Niccolò da Uzzano, the latter of whom evinced the interest he took in science by a munificent bequest for the foundation of a college for fifty scholars, a gift unfortunately employed for other purposes.Although the clouds which gathered more and more at the close of the third decade of the century threatened disturbances and war, a busy scientific life flourished at Florence. In April 1429, Francesco Filelfo of Tolentino, persuaded by Palla Strozzi, was appointed teacher of Greek literature.[351]He had studied for years at Constantinople, and latterly taught at Bologna. Never, perhaps, had a philologist such influence on the public, or was able to assemble such a brilliant circle of listeners, not even Pomponio Seto. However much allowance we may make for the boasting of a man vain beyond belief, who ranked himself in serious earnest above Virgil and Cicero because he found in himself the poet and orator combined, and because Greek and Latin were alike familiar to him, he yet possessed extraordinary talents. His versatility was as great as his industry, supported by the most powerful constitution, which enabled him to continuethe usual fatiguing life of the humanists unharmed to a great age. After having explained Homer and Thucydides, Cicero and Livy, he gave lectures in Sta. Maria del Fiore on the Divine Comedy. In the spring of 1431 the rights of citizenship were awarded to him. But his sharp tongue and his vanity, which led him to interfere in the civil factions, made him numerous enemies. A decree of banishment[352]promulgated against him in April, 1432, on account of an insult to the Republic of Venice, was not executed, but he was unable to save himself in the confusion which led to the fall of the Albizzi. With a degree of self-assertion which his position outside the political circle did not justify, he placed himself on the side of the now defeated optimates, with whom he remained in close connection even in their misfortunes. In his confident expectation of success he put no limits to his expression of hatred of the Medici, whom he accused of personal malice and disloyalty. When Cosimo was imprisoned, Filelfo went so far as to call upon his enemies in hexameters to prevent future quarrels and bloodshed by the death of that one man.[353]This would have been sufficient, even if he had not indulged in bitterness against the friends of the Medici—Niccoli, Marsuppini, Poggio, the latter of whom was not far behind his opponent in virulence. When Cosimo returned, Filelfo fled to Siena, and for years the most undignified strife went on, not only in books and letters, but even with sharper weapons and criminal investigations; the effusions of the celebrated scholar himself gave the saddest proof of his unbridled temper.Cosimo de’ Medici was inferior to many of his illustrious fellow-citizens in classical knowledge, but to few in scholarly interest and vivid appreciation of those tendencies the pursuit of which imparted to his epoch such great splendour.[354]Trained, even in his youth, by a skilful father to the businessof a great mercantile house, gifted with rare insight into financial and mercantile affairs, he and his brother Lorenzo received a thorough education. Lorenzo rivalled him in respect to scientific interests. Antonio of Todi, a pupil of Filelfo’s, extols Lorenzo by saying that, though not eloquent, he always displayed correct understanding and ripe knowledge, which, besides the example afforded him by excellent parents, he had obtained through good teachers, by attending to his studies from his youth, and collecting a number of valuable books in addition to the other treasures of his house. Poggio, in his memorial addressed to Marsuppini on Lorenzo’s death a quarter of a century before that of his brother, specially dwells on his correct and refined taste, his good sense and his urbanity of manner, and says that he has lost in him father, brother, and friend, one who had always assisted him when he required it, and abundantly supported him.[355]Thus we can understand how the two brothers lived in perfect harmony together, and supported one another in their patriotic labours.It was Roberto de’ Rossi who instructed the two young Medici and several of their contemporaries of the families Albizzi (Rinaldo’s brother Luca for example), the Alessandri, Buoninsegni, Tebaldi, &c., in the Latin language and literature. When this man, of ripe age and quite alone in life, walked out, the young men who were distinguished in study and general conduct, and who sometimes shared his meals, were seen following him. From his youth upwards, Cosimo always had a great predilection for Latin literature and scientific labours generally. Preferring grave conversation he soon turned his back on pleasures which he took up for the moment, and habitually spent his leisure hours in talk with the learned. A love of books was developed in him in the course of time by his endeavours to place what he collected at the disposal, first of friends and then of the cityin general. This predilection, united to a love for antiquities, was doubtless fostered by Poggio, with whom he formed an intimate acquaintance at Florence at the time when the latter came thither with Pope John XXIII., and later in Constance. Poggio seldom writes a letter to a Florentine friend without sending messages to Cosimo and Lorenzo. He took an interest in all that concerned them. On February 28, 1429, he wrote from Rome to Niccoli: ‘I have heard of the death of the excellent Giovanni de’ Medici, who has so well served his country. My sorrow is great, as well because the land is poorer by the loss of such a citizen as because his sons have lost such a father and we such a serviceable friend and patron. I can imagine how grieved Cosimo and Lorenzo are. It cannot be otherwise, with their excellent qualities and the merits of their sainted father.’[356]In political affairs Poggio stood on the Medicean side; and in his letters to Niccoli about the war against Lucca, and its cause, he expresses himself often with great asperity, and anticipates nothing but mischief to those engaged in it.[357]The friendship between Cosimo and Poggio seems to have been unsullied. The ever-ready Papal secretary always praised his patron, both before and after the time when the latter placed the conduct of affairs in his hands. This was in 1430, when Cosimo was residing at Rome for a time, on business which after his father’s death had devolved upon him and his brother, who had been there in April 1429. Cosimo always managed to unite business with his various studies and favourite pursuits. In a letter to Niccoli, Poggio informs him of a visit made with his countryman to the site of Ostia, where the ruins of a mediæval castle were raised on those of the Roman town. ‘When Cosimo and I visited the harbour, we found no inscriptions. The temple, which has been ruined by the people for use in lime-burning,presents none. The epigram from a monument consisting of a single block of marble with fasces sculptured on it, found on the banks of the river on the Via d’Ostia, I have already sent to you.’ When Cosimo went into exile, Poggio addressed a long consolatory letter to him. He showed him what he had lost, and what remained to him; how rich the compensation, and what a comfort it was he had nothing to reproach himself with, and that the consciousness of the services he had rendered his native country was his. The letter does not speak of a prospect of a speedy return home.[358]Poggio, who came to Florence during the exile of his patron, did not, perhaps, believe in it. When it occurred, however, he compared it to the return of Cicero, as Paolo Giovio did long afterwards.After the year 1434, Cosimo was very seldom absent from home, but antiquities and objects of art came to him from all quarters. He even seems to have become Poggio’s rival, for Greek sculptures originally destined for the latter came into his possession. Everywhere manuscripts, intaglios, inscriptions, and coins were offered to him, even long before he began to make the large collections for his own and others’ use, as will soon be mentioned. The most travelled and skilful collector of antiquities of this time, the father of the race of wandering antiquaries, a scholar and trader too, though not always trustworthy as either, Ciriaco Pizzicolli of Ancona, has given eloquent expression to the gratitude he owed to Cosimo. This man travelled through Italy and the Levant at a time when the rule of the Venetians in a part of Greece, in the Ionic and Ægean Sea, and the residence of Italian families on the Greek islands, the Lusignans in Cyprus, and the order of St. John in the island of Rhodes, afforded facilities for travelling. He visited Roumania and Anatolia, which were for the most part under Turkish rule, and went into Egypt which already maintained many connectionswith the West. His eyes were directed towards the far East, when death surprised him soon after the middle of the century. It was Ciriaco who served as cicerone in 1433 to the Emperor Sigismund, whom he had accompanied from Siena to Rome, the inhabitants of which were severely and not unjustly condemned for their Vandalism by the orderly Florentines, accustomed to a city that was growing daily richer in ornament. The Romans made lime from the marble of their monuments, but furnished no native antiquary to guide across their wide fields of ruins the ruler of the empire named after Rome.[359]Ciriaco stood in connection with the whole learned world of Florence, and many may have availed themselves of his services, but not all spoke well of him, for Poggio complains repeatedly of his boastfulness, a fault which was shared by his successors.[360]In the Medicean household renowned scholars were employed as instructors of the two sons, of whom Pietro, the elder, was eighteen years old when his father returned from exile. We find Antonio Pacini of Todi and Alberto Enoch of Ascoli often named both in the literary history and letters of the time. Enoch of Ascoli taught the Medici and Bardi in Florence, gave public lectures in Perugia, and was variously employed by Pope Nicholas V. in the formation of the Vatican library, and in Germany. In the year 1451 the Pope sent him as far as to the Grand Master of the Teutonic order in Prussia to make researches in monastic and other libraries.[361]‘Our Enoch,’ writes Traversari (1436) to Cosimo[362]—‘you know whom I mean, since he was your sons’ tutor—begs pressingly to be commended to you. What the question is he will tell you. According to myopinion, he deserves your support both for his unusual learning and his modesty, and the confidence he places in you and your goodness. I do all for him on my part that I can, but your authority will do more for him than another’s.’ Antonio of Todi[363]came from Filelfo’s school. He was very intimate in the Medicean house, and seems especially to have attached himself to the younger sons. ‘I have received a letter from you,’ he writes once to Giovanni de’ Medici, ‘as welcome as it is pleasing, for I see in it how much you aspire after virtue and good report, by accepting the admonitions that are intended for your good. This lies at my heart as much as at yours, on account of our mutual affection as of my love to Cosimo, whom nothing in the world can render more happy than to see that his son is sensible and fears God.’ Antonio of Todi’s merits of style cannot have been great, if Cardinal Ammanati, a reasonable judge, calls unreadable his translations of Plutarch’s Biographies, of which he speaks in the letters to the youthful Medici.
CHAPTER II.LEONARDO BRUNI ARETINO AND THE FLORENTINE HUMANISTS. FRANCESCO FILELFO. COSIMO DE’ MEDICI.Nextto Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo Bruni and Ambrogio Traversari were those who did most effective service to the knowledge of classic antiquity. Leonardo Bruni[339]was descended from a burgher family in Arezzo, whence he derived the name of Aretino, which, after having been held in honour, was dragged through the mud a century later by one of his own countrymen. Although eleven years older than Poggio, and instructed in Greek by Chrysoloras at Florence, he did not appear till much later in the Papal exchequer, owing, it seems, to his being disgusted with events passing at Constance. He remained at home when Pope Martin V. returned, and the office of chancellor was there bestowed on him in 1427, a post he filled with dignity till his death on March 8, 1444, at the age of seventy-five. Like Coluccio, Poggio, Gregorio Correr, the highly educated kinsman of Pope Gregory XII., and others, he laid the foundation of a criticism which kept his fame alive for centuries in the emendation of manuscripts; while by the translationof Greek authors into the Latin language, he made them accessible to a larger circle of readers, among whom a knowledge of Greek had not found its way. Everyone who had any pretensions to cultivation understood Latin more or less. All speeches on festive occasions, and even some private conversations, were in Latin. Official documents were drawn up in the same language, and most business transactions were conducted in it. Pope Martin V. spoke Latin with his Tuscan secretaries, even when angry at the rudeness of the Florentine street boys. But Greek remained a subject of study which never, even in the happiest times, extended beyond a circle privileged by exceptional knowledge and position. Though Leonardo Aretino wrote a small treatise in Greek[340]on the Florentine constitution, he composed his principal works in Latin. His history of Florence, extending from the origin of the city to the strife with Gian Galeazzo Visconti, was, so to say, completed by Poggio’s last work, which concludes with the year 1455. Men of the fifteenth century, who longed to see the classical form of historiography employed on events at home, attributed an imaginary value to this work, and believed that Florence could rival Athens, and her two historians, statesmen as well as scholars, might compete with Thucydides and Xenophon. Whoever wishes to study Florentine history will not turn to the Latin historians of the humanistic epoch, whose style, however, exercised a decided influence not merely on contemporary works in the vulgar tongue, but on much later writings. The importance attributed to these works is shown by the excellent Donato Acciaiuoli having been publicly commissioned to translate into Italian the history of his master Leonardo, which had been bought by the State, while Poggio’s son Jacopo did the same with that of his father. The veneration in which Leonardo Aretino was held was expressed by a grant of the rights of citizenship to him in 1416, by theimmunity from taxation decreed in his favour twenty-three years later, by the purchase of his principal work,[341]and by the laurel wreath at his funeral, a distinction granted to many deserving men. On March 9, Alamanno Rinuccini wrote to Giovanni de’ Medici, Cosimo’s son, then residing at the baths of Petriolo:[342]‘I do not doubt that letters and messengers will have outstripped this letter in speed, but for the sake of our mutual friendship I will speak of him who quitted this life but yesterday. How could I be otherwise than deeply moved when so many undying virtues are suddenly removed from our sight, virtues which were not only an adornment to him in whom they shone, but sufficed as an ornament and benefit to the whole town? Who felt and exercised such beneficence towards all, friends and strangers? who assisted friends with advice like him? who distinguished himself by excellent qualities and knowledge to such a degree? It is amongst ancient Romans we must search to find men who resemble him.’Ambrogio Traversari,[343]born in 1386, the son of poor peasants at Portico, a little village of Tuscan Romagna, was younger than Leonardo by seventeen years, than Poggio by six. If he were one of Chrysoloras’ scholars,[344]it must have been at a very youthful age. At all events, he attained an unusual knowledge of Greek, while he was considered the best Latinist in Florence equal to Leonardo; joint praise which the latter, who laid claims to the first undivided place, took so amiss that he quarrelled with his rival and friends about it. As a boy, Ambrogio entered the order of the Camaldolese monks, in which he attained to the highest honours. When a man, the fame of his virtues and knowledge attracted all who were interested in learned studies in Florence to the convent of the Angeli in Via degli Alfani. This church, which has been lately restored, is at present disused for Divine worship, and empty. Like the great mother-housein the Casentino, the city convents have been taken from the Camaldulese, who seemed to have grown with Tuscan history, and yet fell a sacrifice to a revolution of which there is yet no history. But whoever enters the pillared court is reminded by the marble bust of Ambrogio Traversari of the time when this spot was a centre of brilliant intellectual light illuminating the houses of Florentine patricians, and through them the whole world. The most illustrious and talented men flocked to Fra Ambrogio (as formerly to Marsigli), who not only gave lectures for the clergy and laity on Greek and Latin language and literature, but discussed philosophical and theological questions in public conferences. In addition to the various works of his regular calling he was employed in the translation of Greek writings, especially the Fathers of the Church. Cosimo de’ Medici testified to his skill therein when he related how Fra Ambrogio dictated the Latin translation of St. Chrysostom’s ‘Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul’ to Niccolò Niccoli, who wrote a ready hand, so quickly that the latter was hardly able to follow him, Cosimo, who, with his brother Lorenzo, was one of the most frequent visitors to the convent of the Angeli, assisted Fra Ambrogio, who was not rich, with money as well as books. The latter translated for Cosimo. Diogenes Laertius’ ‘Lives of Philosophers,’ a work which he, having devoted himself entirely to theological studies, undertook unwillingly, but yet could not refuse to his generous friend. The men whom the two Medici met most frequently at Traversari’s were Niccolò Niccoli, Carlo Marsuppini, and Gianozzo Manetti. Such a lover of books as Niccoli had never been seen in Florence. The son of an affluent merchant, he devoted himself when independent zealously to literature; while he displayed scarcely less sympathy for art, with the most famous disciples of which he stood in intimate relations. Like Fra Ambrogio’s cloister, his house was a centre for literary effort and learned conversation. At the commencement of the dialogue ‘De Infelicitate Principum,’ Poggio describes his meeting Cosimo de’ Medici andMarsuppini at the time when he was at Florence in the suite of Pope Eugenius IV. A conversation on the instability of human things afforded the opportunity for holding the dialogue mentioned. Poggio observed then, among other things, that during his thirty-four years’ service at the Papal court he never remained more than two years in one and the same place. Thoroughly versed in the Latin language, and instructed in philosophy and theology under the guidance of Marsigli, Niccoli was one of those who caused Chrysoloras to be summoned to Florence, and was one of his most earnest scholars. His knowledge was extensive also in other branches; no one was more at home in geography. His love for books became a passion. He had agents everywhere, and manuscripts came to him from all sides. If he could not obtain possession of the originals, he borrowed and copied them himself. His copy of Lucretius, kept in the Laurentian library, after another manuscript of Poggio had been lost, became the original of all which were written in the fifteenth century. He employed all his fortune on his library—no mere ornament to his house, nor was it dead capital. Liberal and sympathetic, he placed his treasures at the disposal of all. Many owed their progress in studies to him. Where his own means did not suffice, he persuaded friends to purchase, especially Cosimo de’ Medici, who cherished a great affection for him, and in 1420, when he quitted Florence on account of the pestilence, took him and Marsuppini to Verona. Neither Cosimo nor his brother could refuse him anything. When he had expended so much that his income no longer sufficed to support the modest household which he maintained with a single aged servant (he had not wished to marry, in order not to be interrupted in his studies), the two Medici commissioned their banking agents to pay him as much as he might demand, and to put it to their account. Niccoli repaid the friendship they always showed to him. In 1433 he expressed himself so unguardedly against Cosimo’s enemies, that he would have shared their fate had not thechange come soon. He was the most open-hearted man in the world—cheerful, conversational, eloquent, accessible to all, and obliging. By sincere sympathy he richly compensated for the irritability of his temper, which more than once led him into mistakes and often exposed him to literary attacks. His exterior was dignified, his dress careful. Beside books, his house was full of objects of art of various kinds; and if his food was of the simplest, he loved to decorate his table with delicate porcelain, crystal, and fine table-linen. He was the first to conceive the idea of a public library, and caused the manuscripts which Boccaccio had bequeathed to the convent of Sto. Spirito, and which were treasured up in coffers, to be laid open for common use by having book-shelves and reading-desks made at his own expense. We shall speak later on of the way in which his own library was disposed of.Through Niccoli, Carlo Marsuppini[345]was brought into contact with the Medici, which proved the turning-point of his whole life. His intimate relation with them is shown by the fact that at Cosimo’s wish he made the funeral oration on the death of his mother Piccarda. Born at Arezzo of affluent parents, at the end of the fourteenth century (his grandfather was secretary to King Charles VI. of France, and governor of Genoa conjointly with the Marshal of Boucicault), he came in early youth to Florence, where he attained considerable knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages and literature, made himself a famous name, as a public teacher, by his eloquence and excellent memory, and subsequently became chancellor. The numerous official duties he undertook in later years hindered him from cultivating literature as much as he desired. Thus he laid aside the metrical translation of the Iliad, which aroused in Pope Nicholas V. the wish to have the author near him, that he might devote himself undisturbed to Homer. After sometime it was taken up by a greater poet and Latinist, who, however, also left his task unfinished.How honourable was the position held by both Leonardo Bruni and Carlo Marsuppini is shown by the beautiful monuments erected to them, as well as the laurel bestowed on them after death. Giannozzi Manetti had greater literary and political importance than the latter.[346]He was descended from an illustrious family, and was born in 1396. While he devoted himself to science with as much zeal as if he considered study the main duty of his life, he developed an activity in public affairs which extended his connections beyond the narrow limits of his country throughout all Italy. He learnt Greek with Traversari; Latin he spoke and wrote with equal elegance, so that he made impromptu speeches at festivals, as at the Emperor Frederick III.’s entry into Florence, when he answered Eneas Silvio Piccolomini’s address extempore. To aid his theological studies he learned Hebrew, then a rarity, and disputed with Jewish scholars over the words and meaning of the Holy Scriptures. With three books he was so familiar that he might almost be said to know them by heart. They were the Epistles of St. Paul, Augustine’s ‘City of God,’ and Aristotle’s ‘Ethics.’ He translated the New Testament, and wrote a treatise on the Psalter. He devoted himself likewise to contemporary history, in which his extensive circle of personal friends was of great assistance to him. Continually employed in embassies, in which he did his native city essential service, he investigated with unusual acuteness the nature of sovereigns and governments. He has delineated Pope Nicholas V. and King Alfonso, while he attempted biographies of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, and celebrated the merits of distinguished contemporaries like Leonardo Bruni and Giannozzo Pandolfini in memorialspeeches. More perhaps than others of the time was he subject to that literary pedantry (a strange feature in a statesman) which appeared so strongly in the eulogy of Bruni, for example, that Poggio Bracciolini felt himself obliged to treat the same subjects in a freer and more independent manner. Manetti’s many services to the State in peace and war were ill requited. When in Cosimo de’ Medici’s later years the party came to the helm who suffered no independent position outside their own circle, Giannozzo Manetti, who could not be injured otherwise, was ruined by taxes, and ended his days in a foreign country.The men we have mentioned, whose activity extends beyond the limits of the fifteenth century, were the most illustrious of those on whom Manuel Chrysoloras exercised direct or indirect influence. If we return to their training-time, we find the university so flourishing at the beginning of the century that undisturbed continuance of its prosperity might have been prophesied. In 1401, especially famous among its teachers of jurisprudence was Paolo di Castro, whose name was considered to rank only second to that of Bartolo di Sassoferrato. He was variously employed by the Government, and took a prominent share in reforming the Florentine statute law; a reform at which several clever lawyers, like Bartolommeo da Soncino and others, worked for years. This revised code, concluded and accepted in 1415, remained in force till the abolition of all the numerous civil corporate and individual rights in the time of the Grand Duke Leopold I.[347]Citizens of the most illustrious families gave instruction then, as later. Not only youths but men of mature age filled the lecture-rooms, for literary and scientific knowledge was considered necessary in the higher ranks, where wealth excluded the necessity of gaining bread byscholarship. It was a noble emulation; and many, amid the sudden changes which brought rich families to beggary, did find means of subsistence in what they had once only regarded as an ornament of life. How many found the studies which delighted their youth the comfort of age in desolation and exile! The favourable prospects of the university did not last, however. Soon after 1404 the school seems to have been closed for eight years, in consequence of the disturbance and expense caused by the Pisan war and the oppression of King Ladislaus. After its being re-opened, Guarino of Verona was for a short time professor of Greek, a knowledge of which he had gained from Giovanni of Ravenna, and then perfected in Constantinople. In the spring of 1414 we meet with Palla Strozzi as one of the reformers, an office which he again undertook in the year 1428. On both occasions he rendered great services to the state, as it was he who obtained from Pope Martin V. the taxation of the clergy for purposes of public instruction.We have made the acquaintance of Palla Strozzi in our description of political life in his native city. His family was noble, and he ennobled it still more by the high character and position he attained. He had learned the Latin language thoroughly in his youth, and his longing for a knowledge of Greek had essentially contributed to the appointment of Chrysoloras. He entered the Greek’s circle of scholars, and took care to procure books and means of assistance from Constantinople and the Levant. His house was prudently kept, his sons most carefully instructed. Giovanni of Imola was their first tutor, and then Tommaso of Sarzana, who was destined for high honours. The perplexities in which this excellent man was involved in the disturbances of 1433-34 have been already related. The heads of the opposite party could hardly have considered him dangerous, but he was inconvenient to them. They said they wished for no court of appeal in Florence,[348]and Cosimo de’ Mediciwho yet had had more opportunities than others of knowing Palla’s great qualities and honest intentions, was not magnanimous enough to lay aside hatred and envy and restore him to his home. In his influential days the guidance of the State was placed in the hands of men who were interested in intellectual as well as political matters. Rinaldo degli Albizzi was occupied all his life with public affairs, perhaps more than any other citizen. If we consider that for more than fifteen years he was the real and, so to say, hereditary head of the aristocratic party, we scarcely understand how he could possibly undertake one embassy after another, commission after commission. The astonishment increases when we review the numberless reports and memoranda composed during his missions, which lasted to the beginning of 1433. They are some of the oldest of the large collection of documents the Republic can boast of. They are memorials drawn from the cultivated mind of an acute observer and practised business man, who treats the smallest things with the same conscientious care as the greatest; a virtue which was peculiar to this time and people, and the brilliant results of which are displayed in various fields. The vulgar tongue, in general still excluded from the treatment of scientific questions, or even political affairs, as far as it was a question of real representation (even in the discussions of the guilds it was first employed in 1414), appears here with a precision and skill which forms a prelude to the political writings of Lorenzo de’ Medici and Machiavelli. That Rinaldo selected Tommaso of Sarzana as well as Palla Strozzi to be the tutor of his sons shows what value he placed on good training, such as he had enjoyed himself. A physician who united medical science with philosophical studies, Giovanni Baldi de’ Tambini of Faenza, teacher at the Florentine university, and burgher of the city, in intimate connection with Rinaldo and Cosimo de’ Medici in their youth, has noted a disputation which he held with the latter on the question as to whether science was opposedto the Christian faith. The illustrious youth replied in the affirmative, like Pietro Pomponazzo a century after him, and supported his opinion by expressions of Aristotle.[349]His eloquence was praised by several of his contemporaries; Giovanni Cavalcanti says expressly that he maintained the honour of eloquence in Florence. It is more than probable that he wrote political poems.[350]Leonardo Aretino addressed a treatise on war to him. Among those who were active at the university we do not find his name; but we find among its promoters Niccoli, as well as Niccolò da Uzzano, the latter of whom evinced the interest he took in science by a munificent bequest for the foundation of a college for fifty scholars, a gift unfortunately employed for other purposes.Although the clouds which gathered more and more at the close of the third decade of the century threatened disturbances and war, a busy scientific life flourished at Florence. In April 1429, Francesco Filelfo of Tolentino, persuaded by Palla Strozzi, was appointed teacher of Greek literature.[351]He had studied for years at Constantinople, and latterly taught at Bologna. Never, perhaps, had a philologist such influence on the public, or was able to assemble such a brilliant circle of listeners, not even Pomponio Seto. However much allowance we may make for the boasting of a man vain beyond belief, who ranked himself in serious earnest above Virgil and Cicero because he found in himself the poet and orator combined, and because Greek and Latin were alike familiar to him, he yet possessed extraordinary talents. His versatility was as great as his industry, supported by the most powerful constitution, which enabled him to continuethe usual fatiguing life of the humanists unharmed to a great age. After having explained Homer and Thucydides, Cicero and Livy, he gave lectures in Sta. Maria del Fiore on the Divine Comedy. In the spring of 1431 the rights of citizenship were awarded to him. But his sharp tongue and his vanity, which led him to interfere in the civil factions, made him numerous enemies. A decree of banishment[352]promulgated against him in April, 1432, on account of an insult to the Republic of Venice, was not executed, but he was unable to save himself in the confusion which led to the fall of the Albizzi. With a degree of self-assertion which his position outside the political circle did not justify, he placed himself on the side of the now defeated optimates, with whom he remained in close connection even in their misfortunes. In his confident expectation of success he put no limits to his expression of hatred of the Medici, whom he accused of personal malice and disloyalty. When Cosimo was imprisoned, Filelfo went so far as to call upon his enemies in hexameters to prevent future quarrels and bloodshed by the death of that one man.[353]This would have been sufficient, even if he had not indulged in bitterness against the friends of the Medici—Niccoli, Marsuppini, Poggio, the latter of whom was not far behind his opponent in virulence. When Cosimo returned, Filelfo fled to Siena, and for years the most undignified strife went on, not only in books and letters, but even with sharper weapons and criminal investigations; the effusions of the celebrated scholar himself gave the saddest proof of his unbridled temper.Cosimo de’ Medici was inferior to many of his illustrious fellow-citizens in classical knowledge, but to few in scholarly interest and vivid appreciation of those tendencies the pursuit of which imparted to his epoch such great splendour.[354]Trained, even in his youth, by a skilful father to the businessof a great mercantile house, gifted with rare insight into financial and mercantile affairs, he and his brother Lorenzo received a thorough education. Lorenzo rivalled him in respect to scientific interests. Antonio of Todi, a pupil of Filelfo’s, extols Lorenzo by saying that, though not eloquent, he always displayed correct understanding and ripe knowledge, which, besides the example afforded him by excellent parents, he had obtained through good teachers, by attending to his studies from his youth, and collecting a number of valuable books in addition to the other treasures of his house. Poggio, in his memorial addressed to Marsuppini on Lorenzo’s death a quarter of a century before that of his brother, specially dwells on his correct and refined taste, his good sense and his urbanity of manner, and says that he has lost in him father, brother, and friend, one who had always assisted him when he required it, and abundantly supported him.[355]Thus we can understand how the two brothers lived in perfect harmony together, and supported one another in their patriotic labours.It was Roberto de’ Rossi who instructed the two young Medici and several of their contemporaries of the families Albizzi (Rinaldo’s brother Luca for example), the Alessandri, Buoninsegni, Tebaldi, &c., in the Latin language and literature. When this man, of ripe age and quite alone in life, walked out, the young men who were distinguished in study and general conduct, and who sometimes shared his meals, were seen following him. From his youth upwards, Cosimo always had a great predilection for Latin literature and scientific labours generally. Preferring grave conversation he soon turned his back on pleasures which he took up for the moment, and habitually spent his leisure hours in talk with the learned. A love of books was developed in him in the course of time by his endeavours to place what he collected at the disposal, first of friends and then of the cityin general. This predilection, united to a love for antiquities, was doubtless fostered by Poggio, with whom he formed an intimate acquaintance at Florence at the time when the latter came thither with Pope John XXIII., and later in Constance. Poggio seldom writes a letter to a Florentine friend without sending messages to Cosimo and Lorenzo. He took an interest in all that concerned them. On February 28, 1429, he wrote from Rome to Niccoli: ‘I have heard of the death of the excellent Giovanni de’ Medici, who has so well served his country. My sorrow is great, as well because the land is poorer by the loss of such a citizen as because his sons have lost such a father and we such a serviceable friend and patron. I can imagine how grieved Cosimo and Lorenzo are. It cannot be otherwise, with their excellent qualities and the merits of their sainted father.’[356]In political affairs Poggio stood on the Medicean side; and in his letters to Niccoli about the war against Lucca, and its cause, he expresses himself often with great asperity, and anticipates nothing but mischief to those engaged in it.[357]The friendship between Cosimo and Poggio seems to have been unsullied. The ever-ready Papal secretary always praised his patron, both before and after the time when the latter placed the conduct of affairs in his hands. This was in 1430, when Cosimo was residing at Rome for a time, on business which after his father’s death had devolved upon him and his brother, who had been there in April 1429. Cosimo always managed to unite business with his various studies and favourite pursuits. In a letter to Niccoli, Poggio informs him of a visit made with his countryman to the site of Ostia, where the ruins of a mediæval castle were raised on those of the Roman town. ‘When Cosimo and I visited the harbour, we found no inscriptions. The temple, which has been ruined by the people for use in lime-burning,presents none. The epigram from a monument consisting of a single block of marble with fasces sculptured on it, found on the banks of the river on the Via d’Ostia, I have already sent to you.’ When Cosimo went into exile, Poggio addressed a long consolatory letter to him. He showed him what he had lost, and what remained to him; how rich the compensation, and what a comfort it was he had nothing to reproach himself with, and that the consciousness of the services he had rendered his native country was his. The letter does not speak of a prospect of a speedy return home.[358]Poggio, who came to Florence during the exile of his patron, did not, perhaps, believe in it. When it occurred, however, he compared it to the return of Cicero, as Paolo Giovio did long afterwards.After the year 1434, Cosimo was very seldom absent from home, but antiquities and objects of art came to him from all quarters. He even seems to have become Poggio’s rival, for Greek sculptures originally destined for the latter came into his possession. Everywhere manuscripts, intaglios, inscriptions, and coins were offered to him, even long before he began to make the large collections for his own and others’ use, as will soon be mentioned. The most travelled and skilful collector of antiquities of this time, the father of the race of wandering antiquaries, a scholar and trader too, though not always trustworthy as either, Ciriaco Pizzicolli of Ancona, has given eloquent expression to the gratitude he owed to Cosimo. This man travelled through Italy and the Levant at a time when the rule of the Venetians in a part of Greece, in the Ionic and Ægean Sea, and the residence of Italian families on the Greek islands, the Lusignans in Cyprus, and the order of St. John in the island of Rhodes, afforded facilities for travelling. He visited Roumania and Anatolia, which were for the most part under Turkish rule, and went into Egypt which already maintained many connectionswith the West. His eyes were directed towards the far East, when death surprised him soon after the middle of the century. It was Ciriaco who served as cicerone in 1433 to the Emperor Sigismund, whom he had accompanied from Siena to Rome, the inhabitants of which were severely and not unjustly condemned for their Vandalism by the orderly Florentines, accustomed to a city that was growing daily richer in ornament. The Romans made lime from the marble of their monuments, but furnished no native antiquary to guide across their wide fields of ruins the ruler of the empire named after Rome.[359]Ciriaco stood in connection with the whole learned world of Florence, and many may have availed themselves of his services, but not all spoke well of him, for Poggio complains repeatedly of his boastfulness, a fault which was shared by his successors.[360]In the Medicean household renowned scholars were employed as instructors of the two sons, of whom Pietro, the elder, was eighteen years old when his father returned from exile. We find Antonio Pacini of Todi and Alberto Enoch of Ascoli often named both in the literary history and letters of the time. Enoch of Ascoli taught the Medici and Bardi in Florence, gave public lectures in Perugia, and was variously employed by Pope Nicholas V. in the formation of the Vatican library, and in Germany. In the year 1451 the Pope sent him as far as to the Grand Master of the Teutonic order in Prussia to make researches in monastic and other libraries.[361]‘Our Enoch,’ writes Traversari (1436) to Cosimo[362]—‘you know whom I mean, since he was your sons’ tutor—begs pressingly to be commended to you. What the question is he will tell you. According to myopinion, he deserves your support both for his unusual learning and his modesty, and the confidence he places in you and your goodness. I do all for him on my part that I can, but your authority will do more for him than another’s.’ Antonio of Todi[363]came from Filelfo’s school. He was very intimate in the Medicean house, and seems especially to have attached himself to the younger sons. ‘I have received a letter from you,’ he writes once to Giovanni de’ Medici, ‘as welcome as it is pleasing, for I see in it how much you aspire after virtue and good report, by accepting the admonitions that are intended for your good. This lies at my heart as much as at yours, on account of our mutual affection as of my love to Cosimo, whom nothing in the world can render more happy than to see that his son is sensible and fears God.’ Antonio of Todi’s merits of style cannot have been great, if Cardinal Ammanati, a reasonable judge, calls unreadable his translations of Plutarch’s Biographies, of which he speaks in the letters to the youthful Medici.
LEONARDO BRUNI ARETINO AND THE FLORENTINE HUMANISTS. FRANCESCO FILELFO. COSIMO DE’ MEDICI.
Nextto Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo Bruni and Ambrogio Traversari were those who did most effective service to the knowledge of classic antiquity. Leonardo Bruni[339]was descended from a burgher family in Arezzo, whence he derived the name of Aretino, which, after having been held in honour, was dragged through the mud a century later by one of his own countrymen. Although eleven years older than Poggio, and instructed in Greek by Chrysoloras at Florence, he did not appear till much later in the Papal exchequer, owing, it seems, to his being disgusted with events passing at Constance. He remained at home when Pope Martin V. returned, and the office of chancellor was there bestowed on him in 1427, a post he filled with dignity till his death on March 8, 1444, at the age of seventy-five. Like Coluccio, Poggio, Gregorio Correr, the highly educated kinsman of Pope Gregory XII., and others, he laid the foundation of a criticism which kept his fame alive for centuries in the emendation of manuscripts; while by the translationof Greek authors into the Latin language, he made them accessible to a larger circle of readers, among whom a knowledge of Greek had not found its way. Everyone who had any pretensions to cultivation understood Latin more or less. All speeches on festive occasions, and even some private conversations, were in Latin. Official documents were drawn up in the same language, and most business transactions were conducted in it. Pope Martin V. spoke Latin with his Tuscan secretaries, even when angry at the rudeness of the Florentine street boys. But Greek remained a subject of study which never, even in the happiest times, extended beyond a circle privileged by exceptional knowledge and position. Though Leonardo Aretino wrote a small treatise in Greek[340]on the Florentine constitution, he composed his principal works in Latin. His history of Florence, extending from the origin of the city to the strife with Gian Galeazzo Visconti, was, so to say, completed by Poggio’s last work, which concludes with the year 1455. Men of the fifteenth century, who longed to see the classical form of historiography employed on events at home, attributed an imaginary value to this work, and believed that Florence could rival Athens, and her two historians, statesmen as well as scholars, might compete with Thucydides and Xenophon. Whoever wishes to study Florentine history will not turn to the Latin historians of the humanistic epoch, whose style, however, exercised a decided influence not merely on contemporary works in the vulgar tongue, but on much later writings. The importance attributed to these works is shown by the excellent Donato Acciaiuoli having been publicly commissioned to translate into Italian the history of his master Leonardo, which had been bought by the State, while Poggio’s son Jacopo did the same with that of his father. The veneration in which Leonardo Aretino was held was expressed by a grant of the rights of citizenship to him in 1416, by theimmunity from taxation decreed in his favour twenty-three years later, by the purchase of his principal work,[341]and by the laurel wreath at his funeral, a distinction granted to many deserving men. On March 9, Alamanno Rinuccini wrote to Giovanni de’ Medici, Cosimo’s son, then residing at the baths of Petriolo:[342]‘I do not doubt that letters and messengers will have outstripped this letter in speed, but for the sake of our mutual friendship I will speak of him who quitted this life but yesterday. How could I be otherwise than deeply moved when so many undying virtues are suddenly removed from our sight, virtues which were not only an adornment to him in whom they shone, but sufficed as an ornament and benefit to the whole town? Who felt and exercised such beneficence towards all, friends and strangers? who assisted friends with advice like him? who distinguished himself by excellent qualities and knowledge to such a degree? It is amongst ancient Romans we must search to find men who resemble him.’
Ambrogio Traversari,[343]born in 1386, the son of poor peasants at Portico, a little village of Tuscan Romagna, was younger than Leonardo by seventeen years, than Poggio by six. If he were one of Chrysoloras’ scholars,[344]it must have been at a very youthful age. At all events, he attained an unusual knowledge of Greek, while he was considered the best Latinist in Florence equal to Leonardo; joint praise which the latter, who laid claims to the first undivided place, took so amiss that he quarrelled with his rival and friends about it. As a boy, Ambrogio entered the order of the Camaldolese monks, in which he attained to the highest honours. When a man, the fame of his virtues and knowledge attracted all who were interested in learned studies in Florence to the convent of the Angeli in Via degli Alfani. This church, which has been lately restored, is at present disused for Divine worship, and empty. Like the great mother-housein the Casentino, the city convents have been taken from the Camaldulese, who seemed to have grown with Tuscan history, and yet fell a sacrifice to a revolution of which there is yet no history. But whoever enters the pillared court is reminded by the marble bust of Ambrogio Traversari of the time when this spot was a centre of brilliant intellectual light illuminating the houses of Florentine patricians, and through them the whole world. The most illustrious and talented men flocked to Fra Ambrogio (as formerly to Marsigli), who not only gave lectures for the clergy and laity on Greek and Latin language and literature, but discussed philosophical and theological questions in public conferences. In addition to the various works of his regular calling he was employed in the translation of Greek writings, especially the Fathers of the Church. Cosimo de’ Medici testified to his skill therein when he related how Fra Ambrogio dictated the Latin translation of St. Chrysostom’s ‘Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul’ to Niccolò Niccoli, who wrote a ready hand, so quickly that the latter was hardly able to follow him, Cosimo, who, with his brother Lorenzo, was one of the most frequent visitors to the convent of the Angeli, assisted Fra Ambrogio, who was not rich, with money as well as books. The latter translated for Cosimo. Diogenes Laertius’ ‘Lives of Philosophers,’ a work which he, having devoted himself entirely to theological studies, undertook unwillingly, but yet could not refuse to his generous friend. The men whom the two Medici met most frequently at Traversari’s were Niccolò Niccoli, Carlo Marsuppini, and Gianozzo Manetti. Such a lover of books as Niccoli had never been seen in Florence. The son of an affluent merchant, he devoted himself when independent zealously to literature; while he displayed scarcely less sympathy for art, with the most famous disciples of which he stood in intimate relations. Like Fra Ambrogio’s cloister, his house was a centre for literary effort and learned conversation. At the commencement of the dialogue ‘De Infelicitate Principum,’ Poggio describes his meeting Cosimo de’ Medici andMarsuppini at the time when he was at Florence in the suite of Pope Eugenius IV. A conversation on the instability of human things afforded the opportunity for holding the dialogue mentioned. Poggio observed then, among other things, that during his thirty-four years’ service at the Papal court he never remained more than two years in one and the same place. Thoroughly versed in the Latin language, and instructed in philosophy and theology under the guidance of Marsigli, Niccoli was one of those who caused Chrysoloras to be summoned to Florence, and was one of his most earnest scholars. His knowledge was extensive also in other branches; no one was more at home in geography. His love for books became a passion. He had agents everywhere, and manuscripts came to him from all sides. If he could not obtain possession of the originals, he borrowed and copied them himself. His copy of Lucretius, kept in the Laurentian library, after another manuscript of Poggio had been lost, became the original of all which were written in the fifteenth century. He employed all his fortune on his library—no mere ornament to his house, nor was it dead capital. Liberal and sympathetic, he placed his treasures at the disposal of all. Many owed their progress in studies to him. Where his own means did not suffice, he persuaded friends to purchase, especially Cosimo de’ Medici, who cherished a great affection for him, and in 1420, when he quitted Florence on account of the pestilence, took him and Marsuppini to Verona. Neither Cosimo nor his brother could refuse him anything. When he had expended so much that his income no longer sufficed to support the modest household which he maintained with a single aged servant (he had not wished to marry, in order not to be interrupted in his studies), the two Medici commissioned their banking agents to pay him as much as he might demand, and to put it to their account. Niccoli repaid the friendship they always showed to him. In 1433 he expressed himself so unguardedly against Cosimo’s enemies, that he would have shared their fate had not thechange come soon. He was the most open-hearted man in the world—cheerful, conversational, eloquent, accessible to all, and obliging. By sincere sympathy he richly compensated for the irritability of his temper, which more than once led him into mistakes and often exposed him to literary attacks. His exterior was dignified, his dress careful. Beside books, his house was full of objects of art of various kinds; and if his food was of the simplest, he loved to decorate his table with delicate porcelain, crystal, and fine table-linen. He was the first to conceive the idea of a public library, and caused the manuscripts which Boccaccio had bequeathed to the convent of Sto. Spirito, and which were treasured up in coffers, to be laid open for common use by having book-shelves and reading-desks made at his own expense. We shall speak later on of the way in which his own library was disposed of.
Through Niccoli, Carlo Marsuppini[345]was brought into contact with the Medici, which proved the turning-point of his whole life. His intimate relation with them is shown by the fact that at Cosimo’s wish he made the funeral oration on the death of his mother Piccarda. Born at Arezzo of affluent parents, at the end of the fourteenth century (his grandfather was secretary to King Charles VI. of France, and governor of Genoa conjointly with the Marshal of Boucicault), he came in early youth to Florence, where he attained considerable knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages and literature, made himself a famous name, as a public teacher, by his eloquence and excellent memory, and subsequently became chancellor. The numerous official duties he undertook in later years hindered him from cultivating literature as much as he desired. Thus he laid aside the metrical translation of the Iliad, which aroused in Pope Nicholas V. the wish to have the author near him, that he might devote himself undisturbed to Homer. After sometime it was taken up by a greater poet and Latinist, who, however, also left his task unfinished.
How honourable was the position held by both Leonardo Bruni and Carlo Marsuppini is shown by the beautiful monuments erected to them, as well as the laurel bestowed on them after death. Giannozzi Manetti had greater literary and political importance than the latter.[346]He was descended from an illustrious family, and was born in 1396. While he devoted himself to science with as much zeal as if he considered study the main duty of his life, he developed an activity in public affairs which extended his connections beyond the narrow limits of his country throughout all Italy. He learnt Greek with Traversari; Latin he spoke and wrote with equal elegance, so that he made impromptu speeches at festivals, as at the Emperor Frederick III.’s entry into Florence, when he answered Eneas Silvio Piccolomini’s address extempore. To aid his theological studies he learned Hebrew, then a rarity, and disputed with Jewish scholars over the words and meaning of the Holy Scriptures. With three books he was so familiar that he might almost be said to know them by heart. They were the Epistles of St. Paul, Augustine’s ‘City of God,’ and Aristotle’s ‘Ethics.’ He translated the New Testament, and wrote a treatise on the Psalter. He devoted himself likewise to contemporary history, in which his extensive circle of personal friends was of great assistance to him. Continually employed in embassies, in which he did his native city essential service, he investigated with unusual acuteness the nature of sovereigns and governments. He has delineated Pope Nicholas V. and King Alfonso, while he attempted biographies of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, and celebrated the merits of distinguished contemporaries like Leonardo Bruni and Giannozzo Pandolfini in memorialspeeches. More perhaps than others of the time was he subject to that literary pedantry (a strange feature in a statesman) which appeared so strongly in the eulogy of Bruni, for example, that Poggio Bracciolini felt himself obliged to treat the same subjects in a freer and more independent manner. Manetti’s many services to the State in peace and war were ill requited. When in Cosimo de’ Medici’s later years the party came to the helm who suffered no independent position outside their own circle, Giannozzo Manetti, who could not be injured otherwise, was ruined by taxes, and ended his days in a foreign country.
The men we have mentioned, whose activity extends beyond the limits of the fifteenth century, were the most illustrious of those on whom Manuel Chrysoloras exercised direct or indirect influence. If we return to their training-time, we find the university so flourishing at the beginning of the century that undisturbed continuance of its prosperity might have been prophesied. In 1401, especially famous among its teachers of jurisprudence was Paolo di Castro, whose name was considered to rank only second to that of Bartolo di Sassoferrato. He was variously employed by the Government, and took a prominent share in reforming the Florentine statute law; a reform at which several clever lawyers, like Bartolommeo da Soncino and others, worked for years. This revised code, concluded and accepted in 1415, remained in force till the abolition of all the numerous civil corporate and individual rights in the time of the Grand Duke Leopold I.[347]Citizens of the most illustrious families gave instruction then, as later. Not only youths but men of mature age filled the lecture-rooms, for literary and scientific knowledge was considered necessary in the higher ranks, where wealth excluded the necessity of gaining bread byscholarship. It was a noble emulation; and many, amid the sudden changes which brought rich families to beggary, did find means of subsistence in what they had once only regarded as an ornament of life. How many found the studies which delighted their youth the comfort of age in desolation and exile! The favourable prospects of the university did not last, however. Soon after 1404 the school seems to have been closed for eight years, in consequence of the disturbance and expense caused by the Pisan war and the oppression of King Ladislaus. After its being re-opened, Guarino of Verona was for a short time professor of Greek, a knowledge of which he had gained from Giovanni of Ravenna, and then perfected in Constantinople. In the spring of 1414 we meet with Palla Strozzi as one of the reformers, an office which he again undertook in the year 1428. On both occasions he rendered great services to the state, as it was he who obtained from Pope Martin V. the taxation of the clergy for purposes of public instruction.
We have made the acquaintance of Palla Strozzi in our description of political life in his native city. His family was noble, and he ennobled it still more by the high character and position he attained. He had learned the Latin language thoroughly in his youth, and his longing for a knowledge of Greek had essentially contributed to the appointment of Chrysoloras. He entered the Greek’s circle of scholars, and took care to procure books and means of assistance from Constantinople and the Levant. His house was prudently kept, his sons most carefully instructed. Giovanni of Imola was their first tutor, and then Tommaso of Sarzana, who was destined for high honours. The perplexities in which this excellent man was involved in the disturbances of 1433-34 have been already related. The heads of the opposite party could hardly have considered him dangerous, but he was inconvenient to them. They said they wished for no court of appeal in Florence,[348]and Cosimo de’ Mediciwho yet had had more opportunities than others of knowing Palla’s great qualities and honest intentions, was not magnanimous enough to lay aside hatred and envy and restore him to his home. In his influential days the guidance of the State was placed in the hands of men who were interested in intellectual as well as political matters. Rinaldo degli Albizzi was occupied all his life with public affairs, perhaps more than any other citizen. If we consider that for more than fifteen years he was the real and, so to say, hereditary head of the aristocratic party, we scarcely understand how he could possibly undertake one embassy after another, commission after commission. The astonishment increases when we review the numberless reports and memoranda composed during his missions, which lasted to the beginning of 1433. They are some of the oldest of the large collection of documents the Republic can boast of. They are memorials drawn from the cultivated mind of an acute observer and practised business man, who treats the smallest things with the same conscientious care as the greatest; a virtue which was peculiar to this time and people, and the brilliant results of which are displayed in various fields. The vulgar tongue, in general still excluded from the treatment of scientific questions, or even political affairs, as far as it was a question of real representation (even in the discussions of the guilds it was first employed in 1414), appears here with a precision and skill which forms a prelude to the political writings of Lorenzo de’ Medici and Machiavelli. That Rinaldo selected Tommaso of Sarzana as well as Palla Strozzi to be the tutor of his sons shows what value he placed on good training, such as he had enjoyed himself. A physician who united medical science with philosophical studies, Giovanni Baldi de’ Tambini of Faenza, teacher at the Florentine university, and burgher of the city, in intimate connection with Rinaldo and Cosimo de’ Medici in their youth, has noted a disputation which he held with the latter on the question as to whether science was opposedto the Christian faith. The illustrious youth replied in the affirmative, like Pietro Pomponazzo a century after him, and supported his opinion by expressions of Aristotle.[349]His eloquence was praised by several of his contemporaries; Giovanni Cavalcanti says expressly that he maintained the honour of eloquence in Florence. It is more than probable that he wrote political poems.[350]Leonardo Aretino addressed a treatise on war to him. Among those who were active at the university we do not find his name; but we find among its promoters Niccoli, as well as Niccolò da Uzzano, the latter of whom evinced the interest he took in science by a munificent bequest for the foundation of a college for fifty scholars, a gift unfortunately employed for other purposes.
Although the clouds which gathered more and more at the close of the third decade of the century threatened disturbances and war, a busy scientific life flourished at Florence. In April 1429, Francesco Filelfo of Tolentino, persuaded by Palla Strozzi, was appointed teacher of Greek literature.[351]He had studied for years at Constantinople, and latterly taught at Bologna. Never, perhaps, had a philologist such influence on the public, or was able to assemble such a brilliant circle of listeners, not even Pomponio Seto. However much allowance we may make for the boasting of a man vain beyond belief, who ranked himself in serious earnest above Virgil and Cicero because he found in himself the poet and orator combined, and because Greek and Latin were alike familiar to him, he yet possessed extraordinary talents. His versatility was as great as his industry, supported by the most powerful constitution, which enabled him to continuethe usual fatiguing life of the humanists unharmed to a great age. After having explained Homer and Thucydides, Cicero and Livy, he gave lectures in Sta. Maria del Fiore on the Divine Comedy. In the spring of 1431 the rights of citizenship were awarded to him. But his sharp tongue and his vanity, which led him to interfere in the civil factions, made him numerous enemies. A decree of banishment[352]promulgated against him in April, 1432, on account of an insult to the Republic of Venice, was not executed, but he was unable to save himself in the confusion which led to the fall of the Albizzi. With a degree of self-assertion which his position outside the political circle did not justify, he placed himself on the side of the now defeated optimates, with whom he remained in close connection even in their misfortunes. In his confident expectation of success he put no limits to his expression of hatred of the Medici, whom he accused of personal malice and disloyalty. When Cosimo was imprisoned, Filelfo went so far as to call upon his enemies in hexameters to prevent future quarrels and bloodshed by the death of that one man.[353]This would have been sufficient, even if he had not indulged in bitterness against the friends of the Medici—Niccoli, Marsuppini, Poggio, the latter of whom was not far behind his opponent in virulence. When Cosimo returned, Filelfo fled to Siena, and for years the most undignified strife went on, not only in books and letters, but even with sharper weapons and criminal investigations; the effusions of the celebrated scholar himself gave the saddest proof of his unbridled temper.
Cosimo de’ Medici was inferior to many of his illustrious fellow-citizens in classical knowledge, but to few in scholarly interest and vivid appreciation of those tendencies the pursuit of which imparted to his epoch such great splendour.[354]Trained, even in his youth, by a skilful father to the businessof a great mercantile house, gifted with rare insight into financial and mercantile affairs, he and his brother Lorenzo received a thorough education. Lorenzo rivalled him in respect to scientific interests. Antonio of Todi, a pupil of Filelfo’s, extols Lorenzo by saying that, though not eloquent, he always displayed correct understanding and ripe knowledge, which, besides the example afforded him by excellent parents, he had obtained through good teachers, by attending to his studies from his youth, and collecting a number of valuable books in addition to the other treasures of his house. Poggio, in his memorial addressed to Marsuppini on Lorenzo’s death a quarter of a century before that of his brother, specially dwells on his correct and refined taste, his good sense and his urbanity of manner, and says that he has lost in him father, brother, and friend, one who had always assisted him when he required it, and abundantly supported him.[355]Thus we can understand how the two brothers lived in perfect harmony together, and supported one another in their patriotic labours.
It was Roberto de’ Rossi who instructed the two young Medici and several of their contemporaries of the families Albizzi (Rinaldo’s brother Luca for example), the Alessandri, Buoninsegni, Tebaldi, &c., in the Latin language and literature. When this man, of ripe age and quite alone in life, walked out, the young men who were distinguished in study and general conduct, and who sometimes shared his meals, were seen following him. From his youth upwards, Cosimo always had a great predilection for Latin literature and scientific labours generally. Preferring grave conversation he soon turned his back on pleasures which he took up for the moment, and habitually spent his leisure hours in talk with the learned. A love of books was developed in him in the course of time by his endeavours to place what he collected at the disposal, first of friends and then of the cityin general. This predilection, united to a love for antiquities, was doubtless fostered by Poggio, with whom he formed an intimate acquaintance at Florence at the time when the latter came thither with Pope John XXIII., and later in Constance. Poggio seldom writes a letter to a Florentine friend without sending messages to Cosimo and Lorenzo. He took an interest in all that concerned them. On February 28, 1429, he wrote from Rome to Niccoli: ‘I have heard of the death of the excellent Giovanni de’ Medici, who has so well served his country. My sorrow is great, as well because the land is poorer by the loss of such a citizen as because his sons have lost such a father and we such a serviceable friend and patron. I can imagine how grieved Cosimo and Lorenzo are. It cannot be otherwise, with their excellent qualities and the merits of their sainted father.’[356]In political affairs Poggio stood on the Medicean side; and in his letters to Niccoli about the war against Lucca, and its cause, he expresses himself often with great asperity, and anticipates nothing but mischief to those engaged in it.[357]
The friendship between Cosimo and Poggio seems to have been unsullied. The ever-ready Papal secretary always praised his patron, both before and after the time when the latter placed the conduct of affairs in his hands. This was in 1430, when Cosimo was residing at Rome for a time, on business which after his father’s death had devolved upon him and his brother, who had been there in April 1429. Cosimo always managed to unite business with his various studies and favourite pursuits. In a letter to Niccoli, Poggio informs him of a visit made with his countryman to the site of Ostia, where the ruins of a mediæval castle were raised on those of the Roman town. ‘When Cosimo and I visited the harbour, we found no inscriptions. The temple, which has been ruined by the people for use in lime-burning,presents none. The epigram from a monument consisting of a single block of marble with fasces sculptured on it, found on the banks of the river on the Via d’Ostia, I have already sent to you.’ When Cosimo went into exile, Poggio addressed a long consolatory letter to him. He showed him what he had lost, and what remained to him; how rich the compensation, and what a comfort it was he had nothing to reproach himself with, and that the consciousness of the services he had rendered his native country was his. The letter does not speak of a prospect of a speedy return home.[358]Poggio, who came to Florence during the exile of his patron, did not, perhaps, believe in it. When it occurred, however, he compared it to the return of Cicero, as Paolo Giovio did long afterwards.
After the year 1434, Cosimo was very seldom absent from home, but antiquities and objects of art came to him from all quarters. He even seems to have become Poggio’s rival, for Greek sculptures originally destined for the latter came into his possession. Everywhere manuscripts, intaglios, inscriptions, and coins were offered to him, even long before he began to make the large collections for his own and others’ use, as will soon be mentioned. The most travelled and skilful collector of antiquities of this time, the father of the race of wandering antiquaries, a scholar and trader too, though not always trustworthy as either, Ciriaco Pizzicolli of Ancona, has given eloquent expression to the gratitude he owed to Cosimo. This man travelled through Italy and the Levant at a time when the rule of the Venetians in a part of Greece, in the Ionic and Ægean Sea, and the residence of Italian families on the Greek islands, the Lusignans in Cyprus, and the order of St. John in the island of Rhodes, afforded facilities for travelling. He visited Roumania and Anatolia, which were for the most part under Turkish rule, and went into Egypt which already maintained many connectionswith the West. His eyes were directed towards the far East, when death surprised him soon after the middle of the century. It was Ciriaco who served as cicerone in 1433 to the Emperor Sigismund, whom he had accompanied from Siena to Rome, the inhabitants of which were severely and not unjustly condemned for their Vandalism by the orderly Florentines, accustomed to a city that was growing daily richer in ornament. The Romans made lime from the marble of their monuments, but furnished no native antiquary to guide across their wide fields of ruins the ruler of the empire named after Rome.[359]Ciriaco stood in connection with the whole learned world of Florence, and many may have availed themselves of his services, but not all spoke well of him, for Poggio complains repeatedly of his boastfulness, a fault which was shared by his successors.[360]
In the Medicean household renowned scholars were employed as instructors of the two sons, of whom Pietro, the elder, was eighteen years old when his father returned from exile. We find Antonio Pacini of Todi and Alberto Enoch of Ascoli often named both in the literary history and letters of the time. Enoch of Ascoli taught the Medici and Bardi in Florence, gave public lectures in Perugia, and was variously employed by Pope Nicholas V. in the formation of the Vatican library, and in Germany. In the year 1451 the Pope sent him as far as to the Grand Master of the Teutonic order in Prussia to make researches in monastic and other libraries.[361]‘Our Enoch,’ writes Traversari (1436) to Cosimo[362]—‘you know whom I mean, since he was your sons’ tutor—begs pressingly to be commended to you. What the question is he will tell you. According to myopinion, he deserves your support both for his unusual learning and his modesty, and the confidence he places in you and your goodness. I do all for him on my part that I can, but your authority will do more for him than another’s.’ Antonio of Todi[363]came from Filelfo’s school. He was very intimate in the Medicean house, and seems especially to have attached himself to the younger sons. ‘I have received a letter from you,’ he writes once to Giovanni de’ Medici, ‘as welcome as it is pleasing, for I see in it how much you aspire after virtue and good report, by accepting the admonitions that are intended for your good. This lies at my heart as much as at yours, on account of our mutual affection as of my love to Cosimo, whom nothing in the world can render more happy than to see that his son is sensible and fears God.’ Antonio of Todi’s merits of style cannot have been great, if Cardinal Ammanati, a reasonable judge, calls unreadable his translations of Plutarch’s Biographies, of which he speaks in the letters to the youthful Medici.