Chapter 24

[373]We find it also in plastic art, e.g., in the famous plate parodying the group of the Laöcoon as three monkeys. But here parody seldom went beyond sketches and the like, though much, it is true, may have been destroyed. Caricature, again, is something different. Lionardo, in the grotesque faces in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, represents what is hideous when and because it is comical, and exaggerates the ludicrous element at pleasure.[374]Jovian. Pontan.De Sermone, libri v. He attributes a special gift of wit to the Sienese and Peruginese, as well as to the Florentines, adding the Spanish court as a matter of politeness.[375]Il Cortigiano, lib. ii. cap. 4 sqq., ed. Baude di Vesme, Florence, 1854, pp. 124 sqq. For the explanation of wit as the effect of contrast, though not clearly put, seeibid.cap. lxxiii. p. 136.[376]Pontanus,De Sermone, lib. iv. cap. 3, also advises people to abstain from using ‘ridicula’ either against the miserable or the strong.[377]Galateo del Casa, ed. Venez. 1789, p. 26 sqq. 48.[378]Lettere Pittoriche, i. p. 71, in a letter of Vinc. Borghini, 1577. Macchiavelli (Stor. Fior.vii. cap. 28) says of the young gentlemen in Florence soon after the middle of the fifteenth century: ‘Gli studî loro erano apparire col vestire splendidi, e col parlare sagaci ed astuti, e quello che più destramente mordeva gli altri, era più savio e da più stimato.’[379]Comp. Fedra Inghirami’s funeral oration on Ludovico Podocataro (d. Aug. 25, 1504) in theAnecd. Litt.i. p. 319. The scandal-monger Massaino is mentioned in Paul. Jov.Dialogues de Viris Litt. Illustr.(Tiraboschi, tom. vii. parte iv. p. 1631).[380]This was the plan followed by Leo X., and his calculations were not disappointed. Fearfully as his reputation was mangled after his death by the satirists, they were unable to modify the general estimate formed of him.[381]This was probably the case with Cardinal Ardicino della Porta, who in 1491 wished to resign his dignity and take refuge in a monastery. See Infessura, in Eccard. ii. col. 2000.[382]See his funeral oration in theAnecd. Litt.iv. p. 315. He assembled an army of peasants in the March of Aneona, which was only hindered from acting by the treason of the Duke of Urbino. For his graceful and hopeless love-poems, see Trucchi,Poesie Inedite, iii. 123.[383]How he used his tongue at the table of Clement VII. is told in Giraldi,Hecatomithi, vii. nov. 5.[384]The charge of taking into consideration the proposal to drown Pasquino (in Paul. Jov.Vita Hadriani), is transferred from Sixtus IV. to Hadrian. Comp.Lettere dei Principi, i. 114 sqq., letter of Negro, dated April 7, 1523. On St. Mark’s Day Pasquino had a special celebration, which the Pope forbade.[385]In the passages collected in Gregorovius, viii. 380 note, 381 sqq. 393 sqq.[386]Comp. Pier. Valer.De Infel. Lit.ed. Mencken, p. 178. ‘Pestilentia quæ cum Adriano VI. invecta Romam invasit.’[387]E.g. Firenzuola,Opera(Milano 1802), vol. i. p. 116, in theDiscorsi degli Animali.[388]Comp. the names in Höfler,Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Academie(1876), vol. 82, p. 435.[389]The words of Pier. Valerian,De Infel. Lit.ed. Mencken, p. 382, are most characteristic of the public feeling at Rome: ‘Ecce adest Musarum et eloquentiæ totiusque nitoris hostis acerrimis, qui literatis omnibus inimicitias minitaretur, quoniam, ut ipse dictitabat, Terentiani essent, quos quum odisse atque etiam persequi cœpisset voluntarium alii exilium, alias atque alias alii latebras quærentes tam diu latuere quoad Deo beneficio altero imperii anno decessit, qui si aliquanto diutius vixisset, Gothica illa tempora adversus bonas literas videbatur suscitaturus.’ The general hatred of Adrian was also due partly to the fact that in the great pecuniary difficulties in which he found himself he adopted the expedient of a direct tax. Ranke,Päpste, i. 411. It may here be mentioned that there were, nevertheless, poets to be found who praised Adrian. Comp. various passages in theCoryciana(ed. Rome, 1524), esp. J. J. 2bsqq.[390]To the Duke of Ferrara, January 1, 1536 (Lettere, ed. 1539, fol. 39): ‘You will now journey from Rome to Naples,’ ‘ricreando la vista avvilita nel mirar le miserie pontificali con la contemplazione delle eccellenze imperiali.’[391]The fear which he caused to men of mark, especially artists, by these means, cannot be here described. The publicistic weapon of the German Reformation was chiefly the pamphlet dealing with events as they occurred; Aretino is a journalist in the sense that he has within himself a perpetual occasion for writing.[392]E.g. in theCapitoloon Albicante, a bad poet; unfortunately the passages are unfit for quotation.[393]Lettere, ed. Venez. 1539, fol. 12, dated May 31, 1527.[394]In the firstCapitoloto Cosimo.[395]Gaye,Carteggio, ii. 332.[396]See the insolent letter of 1536 in theLettere Pittor.i. Append. 34. See above, p. 142, for the house where Petrarch was born in Arezzo.[397]L’Aretin, per Deo grazia, è vivo e sano,Ma’l mostaccio ha fregiato nobilmente,E più colpi ha, che dita in una mano.’(Mauro, ‘Capitolo in lode delle bugie.’)[398]See e.g. the letter to the Cardinal of Lorraine,Lettere, ed. Venez. fol. 29, dated Nov. 21, 1534, and the letters to Charles V., in which he says that no man stands nearer to God than Charles.[399]For what follows, see Gaye,Carteggio, ii. 336, 337, 345.[400]Lettere, ed. Venez. 1539, fol. 15, dated June 16, 1529. Comp. another remarkable letter to M. A., dated April 15, 1528, fol. 212.[401]He may have done so either in the hope of obtaining the red hat or from fear of the new activity of the Inquisition, which he had ventured to attack bitterly in 1535 (l. c. fol. 37), but which, after the reorganisation of the institution in 1542, suddenly took a fresh start, and soon silenced every opposing voice.[402][Carmina Burana, in theBibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, vol. xvi. (Stuttg. 1847). The stay in Pavia (p. 68bis), the Italian local references in general, the scene with the ‘pastorella’ under the olive-tree (p. 146), the mention of the ‘pinus’ as a shady field tree (p. 156), the frequent use of the word ‘bravium’ (pp. 137, 144), and particularly the form Madii for Maji (p. 141), all speak in favour of our assumption.]The conjecture of Dr. Burckhardt that the best pieces of theCarmina Buranawere written by an Italian, is not tenable. The grounds brought forward in its support have little weight (e.g. the mention of Pavia: ‘Quis Paviæ demorans castus habeatur?’ which can be explained as a proverbial expression, or referred to a short stay of the writer at Pavia), cannot, further, hold their own against the reasons on the other side, and finally lose all their force in view of the probable identification of the author. The arguments of O. HubatschDie lateinischen Vagantenlieder des Mittelalters, Görlitz, 1870, p. 87) against the Italian origin of these poems are, among others, the attacks on the Italian and praise of the German clergy, the rebukes of the southerners as a ‘gens proterva,’ and the reference to the poet as ‘transmontanus.’ Who he actually was, however, is not clearly made out. That he bore the name of Walther throws no light upon his origin. He was formerly identified with Gualterus de Mapes, a canon of Salisbury and chaplain to the English kings at the end of the twelfth century; since, by Giesebrecht (Die Vaganten oder Goliarden und ihre Lieder, Allgemeine Monatschrift, 1855), with Walther of Lille or Chatillon, who passed from France into England and Germany, and thence possibly with the Archbishop Reinhold of Köln (1164 and 75) to Italy (Pavia, &c.). If this hypothesis, against which Hubatsch (l. c.) has brought forward certain objections, must be abandoned, it remains beyond a doubt that the origin of nearly all these songs is to be looked for in France, from whence they were diffused through the regular school which here existed for them over Germany, and there expanded and mixed with German phrases; while Italy, as Giesebrecht has shown, remained almost unaffected by this class of poetry. The Italian translator of Dr. Burckhardt’s work, Prof. D. Valbusa, in a note to this passage (i. 235), also contests the Italian origin of the poem. [L. G.][403]Carm. Bur.p. 155, only a fragment: the whole in Wright,Walter Mapes(1841), p. 258. Comp. Hubatsch, p. 27 sqq., who points to the fact that a story often treated of in France is at the foundation. Æst. Inter.Carm. Bur.p. 67; Dum Dianæ,Carm. Bur.p. 124. Additional instances: ‘Cor patet Jovi;’ classical names for the loved one; once, when he calls her Blanciflor, he adds, as if to make up for it, the name of Helena.[404]In what way antiquity could serve as guide and teacher in all the higher regions of life, is briefly sketched by Æneas Sylvius (Opera, p. 603, in theEpist.105, to the Archduke Sigismund).[405]For particulars we must refer the reader to Roscoe,Lorenzo Mag.andLeo X., as well as to Voigt,Enea Silvio(Berlin, 1856-63); to the works of Reumont and to Gregorovius,Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter.To form a conception of the extent which studies at the beginning of the sixteenth century had reached, we cannot do better than turn to theCommentarii Urbaniof Raphael Volatterranus (ed. Basil, 1544, fol. 16, &c.). Here we see how antiquity formed the introduction and the chief matter of study in every branch of knowledge, from geography and local history, the lives of great and famous men, popular philosophy, morals and the special sciences, down to the analysis of the whole of Aristotle with which the work closes. To understand its significance as an authority for the history of culture, we must compare it with all the earlier encyclopædias. A complete and circumstantial account of the matter is given in Voigt’s admirable work,Die Wiederbelebung des classischen AlterthumsoderDas erste Jahrhundert der Humanismus, Berlin, 1859.[406]In William of Malmesbury,Gesta Regum Anglor. l. ii. § 169, 170, 205, 206 (ed. Lond. 1840, vol. i. p. 277 sqq. and p. 354 sqq.), we meet with the dreams of treasure-hunters, Venus as ghostly love, and the discovery of the gigantic body of Pallas, son of Evander, about the middle of the eleventh century. Comp. Jac. ab AquisImago Mundi(Hist. Patr. Monum. Script.t. iii. col. 1603), on the origin of the House of Colonna, with reference to the discovery of hidden treasure. Besides the tales of the treasure-seekers, William of Malmesbury mentions the elegy of Hildebert of Mans, Bishop of Tours, one of the most singular examples of humanistic enthusiasm in the first half of the twelfth century.[407]Dante,Convito, tratt. iv. cap. v.[408]Epp. Familiares, vi. 2; references to Rome before he had seen it, and expressions of his longing for the city,Epp. Fam.ed. Fracass. vol. i. pp. 125, 213; vol. ii. pp. 336 sqq. See also the collected references in L. Geiger,Petrarca, p. 272, note 3. In Petrarch we already find complaints of the many ruined and neglected buildings, which he enumerates one by one (De Rem. Utriusque Fort.lib. i. dial. 118), adding the remark that many statues were left from antiquity, but no paintings (l. c. 41).[409]Dittamondo, ii. cap. 3. The procession reminds one at times of the three kings and their suite in the old pictures. The description of the city (ii. cap. 31) is not without archæological value (Gregorovius, vi. 697, note 1). According to Polistoro (Murat. xxiv. col. 845), Niccolò and Ugo of Este journeyed in 1366 to Rome, ‘per vedere quelle magnificenze antiche, che al presente sipossono vedere in Roma.’[410]Gregorovius, v. 316 sqq. Parenthetically we may quote foreign evidence that Rome in the Middle Ages was looked upon as a quarry. The famous Abbot Sugerius, who about 1140 was in search of lofty pillars for the rebuilding of St. Denis, thought at first of nothing less then getting hold of the granite monoliths of the Baths of Diocletian, but afterwards changed his mind. See ‘Sugerii Libellus Alter,’ in Duchesne,Hist. Franc. Scriptores, iv. p. 352.[411]Poggii Opera, fol. 50 sqq. ‘Ruinarum Urbis Romæ Descriptio,’ written about 1430, shortly before the death of Martin V. The Baths of Caracalla and Diocletian had then their pillars and coating of marble. See Gregorovius, vi. 700-705.[412]Poggio appears as one of the earliest collectors of inscriptions, in his letter in theVita Poggii, Muratori, xx. col. 177, and as collector of busts, (col. 183, and letter in Shepherd-Tonelli, i. 258). See alsoAmbros. Traversarii Epistolæ, xxv. 42. A little book which Poggio wrote on inscriptions seems to have been lost. Shepherd,Life of Poggio, trad. Tonelli, i. 154 sqq.[413]Fabroni,Cosmus, Adnot. 86. From a letter of Alberto degli Alberti to Giovanni Medici. See also Gregorovius, vii. 557. For the condition of Rome under Martin V., see Platina, p. 227; and during the absence of Eugenius IV., see Vespasiano Fiorent., p. 21.[414]Roma Instaurata, written in 1447, and dedicated to the Pope; first printed, Rome, 1474.[415]See, nevertheless, his distichs in Voigt,Wiederbelebung des Alterthums, p. 275, note 2. He was the first Pope who published a Bull for the protection of old monuments (4 Kal. Maj. 1462), with penalties in case of disobedience. But these measures were ineffective. Comp. Gregorovius, vii. pp. 558 sqq.[416]What follows is from Jo. Ant. Campanus,Vita Pii II., in Muratori, iii. ii. col. 980 sqq.Pii II. Commentarii, pp. 48, 72 sqq., 206, 248 sqq., 501, and elsewhere.[417]First dated edition, Brixen, 1482.[418]Boccaccio,Fiammetta, cap. 5.Opere, ed. Montier, vi. 91.[419]His work,Cyriaci Anconitani Itinerarium, ed. Mehus, Florence, 1742. Comp. Leandro Alberti,Descriz. di tutta l’Italia, fol. 285.[420]Two instances out of many: the fabulous origin of Milan in Manipulus (Murat. xl. col. 552), and that of Florence in Gio. Villani (who here, as elsewhere, enlarges on the forged chronicle of Ricardo Malespini), according to which Florence, being loyally Roman in its sentiments, is always in the right against the anti-Roman rebellious Fiesole (i. 9, 38, 41; ii. 2). Dante,Inf.xv. 76.[421]Commentarii, p. 206, in the fourth book.[421A]Mich. Cannesius,Vita Pauli II., in Murat. iii. ii. col. 993. Towards even Nero, son of Domitius Ahenobarbus, the author will not be impolite, on account of his connection with the Pope. He only says of him, ‘De quo verum Scriptores multa ac diversa commemorant.’ The family of Plato in Milan went still farther, and nattered itself on its descent from the great Athenian. Filelfo in a wedding speech, and in an encomium on the jurist Teodoro Plato, ventured to make this assertion; and a Giovanantonio Plato put the inscription on a portrait in relief carved by him in 1478 (in the court of the Pal. Magenta at Milan): ‘Platonem suum, a quo originem et ingenium refert.’[422]See on this point, Nangiporto, in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1094; Infessura, in Eccard,Scriptores, ii. col. 1951; Matarazzo, in theArch. Stor.xvi. ii. p. 180. Nangiporto, however, admits that it was no longer possible to decide whether the corpse was male or female.[423]As early as Julius II. excavations were made in the hope of finding statues. Vasari, xi. p. 302,V. di Gio. da Udine. Comp. Gregorovius, viii. 186.[424]The letter was first attributed to Castiglione,Lettere di Negozi del Conte Bald. Castiglione, Padua, 1736 and 1769, but proved to be from the hand of Raphael by Daniele Francesconi in 1799. It is printed from a Munich MS. in Passavant,Leben Raphael’s, iii. p. 44. Comp. GruyerRaphael et l’Antiquité, 1864, i. 435-457.[425]Lettere Pittoriche, ii. 1, Tolomei to Landi, 14 Nov., 1542.[426]He tried ‘curis animique doloribus quacunque ratione aditum intercludere;’ music and lively conversation charmed him, and he hoped by their means to live longer.Leonis X. Vita Anonyma, in Roscoe, ed. Bossi, xii. p. 169.[427]This point is referred to in theSatiresof Ariosto. See the first (‘Perc’ ho molto,’ &c.), and the fourth ‘Poiche, Annibale’).[428]Ranke,Päpste, i. 408 sqq. ‘Lettere dei Principi, p. 107. Letter of Negri, September 1, 1522 ... ‘tutti questi cortigiani esausti da Papa Leone e falliti.’ They avenged themselves after the death of Leo by satirical verses and inscriptions.[429]Pii II. Commentarii, p. 251 in the 5th book. Comp. Sannazaro’s elegy, ‘Ad Ruinas Cumarum urbis vetustissimæ’ (Opera, fol. 236 sqq.).[430]Polifilo (i.e. Franciscus Columna) ‘Hypnerotomachia, ubi humana omnia non nisi somnum esse docet atque obiter plurima scita sane quam digna commemorat,’ Venice, Aldus Manutius, 1499. Comp. on this remarkable book and others, A. Didot,Alde Manuce, Paris, 1875, pp. 132-142; and Gruyer,Raphael et l’Antiquité, i. pp. 191 sqq.; J. Burckhardt,Geschichte der Renaissance in Italien, pp. 43 sqq., and the work of A. Ilg, Vienna, 1872.[431]While all the Fathers of the Church and all the pilgrims speak only of a cave. The poets, too, do without the palace. Comp. Sannazaro,De Partu Virginis, l. ii.[432]Chiefly from Vespasiano Fiorentine, in the first vol. of theSpicileg. Romanum, by Mai, from which edition the quotations in this book are made. New edition by Bartoli, Florence, 1859. The author was a Florentine bookseller and copying agent, about and after the middle of the fifteenth century.[433]Comp. Petr.Epist. Fam.ed. Fracass. l. xviii. 2, xxiv. 12, var. 25, with the notes of Fracassetti in the Italian translation, vol. iv. 92-101, v. 196 sqq., where the fragment of a translation of Homer before the time of Pilato is also given.[434]Forgeries, by which the passion for antiquity was turned to the profit or amusement of rogues, are well known to have been not uncommon. See the articles in the literary histories on Annius of Viterbo.[435]Vespas. Fiorent. p. 31. ‘Tommaso da Serezana usava dire, che dua cosa farebbe, se egli potesse mai spendere, ch’era in libri e murare. E l’una e l’altra fece nel suo pontificato.’ With respect to his translation, see Æen. Sylvius,De Europa, cap. 58, p. 459, and Papencordt,Ges. der Stadt Rom.p. 502. See esp. Voigt, op. cit. book v.[436]Vespas. Fior. pp. 48 and 658, 665. Comp. J. Manetti,Vita Nicolai V., in Murat. iii. ii. col. 925 sqq. On the question whether and how Calixtus III. partly dispersed the library again, see Vespas. Fiorent. p. 284, with Mai’s note.[437]Vespas. Fior. pp. 617 sqq.[438]Vespas. Fior. pp. 457 sqq.[439]Vespas. Fiorent, p. 193. Comp. Marin Sanudo, in Murat. xxii. col. 1185 sqq.[440]How the matter was provisionally treated is related in Malipiero,Ann. Veneti, Arch. Stor.vii. ii. pp. 653, 655.[441]Vespas. Fior. pp. 124 sqq., and ‘Inventario della Libreria Urbinata compilata nel Secolo XV. da Federigo Veterano, bibliotecario di Federigo I. da Montefeltro Duca d’Urbino,’ given by C. Guasti in tbeGiornale Storico degli Archivi Toscani, vi. (1862), 127-147 and vii. (1863) 46-55, 130-154. For contemporary opinions on the library, see Favre,Mélanges d’Hist. Lit.i. 127, note 6. The following is the substance of Dr. Geiger’s remarks on the subject of the old authors:—For the Medicean Library comp.Delle condicioni e delle vicende della libreria medicea privata dal 1494 al 1508 ricerche di Enea Piccolomini, Arch. stor. ital., 265 sqq., 3 serie, vol. xix. pp. 101-129,254-281, xx. 51-94, xxi. 102-112, 282-296. Dr. Geiger does not undertake an estimate of the relative values of the various rare and almost unknown works contained in the library, nor is he able to state where they are now to be found. He remarks that information as to Greece is much fuller than as to Italy, which is a characteristic mark of the time. The catalogue contains editions of the Bible, of single books of it, with text and annotations, also Greek and Roman works in their then most complete forms, together with some Hebrew books—tractatus quidam rabbinorum hebr.—with much modern work, chiefly in Latin, and with not a little in Italian.Dr. Geiger doubts the absolute accuracy of Vespasiano Fiorentino’s catalogue of the library at Urbino. See the German edition, i. 313, 314. [S.G.C.M.][442]Perhaps at the capture of Urbino by the troops of Cæsar Borgia. The existence of the manuscript has been doubted; but I cannot believe that Vespasiano would have spoken of the gnomic extracts from Menander, which do not amount to more than a couple of hundred verses, as ‘tutte le opere,’ nor have mentioned them in the list of comprehensive manuscripts, even though he had before him only our present Pindar and Sophocles. It is not inconceivable that this Menander may some day come to light.[The catalogue of the library at Urbino (see foregoing note), which dates back to the fifteenth century, is not perfectly in accordance with Vespasiano’s report, and with the remarks of Dr. Burckhardt upon it. As an official document, it deserves greater credit than Vespasiano’s description, which, like most of his descriptions, cannot be acquitted of a certain inaccuracy in detail and tendency to over-colouring. In this catalogue no mention is made of the manuscript of Menander. Mai’s doubt as to its existence is therefore justified. Instead of ‘all the works of Pindar,’ we here find: ‘Pindaris Olimpia et Pithia.’ The catalogue makes no distinction between ancient and modern books, contains the works of Dante (among others,Comœdiæ Thusco Carmine), and Boccaccio, in a very imperfect form; those of Petrarch, however, in all completeness. It may be added that this catalogue mentions many humanistic writings which have hitherto remained unknown and unprinted, that it contains collections of the privileges of the princes of Montefeltro, and carefully enumerates the dedications offered by translators or original writers to Federigo of Urbino.—L. G.][443]For what follows and in part for what has gone before, see W. Wattenbach,Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter, 2nd. ed. Leipzig, 1875, pp. 392 sqq., 405 sqq., 505. Comp. also the poem,De Officio Scribæ, of Phil. Beroaldus, who, however, is rather speaking of the public scrivener.[444]When Piero de’ Medici, at the death of Matthias Corvinus, the book-loving King of Hungary, declared that the ‘scrittori’ must now lower their charges, since they would otherwise find no further employment (Scil. except in Italy), he can only have meant the Greek copyists, as the caligraphists, to whom one might be tempted to refer his words, continued to be numerous throughout all Italy. Fabroni,Laurent. Magn.Adnot. 156 Comp. Adnot. 154.[445]Gaye,Carteggio, i. p. 164. A letter of the year 1455 under Calixtus III. The famous miniature Bible of Urbino is written by a Frenchman, a workman of Vespasiano’s. See D’Agincourt,La Peinture, tab. 78. On German copyists in Italy, see further G. Campori,Artisti Italiani e Stranieri negli Stati Estensi, Modena, 1855, p. 277, andGiornale di Erudizione Artistica, vol. ii. pp. 360 sqq. Wattenbach,Schriftwesen, 411, note 5. For German printers, see below.[446]Vespas. Fior. p. 335.[447]Ambr. Trav.Epist.i. p. 63. The Pope was equally serviceable to the libraries of Urbino and Pesaro (that of Aless. Sforza, p. 38). Comp. Arch. Stor. ital. xxi. 103-106. The Bible and Commentaries on it; the Fathers of the Church; Aristotle, with his commentators, including Averroes and Avicenna; Moses Maimonides; Latin translations of Greek philosophers; the Latin prose writers; of the poets only Virgil, Statius, Ovid, and Lucan are mentioned.[448]Vespas. Fior. p. 129.[449]‘Artes—Quis Labor est fessis demptus ab Articulis’ in a poem by Robertus Ursus about 1470,Rerum Ital. Script, ex Codd. Fiorent.tom, ii. col. 693. He rejoices rather too hastily over the rapid spread of classical literature which was hoped for. Comp. Libri,Hist. des Sciences Mathématiques, ii. 278 sqq. (See also the eulogy of Lor. Valla,Hist. Zeitschr.xxxii. 62.) For the printers at Rome (the first were Germans: Hahn, Pannartz, Schweinheim), see Gaspar. Veron.Vita Pauli II.in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1046; and Laire,Spec. Hist. Typographiæ Romanae, xv. sec.Romæ, 1778; Gregorovius, vii. 525-33. For the first Privilegium in Venice, see Marin Sanudo, in Muratori, xxii. col. 1189.[450]Something of the sort had already existed in the age of manuscripts. See Vespas. Fior. p. 656, on theCronaco del Mondoof Zembino of Pistoia.[451]Fabroni,Laurent. Magn.Adnot. 212. It happened in the case of the libel.De Exilio.[452]Even in Petrarch the consciousness of this superiority of Italians over Greeks is often to be noticed:Epp. Fam.lib. i. ep. 3;Epp. Sen.lib. xii. ep. 2; he praises the Greeks reluctantly:Carmina, lib. iii. 30 (ed. Rossetti, vol. ii. p. 342). A century later, Æneas Sylvius writes (Comm. to Panormita, ‘De Dictis et Factis Alfonsi,’ Append.): ‘Alfonsus tanto est Socrate major quanto gravior Romanus homo quam Græcus putatur.’ In accordance with this feeling the study of Greek was thought little of. From a document made use of below, written about 1460, it appears that Porcellio and Tomaso Seneca tried to resist the rising influence of Greek. Similarly, Paolo Cortese (1490) was averse to Greek, lest the hitherto exclusive authority of Latin should be impaired,De Hominibus Doctis, p. 20. For Greek studies in Italy, see esp. the learned work of Favre,Mélanges d’Hist. Liter.i.passim.[453]See above p. 187, and comp. C. Voigt,Wiederbelebung, 323 sqq.[454]The dying out of these Greeks is mentioned by Pierius Valerian,De Infelicitate Literat.in speaking of Lascaris. And Paulus Jovius, at the end of hisElogia Literaria, says of the Germans, ‘Quum literæ non latinæ modo cum pudore nostro, sed græcæ et hebraicæ in eorum terras fatali commigratione transierint’ (about 1450). Similarly, sixty years before (1482), Joh. Argyropulos had exclaimed, when he heard young Reuchlin translate Thucydides in his lecture-room at Rome, ‘Græcia nostra exilio transvolavit Alpes.’ Geiger,Reuchlin(Lpzg. 1871), pp. 26 sqq. Burchhardt, 273. A remarkable passage is to be found in Jov. Pontanus,Antonius, opp. iv. p. 203: ‘In Græcia magis nunc Turcaicum discas quam Græcum. Quicquid enim doctorum habent Græcæ disciplinæ, in Italia nobiscum victitat.[455]Ranke,Päpste, i. 486 sqq. Comp. the end of this part of our work.[456]Tommaso Gar,Relazioni della Corte di Roma, i. pp. 338, 379.[457]George of Trebizond, teacher of rhetoric at Venice, with a salary of 150 ducats a year (see Malipiero,Arch. Stor.vii. ii. p. 653). For the Greek chair at Perugia, seeArch. Stor.xvi. ii. p. 19 of the Introduction. In the case of Rimini, there is some doubt whether Greek was taught or not. Comp.Anecd. Litt.ii. p. 300. At Bologna, the centre of juristic studies, Aurispa had but little success. Details on the subject in Malagola.[458]Exhaustive information on the subject in the admirable work of A. F. Didot,Alde Manuce et l’Héllenisme à Venise, Paris, 1875.[459]For what follows see A. de Gubernatis,Matériaux pour servir à l’Histoire des Études Orientales en Italie, Paris, Florence, &c., 1876. Additions by Soave in theBolletino Italiano degli Studi Orientali, i. 178 sqq. More precise details below.[460]See below.[461]SeeCommentario della Vita di Messer Gianozzo Manetti, scritto da Vespasiano Bisticci, Torino, 1862, esp. pp. 11, 44, 91 sqq.[462]Vesp. Fior. p. 320. A. Trav.Epist.lib. xi. 16.

[374]Jovian. Pontan.De Sermone, libri v. He attributes a special gift of wit to the Sienese and Peruginese, as well as to the Florentines, adding the Spanish court as a matter of politeness.

[375]Il Cortigiano, lib. ii. cap. 4 sqq., ed. Baude di Vesme, Florence, 1854, pp. 124 sqq. For the explanation of wit as the effect of contrast, though not clearly put, seeibid.cap. lxxiii. p. 136.

[376]Pontanus,De Sermone, lib. iv. cap. 3, also advises people to abstain from using ‘ridicula’ either against the miserable or the strong.

[377]Galateo del Casa, ed. Venez. 1789, p. 26 sqq. 48.

[378]Lettere Pittoriche, i. p. 71, in a letter of Vinc. Borghini, 1577. Macchiavelli (Stor. Fior.vii. cap. 28) says of the young gentlemen in Florence soon after the middle of the fifteenth century: ‘Gli studî loro erano apparire col vestire splendidi, e col parlare sagaci ed astuti, e quello che più destramente mordeva gli altri, era più savio e da più stimato.’

[379]Comp. Fedra Inghirami’s funeral oration on Ludovico Podocataro (d. Aug. 25, 1504) in theAnecd. Litt.i. p. 319. The scandal-monger Massaino is mentioned in Paul. Jov.Dialogues de Viris Litt. Illustr.(Tiraboschi, tom. vii. parte iv. p. 1631).

[380]This was the plan followed by Leo X., and his calculations were not disappointed. Fearfully as his reputation was mangled after his death by the satirists, they were unable to modify the general estimate formed of him.

[381]This was probably the case with Cardinal Ardicino della Porta, who in 1491 wished to resign his dignity and take refuge in a monastery. See Infessura, in Eccard. ii. col. 2000.

[382]See his funeral oration in theAnecd. Litt.iv. p. 315. He assembled an army of peasants in the March of Aneona, which was only hindered from acting by the treason of the Duke of Urbino. For his graceful and hopeless love-poems, see Trucchi,Poesie Inedite, iii. 123.

[383]How he used his tongue at the table of Clement VII. is told in Giraldi,Hecatomithi, vii. nov. 5.

[384]The charge of taking into consideration the proposal to drown Pasquino (in Paul. Jov.Vita Hadriani), is transferred from Sixtus IV. to Hadrian. Comp.Lettere dei Principi, i. 114 sqq., letter of Negro, dated April 7, 1523. On St. Mark’s Day Pasquino had a special celebration, which the Pope forbade.

[385]In the passages collected in Gregorovius, viii. 380 note, 381 sqq. 393 sqq.

[386]Comp. Pier. Valer.De Infel. Lit.ed. Mencken, p. 178. ‘Pestilentia quæ cum Adriano VI. invecta Romam invasit.’

[387]E.g. Firenzuola,Opera(Milano 1802), vol. i. p. 116, in theDiscorsi degli Animali.

[388]Comp. the names in Höfler,Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Academie(1876), vol. 82, p. 435.

[389]The words of Pier. Valerian,De Infel. Lit.ed. Mencken, p. 382, are most characteristic of the public feeling at Rome: ‘Ecce adest Musarum et eloquentiæ totiusque nitoris hostis acerrimis, qui literatis omnibus inimicitias minitaretur, quoniam, ut ipse dictitabat, Terentiani essent, quos quum odisse atque etiam persequi cœpisset voluntarium alii exilium, alias atque alias alii latebras quærentes tam diu latuere quoad Deo beneficio altero imperii anno decessit, qui si aliquanto diutius vixisset, Gothica illa tempora adversus bonas literas videbatur suscitaturus.’ The general hatred of Adrian was also due partly to the fact that in the great pecuniary difficulties in which he found himself he adopted the expedient of a direct tax. Ranke,Päpste, i. 411. It may here be mentioned that there were, nevertheless, poets to be found who praised Adrian. Comp. various passages in theCoryciana(ed. Rome, 1524), esp. J. J. 2bsqq.

[390]To the Duke of Ferrara, January 1, 1536 (Lettere, ed. 1539, fol. 39): ‘You will now journey from Rome to Naples,’ ‘ricreando la vista avvilita nel mirar le miserie pontificali con la contemplazione delle eccellenze imperiali.’

[391]The fear which he caused to men of mark, especially artists, by these means, cannot be here described. The publicistic weapon of the German Reformation was chiefly the pamphlet dealing with events as they occurred; Aretino is a journalist in the sense that he has within himself a perpetual occasion for writing.

[392]E.g. in theCapitoloon Albicante, a bad poet; unfortunately the passages are unfit for quotation.

[393]Lettere, ed. Venez. 1539, fol. 12, dated May 31, 1527.

[394]In the firstCapitoloto Cosimo.

[395]Gaye,Carteggio, ii. 332.

[396]See the insolent letter of 1536 in theLettere Pittor.i. Append. 34. See above, p. 142, for the house where Petrarch was born in Arezzo.

[397]L’Aretin, per Deo grazia, è vivo e sano,Ma’l mostaccio ha fregiato nobilmente,E più colpi ha, che dita in una mano.’(Mauro, ‘Capitolo in lode delle bugie.’)

[397]

L’Aretin, per Deo grazia, è vivo e sano,Ma’l mostaccio ha fregiato nobilmente,E più colpi ha, che dita in una mano.’(Mauro, ‘Capitolo in lode delle bugie.’)

[398]See e.g. the letter to the Cardinal of Lorraine,Lettere, ed. Venez. fol. 29, dated Nov. 21, 1534, and the letters to Charles V., in which he says that no man stands nearer to God than Charles.

[399]For what follows, see Gaye,Carteggio, ii. 336, 337, 345.

[400]Lettere, ed. Venez. 1539, fol. 15, dated June 16, 1529. Comp. another remarkable letter to M. A., dated April 15, 1528, fol. 212.

[401]He may have done so either in the hope of obtaining the red hat or from fear of the new activity of the Inquisition, which he had ventured to attack bitterly in 1535 (l. c. fol. 37), but which, after the reorganisation of the institution in 1542, suddenly took a fresh start, and soon silenced every opposing voice.

[402][Carmina Burana, in theBibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, vol. xvi. (Stuttg. 1847). The stay in Pavia (p. 68bis), the Italian local references in general, the scene with the ‘pastorella’ under the olive-tree (p. 146), the mention of the ‘pinus’ as a shady field tree (p. 156), the frequent use of the word ‘bravium’ (pp. 137, 144), and particularly the form Madii for Maji (p. 141), all speak in favour of our assumption.]The conjecture of Dr. Burckhardt that the best pieces of theCarmina Buranawere written by an Italian, is not tenable. The grounds brought forward in its support have little weight (e.g. the mention of Pavia: ‘Quis Paviæ demorans castus habeatur?’ which can be explained as a proverbial expression, or referred to a short stay of the writer at Pavia), cannot, further, hold their own against the reasons on the other side, and finally lose all their force in view of the probable identification of the author. The arguments of O. HubatschDie lateinischen Vagantenlieder des Mittelalters, Görlitz, 1870, p. 87) against the Italian origin of these poems are, among others, the attacks on the Italian and praise of the German clergy, the rebukes of the southerners as a ‘gens proterva,’ and the reference to the poet as ‘transmontanus.’ Who he actually was, however, is not clearly made out. That he bore the name of Walther throws no light upon his origin. He was formerly identified with Gualterus de Mapes, a canon of Salisbury and chaplain to the English kings at the end of the twelfth century; since, by Giesebrecht (Die Vaganten oder Goliarden und ihre Lieder, Allgemeine Monatschrift, 1855), with Walther of Lille or Chatillon, who passed from France into England and Germany, and thence possibly with the Archbishop Reinhold of Köln (1164 and 75) to Italy (Pavia, &c.). If this hypothesis, against which Hubatsch (l. c.) has brought forward certain objections, must be abandoned, it remains beyond a doubt that the origin of nearly all these songs is to be looked for in France, from whence they were diffused through the regular school which here existed for them over Germany, and there expanded and mixed with German phrases; while Italy, as Giesebrecht has shown, remained almost unaffected by this class of poetry. The Italian translator of Dr. Burckhardt’s work, Prof. D. Valbusa, in a note to this passage (i. 235), also contests the Italian origin of the poem. [L. G.]

The conjecture of Dr. Burckhardt that the best pieces of theCarmina Buranawere written by an Italian, is not tenable. The grounds brought forward in its support have little weight (e.g. the mention of Pavia: ‘Quis Paviæ demorans castus habeatur?’ which can be explained as a proverbial expression, or referred to a short stay of the writer at Pavia), cannot, further, hold their own against the reasons on the other side, and finally lose all their force in view of the probable identification of the author. The arguments of O. HubatschDie lateinischen Vagantenlieder des Mittelalters, Görlitz, 1870, p. 87) against the Italian origin of these poems are, among others, the attacks on the Italian and praise of the German clergy, the rebukes of the southerners as a ‘gens proterva,’ and the reference to the poet as ‘transmontanus.’ Who he actually was, however, is not clearly made out. That he bore the name of Walther throws no light upon his origin. He was formerly identified with Gualterus de Mapes, a canon of Salisbury and chaplain to the English kings at the end of the twelfth century; since, by Giesebrecht (Die Vaganten oder Goliarden und ihre Lieder, Allgemeine Monatschrift, 1855), with Walther of Lille or Chatillon, who passed from France into England and Germany, and thence possibly with the Archbishop Reinhold of Köln (1164 and 75) to Italy (Pavia, &c.). If this hypothesis, against which Hubatsch (l. c.) has brought forward certain objections, must be abandoned, it remains beyond a doubt that the origin of nearly all these songs is to be looked for in France, from whence they were diffused through the regular school which here existed for them over Germany, and there expanded and mixed with German phrases; while Italy, as Giesebrecht has shown, remained almost unaffected by this class of poetry. The Italian translator of Dr. Burckhardt’s work, Prof. D. Valbusa, in a note to this passage (i. 235), also contests the Italian origin of the poem. [L. G.]

[403]Carm. Bur.p. 155, only a fragment: the whole in Wright,Walter Mapes(1841), p. 258. Comp. Hubatsch, p. 27 sqq., who points to the fact that a story often treated of in France is at the foundation. Æst. Inter.Carm. Bur.p. 67; Dum Dianæ,Carm. Bur.p. 124. Additional instances: ‘Cor patet Jovi;’ classical names for the loved one; once, when he calls her Blanciflor, he adds, as if to make up for it, the name of Helena.

[404]In what way antiquity could serve as guide and teacher in all the higher regions of life, is briefly sketched by Æneas Sylvius (Opera, p. 603, in theEpist.105, to the Archduke Sigismund).

[405]For particulars we must refer the reader to Roscoe,Lorenzo Mag.andLeo X., as well as to Voigt,Enea Silvio(Berlin, 1856-63); to the works of Reumont and to Gregorovius,Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter.To form a conception of the extent which studies at the beginning of the sixteenth century had reached, we cannot do better than turn to theCommentarii Urbaniof Raphael Volatterranus (ed. Basil, 1544, fol. 16, &c.). Here we see how antiquity formed the introduction and the chief matter of study in every branch of knowledge, from geography and local history, the lives of great and famous men, popular philosophy, morals and the special sciences, down to the analysis of the whole of Aristotle with which the work closes. To understand its significance as an authority for the history of culture, we must compare it with all the earlier encyclopædias. A complete and circumstantial account of the matter is given in Voigt’s admirable work,Die Wiederbelebung des classischen AlterthumsoderDas erste Jahrhundert der Humanismus, Berlin, 1859.

To form a conception of the extent which studies at the beginning of the sixteenth century had reached, we cannot do better than turn to theCommentarii Urbaniof Raphael Volatterranus (ed. Basil, 1544, fol. 16, &c.). Here we see how antiquity formed the introduction and the chief matter of study in every branch of knowledge, from geography and local history, the lives of great and famous men, popular philosophy, morals and the special sciences, down to the analysis of the whole of Aristotle with which the work closes. To understand its significance as an authority for the history of culture, we must compare it with all the earlier encyclopædias. A complete and circumstantial account of the matter is given in Voigt’s admirable work,Die Wiederbelebung des classischen AlterthumsoderDas erste Jahrhundert der Humanismus, Berlin, 1859.

[406]In William of Malmesbury,Gesta Regum Anglor. l. ii. § 169, 170, 205, 206 (ed. Lond. 1840, vol. i. p. 277 sqq. and p. 354 sqq.), we meet with the dreams of treasure-hunters, Venus as ghostly love, and the discovery of the gigantic body of Pallas, son of Evander, about the middle of the eleventh century. Comp. Jac. ab AquisImago Mundi(Hist. Patr. Monum. Script.t. iii. col. 1603), on the origin of the House of Colonna, with reference to the discovery of hidden treasure. Besides the tales of the treasure-seekers, William of Malmesbury mentions the elegy of Hildebert of Mans, Bishop of Tours, one of the most singular examples of humanistic enthusiasm in the first half of the twelfth century.

[407]Dante,Convito, tratt. iv. cap. v.

[408]Epp. Familiares, vi. 2; references to Rome before he had seen it, and expressions of his longing for the city,Epp. Fam.ed. Fracass. vol. i. pp. 125, 213; vol. ii. pp. 336 sqq. See also the collected references in L. Geiger,Petrarca, p. 272, note 3. In Petrarch we already find complaints of the many ruined and neglected buildings, which he enumerates one by one (De Rem. Utriusque Fort.lib. i. dial. 118), adding the remark that many statues were left from antiquity, but no paintings (l. c. 41).

[409]Dittamondo, ii. cap. 3. The procession reminds one at times of the three kings and their suite in the old pictures. The description of the city (ii. cap. 31) is not without archæological value (Gregorovius, vi. 697, note 1). According to Polistoro (Murat. xxiv. col. 845), Niccolò and Ugo of Este journeyed in 1366 to Rome, ‘per vedere quelle magnificenze antiche, che al presente sipossono vedere in Roma.’

[410]Gregorovius, v. 316 sqq. Parenthetically we may quote foreign evidence that Rome in the Middle Ages was looked upon as a quarry. The famous Abbot Sugerius, who about 1140 was in search of lofty pillars for the rebuilding of St. Denis, thought at first of nothing less then getting hold of the granite monoliths of the Baths of Diocletian, but afterwards changed his mind. See ‘Sugerii Libellus Alter,’ in Duchesne,Hist. Franc. Scriptores, iv. p. 352.

[411]Poggii Opera, fol. 50 sqq. ‘Ruinarum Urbis Romæ Descriptio,’ written about 1430, shortly before the death of Martin V. The Baths of Caracalla and Diocletian had then their pillars and coating of marble. See Gregorovius, vi. 700-705.

[412]Poggio appears as one of the earliest collectors of inscriptions, in his letter in theVita Poggii, Muratori, xx. col. 177, and as collector of busts, (col. 183, and letter in Shepherd-Tonelli, i. 258). See alsoAmbros. Traversarii Epistolæ, xxv. 42. A little book which Poggio wrote on inscriptions seems to have been lost. Shepherd,Life of Poggio, trad. Tonelli, i. 154 sqq.

[413]Fabroni,Cosmus, Adnot. 86. From a letter of Alberto degli Alberti to Giovanni Medici. See also Gregorovius, vii. 557. For the condition of Rome under Martin V., see Platina, p. 227; and during the absence of Eugenius IV., see Vespasiano Fiorent., p. 21.

[414]Roma Instaurata, written in 1447, and dedicated to the Pope; first printed, Rome, 1474.

[415]See, nevertheless, his distichs in Voigt,Wiederbelebung des Alterthums, p. 275, note 2. He was the first Pope who published a Bull for the protection of old monuments (4 Kal. Maj. 1462), with penalties in case of disobedience. But these measures were ineffective. Comp. Gregorovius, vii. pp. 558 sqq.

[416]What follows is from Jo. Ant. Campanus,Vita Pii II., in Muratori, iii. ii. col. 980 sqq.Pii II. Commentarii, pp. 48, 72 sqq., 206, 248 sqq., 501, and elsewhere.

[417]First dated edition, Brixen, 1482.

[418]Boccaccio,Fiammetta, cap. 5.Opere, ed. Montier, vi. 91.

[419]His work,Cyriaci Anconitani Itinerarium, ed. Mehus, Florence, 1742. Comp. Leandro Alberti,Descriz. di tutta l’Italia, fol. 285.

[420]Two instances out of many: the fabulous origin of Milan in Manipulus (Murat. xl. col. 552), and that of Florence in Gio. Villani (who here, as elsewhere, enlarges on the forged chronicle of Ricardo Malespini), according to which Florence, being loyally Roman in its sentiments, is always in the right against the anti-Roman rebellious Fiesole (i. 9, 38, 41; ii. 2). Dante,Inf.xv. 76.

[421]Commentarii, p. 206, in the fourth book.

[421A]Mich. Cannesius,Vita Pauli II., in Murat. iii. ii. col. 993. Towards even Nero, son of Domitius Ahenobarbus, the author will not be impolite, on account of his connection with the Pope. He only says of him, ‘De quo verum Scriptores multa ac diversa commemorant.’ The family of Plato in Milan went still farther, and nattered itself on its descent from the great Athenian. Filelfo in a wedding speech, and in an encomium on the jurist Teodoro Plato, ventured to make this assertion; and a Giovanantonio Plato put the inscription on a portrait in relief carved by him in 1478 (in the court of the Pal. Magenta at Milan): ‘Platonem suum, a quo originem et ingenium refert.’

[422]See on this point, Nangiporto, in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1094; Infessura, in Eccard,Scriptores, ii. col. 1951; Matarazzo, in theArch. Stor.xvi. ii. p. 180. Nangiporto, however, admits that it was no longer possible to decide whether the corpse was male or female.

[423]As early as Julius II. excavations were made in the hope of finding statues. Vasari, xi. p. 302,V. di Gio. da Udine. Comp. Gregorovius, viii. 186.

[424]The letter was first attributed to Castiglione,Lettere di Negozi del Conte Bald. Castiglione, Padua, 1736 and 1769, but proved to be from the hand of Raphael by Daniele Francesconi in 1799. It is printed from a Munich MS. in Passavant,Leben Raphael’s, iii. p. 44. Comp. GruyerRaphael et l’Antiquité, 1864, i. 435-457.

[425]Lettere Pittoriche, ii. 1, Tolomei to Landi, 14 Nov., 1542.

[426]He tried ‘curis animique doloribus quacunque ratione aditum intercludere;’ music and lively conversation charmed him, and he hoped by their means to live longer.Leonis X. Vita Anonyma, in Roscoe, ed. Bossi, xii. p. 169.

[427]This point is referred to in theSatiresof Ariosto. See the first (‘Perc’ ho molto,’ &c.), and the fourth ‘Poiche, Annibale’).

[428]Ranke,Päpste, i. 408 sqq. ‘Lettere dei Principi, p. 107. Letter of Negri, September 1, 1522 ... ‘tutti questi cortigiani esausti da Papa Leone e falliti.’ They avenged themselves after the death of Leo by satirical verses and inscriptions.

[429]Pii II. Commentarii, p. 251 in the 5th book. Comp. Sannazaro’s elegy, ‘Ad Ruinas Cumarum urbis vetustissimæ’ (Opera, fol. 236 sqq.).

[430]Polifilo (i.e. Franciscus Columna) ‘Hypnerotomachia, ubi humana omnia non nisi somnum esse docet atque obiter plurima scita sane quam digna commemorat,’ Venice, Aldus Manutius, 1499. Comp. on this remarkable book and others, A. Didot,Alde Manuce, Paris, 1875, pp. 132-142; and Gruyer,Raphael et l’Antiquité, i. pp. 191 sqq.; J. Burckhardt,Geschichte der Renaissance in Italien, pp. 43 sqq., and the work of A. Ilg, Vienna, 1872.

[431]While all the Fathers of the Church and all the pilgrims speak only of a cave. The poets, too, do without the palace. Comp. Sannazaro,De Partu Virginis, l. ii.

[432]Chiefly from Vespasiano Fiorentine, in the first vol. of theSpicileg. Romanum, by Mai, from which edition the quotations in this book are made. New edition by Bartoli, Florence, 1859. The author was a Florentine bookseller and copying agent, about and after the middle of the fifteenth century.

[433]Comp. Petr.Epist. Fam.ed. Fracass. l. xviii. 2, xxiv. 12, var. 25, with the notes of Fracassetti in the Italian translation, vol. iv. 92-101, v. 196 sqq., where the fragment of a translation of Homer before the time of Pilato is also given.

[434]Forgeries, by which the passion for antiquity was turned to the profit or amusement of rogues, are well known to have been not uncommon. See the articles in the literary histories on Annius of Viterbo.

[435]Vespas. Fiorent. p. 31. ‘Tommaso da Serezana usava dire, che dua cosa farebbe, se egli potesse mai spendere, ch’era in libri e murare. E l’una e l’altra fece nel suo pontificato.’ With respect to his translation, see Æen. Sylvius,De Europa, cap. 58, p. 459, and Papencordt,Ges. der Stadt Rom.p. 502. See esp. Voigt, op. cit. book v.

[436]Vespas. Fior. pp. 48 and 658, 665. Comp. J. Manetti,Vita Nicolai V., in Murat. iii. ii. col. 925 sqq. On the question whether and how Calixtus III. partly dispersed the library again, see Vespas. Fiorent. p. 284, with Mai’s note.

[437]Vespas. Fior. pp. 617 sqq.

[438]Vespas. Fior. pp. 457 sqq.

[439]Vespas. Fiorent, p. 193. Comp. Marin Sanudo, in Murat. xxii. col. 1185 sqq.

[440]How the matter was provisionally treated is related in Malipiero,Ann. Veneti, Arch. Stor.vii. ii. pp. 653, 655.

[441]Vespas. Fior. pp. 124 sqq., and ‘Inventario della Libreria Urbinata compilata nel Secolo XV. da Federigo Veterano, bibliotecario di Federigo I. da Montefeltro Duca d’Urbino,’ given by C. Guasti in tbeGiornale Storico degli Archivi Toscani, vi. (1862), 127-147 and vii. (1863) 46-55, 130-154. For contemporary opinions on the library, see Favre,Mélanges d’Hist. Lit.i. 127, note 6. The following is the substance of Dr. Geiger’s remarks on the subject of the old authors:—For the Medicean Library comp.Delle condicioni e delle vicende della libreria medicea privata dal 1494 al 1508 ricerche di Enea Piccolomini, Arch. stor. ital., 265 sqq., 3 serie, vol. xix. pp. 101-129,254-281, xx. 51-94, xxi. 102-112, 282-296. Dr. Geiger does not undertake an estimate of the relative values of the various rare and almost unknown works contained in the library, nor is he able to state where they are now to be found. He remarks that information as to Greece is much fuller than as to Italy, which is a characteristic mark of the time. The catalogue contains editions of the Bible, of single books of it, with text and annotations, also Greek and Roman works in their then most complete forms, together with some Hebrew books—tractatus quidam rabbinorum hebr.—with much modern work, chiefly in Latin, and with not a little in Italian.Dr. Geiger doubts the absolute accuracy of Vespasiano Fiorentino’s catalogue of the library at Urbino. See the German edition, i. 313, 314. [S.G.C.M.]

For the Medicean Library comp.Delle condicioni e delle vicende della libreria medicea privata dal 1494 al 1508 ricerche di Enea Piccolomini, Arch. stor. ital., 265 sqq., 3 serie, vol. xix. pp. 101-129,254-281, xx. 51-94, xxi. 102-112, 282-296. Dr. Geiger does not undertake an estimate of the relative values of the various rare and almost unknown works contained in the library, nor is he able to state where they are now to be found. He remarks that information as to Greece is much fuller than as to Italy, which is a characteristic mark of the time. The catalogue contains editions of the Bible, of single books of it, with text and annotations, also Greek and Roman works in their then most complete forms, together with some Hebrew books—tractatus quidam rabbinorum hebr.—with much modern work, chiefly in Latin, and with not a little in Italian.

Dr. Geiger doubts the absolute accuracy of Vespasiano Fiorentino’s catalogue of the library at Urbino. See the German edition, i. 313, 314. [S.G.C.M.]

[442]Perhaps at the capture of Urbino by the troops of Cæsar Borgia. The existence of the manuscript has been doubted; but I cannot believe that Vespasiano would have spoken of the gnomic extracts from Menander, which do not amount to more than a couple of hundred verses, as ‘tutte le opere,’ nor have mentioned them in the list of comprehensive manuscripts, even though he had before him only our present Pindar and Sophocles. It is not inconceivable that this Menander may some day come to light.[The catalogue of the library at Urbino (see foregoing note), which dates back to the fifteenth century, is not perfectly in accordance with Vespasiano’s report, and with the remarks of Dr. Burckhardt upon it. As an official document, it deserves greater credit than Vespasiano’s description, which, like most of his descriptions, cannot be acquitted of a certain inaccuracy in detail and tendency to over-colouring. In this catalogue no mention is made of the manuscript of Menander. Mai’s doubt as to its existence is therefore justified. Instead of ‘all the works of Pindar,’ we here find: ‘Pindaris Olimpia et Pithia.’ The catalogue makes no distinction between ancient and modern books, contains the works of Dante (among others,Comœdiæ Thusco Carmine), and Boccaccio, in a very imperfect form; those of Petrarch, however, in all completeness. It may be added that this catalogue mentions many humanistic writings which have hitherto remained unknown and unprinted, that it contains collections of the privileges of the princes of Montefeltro, and carefully enumerates the dedications offered by translators or original writers to Federigo of Urbino.—L. G.]

[The catalogue of the library at Urbino (see foregoing note), which dates back to the fifteenth century, is not perfectly in accordance with Vespasiano’s report, and with the remarks of Dr. Burckhardt upon it. As an official document, it deserves greater credit than Vespasiano’s description, which, like most of his descriptions, cannot be acquitted of a certain inaccuracy in detail and tendency to over-colouring. In this catalogue no mention is made of the manuscript of Menander. Mai’s doubt as to its existence is therefore justified. Instead of ‘all the works of Pindar,’ we here find: ‘Pindaris Olimpia et Pithia.’ The catalogue makes no distinction between ancient and modern books, contains the works of Dante (among others,Comœdiæ Thusco Carmine), and Boccaccio, in a very imperfect form; those of Petrarch, however, in all completeness. It may be added that this catalogue mentions many humanistic writings which have hitherto remained unknown and unprinted, that it contains collections of the privileges of the princes of Montefeltro, and carefully enumerates the dedications offered by translators or original writers to Federigo of Urbino.—L. G.]

[443]For what follows and in part for what has gone before, see W. Wattenbach,Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter, 2nd. ed. Leipzig, 1875, pp. 392 sqq., 405 sqq., 505. Comp. also the poem,De Officio Scribæ, of Phil. Beroaldus, who, however, is rather speaking of the public scrivener.

[444]When Piero de’ Medici, at the death of Matthias Corvinus, the book-loving King of Hungary, declared that the ‘scrittori’ must now lower their charges, since they would otherwise find no further employment (Scil. except in Italy), he can only have meant the Greek copyists, as the caligraphists, to whom one might be tempted to refer his words, continued to be numerous throughout all Italy. Fabroni,Laurent. Magn.Adnot. 156 Comp. Adnot. 154.

[445]Gaye,Carteggio, i. p. 164. A letter of the year 1455 under Calixtus III. The famous miniature Bible of Urbino is written by a Frenchman, a workman of Vespasiano’s. See D’Agincourt,La Peinture, tab. 78. On German copyists in Italy, see further G. Campori,Artisti Italiani e Stranieri negli Stati Estensi, Modena, 1855, p. 277, andGiornale di Erudizione Artistica, vol. ii. pp. 360 sqq. Wattenbach,Schriftwesen, 411, note 5. For German printers, see below.

[446]Vespas. Fior. p. 335.

[447]Ambr. Trav.Epist.i. p. 63. The Pope was equally serviceable to the libraries of Urbino and Pesaro (that of Aless. Sforza, p. 38). Comp. Arch. Stor. ital. xxi. 103-106. The Bible and Commentaries on it; the Fathers of the Church; Aristotle, with his commentators, including Averroes and Avicenna; Moses Maimonides; Latin translations of Greek philosophers; the Latin prose writers; of the poets only Virgil, Statius, Ovid, and Lucan are mentioned.

[448]Vespas. Fior. p. 129.

[449]‘Artes—Quis Labor est fessis demptus ab Articulis’ in a poem by Robertus Ursus about 1470,Rerum Ital. Script, ex Codd. Fiorent.tom, ii. col. 693. He rejoices rather too hastily over the rapid spread of classical literature which was hoped for. Comp. Libri,Hist. des Sciences Mathématiques, ii. 278 sqq. (See also the eulogy of Lor. Valla,Hist. Zeitschr.xxxii. 62.) For the printers at Rome (the first were Germans: Hahn, Pannartz, Schweinheim), see Gaspar. Veron.Vita Pauli II.in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1046; and Laire,Spec. Hist. Typographiæ Romanae, xv. sec.Romæ, 1778; Gregorovius, vii. 525-33. For the first Privilegium in Venice, see Marin Sanudo, in Muratori, xxii. col. 1189.

[450]Something of the sort had already existed in the age of manuscripts. See Vespas. Fior. p. 656, on theCronaco del Mondoof Zembino of Pistoia.

[451]Fabroni,Laurent. Magn.Adnot. 212. It happened in the case of the libel.De Exilio.

[452]Even in Petrarch the consciousness of this superiority of Italians over Greeks is often to be noticed:Epp. Fam.lib. i. ep. 3;Epp. Sen.lib. xii. ep. 2; he praises the Greeks reluctantly:Carmina, lib. iii. 30 (ed. Rossetti, vol. ii. p. 342). A century later, Æneas Sylvius writes (Comm. to Panormita, ‘De Dictis et Factis Alfonsi,’ Append.): ‘Alfonsus tanto est Socrate major quanto gravior Romanus homo quam Græcus putatur.’ In accordance with this feeling the study of Greek was thought little of. From a document made use of below, written about 1460, it appears that Porcellio and Tomaso Seneca tried to resist the rising influence of Greek. Similarly, Paolo Cortese (1490) was averse to Greek, lest the hitherto exclusive authority of Latin should be impaired,De Hominibus Doctis, p. 20. For Greek studies in Italy, see esp. the learned work of Favre,Mélanges d’Hist. Liter.i.passim.

[453]See above p. 187, and comp. C. Voigt,Wiederbelebung, 323 sqq.

[454]The dying out of these Greeks is mentioned by Pierius Valerian,De Infelicitate Literat.in speaking of Lascaris. And Paulus Jovius, at the end of hisElogia Literaria, says of the Germans, ‘Quum literæ non latinæ modo cum pudore nostro, sed græcæ et hebraicæ in eorum terras fatali commigratione transierint’ (about 1450). Similarly, sixty years before (1482), Joh. Argyropulos had exclaimed, when he heard young Reuchlin translate Thucydides in his lecture-room at Rome, ‘Græcia nostra exilio transvolavit Alpes.’ Geiger,Reuchlin(Lpzg. 1871), pp. 26 sqq. Burchhardt, 273. A remarkable passage is to be found in Jov. Pontanus,Antonius, opp. iv. p. 203: ‘In Græcia magis nunc Turcaicum discas quam Græcum. Quicquid enim doctorum habent Græcæ disciplinæ, in Italia nobiscum victitat.

[455]Ranke,Päpste, i. 486 sqq. Comp. the end of this part of our work.

[456]Tommaso Gar,Relazioni della Corte di Roma, i. pp. 338, 379.

[457]George of Trebizond, teacher of rhetoric at Venice, with a salary of 150 ducats a year (see Malipiero,Arch. Stor.vii. ii. p. 653). For the Greek chair at Perugia, seeArch. Stor.xvi. ii. p. 19 of the Introduction. In the case of Rimini, there is some doubt whether Greek was taught or not. Comp.Anecd. Litt.ii. p. 300. At Bologna, the centre of juristic studies, Aurispa had but little success. Details on the subject in Malagola.

[458]Exhaustive information on the subject in the admirable work of A. F. Didot,Alde Manuce et l’Héllenisme à Venise, Paris, 1875.

[459]For what follows see A. de Gubernatis,Matériaux pour servir à l’Histoire des Études Orientales en Italie, Paris, Florence, &c., 1876. Additions by Soave in theBolletino Italiano degli Studi Orientali, i. 178 sqq. More precise details below.

[460]See below.

[461]SeeCommentario della Vita di Messer Gianozzo Manetti, scritto da Vespasiano Bisticci, Torino, 1862, esp. pp. 11, 44, 91 sqq.

[462]Vesp. Fior. p. 320. A. Trav.Epist.lib. xi. 16.

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