Chapter 25

[463]Platina,Vita Sixti IV.p. 332.[464]Benedictus Faleus,De Origine Hebraicarum Græcarum Latinarumque Literarum, Naples, 1520.[465]For Dante, see Wegele,Dante, 2nd ed. p. 268, and Lasinio,Dante e le Lingue semitichein theRivista Orientale(Flor. 1867-8). On Poggio,Opera, p. 297; Lion. Bruni,Epist.lib. ix. 12, comp. Gregorovius, vii. 555, and Shepherd-Tonelli,Vita di Poggio, i. 65. The letter of Poggio to Niccoli, in which he treats of Hebrew, has been lately published in French and Latin under the title,Les Bains de Bade par Pogge, by Antony Méray, Paris, 1876. Poggio desired to know on what principles Jerome translated the Bible, while Bruni maintained that, now that Jerome’s translation was in existence, distrust was shown to it by learning Hebrew. For Manetti as a collector of Hebrew MSS. see Steinschneider, in the work quoted below. In the library at Urbino there were in all sixty-one Hebrew manuscripts. Among them a Bible ‘opus mirabile et integrum, cum glossis mirabiliter scriptus in modo avium, arborum et animalium in maximo volumine, ut vix a tribus hominibus feratur.’ These, as appears from Assemanni’s list, are now mostly in the Vatican. On the first printing in Hebrew, see Steinschneider and Cassel,Jud. Typographic in Esch. u. Gruber, Realencyclop.sect. ii. bd. 28, p. 34, andCatal. Bodl.by Steinschneider, 1852-60, pp. 2821-2866. It is characteristic that of the two first printers one belonged to Mantua, the other to Reggio in Calabria, so that the printing of Hebrew books began almost contemporaneously at the two extremities of Italy. In Mantua the printer was a Jewish physician, who was helped by his wife. It may be mentioned as a curiosity that in theHypnerotomachiaof Polifilo, written 1467, printed 1499, fol. 68a, there is a short passage in Hebrew; otherwise no Hebrew occurs in the Aldine editions before 1501. The Hebrew scholars in Italy are given by De Gubernatis (p. 80), but authorities are not quoted for them singly. (Marco Lippomanno is omitted; comp. Steinschneider in the book given below.) Paolo de Canale is mentioned as a learned Hebraist by Pier. Valerian.De Infel. Literat.ed. Mencken, p. 296; in 1488 Professor in Bologna,Mag. Vicentius; comp.Costituzione, discipline e riforme dell’antico studio Bolognese. Memoria del Prof. Luciano Scarabelli, Piacenza, 1876; in 1514 Professor in Rome, Agarius Guidacerius, acc. to Gregorovius, viii. 292, and the passages there quoted. On Guid. see Steinschneider,Bibliogr. Handbuch, Leipzig, 1859, pp. 56, 157-161.[466]The literary activity of the Jews in Italy is too great and of too wide an influence to be passed over altogether in silence. The following paragraphs, which, not to overload the text, I have relegated to the notes, are wholly the substance of communications made me by Dr. M. Steinschneider, of Berlin, to whom I [Dr. Ludwig Geiger] here take the opportunity of expressing my thanks for his constant and friendly help. He has given exhaustive evidence on the subject in his profound and instructive treatise, ‘Letteratura Italiana dei Giudei,’ in the reviewIl Buonarotti, vols. vi. viii. xi. xii.; Rome, 1871-77 (also printed separately); to which, once for all, I refer the reader.There were many Jews living in Rome at the time of the Second Temple. They had so thoroughly adopted the language and civilisation prevailing in Italy, that even on their tombs they used not Hebrew, but Latin and Greek inscriptions (communicated by Garucci, see Steinschneider,Hebr. Bibliogr.vi. p. 102, 1863). In Lower Italy, especially, Greek learning survived during the Middle Ages among the inhabitants generally, and particularly among the Jews, of whom some are said to have taught at the University of Salerno, and to have rivalled the Christians in literary productiveness (comp. Steinschneider, ‘Donnolo,’ in Virchow’sArchiv, bd. 39, 40). This supremacy of Greek culture lasted till the Saracens conquered Lower Italy. But before this conquest the Jews of Middle Italy had been striving to equal or surpass their bretheren of the South. Jewish learning centred in Rome, and from there spread, as early as the sixteenth century, to Cordova, Kairowan, and South Germany. By means of these emigrants, Italian Judaism became the teacher of the whole race. Through its works, especially through the workAruchof Nathan ben Jechiel (1101), a great dictionary to the Talmud, the Midraschim, and the Thargum, ‘which, though not informed by a genuine scientific spirit, offers so rich a store of matter and rests on such early authorities, that its treasures have even now not been wholly exhausted,’ it exercised indirectly a great influence (Abraham Geiger,Das Judenthum und seine Geschichte, Breslau, bd. ii. 1865, p. 170; and the same author’sNachgelassene Schriften, bd. ii. Berlin, 1875, pp. 129 and 154). A little later, in the thirteenth century, the Jewish literature in Italy brought Jews and Christians into contact, and received through Frederick II., and still more perhaps through his son Manfred, a kind of official sanction. Of this contact we have evidence in the fact that an Italian, Niccolò di Giovinazzo, studied with a Jew, Moses ben Salomo, the Latin translation of the famous work of Maimonides,More Nebuchim; of this sanction, in the fact that the Emperor, who was distinguished for his freethinking as much as for his fondness for Oriental studies, probably was the cause of this Latin translation being made, and summoned the famous Anatoli from Provence into Italy, to translate works of Averroes into Hebrew (comp. Steinschneider,Hebr. Bibliogr.xv. 86, and Renan,L’Averroes et l’Averroisme, third edition, Paris, 1866, p. 290). These measures prove the acquaintance of early Jews with Latin, which rendered intercourse possible between them and Christians—an intercourse which bore sometimes a friendly and sometimes a polemical character. Still more than Anatoli, Hillel b. Samuel, in the latter half of the thirteenth century, devoted himself to Latin literature; he studied in Spain, returned to Italy, and here made many translations from Latin into Hebrew; among them of writings of Hippocrates in a Latin version. (This was printed 1647 by Gaiotius, and passed for his own.) In this translation he introduced a few Italian words by way of explanation, and thus perhaps, or by his whole literary procedure, laid himself open to the reproach of despising Jewish doctrines.But the Jews went further than this. At the end of the thirteenth and in the fourteenth centuries, they drew so near to Christian science and to the representatives of the culture of the Renaissance, that one of them, Giuda Romano, in a series of hitherto unprinted writings, laboured zealously at the scholastic philosophy, and in one treatise used Italian words to explain Hebrew expressions. He is one of the first to do so (Steinschneider,Giuda Romano, Rome, 1870). Another, Giuda’s cousin Manoello, a friend of Dante, wrote in imitation of him a sort of Divine Comedy in Hebrew, in which he extols Dante, whose death he also bewailed in an Italian sonnet (Abraham Geiger,Jüd. Zeitsch.v. 286-331, Breslau, 1867). A third, Mose Riete, born towards the end of the century, wrote works in Italian (a specimen in the Catalogue of Hebrew MSS., Leyden, 1858). In the fifteenth century we can clearly recognise the influence of the Renaissance in Messer Leon, a Jewish writer, who, in hisRhetoric, uses Quintilian and Cicero, as well as Jewish authorities. One of the most famous Jewish writers in Italy in the fifteenth century was Eliah del Medigo, a philosopher who taught publicly as a Jew in Padua and Florence, and was once chosen by the Venetian Senate as arbitrator in a philosophical dispute (Abr. Geiger,Nachgelassene Schriften, Berlin, 1876, bd. iii. 3). Eliah del Medigo was the teacher of Pico della Mirandola; besides him, Jochanan Alemanno (comp. Steinschneider,Polem. u. Apolog. Lit.Lpzg. 1877, anh. 7, § 25). The list of learned Jews in Italy may be closed by Kalonymos ben David and Abraham de Balmes (d. 1523), to whom the greater part of the translations of Averroes from Hebrew into Latin is due, which were still publicly read at Padua in the seventeenth century. To this scholar may be added the Jewish Aldus, Gerson Soncino, who not only made his press the centre of Jewish printing, but, by publishing Greek works, trespassed on the ground of the great Aldus himself (Steinschneider,Gerson Soncino und Aldus Manutius, Berlin, 1858).[467]Pierius Valerian.De Infelic. Lit.ed. Mencken, 301, speaking of Mongajo. Gubernatis, p. 184, identifies him with Andrea Alpago, of Bellemo, said to have also studied Arabian literature, and to have travelled in the East. On Arabic studies generally, Gubernatis, pp. 173 sqq. For a translation made 1341 from Arabic into Italian, comp. Narducci,Intorno ad una tradizione italiana di una composizione astronomica di Alfonso X. rè di Castiglia, Roma 1865. On Ramusio, see Sansovino,Venezia, fol. 250.[468]Gubernatis, p. 188. The first book contains Christian prayers in Arabic; the first Italian translations of the Koran appeared in 1547. In 1499 we meet with a few not very successful Arabic types in the work of Polifilo, b. 7a. For the beginnings of Egyptian studies, see Gregorovius, viii. p. 304.[469]Especially in the important letter of the year 1485 to Ermolao Barbaro, inAng. Politian. Epistolæ, l. ix. Comp. Jo. Pici,Oratio de Hominis Dignitate. For this discourse, see the end of part iv.; on Pico himself more will be given in part vi. chap. 4.[470]Their estimate of themselves is indicated by Poggio (De Avaritia, fol. 2), according to whom only such persons could say that they had lived (se vixisse) who had written learned and eloquent books in Latin or translated Greek into Latin.[471]Esp. Libri,Histoires des Sciences Mathém.ii. 159 sqq., 258 sqq.[472]Purgatorio, xviii. contains striking instances. Mary hastens over the mountains, Cæsar to Spain; Mary is poor and Fabricius disinterested. We may here remark on the chronological introduction of the Sibyls into the profane history of antiquity as attempted by Uberti in hisDittamondo(i. cap. 14, 15), about 1360.[473]The first German translation of theDecameron, by H. Steinhovel, was printed in 1472, and soon became popular. The translations of the wholeDecameronwere almost everywhere preceded by those of the story of Griselda, written in Latin by Petrarch.[474]These Latin writings of Boccaccio have been admirably discussed recently by Schück,Zur Characteristik des ital. Hum. im 14 und 15 Jahrh.Breslau, 1865; and in an article in Fleckeisen and Masius,Jahrbücher fur Phil. und Pädag.bd. xx. (1874).[475]‘Poeta,’ even in Dante (Vita Nuova, p. 47), means only the writer of Latin verses, while for Italian the expressions ‘Rimatore, Dicitore per rima,’ are used. It is true that the names and ideas became mixed in course of time.[476]Petrarch, too, at the height of his fame complained in moments of melancholy that his evil star decreed him to pass his last years among scoundrels (extremi fures). In the imaginary letter to Livy,Epp. Fam.ed. Fracass. lib. xxiv. ep. 8. That Petrarch defended poetry, and how, is well known (comp. Geiger,Petr.113-117). Besides the enemies who beset him in common with Boccaccio, he had to face the doctors (comp.Invectivæ in Medicum Objurgantem, lib. i. and ii.).[477]Boccaccio, in a later letter to Jacobus Pizinga (Opere Volgari, vol. xvi.), confines himself more strictly to poetry properly so called. And yet he only recognises as poetry that which treated of antiquity, and ignores the Troubadours.[478]Petr.Epp. Senil.lib. i. ep. 5.[479]Boccaccio (Vita di Dante, p. 50): ‘La quale (laurea) non scienza accresce ma è dell’acquistata certissimo testimonio e ornamento.’[480]Paradiso, xxv. 1 sqq. Boccaccio,Vita di Dante, p. 50. ‘Sopra le fonti di San Giovanni si era disporto di coronare.’ Comp.Paradiso, i. 25.[481]See Boccaccio’s letter to him in theOpere Volgari, vol. xvi. p. 36: ‘Si præstet Deus, concedente senatu Romuleo.’ ...[482]Matt. Villani, v. 26. There was a solemn procession on horseback round the city, when the followers of the Emperor, his ‘baroni,’ accompanied the poet. Boccaccio, l. c. Petrarch:Invectivæ contra Med. Præf.See alsoEpp. Fam. Volgarizzate da Fracassetti, iii. 128. For the speech of Zanobi at the coronation, Friedjung, l. c. 308 sqq. Fazio degli Uberti was also crowned, but it is not known where or by whom.[483]Jac. Volaterran. in Murat. xxiii. col. 185.[484]Vespas. Fiorent. pp. 575, 589.Vita Jan. Manetti, in Murat. xx. col. 543. The celebrity of Lionardo Aretino was in his lifetime so great that people came from all parts merely to see him; a Spaniard fell on his knees before him.—Vesp. p. 568. For the monument of Guarino, the magistrate of Ferrara allowed, in 1461, the then considerable sum of 100 ducats. On the coronation of poets in Italy there is a good summary of notices in Favre,Mélanges d’Hist. Lit.(1856) i. 65 sqq.[485]Comp. Libri,Histoire des Sciences Mathém.ii. p. 92 sqq. Bologna, as is well known, was older. Pisa flourished in the fourteenth century, fell through the wars with Florence, and was afterwards restored by Lorenzo Magnifico, ‘ad solatium veteris amissæ libertatis,’ as Giovio says,Vita Leonis X.l. i. The university of Florence (comp. Gaye,Carteggio, i. p. 461 to 560passim;Matteo Villani, i. 8; vii. 90), which existed as early as 1321, with compulsory attendance for the natives of the city, was founded afresh after the Black Death in 1848, and endowed with an income of 2,500 gold florins, fell again into decay, and was refounded in 1357. The chair for the explanation of Dante, established in 1373 at the request of many citizens, was afterwards commonly united with the professorship of philology and rhetoric, as when Filelfo held it.[486]This should be noticed in the lists of professors, as in that of the University of Pavia in 1400 (Corio,Storia di Milano, fol. 290), where (among others) no less than twenty jurists appear.[487]Marin Sanudo, in Murat. xxii. col. 990.[488]Fabroni,Laurent. Magn.Adnot. 52, in the year 1491.[489]Allegretto,Diari Sanesi, in Murat. xiii. col. 824.[490]Filelfo, when called to the newly founded University of Pisa, demanded at least 500 gold florins. Comp. Fabroni,Laur. Magn.ii. 75 sqq. The negotiations were broken off, not only on account of the high salary asked for.[491]Comp. Vespasian. Fiorent. pp. 271, 572, 582, 625.Vita. Jan. Manetti, in Murat. xx. col. 531 sqq.[492]Vespas. Fiorent. p. 1460. Prendilacqua (a pupil of Vitt.),Intorno alla Vita di V. da F., first ed. by Natale dalle Laste, 1774, translated by Giuseppe Brambilla, Como, 1871. C. Rosmini,Idea dell’ottimo Precettore nella Vita e Disciplina di Vittorino da Feltre e de’ suoi Discepoli, Bassano, 1801. Later works by Racheli (Milan, 1832), and Venoit (Paris, 1853).[493]Vespas. Fior. p. 646, of which, however, C. Rosmini,Vita e Disciplina di Guarino Veronese e de’ suoi Discepoli, Brescia, 1856 (3 vols.), says that it is (ii. 56), ‘formicolante di errori di fatto.’[494]For these and for Guarino generally, see Facius,De Vir. Illustribus, p. 17 sqq.; and Cortesius,De Hom. Doctis, p. 13. Both agree that the scholars of the following generation prided themselves on having been pupils of Guarino; but while Fazio praises his works, Cortese thinks that he would have cared better for his fame if he had written nothing. Guarino and Vittorino were friends and helped one another in their studies. Their contemporaries were fond of comparing them, and in this comparison Guarino commonly held the first place (Sabellico,Dial. de Lingu. Lat. Reparata, in Rosmini, ii. 112). Guarino’s attitude with regard to the ‘Ermafrodito’ is remarkable; see Rosmini, ii. 46 sqq. In both these teachers an unusual moderation in food and drink was observed; they never drank undiluted wine: in both the principles of education were alike; they neither used corporal punishment; the hardest penalty which Vittorino inflicted was to make the boy kneel and lie upon the ground in the presence of his fellow-pupils.[495]To the Archduke Sigismond,Epist.105, p. 600, and to King Ladislaus Postumus, p. 695; the latter asTractatus de Liberorum Educatione(1450).[496]P. 625. On Niccoli, see further a speech of Poggio,Opera, ed. 1513, fol. 102 sqq.; and a life by Manetti in his book,De Illustribus Longaevis.[497]The following words of Vespasiano are untranslatable: ‘A vederlo in tavola cosi antico come era, era una gentilezza.’[498]Ibid.p. 495.[499]According to Vespas. p. 271, learned men were in the habit of meeting here for discussion.[500]Of Niccoli it may be further remarked that, like Vittorino, he wrote nothing, being convinced that he could not treat of anything in as perfect a form as he desired; that his senses were so delicately poised that he ‘neque rudentem asinum, neque secantem serram, neque muscipulam vagientem sentire audireve poterat.’ But the less favourable sides of Niccoli’s character must not be forgotten. He robbed his brother of his sweetheart Benvenuta, roused the indignation of Lionardo Aretino by this act, and was embittered by the girl against many of his friends. He took ill the refusal to lend him books, and had a violent quarrel with Guarino on this account. He was not free from a petty jealousy, under the influence of which he tried to drive Chrysoloras, Poggio, and Filelfo away from Florence.[501]See hisVita, by Naldus Naldi, in Murat. xx. col. 532 sqq. See further Vespasiano Bisticci,Commentario della Vita di Messer Giannozzo Manetti, first published by P. Fanfani inCollezione di Opere inedite o rare, vol. ii. Torino, 1862. This ‘Commentario’ must be distinguished from the short ‘Vita’ of Manetti by the same author, in which frequent reference is made to the former. Vespasiano was on intimate terms with Giannozzo Manetti, and in the biography tried to draw an ideal picture of a statesman for the degenerate Florence. Vesp. is Naldi’s authority. Comp. also the fragment in Galetti,Phil. Vill. Liber Flor.1847, pp. 129-138. Half a century after his death Manetti was nearly forgotten. Comp. Paolo Cortese, p. 21.[502]The title of the work, in Latin and Italian, is given in Bisticci,Commentario, pp. 109, 112.[503]What was known of Plato before can only have been fragmentary. A strange discussion on the antagonism of Plato and Aristotle took place at Ferrara in 1438, between Ugo of Siena and the Greeks who came to the Council. Comp. Æneas Sylvius,De Europa, cap. 52 (Opera, p. 450).[504]In Niccolò Valori,Life of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Comp. Vespas. Fiorent. p. 426. The first supporters of Argyropulos were the Acciajuoli.Ib.192: Cardinal Bessarion and his parallels between Plato and Aristotle.Ib.223: Cusanus as Platonist.Ib.308: The Catalonian Narciso and his disputes with Argyropulos.Ib.571: Single Dialogues of Plato, translated by Lionardo Aretino.Ib.298: The rising influence of Neoplatonism. On Marsilio Ficino, see Reumont,Lorenzo de’ Medici, ii. 27 sqq.[505]Varchi,Stor. Fior.p. 321. An admirable sketch of character.[506]The lives of Guarino and Vittorino by Rosmini mentioned above (p. 213, note 1; and 215, note 1), as well as the life of Poggio by Shepherd, especially in the enlarged Italian translation of Tonelli (2 vols. Florence, 1825); the Correspondence of Poggio, edited by the same writer (2 vols. Flor. 1832); and the letters of Poggio in Mai’sSpicilegium, tom. x. Rome, 1844, pp. 221-272, all contain much on this subject.[507]Epist. 39;Opera, p. 526, to Mariano Socino.[508]We must not be misled by the fact that along with all this complaints were frequently heard of the inadequacy of princely patronage and of the indifference of many princes to their fame. See e.g. Bapt. Mantan, Eclog. v. as early as the fifteenth century; and Ambrogio Traversari,De Infelicitate Principum. It was impossible to satisfy all.[509]For the literary and scientific patronage of the popes down to the end of the fifteenth century, see Gregorovius, vols. vii. and viii. For Pius II., see Voigt,En. Silvio als Papst Pius II.bd. iii. (Berlin, 1863), pp. 406-440.[510]Lil. Greg. Gyraldus,De Poetis Nostri Temporis, speaking of theSphaerulusof Camerino. The worthy man did not finish it in time, and his work lay for forty years in his desk. For the scanty payments made by Sixtus IV., comp. Pierio Valer.De Infelic. Lit.on Theodoras Gaza. He received for a translation and commentary of a work of Aristotle fifty gold florins, ‘ab eo a quo se totum inauratum iri speraverat.’ On the deliberate exclusion of the humanists from the cardinalate by the popes before Leo, comp. Lor. Grana’s funeral oration on Cardinal Egidio,Anecdot. Litt.iv. p. 307.[511]The best are to be found in theDeliciae Poetarum Italorum, and in the Appendices to the various editions of Roscoe,Leo X.Several poets and writers, like Alcyonius,De Exilio, ed. Menken, p. 10, say frankly that they praise Leo in order themselves to become immortal.[512]Paul. Jov.Elogiaspeaking of Guido Posthumus.[513]Pierio Valeriano in hisSimia.[514]See the elegy of Joh. Aurelius Mutius in theDeliciae Poetarum Italorum.[515]The well-known story of the purple velvet purse filled with packets of gold of various sizes, in which Leo used to thrust his hand blindly, is in GiraldiHecatommithi, vi. nov. 8. On the other hand, the Latin ‘improvisatori,’ when their verses were too faulty, were whipped. Lil. Greg. Gyraldus,De Poetis Nostri Temp. Opp.ii. 398 (Basil, 1580).[516]Roscoe,Leone X.ed. Bossi. iv. 181.[517]Vespas. Fior. p. 68 sqq. For the translations from Greek made by Alfonso’s orders, see p. 93;Vita Jan. Manetti, in Murat. xx. col. 541 sqq., 450 sqq., 495. Panormita,Dicta et Facta Alfonsi, with the notes by Æneas Sylvius, ed. by Jacob Spiegel, Basel, 1538.[518]Even Alfonso was not able to please everybody—Poggio, for example. See Shepherd-Tonelli,Poggioii. 108 sqq. and Poggio’s letter to Facius inFac. de Vir. Ill.ed. Mehus, p. 88, where he writes of Alfonso: ‘Ad ostentationem quædam facit quibus videatur doctis viris favere;’ and Poggio’s letter in Mai,Spicil.tom. x. p. 241.[519]Ovid.Amores, iii. 11, vs. ii.; Jovian. Pontan.De Principe.[520]Giorn. Napolet.in Murat. xxi. col. 1127.[521]Vespas. Fior. pp. 3, 119 sqq. ‘Volle aver piena notizia d’ogni cosa, cosi sacra come gentile.’[522]The last Visconti divided his interest between Livy, the French chivalrous romances, Dante, and Petrarch. The humanists who presented themselves to him with the promise ‘to make him famous,’ were generally sent away after a few days. Comp.Decembrio, in Murat. xx. col. 1114.[523]Paul. Jov.Vita Alfonsi Ducis.[524]On Collenuccio at the court of Giovanni Sforza of Pesaro (son of Alessandro, p. 28), who finally, in 1508, put him to death, see p. 135, note 4. At the time of the last Ordelaffi at Forli, the place was occupied by Codrus Urceus (1477-80); death-bed complaint of C. U.Opp.Ven. 1506, fol. liv.; for his stay in Forli,Sermo, vi. Comp. Carlo Malagola,Della Vita di C. U.Bologna, 1877, Ap. iv. Among the instructed despots, we may mention Galeotto Manfreddi of Faenza, murdered in 1488 by his wife, and some of the Bentivoglio family at Bologna.[525]Anecdota Literar.ii. pp. 305 sqq., 405. Basinius of Parma ridicules Porcellio and Tommaso Seneca; they are needy parasites, and must play the soldier in their old age, while he himself was enjoying an ‘ager’ and a ‘villa.’[526]For details respecting these graves, see Keyssler,Neueste Reisen, s. 924.[527]Pii II. Comment.l. ii. p. 92. By history he means all that has to do with antiquity. Cortesius also praises him highly, p. 34 sqq.[528]Fabroni,Costnus, Adnot. 118. Vespasian. Fior.passim. An important passage respecting the demands made by the Florentines on their secretaries (‘quod honor apud Florentinos magnus habetur,’ says B. Facius, speaking of Poggio’s appointment to the secretaryship,De Vir. Ill.p. 17), is to be found in Æneas Sylvius,De Europâ, cap. 54 (Opera, p. 454).[529]See Voigt,En. Silvio als Papst Pius II.bd. iii. 488 sqq., for the often-discussed and often-misunderstood change which Pius II. made with respect to the Abbreviators.[530]Comp. the statement of Jacob Spiegel (1521) given in the reports of the Vienna Academy, lxxviii. 333.[531]Anecdota Lit.i. p. 119 sqq. A plea (‘Actio ad Cardinales Deputatos’) of Jacobus Volaterranus in the name of the Secretaries, no doubt of the time of Sixtus IV. (Voigt, l. c. 552, note). The humanistic claims of the ‘advocati consistoriales’ rested on their oratory, as that of the Secretaries on their correspondence.[532]The Imperial chancery under Frederick III. was best known to Æneas Sylvius. Comp.Epp.23 and 105;Opera, pp. 516 and 607.[533]The letters of Bembo and Sadoleto have been often printed; those of the former, e.g. in theOpera, Basel, 1556, vol. ii., where the letters written in the name of Leo X. are distinguished from private letters; those of the latter most fully, 5 vols. Rome, 1760. Some additions to both have been given by Carlo Malagola in the reviewIl Baretti, Turin, 1875. Bembo’sAsolaniwill be spoken of below; Sadoleto’s significance for Latin style has been judged as follows by a contemporary, Petrus Alcyonius,De Exilio, ed. Menken, p. 119: ‘Solus autem nostrorum temporum aut certe cum paucis animadvertit elocutionem emendatam et latinam esse fundamentum oratoris; ad eamque obtinendam necesse esse latinam linguam expurgare quam inquinarunt nonnulli exquisitarum literarum omnino rudes et nullius judicii homines, qui partim a circumpadanis municipiis, partim ex transalpinis provinciis, in hanc urbem confluxerunt. Emendavit igitur ‘eruditissimus hic vir corruptam et vitiosam linguæ latinæ consuetudinem, pura ac integra loquendi ratione.’[534]Corio,Storia di Milano, fol. 449, for the letter of Isabella of Aragon to her father, Alfonso of Naples; fols. 451, 464, two letters of the Moor to Charles VIII. Compare the story in theLettere Pittoriche, iii. 86 (Sebastiano del Piombo to Aretino), how Clement VII., during the sack of Rome, called his learned men round him, and made each of them separately write a letter to Charles V.[535]For the correspondence of the period in general, see Voigt,Wiederbelebung, 414-427.[536]Bembo thought it necessary to excuse himself for writing in Italian: ‘Ad Sempronium,’Bembi Opera, Bas. 1556, vol. iii. 156 sqq.[537]On the collection of the letters of Aretino, see above, pp. 164 sqq., and the note. Collections of Latin letters had been printed even in the fifteenth century.[538]Comp. the speeches in theOperaof Philelphus, Sabellicus, Beroaldus, &c.; and the writings and lives of Giann. Manetti, Æneas Sylvius, and others.[539]B. F.De Viris Illustribus, ed. Mehus, p. 7. Manetti, as Vesp. Bisticci,Commentario, p. 51, states, delivered many speeches in Italian, and then afterwards wrote them out in Latin. The scholars of the fifteenth century, e.g. Paolo Cortese, judge the achievements of the past solely from the point of view of ‘Eloquentia.’[540]Diario Ferrarese, in Murat. xxiv. col. 198, 205.[541]Pii II. Comment.l. i. p. 10.[542]The success of the fortunate orator was great, and the humiliation of the speaker who broke down before distinguished audiences no less great. Examples of the latter in Petrus Crinitus,De Honestâ Disciplinâ, v. cap. 3. Comp. Vespas. Fior. pp. 319, 430.[543]Pii II. Comment.l. iv. p. 205. There were some Romans, too, who awaited him at Viterbo. ‘Singuli per se verba facere, ne alius alio melior videretur, cum essent eloquentiâ ferme pares.’ The fact that the Bishop of Arezzo was not allowed to speak in the name of the general embassy of the Italian states to the newly chosen Alexander VI., is seriously placed by Guicciardini (at the beginning of book i.) among the causes which helped to produce the disaster of 1494.[544]Told by Marin Sanudo, in Murat. xxii. col. 1160.[545]Pii II. Comment.l. ii. p. 107. Comp. p. 87. Another oratorical princess, Madonna Battista Montefeltro, married to a Malatesta, harangued Sigismund and Martin. Comp.Arch. Stor.iv. i. p. 442, note.[546]De Expeditione in Turcas, in Murat. xxiii. col. 68. ‘Nihil enim Pii concionantis majestate sublimius.’ Not to speak of the naïve pleasure with which Pius describes his own triumphs, see Campanus,Vita Pii II., in Murat. iii. ii.passim. At a later period these speeches were judged less admiringly. Comp. Voigt,Enea Silvio, ii. 275 sqq.[547]Charles V., when unable on one occasion to follow the flourishes of a Latin orator at Genoa, replied in the ear of Giovio: ‘Ah, my tutor Adrian was right, when he told me I should be chastened for my childish idleness in learning Latin.’ Paul. Jov.Vita Hadriani VI.Princes replied to these speeches through their official orators; Frederick III. through Enea Silvio, in answer to Giannozzo Manetti. Vesp. Bist.Comment.p. 64.

[463]Platina,Vita Sixti IV.p. 332.

[464]Benedictus Faleus,De Origine Hebraicarum Græcarum Latinarumque Literarum, Naples, 1520.

[465]For Dante, see Wegele,Dante, 2nd ed. p. 268, and Lasinio,Dante e le Lingue semitichein theRivista Orientale(Flor. 1867-8). On Poggio,Opera, p. 297; Lion. Bruni,Epist.lib. ix. 12, comp. Gregorovius, vii. 555, and Shepherd-Tonelli,Vita di Poggio, i. 65. The letter of Poggio to Niccoli, in which he treats of Hebrew, has been lately published in French and Latin under the title,Les Bains de Bade par Pogge, by Antony Méray, Paris, 1876. Poggio desired to know on what principles Jerome translated the Bible, while Bruni maintained that, now that Jerome’s translation was in existence, distrust was shown to it by learning Hebrew. For Manetti as a collector of Hebrew MSS. see Steinschneider, in the work quoted below. In the library at Urbino there were in all sixty-one Hebrew manuscripts. Among them a Bible ‘opus mirabile et integrum, cum glossis mirabiliter scriptus in modo avium, arborum et animalium in maximo volumine, ut vix a tribus hominibus feratur.’ These, as appears from Assemanni’s list, are now mostly in the Vatican. On the first printing in Hebrew, see Steinschneider and Cassel,Jud. Typographic in Esch. u. Gruber, Realencyclop.sect. ii. bd. 28, p. 34, andCatal. Bodl.by Steinschneider, 1852-60, pp. 2821-2866. It is characteristic that of the two first printers one belonged to Mantua, the other to Reggio in Calabria, so that the printing of Hebrew books began almost contemporaneously at the two extremities of Italy. In Mantua the printer was a Jewish physician, who was helped by his wife. It may be mentioned as a curiosity that in theHypnerotomachiaof Polifilo, written 1467, printed 1499, fol. 68a, there is a short passage in Hebrew; otherwise no Hebrew occurs in the Aldine editions before 1501. The Hebrew scholars in Italy are given by De Gubernatis (p. 80), but authorities are not quoted for them singly. (Marco Lippomanno is omitted; comp. Steinschneider in the book given below.) Paolo de Canale is mentioned as a learned Hebraist by Pier. Valerian.De Infel. Literat.ed. Mencken, p. 296; in 1488 Professor in Bologna,Mag. Vicentius; comp.Costituzione, discipline e riforme dell’antico studio Bolognese. Memoria del Prof. Luciano Scarabelli, Piacenza, 1876; in 1514 Professor in Rome, Agarius Guidacerius, acc. to Gregorovius, viii. 292, and the passages there quoted. On Guid. see Steinschneider,Bibliogr. Handbuch, Leipzig, 1859, pp. 56, 157-161.

[466]The literary activity of the Jews in Italy is too great and of too wide an influence to be passed over altogether in silence. The following paragraphs, which, not to overload the text, I have relegated to the notes, are wholly the substance of communications made me by Dr. M. Steinschneider, of Berlin, to whom I [Dr. Ludwig Geiger] here take the opportunity of expressing my thanks for his constant and friendly help. He has given exhaustive evidence on the subject in his profound and instructive treatise, ‘Letteratura Italiana dei Giudei,’ in the reviewIl Buonarotti, vols. vi. viii. xi. xii.; Rome, 1871-77 (also printed separately); to which, once for all, I refer the reader.There were many Jews living in Rome at the time of the Second Temple. They had so thoroughly adopted the language and civilisation prevailing in Italy, that even on their tombs they used not Hebrew, but Latin and Greek inscriptions (communicated by Garucci, see Steinschneider,Hebr. Bibliogr.vi. p. 102, 1863). In Lower Italy, especially, Greek learning survived during the Middle Ages among the inhabitants generally, and particularly among the Jews, of whom some are said to have taught at the University of Salerno, and to have rivalled the Christians in literary productiveness (comp. Steinschneider, ‘Donnolo,’ in Virchow’sArchiv, bd. 39, 40). This supremacy of Greek culture lasted till the Saracens conquered Lower Italy. But before this conquest the Jews of Middle Italy had been striving to equal or surpass their bretheren of the South. Jewish learning centred in Rome, and from there spread, as early as the sixteenth century, to Cordova, Kairowan, and South Germany. By means of these emigrants, Italian Judaism became the teacher of the whole race. Through its works, especially through the workAruchof Nathan ben Jechiel (1101), a great dictionary to the Talmud, the Midraschim, and the Thargum, ‘which, though not informed by a genuine scientific spirit, offers so rich a store of matter and rests on such early authorities, that its treasures have even now not been wholly exhausted,’ it exercised indirectly a great influence (Abraham Geiger,Das Judenthum und seine Geschichte, Breslau, bd. ii. 1865, p. 170; and the same author’sNachgelassene Schriften, bd. ii. Berlin, 1875, pp. 129 and 154). A little later, in the thirteenth century, the Jewish literature in Italy brought Jews and Christians into contact, and received through Frederick II., and still more perhaps through his son Manfred, a kind of official sanction. Of this contact we have evidence in the fact that an Italian, Niccolò di Giovinazzo, studied with a Jew, Moses ben Salomo, the Latin translation of the famous work of Maimonides,More Nebuchim; of this sanction, in the fact that the Emperor, who was distinguished for his freethinking as much as for his fondness for Oriental studies, probably was the cause of this Latin translation being made, and summoned the famous Anatoli from Provence into Italy, to translate works of Averroes into Hebrew (comp. Steinschneider,Hebr. Bibliogr.xv. 86, and Renan,L’Averroes et l’Averroisme, third edition, Paris, 1866, p. 290). These measures prove the acquaintance of early Jews with Latin, which rendered intercourse possible between them and Christians—an intercourse which bore sometimes a friendly and sometimes a polemical character. Still more than Anatoli, Hillel b. Samuel, in the latter half of the thirteenth century, devoted himself to Latin literature; he studied in Spain, returned to Italy, and here made many translations from Latin into Hebrew; among them of writings of Hippocrates in a Latin version. (This was printed 1647 by Gaiotius, and passed for his own.) In this translation he introduced a few Italian words by way of explanation, and thus perhaps, or by his whole literary procedure, laid himself open to the reproach of despising Jewish doctrines.But the Jews went further than this. At the end of the thirteenth and in the fourteenth centuries, they drew so near to Christian science and to the representatives of the culture of the Renaissance, that one of them, Giuda Romano, in a series of hitherto unprinted writings, laboured zealously at the scholastic philosophy, and in one treatise used Italian words to explain Hebrew expressions. He is one of the first to do so (Steinschneider,Giuda Romano, Rome, 1870). Another, Giuda’s cousin Manoello, a friend of Dante, wrote in imitation of him a sort of Divine Comedy in Hebrew, in which he extols Dante, whose death he also bewailed in an Italian sonnet (Abraham Geiger,Jüd. Zeitsch.v. 286-331, Breslau, 1867). A third, Mose Riete, born towards the end of the century, wrote works in Italian (a specimen in the Catalogue of Hebrew MSS., Leyden, 1858). In the fifteenth century we can clearly recognise the influence of the Renaissance in Messer Leon, a Jewish writer, who, in hisRhetoric, uses Quintilian and Cicero, as well as Jewish authorities. One of the most famous Jewish writers in Italy in the fifteenth century was Eliah del Medigo, a philosopher who taught publicly as a Jew in Padua and Florence, and was once chosen by the Venetian Senate as arbitrator in a philosophical dispute (Abr. Geiger,Nachgelassene Schriften, Berlin, 1876, bd. iii. 3). Eliah del Medigo was the teacher of Pico della Mirandola; besides him, Jochanan Alemanno (comp. Steinschneider,Polem. u. Apolog. Lit.Lpzg. 1877, anh. 7, § 25). The list of learned Jews in Italy may be closed by Kalonymos ben David and Abraham de Balmes (d. 1523), to whom the greater part of the translations of Averroes from Hebrew into Latin is due, which were still publicly read at Padua in the seventeenth century. To this scholar may be added the Jewish Aldus, Gerson Soncino, who not only made his press the centre of Jewish printing, but, by publishing Greek works, trespassed on the ground of the great Aldus himself (Steinschneider,Gerson Soncino und Aldus Manutius, Berlin, 1858).

There were many Jews living in Rome at the time of the Second Temple. They had so thoroughly adopted the language and civilisation prevailing in Italy, that even on their tombs they used not Hebrew, but Latin and Greek inscriptions (communicated by Garucci, see Steinschneider,Hebr. Bibliogr.vi. p. 102, 1863). In Lower Italy, especially, Greek learning survived during the Middle Ages among the inhabitants generally, and particularly among the Jews, of whom some are said to have taught at the University of Salerno, and to have rivalled the Christians in literary productiveness (comp. Steinschneider, ‘Donnolo,’ in Virchow’sArchiv, bd. 39, 40). This supremacy of Greek culture lasted till the Saracens conquered Lower Italy. But before this conquest the Jews of Middle Italy had been striving to equal or surpass their bretheren of the South. Jewish learning centred in Rome, and from there spread, as early as the sixteenth century, to Cordova, Kairowan, and South Germany. By means of these emigrants, Italian Judaism became the teacher of the whole race. Through its works, especially through the workAruchof Nathan ben Jechiel (1101), a great dictionary to the Talmud, the Midraschim, and the Thargum, ‘which, though not informed by a genuine scientific spirit, offers so rich a store of matter and rests on such early authorities, that its treasures have even now not been wholly exhausted,’ it exercised indirectly a great influence (Abraham Geiger,Das Judenthum und seine Geschichte, Breslau, bd. ii. 1865, p. 170; and the same author’sNachgelassene Schriften, bd. ii. Berlin, 1875, pp. 129 and 154). A little later, in the thirteenth century, the Jewish literature in Italy brought Jews and Christians into contact, and received through Frederick II., and still more perhaps through his son Manfred, a kind of official sanction. Of this contact we have evidence in the fact that an Italian, Niccolò di Giovinazzo, studied with a Jew, Moses ben Salomo, the Latin translation of the famous work of Maimonides,More Nebuchim; of this sanction, in the fact that the Emperor, who was distinguished for his freethinking as much as for his fondness for Oriental studies, probably was the cause of this Latin translation being made, and summoned the famous Anatoli from Provence into Italy, to translate works of Averroes into Hebrew (comp. Steinschneider,Hebr. Bibliogr.xv. 86, and Renan,L’Averroes et l’Averroisme, third edition, Paris, 1866, p. 290). These measures prove the acquaintance of early Jews with Latin, which rendered intercourse possible between them and Christians—an intercourse which bore sometimes a friendly and sometimes a polemical character. Still more than Anatoli, Hillel b. Samuel, in the latter half of the thirteenth century, devoted himself to Latin literature; he studied in Spain, returned to Italy, and here made many translations from Latin into Hebrew; among them of writings of Hippocrates in a Latin version. (This was printed 1647 by Gaiotius, and passed for his own.) In this translation he introduced a few Italian words by way of explanation, and thus perhaps, or by his whole literary procedure, laid himself open to the reproach of despising Jewish doctrines.

But the Jews went further than this. At the end of the thirteenth and in the fourteenth centuries, they drew so near to Christian science and to the representatives of the culture of the Renaissance, that one of them, Giuda Romano, in a series of hitherto unprinted writings, laboured zealously at the scholastic philosophy, and in one treatise used Italian words to explain Hebrew expressions. He is one of the first to do so (Steinschneider,Giuda Romano, Rome, 1870). Another, Giuda’s cousin Manoello, a friend of Dante, wrote in imitation of him a sort of Divine Comedy in Hebrew, in which he extols Dante, whose death he also bewailed in an Italian sonnet (Abraham Geiger,Jüd. Zeitsch.v. 286-331, Breslau, 1867). A third, Mose Riete, born towards the end of the century, wrote works in Italian (a specimen in the Catalogue of Hebrew MSS., Leyden, 1858). In the fifteenth century we can clearly recognise the influence of the Renaissance in Messer Leon, a Jewish writer, who, in hisRhetoric, uses Quintilian and Cicero, as well as Jewish authorities. One of the most famous Jewish writers in Italy in the fifteenth century was Eliah del Medigo, a philosopher who taught publicly as a Jew in Padua and Florence, and was once chosen by the Venetian Senate as arbitrator in a philosophical dispute (Abr. Geiger,Nachgelassene Schriften, Berlin, 1876, bd. iii. 3). Eliah del Medigo was the teacher of Pico della Mirandola; besides him, Jochanan Alemanno (comp. Steinschneider,Polem. u. Apolog. Lit.Lpzg. 1877, anh. 7, § 25). The list of learned Jews in Italy may be closed by Kalonymos ben David and Abraham de Balmes (d. 1523), to whom the greater part of the translations of Averroes from Hebrew into Latin is due, which were still publicly read at Padua in the seventeenth century. To this scholar may be added the Jewish Aldus, Gerson Soncino, who not only made his press the centre of Jewish printing, but, by publishing Greek works, trespassed on the ground of the great Aldus himself (Steinschneider,Gerson Soncino und Aldus Manutius, Berlin, 1858).

[467]Pierius Valerian.De Infelic. Lit.ed. Mencken, 301, speaking of Mongajo. Gubernatis, p. 184, identifies him with Andrea Alpago, of Bellemo, said to have also studied Arabian literature, and to have travelled in the East. On Arabic studies generally, Gubernatis, pp. 173 sqq. For a translation made 1341 from Arabic into Italian, comp. Narducci,Intorno ad una tradizione italiana di una composizione astronomica di Alfonso X. rè di Castiglia, Roma 1865. On Ramusio, see Sansovino,Venezia, fol. 250.

[468]Gubernatis, p. 188. The first book contains Christian prayers in Arabic; the first Italian translations of the Koran appeared in 1547. In 1499 we meet with a few not very successful Arabic types in the work of Polifilo, b. 7a. For the beginnings of Egyptian studies, see Gregorovius, viii. p. 304.

[469]Especially in the important letter of the year 1485 to Ermolao Barbaro, inAng. Politian. Epistolæ, l. ix. Comp. Jo. Pici,Oratio de Hominis Dignitate. For this discourse, see the end of part iv.; on Pico himself more will be given in part vi. chap. 4.

[470]Their estimate of themselves is indicated by Poggio (De Avaritia, fol. 2), according to whom only such persons could say that they had lived (se vixisse) who had written learned and eloquent books in Latin or translated Greek into Latin.

[471]Esp. Libri,Histoires des Sciences Mathém.ii. 159 sqq., 258 sqq.

[472]Purgatorio, xviii. contains striking instances. Mary hastens over the mountains, Cæsar to Spain; Mary is poor and Fabricius disinterested. We may here remark on the chronological introduction of the Sibyls into the profane history of antiquity as attempted by Uberti in hisDittamondo(i. cap. 14, 15), about 1360.

[473]The first German translation of theDecameron, by H. Steinhovel, was printed in 1472, and soon became popular. The translations of the wholeDecameronwere almost everywhere preceded by those of the story of Griselda, written in Latin by Petrarch.

[474]These Latin writings of Boccaccio have been admirably discussed recently by Schück,Zur Characteristik des ital. Hum. im 14 und 15 Jahrh.Breslau, 1865; and in an article in Fleckeisen and Masius,Jahrbücher fur Phil. und Pädag.bd. xx. (1874).

[475]‘Poeta,’ even in Dante (Vita Nuova, p. 47), means only the writer of Latin verses, while for Italian the expressions ‘Rimatore, Dicitore per rima,’ are used. It is true that the names and ideas became mixed in course of time.

[476]Petrarch, too, at the height of his fame complained in moments of melancholy that his evil star decreed him to pass his last years among scoundrels (extremi fures). In the imaginary letter to Livy,Epp. Fam.ed. Fracass. lib. xxiv. ep. 8. That Petrarch defended poetry, and how, is well known (comp. Geiger,Petr.113-117). Besides the enemies who beset him in common with Boccaccio, he had to face the doctors (comp.Invectivæ in Medicum Objurgantem, lib. i. and ii.).

[477]Boccaccio, in a later letter to Jacobus Pizinga (Opere Volgari, vol. xvi.), confines himself more strictly to poetry properly so called. And yet he only recognises as poetry that which treated of antiquity, and ignores the Troubadours.

[478]Petr.Epp. Senil.lib. i. ep. 5.

[479]Boccaccio (Vita di Dante, p. 50): ‘La quale (laurea) non scienza accresce ma è dell’acquistata certissimo testimonio e ornamento.’

[480]Paradiso, xxv. 1 sqq. Boccaccio,Vita di Dante, p. 50. ‘Sopra le fonti di San Giovanni si era disporto di coronare.’ Comp.Paradiso, i. 25.

[481]See Boccaccio’s letter to him in theOpere Volgari, vol. xvi. p. 36: ‘Si præstet Deus, concedente senatu Romuleo.’ ...

[482]Matt. Villani, v. 26. There was a solemn procession on horseback round the city, when the followers of the Emperor, his ‘baroni,’ accompanied the poet. Boccaccio, l. c. Petrarch:Invectivæ contra Med. Præf.See alsoEpp. Fam. Volgarizzate da Fracassetti, iii. 128. For the speech of Zanobi at the coronation, Friedjung, l. c. 308 sqq. Fazio degli Uberti was also crowned, but it is not known where or by whom.

[483]Jac. Volaterran. in Murat. xxiii. col. 185.

[484]Vespas. Fiorent. pp. 575, 589.Vita Jan. Manetti, in Murat. xx. col. 543. The celebrity of Lionardo Aretino was in his lifetime so great that people came from all parts merely to see him; a Spaniard fell on his knees before him.—Vesp. p. 568. For the monument of Guarino, the magistrate of Ferrara allowed, in 1461, the then considerable sum of 100 ducats. On the coronation of poets in Italy there is a good summary of notices in Favre,Mélanges d’Hist. Lit.(1856) i. 65 sqq.

[485]Comp. Libri,Histoire des Sciences Mathém.ii. p. 92 sqq. Bologna, as is well known, was older. Pisa flourished in the fourteenth century, fell through the wars with Florence, and was afterwards restored by Lorenzo Magnifico, ‘ad solatium veteris amissæ libertatis,’ as Giovio says,Vita Leonis X.l. i. The university of Florence (comp. Gaye,Carteggio, i. p. 461 to 560passim;Matteo Villani, i. 8; vii. 90), which existed as early as 1321, with compulsory attendance for the natives of the city, was founded afresh after the Black Death in 1848, and endowed with an income of 2,500 gold florins, fell again into decay, and was refounded in 1357. The chair for the explanation of Dante, established in 1373 at the request of many citizens, was afterwards commonly united with the professorship of philology and rhetoric, as when Filelfo held it.

[486]This should be noticed in the lists of professors, as in that of the University of Pavia in 1400 (Corio,Storia di Milano, fol. 290), where (among others) no less than twenty jurists appear.

[487]Marin Sanudo, in Murat. xxii. col. 990.

[488]Fabroni,Laurent. Magn.Adnot. 52, in the year 1491.

[489]Allegretto,Diari Sanesi, in Murat. xiii. col. 824.

[490]Filelfo, when called to the newly founded University of Pisa, demanded at least 500 gold florins. Comp. Fabroni,Laur. Magn.ii. 75 sqq. The negotiations were broken off, not only on account of the high salary asked for.

[491]Comp. Vespasian. Fiorent. pp. 271, 572, 582, 625.Vita. Jan. Manetti, in Murat. xx. col. 531 sqq.

[492]Vespas. Fiorent. p. 1460. Prendilacqua (a pupil of Vitt.),Intorno alla Vita di V. da F., first ed. by Natale dalle Laste, 1774, translated by Giuseppe Brambilla, Como, 1871. C. Rosmini,Idea dell’ottimo Precettore nella Vita e Disciplina di Vittorino da Feltre e de’ suoi Discepoli, Bassano, 1801. Later works by Racheli (Milan, 1832), and Venoit (Paris, 1853).

[493]Vespas. Fior. p. 646, of which, however, C. Rosmini,Vita e Disciplina di Guarino Veronese e de’ suoi Discepoli, Brescia, 1856 (3 vols.), says that it is (ii. 56), ‘formicolante di errori di fatto.’

[494]For these and for Guarino generally, see Facius,De Vir. Illustribus, p. 17 sqq.; and Cortesius,De Hom. Doctis, p. 13. Both agree that the scholars of the following generation prided themselves on having been pupils of Guarino; but while Fazio praises his works, Cortese thinks that he would have cared better for his fame if he had written nothing. Guarino and Vittorino were friends and helped one another in their studies. Their contemporaries were fond of comparing them, and in this comparison Guarino commonly held the first place (Sabellico,Dial. de Lingu. Lat. Reparata, in Rosmini, ii. 112). Guarino’s attitude with regard to the ‘Ermafrodito’ is remarkable; see Rosmini, ii. 46 sqq. In both these teachers an unusual moderation in food and drink was observed; they never drank undiluted wine: in both the principles of education were alike; they neither used corporal punishment; the hardest penalty which Vittorino inflicted was to make the boy kneel and lie upon the ground in the presence of his fellow-pupils.

[495]To the Archduke Sigismond,Epist.105, p. 600, and to King Ladislaus Postumus, p. 695; the latter asTractatus de Liberorum Educatione(1450).

[496]P. 625. On Niccoli, see further a speech of Poggio,Opera, ed. 1513, fol. 102 sqq.; and a life by Manetti in his book,De Illustribus Longaevis.

[497]The following words of Vespasiano are untranslatable: ‘A vederlo in tavola cosi antico come era, era una gentilezza.’

[498]Ibid.p. 495.

[499]According to Vespas. p. 271, learned men were in the habit of meeting here for discussion.

[500]Of Niccoli it may be further remarked that, like Vittorino, he wrote nothing, being convinced that he could not treat of anything in as perfect a form as he desired; that his senses were so delicately poised that he ‘neque rudentem asinum, neque secantem serram, neque muscipulam vagientem sentire audireve poterat.’ But the less favourable sides of Niccoli’s character must not be forgotten. He robbed his brother of his sweetheart Benvenuta, roused the indignation of Lionardo Aretino by this act, and was embittered by the girl against many of his friends. He took ill the refusal to lend him books, and had a violent quarrel with Guarino on this account. He was not free from a petty jealousy, under the influence of which he tried to drive Chrysoloras, Poggio, and Filelfo away from Florence.

[501]See hisVita, by Naldus Naldi, in Murat. xx. col. 532 sqq. See further Vespasiano Bisticci,Commentario della Vita di Messer Giannozzo Manetti, first published by P. Fanfani inCollezione di Opere inedite o rare, vol. ii. Torino, 1862. This ‘Commentario’ must be distinguished from the short ‘Vita’ of Manetti by the same author, in which frequent reference is made to the former. Vespasiano was on intimate terms with Giannozzo Manetti, and in the biography tried to draw an ideal picture of a statesman for the degenerate Florence. Vesp. is Naldi’s authority. Comp. also the fragment in Galetti,Phil. Vill. Liber Flor.1847, pp. 129-138. Half a century after his death Manetti was nearly forgotten. Comp. Paolo Cortese, p. 21.

[502]The title of the work, in Latin and Italian, is given in Bisticci,Commentario, pp. 109, 112.

[503]What was known of Plato before can only have been fragmentary. A strange discussion on the antagonism of Plato and Aristotle took place at Ferrara in 1438, between Ugo of Siena and the Greeks who came to the Council. Comp. Æneas Sylvius,De Europa, cap. 52 (Opera, p. 450).

[504]In Niccolò Valori,Life of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Comp. Vespas. Fiorent. p. 426. The first supporters of Argyropulos were the Acciajuoli.Ib.192: Cardinal Bessarion and his parallels between Plato and Aristotle.Ib.223: Cusanus as Platonist.Ib.308: The Catalonian Narciso and his disputes with Argyropulos.Ib.571: Single Dialogues of Plato, translated by Lionardo Aretino.Ib.298: The rising influence of Neoplatonism. On Marsilio Ficino, see Reumont,Lorenzo de’ Medici, ii. 27 sqq.

[505]Varchi,Stor. Fior.p. 321. An admirable sketch of character.

[506]The lives of Guarino and Vittorino by Rosmini mentioned above (p. 213, note 1; and 215, note 1), as well as the life of Poggio by Shepherd, especially in the enlarged Italian translation of Tonelli (2 vols. Florence, 1825); the Correspondence of Poggio, edited by the same writer (2 vols. Flor. 1832); and the letters of Poggio in Mai’sSpicilegium, tom. x. Rome, 1844, pp. 221-272, all contain much on this subject.

[507]Epist. 39;Opera, p. 526, to Mariano Socino.

[508]We must not be misled by the fact that along with all this complaints were frequently heard of the inadequacy of princely patronage and of the indifference of many princes to their fame. See e.g. Bapt. Mantan, Eclog. v. as early as the fifteenth century; and Ambrogio Traversari,De Infelicitate Principum. It was impossible to satisfy all.

[509]For the literary and scientific patronage of the popes down to the end of the fifteenth century, see Gregorovius, vols. vii. and viii. For Pius II., see Voigt,En. Silvio als Papst Pius II.bd. iii. (Berlin, 1863), pp. 406-440.

[510]Lil. Greg. Gyraldus,De Poetis Nostri Temporis, speaking of theSphaerulusof Camerino. The worthy man did not finish it in time, and his work lay for forty years in his desk. For the scanty payments made by Sixtus IV., comp. Pierio Valer.De Infelic. Lit.on Theodoras Gaza. He received for a translation and commentary of a work of Aristotle fifty gold florins, ‘ab eo a quo se totum inauratum iri speraverat.’ On the deliberate exclusion of the humanists from the cardinalate by the popes before Leo, comp. Lor. Grana’s funeral oration on Cardinal Egidio,Anecdot. Litt.iv. p. 307.

[511]The best are to be found in theDeliciae Poetarum Italorum, and in the Appendices to the various editions of Roscoe,Leo X.Several poets and writers, like Alcyonius,De Exilio, ed. Menken, p. 10, say frankly that they praise Leo in order themselves to become immortal.

[512]Paul. Jov.Elogiaspeaking of Guido Posthumus.

[513]Pierio Valeriano in hisSimia.

[514]See the elegy of Joh. Aurelius Mutius in theDeliciae Poetarum Italorum.

[515]The well-known story of the purple velvet purse filled with packets of gold of various sizes, in which Leo used to thrust his hand blindly, is in GiraldiHecatommithi, vi. nov. 8. On the other hand, the Latin ‘improvisatori,’ when their verses were too faulty, were whipped. Lil. Greg. Gyraldus,De Poetis Nostri Temp. Opp.ii. 398 (Basil, 1580).

[516]Roscoe,Leone X.ed. Bossi. iv. 181.

[517]Vespas. Fior. p. 68 sqq. For the translations from Greek made by Alfonso’s orders, see p. 93;Vita Jan. Manetti, in Murat. xx. col. 541 sqq., 450 sqq., 495. Panormita,Dicta et Facta Alfonsi, with the notes by Æneas Sylvius, ed. by Jacob Spiegel, Basel, 1538.

[518]Even Alfonso was not able to please everybody—Poggio, for example. See Shepherd-Tonelli,Poggioii. 108 sqq. and Poggio’s letter to Facius inFac. de Vir. Ill.ed. Mehus, p. 88, where he writes of Alfonso: ‘Ad ostentationem quædam facit quibus videatur doctis viris favere;’ and Poggio’s letter in Mai,Spicil.tom. x. p. 241.

[519]Ovid.Amores, iii. 11, vs. ii.; Jovian. Pontan.De Principe.

[520]Giorn. Napolet.in Murat. xxi. col. 1127.

[521]Vespas. Fior. pp. 3, 119 sqq. ‘Volle aver piena notizia d’ogni cosa, cosi sacra come gentile.’

[522]The last Visconti divided his interest between Livy, the French chivalrous romances, Dante, and Petrarch. The humanists who presented themselves to him with the promise ‘to make him famous,’ were generally sent away after a few days. Comp.Decembrio, in Murat. xx. col. 1114.

[523]Paul. Jov.Vita Alfonsi Ducis.

[524]On Collenuccio at the court of Giovanni Sforza of Pesaro (son of Alessandro, p. 28), who finally, in 1508, put him to death, see p. 135, note 4. At the time of the last Ordelaffi at Forli, the place was occupied by Codrus Urceus (1477-80); death-bed complaint of C. U.Opp.Ven. 1506, fol. liv.; for his stay in Forli,Sermo, vi. Comp. Carlo Malagola,Della Vita di C. U.Bologna, 1877, Ap. iv. Among the instructed despots, we may mention Galeotto Manfreddi of Faenza, murdered in 1488 by his wife, and some of the Bentivoglio family at Bologna.

[525]Anecdota Literar.ii. pp. 305 sqq., 405. Basinius of Parma ridicules Porcellio and Tommaso Seneca; they are needy parasites, and must play the soldier in their old age, while he himself was enjoying an ‘ager’ and a ‘villa.’

[526]For details respecting these graves, see Keyssler,Neueste Reisen, s. 924.

[527]Pii II. Comment.l. ii. p. 92. By history he means all that has to do with antiquity. Cortesius also praises him highly, p. 34 sqq.

[528]Fabroni,Costnus, Adnot. 118. Vespasian. Fior.passim. An important passage respecting the demands made by the Florentines on their secretaries (‘quod honor apud Florentinos magnus habetur,’ says B. Facius, speaking of Poggio’s appointment to the secretaryship,De Vir. Ill.p. 17), is to be found in Æneas Sylvius,De Europâ, cap. 54 (Opera, p. 454).

[529]See Voigt,En. Silvio als Papst Pius II.bd. iii. 488 sqq., for the often-discussed and often-misunderstood change which Pius II. made with respect to the Abbreviators.

[530]Comp. the statement of Jacob Spiegel (1521) given in the reports of the Vienna Academy, lxxviii. 333.

[531]Anecdota Lit.i. p. 119 sqq. A plea (‘Actio ad Cardinales Deputatos’) of Jacobus Volaterranus in the name of the Secretaries, no doubt of the time of Sixtus IV. (Voigt, l. c. 552, note). The humanistic claims of the ‘advocati consistoriales’ rested on their oratory, as that of the Secretaries on their correspondence.

[532]The Imperial chancery under Frederick III. was best known to Æneas Sylvius. Comp.Epp.23 and 105;Opera, pp. 516 and 607.

[533]The letters of Bembo and Sadoleto have been often printed; those of the former, e.g. in theOpera, Basel, 1556, vol. ii., where the letters written in the name of Leo X. are distinguished from private letters; those of the latter most fully, 5 vols. Rome, 1760. Some additions to both have been given by Carlo Malagola in the reviewIl Baretti, Turin, 1875. Bembo’sAsolaniwill be spoken of below; Sadoleto’s significance for Latin style has been judged as follows by a contemporary, Petrus Alcyonius,De Exilio, ed. Menken, p. 119: ‘Solus autem nostrorum temporum aut certe cum paucis animadvertit elocutionem emendatam et latinam esse fundamentum oratoris; ad eamque obtinendam necesse esse latinam linguam expurgare quam inquinarunt nonnulli exquisitarum literarum omnino rudes et nullius judicii homines, qui partim a circumpadanis municipiis, partim ex transalpinis provinciis, in hanc urbem confluxerunt. Emendavit igitur ‘eruditissimus hic vir corruptam et vitiosam linguæ latinæ consuetudinem, pura ac integra loquendi ratione.’

[534]Corio,Storia di Milano, fol. 449, for the letter of Isabella of Aragon to her father, Alfonso of Naples; fols. 451, 464, two letters of the Moor to Charles VIII. Compare the story in theLettere Pittoriche, iii. 86 (Sebastiano del Piombo to Aretino), how Clement VII., during the sack of Rome, called his learned men round him, and made each of them separately write a letter to Charles V.

[535]For the correspondence of the period in general, see Voigt,Wiederbelebung, 414-427.

[536]Bembo thought it necessary to excuse himself for writing in Italian: ‘Ad Sempronium,’Bembi Opera, Bas. 1556, vol. iii. 156 sqq.

[537]On the collection of the letters of Aretino, see above, pp. 164 sqq., and the note. Collections of Latin letters had been printed even in the fifteenth century.

[538]Comp. the speeches in theOperaof Philelphus, Sabellicus, Beroaldus, &c.; and the writings and lives of Giann. Manetti, Æneas Sylvius, and others.

[539]B. F.De Viris Illustribus, ed. Mehus, p. 7. Manetti, as Vesp. Bisticci,Commentario, p. 51, states, delivered many speeches in Italian, and then afterwards wrote them out in Latin. The scholars of the fifteenth century, e.g. Paolo Cortese, judge the achievements of the past solely from the point of view of ‘Eloquentia.’

[540]Diario Ferrarese, in Murat. xxiv. col. 198, 205.

[541]Pii II. Comment.l. i. p. 10.

[542]The success of the fortunate orator was great, and the humiliation of the speaker who broke down before distinguished audiences no less great. Examples of the latter in Petrus Crinitus,De Honestâ Disciplinâ, v. cap. 3. Comp. Vespas. Fior. pp. 319, 430.

[543]Pii II. Comment.l. iv. p. 205. There were some Romans, too, who awaited him at Viterbo. ‘Singuli per se verba facere, ne alius alio melior videretur, cum essent eloquentiâ ferme pares.’ The fact that the Bishop of Arezzo was not allowed to speak in the name of the general embassy of the Italian states to the newly chosen Alexander VI., is seriously placed by Guicciardini (at the beginning of book i.) among the causes which helped to produce the disaster of 1494.

[544]Told by Marin Sanudo, in Murat. xxii. col. 1160.

[545]Pii II. Comment.l. ii. p. 107. Comp. p. 87. Another oratorical princess, Madonna Battista Montefeltro, married to a Malatesta, harangued Sigismund and Martin. Comp.Arch. Stor.iv. i. p. 442, note.

[546]De Expeditione in Turcas, in Murat. xxiii. col. 68. ‘Nihil enim Pii concionantis majestate sublimius.’ Not to speak of the naïve pleasure with which Pius describes his own triumphs, see Campanus,Vita Pii II., in Murat. iii. ii.passim. At a later period these speeches were judged less admiringly. Comp. Voigt,Enea Silvio, ii. 275 sqq.

[547]Charles V., when unable on one occasion to follow the flourishes of a Latin orator at Genoa, replied in the ear of Giovio: ‘Ah, my tutor Adrian was right, when he told me I should be chastened for my childish idleness in learning Latin.’ Paul. Jov.Vita Hadriani VI.Princes replied to these speeches through their official orators; Frederick III. through Enea Silvio, in answer to Giannozzo Manetti. Vesp. Bist.Comment.p. 64.

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