Renaissance in Italy, Volume 2 (of 7)

y and Libels-Comparison with the Sophists-The Form preferred to the Matter of Literature-Ideal of Culture as an end in itself-Suspicion of Zealous Churchmen-Intrusion of Humanism into the Church-Irrel

olography-Historics-Critical and Antiquarian Studies-Large Appreciation of Antiquity-Liberal Spirit-Poggio and Jero

to Europe. The work thus performed by the Italians was begun in peace; but it had to be continued under the pressure of wars and national disasters unparalleled in the history of any other modern people. Not for a single moment did the students relax their energy. In the midst of foreign armies, deafened by the roar of cannon and the tumult of sacked towns, exiled from their homes, robbed of their books, deprived of their subsistence, they advanced to their end with the irresistible obstinacy of insects. The drums and tramplings of successive conquests and invasions by four warlike nations-Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, Swiss-could not disturb them. Drop by drop, Italy was being drained of blood; from the first the only question was which of her assailants should possess the beauty of her corpse. Yet the student, intent upon his manuscripts, paid but little heed. So non-existent was the sense of nationality in Italy that the Italians did not

ence in relation to the public as the quatrième état of modern times. The respect they inspired as the arbiters of praise and blame, was only equalled by their vast pretensions. Eugenius IV., living at the period of their highest influence, is reported to have said that they were as much to be feared for their malice as to be loved for their learning. While they claimed the power of conferring an immortality of honour or dishonour, no one dared to call their credit with posterity in question. Nothing seemed more dreadful than the fate reserved for Paul II. in the pages of Platina; and even so robust a ruler as Francesco Sforza sought to buy the praises of Filelfo. Flattery in all its branches, fulsome and delicate, wholesale and allusive, was developed by them as an art whereby to gain their living. The official history of this period is rendered almost worthless by its sustained note of panegyrical laudation. Our ears are deafened with the eulogies of petty patrons transformed into M?cenases, of carpet knights compared to Leonidas, of tyrants equalled with Augustus, and of generals who never looked on bloodshed tricked out as Han

combined with verbal ingenuity and practice in the art of exposition. The sophist feels no need of forming opinions on a sound basis, or of adhering to principles. Regarding thought as the subject-matter of literary treatment, he is chiefly concerned with giving it a fair and plausible investiture in language. Instead of recognising that he must live up to the standard he professes, he takes delight in expressing with force the contrary of what he acts. The discord between his ph

ngling impudent demands for money and flatteries of debauched despots with panegyrics of P?tus Thrasea and eulogies of Cincinnatus. Conversely, students of eminent sobriety, like Guarino da Verona, thought it no harm to welcome Beccadelli's 'Hermaphroditus'

the style, and fancying he had proved something by piquancy displayed in handling old material. When he undertook history, the same fault was apparent. Instead of seeking to set forth the real conditions of his native city, to describe its political vicissitudes and constitutional development, or to paint the characters of its great men, he prepared imaginary speeches and avoided topics incapable

ore sober-minded of the Athenians regarded the educational practice of the sophists with suspicion, so the humanists came to be dreaded as the corrupters of youth. The peculiar turn they gave to mental training, by diverting attention from patriotic duties to literary pleasures, by denationalising the interests of students, and by distracting serious

o and Savonarola were only two among many who preached against the humanists from the pulpit. And yet, while we admit that the influences of the Revival injured morality, and gave a cosmopolitan direction to energies that ought to have been concentrated on the preservation of national existence, we a

rth the sacrifice of independence. The only great monastic litteratus was Ambrogio, General of the Camaldolese Order. Maffeo Vegio is the single instance I can remember of a poet-philologer who assumed the cowl. These statements, it will be understood, refer chiefly to the second or aggressive period of the Revival. Classic erudition was so common in the fourth that to be without a humanistic tincture was, even among churchmen, the exception rat

about, and drawn in all directions. No class of human beings are more subject to anger, more puffed up with vanity, more arrogant, more insolent, more proud, conceited, idle-minded, inconsequent, opinionated, changeable, obstinate; some of them ready to believe the most incredible nonsense, others sceptical about notorious truths, some full of doubt and suspicion, others void of reasonable circumspection. None are of a less free spirit, and that for the very reason I have touched before, because they think themselves so far more powerful. They all of them, indeed, pretend to omniscience, fancy themselves superior to everything, and rate themselves as gods, while we unlearned little men are made of clay and mud, as they maintain.' Having for some space discoursed concerning their mad ways of life, Gyraldus proceeds to arraig

ange of place told upon their character in the same way, by exposing them to fresh temptations and withdrawing them from censure. They had no country but the dreamland of antiquity, no laws beyond the law of taste and inclination. They acknowledged no authority superior to their

ulative principle was literary taste, who had left the ground of faith and popular convention for the shoals and shallows of an irrecoverable past. On this sea they wandered, with no guidance but the promptings of undisciplined self. It is not, therefore, a marvel that, while professing Stoicism, they wallowed in sensuality, openly affected the worst habits of Pagan society, and devoted their ingenuity to the explanation of foulness that might have been passed by in silence. Licentiousne

mmortal verse. The most miserable poetasters got crowned with laurels. The most trivial thinkers passed verdict upon statecraft. Mistaking mere cultivation for genius, they believed that, because they had perused the authors of antiquity and could imitate Ovid at a respectful distance, their fame would endure for all ages. On the strength of this confidence they gave themselves inconceivable airs, looking down from the height of their attainment on the profane crowd. To understand that, after all, antiquity was a school wherein to train the modern intellect for genuine production, was not given to this

alvi, and Aldus Manutius. The bare enumeration of these names will suffice for those who have read the preceding chapters. Piety, sobriety of morals, self-devotion to public interests, the purest literary enthusiasm, the most lofty aspirations, fairness of judgment, and generosity of feeling distinguish these men, and some others who might be mentioned, from the majority of their fellows. Nor, again, is it fair to charge the humanists alone with vices common to their age

to have recovered the style of the ancients, so as to use Latin prose and verse with freedom at a time when Latin formed an universal medium of culture, is the first real merit of the humanists. Nothing can rob them of this glory; however much we may be forced to feel that their critical labours have been superseded, that their dissertations are dull, that their poems at the worst fall

The ideal they proposed in composition included limpidity of language, simplicity in the structure of sentences however lengthy, choiceness of phrase, and a copious vocabulary. To be intelligible was the first requisite; to be attractive the second. Having mastered elementary difficulties, they proceeded to fix the rules for decorative writing. Cicero had said that nothing was so ugly or so common but that rhetoric could lend it charm. This unfortunate dictum, implying that style, as separate from matter, is valuable in and for itself, led the Ital

re than the empty smoothness of their writing, their faculty of saying nothing with a vast expenditure of phrase, their dread of homely details, and the triviality of the subjects they chose for illustration. When a man of wit like Annibale Caro could rise to praise the nose of the president before a learned academy in periods of this ineptitude-'Naso perfetto, naso principale, naso divino, naso che benedetto sia fra tutti i nasi; e benedetta sia quella mamma che vi fece così nasuto, e benedette tutte quelle cose che voi annusate!'[516]-we trace no more than a burlesque of humanistic seeking after style. It must, however, be admitt

uneral discourses; panegyrics and congratulations-sounded far and wide through Italy. The fifteenth century was the golden age of speechification. A man was measured by the amount of fluent Latinity he could pour forth; copiousness of quotations secured applause; and readiness to answer on the spur of the moment in smooth Ciceronian phrases, was reckoned among the qualities that led to posts of trust in Church and State. On the other hand, a failure of words on any ceremonial occasion passed for one of the great calamities of life. The common name for an envoy, oratore, sufficiently indicates the public importance attached to rhetoric. It formed a necessary part of the parade which the Renaissance loved, and, more than that, a part of its diplomatic machinery. To compose orations that could never be recited was a fashionable exercise; and since the 'Verrines' and the 'Philippics' existed, no occasion was lost for reproducing something of their spirit in the invectives whereof so much has been already said. The emptiness of all this orat

roduce matter unsuited to Tully's phrases, these disquisitions are usually devoid of local colouring and contemporary interest. Few have such value as at

r, first gave an impulse to this kind of composition. In his old age he tells how he was laughed at in his youth for assuming the Latin style of thou together with the Roman form of superscription.[519] I have already touched upon the currency it gained through the practice of Coluccio Salutato and the teaching of Gasparino da Barzizza.

these Latin epistles were invariably intended for circulation and ultimate publication, renders it useless to seek for insight from them into strictly private matters.[522] For the historian the most valuable collections of Renaissance letters are composed in Italian, and are not usually the work of scholars, but of agents, spies, and envoys. Compared with the reports of the Venetian ambassadors, the correspondence of the humanists is unimportant. In addition to familiar letters, it not unfrequently happened, however, that epistles upon topics of public interest were indited by students. Intended by their diffusion to affect opinion, and addressed to influential friends or patrons, th

r the composition of commentaries, and Sallust for concise monographs. Suetonius was followed in such minute studies of character as Decembrio's 'Life of Filippo Maria Visconti.' I do not find that Tacitu

much to say that modern culture, so far as it is derived from antiquity, owes everything to the indefatigable energy of the humanists. Before the age of printing, scholars had to store their memories with encyclop?dic information, while the very want of a critical method, by preventing them from exactly discerning the good and the bad, enabled them to take a broader and more comprehensive view of classical literature than is now at any rate common. Antiquity as a whole-not the authors merely of the Attic age or the Augustan-claimed their admiration; and though they devoted special study to Cicero and Virgil for the purposes of style, they eagerly accepted every Greek

ly for his opinions. This instance illustrates the general tone and temper of the humanists. Their study of antiquity freed them from the scholastic pedantries of theologians, and from the professional conceits of jurists and physicians. There is nothing great and noble in human nature that might not, we fancy, have grown and thriven under their direction, if the circumstances of Italy had been more favourable to high aspirations. As it was, the light was early quenched and clouded by base vapours of a sensual, enslaved, and priest-corrupted society. The vital force of the Revival passed into the Reformation; the humanists, degraded and demoralised, were superseded. Still it was they who created the n

concord for all peoples. In spite of changes in government and creed, in spite of differences caused by race and language, we have maintained an uniformity of culture through the simultaneous prosecution of classic studies on the lines laid down for teachers by the scholars of the fifteenth century. The system of our uni

e sum of what a cultivated man should know, in order to maintain a place among the pioneers of progress, is so vast, that learners, distracted by a variety of subjects, resent the expenditure of precious time on Greek and Latin. Teachers, on the other hand, through long familiarity with humane studies, have fallen into the languor of routine. Besides, as knowledge in each new department increases, the necessity of specialising with a view to adopt

ssion of a spirit at second or third hand can be the same as its immediate contact; nor can we afford, however full our mental life may be, to lose the vivid sense of what men were and what they wrought in ages far removed from us, especially when those men were our superiors in certain spheres. Again, it may be doubted whether we should understand the masterpieces of modern literature, when we came to be separated from the sources of their in

e to be invented. Why should they not be read in English versions, and the time expended upon Greek and Latin grammar be thus saved? The practice of Greek and Latin versification has been virtually doomed already; nor is there any reason why Latin prose should form a necessary part of education in an age that has ceased to publish its thoughts in a now completely dead language. Our actual relation to the ancients, again, justifies some change. We know far more abo

t had so long ruled as a fashion, was now passing out of vogue, because of its inadequacy to meet the deeper wants and satisfy the aspirations of the modern world. The humanists, moreover, as a class, had fallen into disrepute through faults and vices whereof enough has been already said. Nothing short of the new impulse which a new genius, equal at least in power to Petrarch, might have communicated, could have given a fresh direction to the declining enthusiasm for antiquity. But for this display of energy the Italians were not prepared. As in the ascent of some high peak, the traveller, after surmounting pine woods and Alpine pastures, comes upon bare grassy slopes that form an intermediate region betw

, than on any other section of the people. What miseries they endured in Lombardy may be gathered from the prefaces and epistles of Aldus Manutius; while the blow inflicted on them by the sack of Rome is vividly described by Valeriano.[525] When comparative peace was restored, liberty had been extinguished. Florence, the stronghold of liberal learning, was enslaved. Schola

on. Dante and the wool-carders of the fourteenth century understood each other; there was then no thick veil of erudition between the teacher and the taught. But neither Bembo nor Pomponazzi had anything to say that could be comprehended by the common folk. Therefore scholarship was left in mournful isolation; suspected, when it passed from trifles to grave speculations, by the Church; viewed with indifference by t

had reached us, and in the deep tranquillity of dulness there reigned a set of men who taught in all our towns the most illiterate learning. Rodolph Agricola was the first to bring to us from Italy some breath of a superior culture.' Again, he says of Italy, 'In that land, where even the very walls are both more learned and more eloquent than men with us; so that what here seems beautifully said, and elegant and full of charm, cannot be held for aught

ad won by centuries of toil? This is the tragic aspect of the subject which has occupied us through the present volume. At the conclusion of the whole matter it is, however, more profitable to remember, not the intellectual death of Italy, but what she wrought in that bright period of her vigour. She was the divinely appointed birthplace of the modern spirit, the workshop of knowledge for all Europe, our mistress in the arts and sciences, the Alma Mater of our student years, the well-spring of mental freedom and activity after ages of stagnation. If greater philosophers have since been produced by Germany and

TNO

ginal edition

lear, times of conception and projection, followed by seasons of slow digestion, assimilation, and formation, when the creative

, 350-356, 415-420, where I have endeavo

the Cardinals Inghirami and Bibbiena and the Leo of Raphael with the Farn

ribed to Giorgione, but more pro

adiso,

y Purg. xi

alian conviction may be trace

. He reminds the young man that fair as youth is, and delightful as are the pleasures of the May of life, learning is more fair

Luther's Table Talk upon the

embo divided their powers between scholars

cribes the lecture of a rhetor, quispiam lingu? Latin? literator, on a passage in the seventh ?neid.

ti, Virgilio nel Medio Evo, vol. i., a work of sound scholarshi

altered into Hoc est quod pueri tangar amore nihil; for lus

refers to a legend of S. Paul having

o's tomb the

f and pity

he stone w

I might have

y living

and witho

our ballads illustrates this phase of popular opinion. So does t

s to make out that Greek learning surv

hrase umanità for humanistic culture, and the name umanista for a professor of huma

vizio son po

De Ignorantia sui ipsius, &c. p. 1044. These references, as well as those which follow unde

gentum, gemm?, purpurea vestis, marmorea domus, cultus ager, pict? tabul?, phaleratus sonipes, c?teraque id genus mutam habent et supe

is Epistle to Varro for an account of a

s sum. Gaudeo tamen vel aspectu solo, et s?pe illum amplexus et suspirans dico.... Plato philosophorum princeps ... nunc tandem tuo munere Philosophorum principi Poetarum princeps asserit. Quis tantis non gaudeat et glorietur hospitibus?... Gr?cos spectare, et si nihil aliud, certe juvat.' The letter urg

lea for public as against private collections

f true learning, Ep. Var. 31, p. 1020; the letter to a friend exhorting him to combat Averrhoism, Epist. sine titulo, 18, p. 731; two letters on physicians, Epist. Rerum Senilium, lib. xii. 1 and 2, pp. 897-914; a letter to Francesco Bruno on the lies of the ast

hought the perfect rhetorician, capable of expressing sound philosophy with clearness,

. 'Poet? studium est veritatem veram pulchris velaminibus adornare.'

miliares, p. 570. 'Scribendi enim mihi

letters to Boccaccio and Benvenuto da Imola, pp. 740

r citation. See, however, Fam. Epist. lib. ii. 9, p. 601; the letter to Boccaccio, Variarum, 22, p. 1001; and Fam. Epist. lib. iv. 9, p. 635. The phrase desc

. i. 5, p. 745. 'Nam apud Horatium Flaccum, nullius jurare in verb

ddressed to Cicero and

epistles to indicate a restless, craving habit of the soul

litaria, pp. 223-292, and the le

his point in Baldelli's Vita

, with the letter on his reception at Arezzo, p. 918, the letter to Nerius Morandus on th

istles to Rienz

eginning 'Apud te invictissime domi

is contradiction struck even his most ardent admirers with pai

morandarum, l

n of essays called De Remediis utriusque Fortun?, where opposite vi

last chapter

sed as a motto for this volume a

contemporaries ranked him higher, even as a sonnet-writer, th

e d'Uomini Illustri Fiore

hus:-'Inseris nominatim hanc hujus officii tui escusationem, quod tibi adolescentulo primus studiorum dux, prima fax f

rt for his title to the poet's crown (Gen. Deor. xiv. 22); but he first beca

onem adeo libenter sermones usurpabat, ut nihil avidius nihilque copiosius enarraret. Et eo magis quia tali orationis generi me prospiciebat intentum. Sufficiebat enim nobis Pe

xi. 9, p. 887; lib. vi. 1,

scholars despaired at this time of gaining Greek learning from Constantinople. They were rather inclined to seek it in Calabria. 'Gr?cia

en. Deor.

rors of the copyist and printer, it is clear that a Greek scholar who thought Melpomene was one 'who gives fixity to meditation,' Thalia one 'who plants the capacity of g

bove, p. 5

ith other books of Boccaccio, and some of the unintelligible passage

rum ac Feminarum Illustrium; De Claris Mul

una poesia d'Iddio.' Vita di Dante, p. 59. Cf. Comento sopra Dante, loc. cit. p. 45. The explanati

uibusdam fictionibus Virgilii.'

Petrarch by the Roman senator in

sting account of this romantic episode in his life. See t

r. Sen. lib. x

ine titulo, x

ve work of Renan, Ave

references will be found in Vespasiano's Lives.

gii Oper

century. See especially his letter to Benvenuto da Imola on the death of Petrarch (p. 32), his letter to the same about Petrarch's Africa (p. 41), another letter about the preservation of the Africa

dicere non tam sibi mille Florentinorum equites quam Colu

giore fama che di alcuno altro uomo.' From the Chronicle of Luca da Scarparia. These epistles were collected and printed by Josephus Rigaccius, Bibliopola Florentinus Celeberrimus, in 1741. Among the letters written for the Signory of Florence, that o

Epistol?, p. xv. Coluccio's own letter recommending Lionardo to Innocent VII

eida, singulos libros paucis versiculis quasi in argumenti formam brevissime resumere, et exinde pluribus sumptis exemplis, et per me ipsum correctis et diligenter revisis, unum

may be mentioned Dante's tutor, Brunetto Latini, Lionardo Bruni, Carlo Ma

Uomini Illus

. 130) to Giacomo da Scarparia, which

ur. xi

Italiana, vol. iv. p. 42 et seq., vol. v

viii. 15, 75, 372. Matte

t Studium Scholarium de Bono

emplatores.' See Tirabosc

Amari, Storia dei Mussulmani

t, Lorenzo de' Medi

ere at least 15,000

mondi, vol.

ib. i.

à, e dilatarla in onore, e dare materia a' su

ames of the professors who attended at

ur. xx

e Voigt

oets give an exact notion of what such lectures must have

atistics of Florence,

or's lecture-room, see the macaronic poems of Oda

a della Letteratura I

riptores sed Pictores,' quoted by

ntù, loc. c

paretti, vol

ulation was estimated at about 200,000, the town could

m fidei, omnes autem vero adversi; inque omnibus, et pr?sertim primis ubi majoribus agitur de rebus, et vera falsis immixta sunt, perdifficilis ac periculosa discretio est ... scriptorum insciti? inerti?que, corrumpenti omnia miscentique ... ignavissima ?tas h?c culin? solicita, literarum negligens, et coquos examinans non scriptores. Quisquis itaque pingere aliquid in membranis, manuque calamum versare didicerit, scriptor habebitur, doctrin? omnis ignarus,

ine Comedy,' ap. Muratori,

ur. xx

s vero apud nos antea, Italos dico, ita laceratus erat, ita circumcisus culpa, u

gy of Landino quoted in the no

oigt,

gt, p. 139, f

dici, and Niccolo de' Niccoli, in Vespasiano's Lives. Islam, moreover, a

es in Petrarch's letters, where even Calabria is compared favourably with Constantinople. In a state of ignorance so absolute as he describes, it is possible that treasures existed unknown to professed students, and therefore

alf of Comparetti's second volume on Virgil in the Middl

above, p

ibbon,

Age of the De

urg. xx

example. See Vol. I., Age o

nda Libertate, H

s Epistle to the Ro

ib. ii. 14, p. 605;

, quam Romani Cives? Invitus dico, nusquam minus Roma c

, quin illico surrectura sit si

marmoreis columnis, de liminibus templorum, ad qu? nuper ex toto orbe concursus devotissimus fiebat, de imaginibus sepulch

1

ntegr? fuit ol

ntur adhuc, qu

luit, non vis,

iis franguntur c

. Metr. lib

sacrilege will destroy all sign of thy nobleness.' Compare a letter from Alberto degli Alberti to Giovanni de' Medici, quoted by Fabroni, Cosmi Vita, Adnot. 86. The real pride o

ition of 1723. The first book is sometimes c

postea majori ex parte exterminatum' (p. 19). 'Capitolio contigua forum versus superest porticus ?dis Concordi?, quam, cum primum ad urbem accessi, v

Pp.

da Italia, Ad Caro

Dittamondo,

of Bai? in the Fiammetta, Sannazzaro's lines on the ruins of Cu

h mistrust. Poggio describes him as a conceited fellow with no claim to erudition. On the other hand, he gained the confidence

his literary deception is afforded by Annius of Viterbo, who, in 1498, published seventeen books of spurious histories, pretending to be the lost works of Manetho, Berosus, Fabius Pictor, Archilochus, Cato, &c. Whether he was himself an

spasiano

spasiano

e Voigt,

spasiano

Ibid.

47-153, for the cruel treatment of t

espasiano,

ary impositions to the enormous sum of 135,000 golden florins. H

Reumont, vol

spasiano

spasiano

hief brethren of the convent. 'Aveva ordinato al banco, che tutti i danari, che gli fussino tratti per polizza

asiano, pp

asiano, pp

id. pp.

iano's Life of N

a di Cosi

n Reumont, v

a di Cosi

ed from Vespa

o's Funeral Oration, and his letter to Carlo Aretino on the death of h

ano o di lettera corsiva o formata, che dell'un

Ibid.

Ambrogio Traversari, q

ano, p. 476.

asiano, pp

p. 478. Po

spasiano

Ibid.

Ibid.

icta Francisci Petrarch? imago, quam ego quotidie asp

above, p

Vespasia

I., Age of Desp

st were then t

spasiano

i, p. 452. Manetti was him

i Carlo d'Ar

aboschi, tom.

iraboschi, vol. vi. p. 678. App

hy in Muratori. Besides the small Life of Vespasiano in his Vite d'Uomini Illustri

ristiano, et non voleva che il Greco parlasse con lui se non

e o cura disperata, la davano

r story, told in the Comentario, of Manetti's speaking before Alfonso at Naples. T

ratori,

's reputation see

no, p. 465. Mu

ion of 900 scudi. He wrote a

was not a Grecian. Ambrogio used to insert the G

t, p. 189, on the revival of extinct Hellenism by the Flo

assage in the Vita di E

d in this sketch of Gemistos to Fritz Schultze's G

e Schult

Schultze,

Ibid.

e full. Plato, however, is said to have been called Πλ?των,

nos sub Eugenio pontifice Florenti? tractabatur, philosophum Gr?cum nomine Gemistum, cognomine Plethonem quasi Platonem alterum, de mysteriis Platonicis disputantem fre

. His secular name wa

ots, pp. 134, 135, and Sketches in

alla di Noferi

Vespasia

chi, vol. vi. pp. 812, 822-837,

ris Illustribus, p. 3,

Vespasia

in 1388, and died in 1463

tes the cause of their r

] P.

spasiano

Ibid.

pasiano,

Ibid.

was intended for

is the authority

and Decembrio deserve will be given in the h

debuerim quam Nicolao? Hic mihi parens ab adolescentia, hic postmodum amicus, hic studiorum meorum adjutor atque hortator fuit, hic consilio, libris, opibus semper me ut

terum Catonem dixeris.'-Opp. Omnia, p. 301. This most interesting letter, addressed

erd, pp. 67-76, for a translation of

aufort had invite

tiarum Libellus Unicus, Lon

officina' is Poggio's own

ini, in lacessendo ea qu?

e of Pogg

a Omnia, p

] P.

Ibid.

n Filippo Maria and Poggio, Opp. pp

e Poet, and the Nobody.' See Auree Francisci Philelphi P

eserves to be read in the original. The last, entitled 'Invectiva Excusatori

io, pp. 263-272, 3

xordium of his Antidote, describes his weapon of attack in this sentence:-'H?c est mea fusa

ita di Guarino da Ve

gii Opera

t length, p. 151. I quote from the Cologne edition of 1527: 'Laurentii Vall? viri clarissimi i

pp. 470, 471, for specimens o

of vehement incriminations. Heresy, theft, lying, forgery, cowardice, filthy living of the most odious description, drunkenness, and insane vanity-such are the accusations, supported with a terrible array of apparent evidence

d, Life of Po

ral of the Camaldolese Order, c

vol. vi. lib. ii

spasiano

aboschi, vol. vi. lib. i. cap. 3, 22. Platin

ce of the want of liter

1441 to 1450, and died in Campania about 1478. He translated many wo

, quoted by Tiraboschi, vol

chi, vol. vi. lib

s in Italy and Greec

, vol. vi. lib.

s Letters passim, and to the s

, Age of the Desp

nso, p. 59. Vita d

schi, vol. vi. l

normita, De Dictis et Factis Alpho

above is now in the library at Hol

lustrium Poetarum Lusus in Venerem, and again at

y-three, and father of tw

ii Opera,

a versuum, simulque admiratus sum res adeo impudicas, adeo ineptas, tam venuste, tam composite, a te dici, atque ita multa exprimi turpi

da Lecce, and Alberto da Sarteano. See the n

no, Vita di Giulia

, vol. ii. p. 44, and notes, p. 171) describes the enthusiastic reception gi

the preface to which he says, 'Legere potui, quod feci, corrigere vero non potui; nam quid est quod manu

lfonso's ceremonious piety and love of theological reading mak

2

ias Veneris mo

fugit, me do

s sum ... ego sum ortus R

ally the Lives of Ambrogio Traversari and the Cardinal Portogallo) shows how rare the vi

io are the authoriti

ita et Ementita Con

rinted in Mur

ought, however, to be here mentioned. Nearly all the c

Above,

with which the invectives of that day abound, and with which it is almost impossible to deal. It may be true; for certainly Filelfo, by his immorality and grossness in after-life, justified the worst calumnies that his enemies could invent. Yet there is little but Poggio's word to prove it, while Rosmini has shown that Filelfo's position at Byzantium was very different from what his foe suggests. Tiraboschi accepts the charge as 'not proven;' but he clearly leans in private against Filelfo, moved by the following passage from a letter of Ambrogio Trave

t Filelfo was at least able

ysius Halicarnasseus, Strabo Geographus, Hermogenes, Aristotelis Rhetorice, Dionysius Halicarnasseus de Numeris et Characteribus, Herodotus, Dio Chrysostomus, Appollonius Perg?us, Thucydides, Plutarchi Moralia, Proclus in Platonem, Philo Jud?us, Ethica Aristotelis, Ejus magna Moralia et Eudemia, et ?conomica et Politica, qu?dam Theophrasti Opuscula, Homeri Ilias, Odyssea, Philostrati de Vita Appollonii, Orationes Libanii, et aliqui Sermones Luciani, Pindarus, Aratus, Euripidis Trag?di?

cuitque et Gr?cam pariter et Latinam orationem in omni dicendi genere et prosa et versu. Tu si quidem habeas alterum, memora. Quid taces, homo miserrime?' Letter to Piero Candido Decembrio. Cf. what P.C. Dece

2

lius superat m

ator ille eg

uio pr?stat fa

e meis cedit

ngua possum h?c

lem quem mih

Sforza. Reported by Rosmini, vol. iii. p. 149. One

Niccoli, Lionardo Bruni, Ambrog

ed by Cant

ere from 1429 till

for two years, with stipend of 350 sequins;

above, p

smini, vol.

for the trial, torture, a

laus Deo, Spes mea Jesus.' For the abuse of the Medicean circle see Dec. i. Hec. 5; Dec. i. Hec. 6; Dec. ii. Hec. 1, 3, 7; Dec. iii. Hec. 10; Dec. vi. 10; Dec. viii. 5. For Filelfo's attack on Cosimo during his imprisonment, see Dec. iv. Hec. 1. For his invective against Cosimo on his return from exile, see Dec. iv. Hec. 9. For an appeal to Filippo Maria Visconti against Cosimo, see Dec. v. Hec. 1. For a similar appeal to Eugenius IV., see Dec. v

pend was soon raised from

people to Carlo Aretino's lectures was the

e dates of some o

tion on Stefano F

on the Marriage o

e on Duties of

conti, and oration on the Election o

f Welcome to Fr

e Marriage of Tristano S

for Antonio Crivelli

to Pius II.

the Election of t

ion for the Senato

for France

t passed for eloquence at that period. With regard to rewards received on these occasions, note the gift of a sil

sena, partly to Alessandro Sforza. There were ten books, each book containing 1,000 lines. Never printed. Rosmini, who inspected the MSS., reports that their obscenity exceeds description, and is only equalled by the vulgarity of the author's fancy and the coars

s of Hungary on his victories

s and twelve daughters.

ing τρι?ρχη?. See Rosmini, i. p. 15, and the verse quoted, ib. p. 113. He mentio

be remembered that Pietro Aretino hi

eet style of begging, I transcribe the fo

sone dum carmin

uo sentit a

fici data non

c uti carmi

eris; vocem pr

potus excit

co suevit lan

tum reddere

o perdere, la qual cosa seguirebbe quando gli paresse essere deluso, e non potesse seguitare per manchamento delli dicti 250 fiorini la nobilissim

paid (ib. p. 115), the scurrilous epigrams on the Pope's death (ib. p. 321), the abusive letter addressed to Paul II. (ib. p. 136), the sentence of imprisonment for calumny issued aga

to the Cardinal of Pavia, report

Therefore, according to Filelfo's art of po

90. The Greek epistle which h

since made peace

l letters in Rosmini,

i, vol. ii.

Ib.

a, and afterwards received the post of secretary and diplomatic writer to the Sforza family at Milan. The Duke Galeazzo Maria was his first master. At Milan he played the part of an amiable and refined M?cenas, while he carried on a

Pp. 13

ry of Music and Musici

m qu? sumpto cibo lavare consuerit.'-R

1422 ap

ere. Rosmini,

] P.

d with implements of study at his cost. He also subsidised their

p. 492, tells a story which illustrates these relation

] P.

Age of the De

Pp. 24

for the record of her virtues, her learning, and

mini, p. 11, for his bril

ollected by Rosmini, Vi

oted by Tiraboschi, vol.

with Niccolo de' Niccoli, Poggio,

hec. 5. Valla, Antid. in Pogium, p. 7, describes him as

oschi, vi. lib.

ives an interesting account of t

See pp

] P.

Age of the Desp

his death he is described

without the pen, but with certain so-called types, and which seem to be the work of a skilled and exact scribe. Tell me, then, at what price are sold t

teriori s?culo hebraic?, gr?c? atque latin? linguarum, omnium voluminum dignorum memoratu n

add a skeleton pedigree of

, Pate

, Il

zo Gi

, Clem

exile Giova

I., Age of the

son of Cosimo's physician,

Medici's expense, and published one month after his death, bea

nuce, p. 4, where Giovanni Acciaiuo

Reumont, vol

hi optimus testis an potiores Herculis ?rumnas credam, s?vosque labores, et Venere, et c?nis et plumis Sardanapali. Natus nam homo est ad laborem et ad

te la vost

oste a vive

r virtude e

r; Renouard, vol. i. p. 7; and again Al

in the Aldine edition of P

a may be read the account he gives of the c

d to Pico on this matter may be quoted f

λ?γοι? ?πιμ?μφο

?κου μοι φθον

κ?ω? το?των τ?

?γρ? δηρ?ν

το?τοι?? ο? σ' ?

ν σ?ν ε?τυ

ulensium lib. iv., dedicat

of this Order is well known throu

n at Coll

a specimen of Poliziano's Greek style that I transcribe

?ν θ?λον, ?ν

?ρωθ', ?ν κα?

κ?λλο? ?κ?ρατο

νη? ?λλ' ?φ

ττ?σιν ?π' ?μφ

χορο?? ?ξοχο

ν? τ' ε?η χαρ?τ

α?την ?ντιμ

λο?, κα? γ?ρ μ?

λογερ?? ?στι

s) are too filthy to be quoted. They may be r

ze, Florence, 1863, and Isidoro del Lu

is vero, qu? puerum se conscripsisse dicit, ?tatem minus prudenter apposuit s

ion of the poet's morality. Giovio's account of Poliziano's death was certainly accepted by contemporaries:-'Ferunt eum ingenui adolescenti

liberali ab enormi pr?sertim naso, subluscoque oculo perabsurda.'

mihi, quod

s obj

nque Poetar

ws:-'Cum tibi superioribus diebus Laurenti Medices,

l?, lib. iii. ed. Ald. 1498.

natus, dated Florence, May 1480, A

th is traceable to the Elogia of Paulus Jovius-ver

nque Illustrium Poetarum, p. 234. It is possible that their language o

Matthias Corvinus is a good

el who had one head and, what is new, three

whose servants sold them for an old song. Vesp. p. 216. Assemani, the historian of the Vatican Library, on the contrary, asserts that Calixtus spent

edition of his col

I., Age of the

Age of the Desp

nd relatives, greeting. What

, Age of the Desp

urged against Prelaty, and the Ready and

date printed in all 12,495 volumes. It was their custom to issue 265 copies each edition; the double of that number for Virgil, Cicero'

e above,

aper from a remote period; by a deed, dated March 6, 1377, now preserved in the Florentine Archivio Diplomatico, one Colo da Colle re

ng a fabulous pedigree of the Pio family, dates their

Church of the Cordeli

ressed to these earliest Gree

s, Grajos quoque

genuit Gr?cia

s quanta hos

quanto cern

etri, ponto ci

nobis edidi

ultas? tu Gr?ca

hydr? nunc a

n the Latin preface to the Thesaurus Cornucopi? et Horti Adonidis, 1495, Ald

?.' Preface to the Poet? Christiani Veteres, 1501. Again in the 'monitum' of the same, 'quater jam in ?dibus nostris ab operariis et s

no, were particularly troublesome. Didot has extracted some curious informa

preface to Aristotle, v

hints about selfish bibliomaniacs, who tried to hoard their treasures from the public and refused them t

da Bologna,' published by Pickering, 18

velli, he mentions some books 'Cum aliis quibusdam communes,' as dist

rivileges, and monopolies see Dido

κα? τ?ν σοφ?ν το?? ?τ?ροι? α?τ?κα δι' ?μο? ?ντυπησομ?νοι?. This πρ?δρομο?, or

dition contained eighteen, one of which, the Hercules Furens, turned up while vol. ii.

e edition eleven were issued between 1509 and 1520 by Matthew Schürer, ten by Froben b

sage quoted by Di

ple details concerning the foundation, cons

mpare the name

ughly that Erasmus wrote of him: 'Latin? lingu? usque ad miraculum doctus, quod vix ulli

ut this Greek press. Musurus boasts in his encomiastic verses that the work was accomplis

pancy about this Antonio b

et dedimus multa cunctando, et damus assidue.' Preface to the Astronomici, dedicated to Duke Guidobaldo of

etters and prefaces quoted and re

Milan in 1509 called forth these

en, Aldus

, juvenes, u

gite. Vere

en, Aldus

ι. He was the very opposite of Henri Estienne the younger

t, pp. 89,

s, 1507; Aristotle on Divination by Dreams, Cracow, 1529; Lucian, περ? διψ?δων, Oxford, 1521, are among the earliest Greek books printe

3

li? memini me

ctat flaventia

senem.-Virg. Ge

o Valeriano's treatise De

l. ii. p. 384, mentions a critic who was so stupid as to desiderare in Pont

I., Age of the

this post un

nignius, 1515, issued from Chigi's press under the superintendence of Zacharias

ana Romana, qu? digna tanto nomine, rar? inter homines form? specimen dedit. Vixit a. xxvi. d. xii. Obiit M

boschi, vii. 1

I., Age of the

04. First printe

eretrio deque Elisabetha

3

proavusque a

meus et tu

ue loquuntu

ra nunc et

loqui magis

damus et d

ora duplic

simul et si

aleas tibi v

moreas rem

ruis et lab

lamo tegas

e Illustrium P

these titles: De Liberis Institu

on the Romans was p

is carried down to 1547. A portion of the first decade was lost in the s

vel nostra, vel avorum memoria vixere, and Elogi

, 1524. Ragionamento sopra i Mo

De amore Divino, Examen vanitatis doctrin? gentium et veritatis Christian? disciplin

cordi? Comitis Oratio ad Leon X. et Concilium

held the office two years, and died 1518. Acciaiuoli hel

ctus sui seculi Cicero,' says Erasmus. 'Affluent

. 174. Roscoe's Life of

ee abov

ovio, close

s D. Petri, Urbis Rom? Topographia, 1534. Jacobus Mazochius, Epigrammata antiqu? urbis Rom?, 1521. Joh

Vitruvius, and was employed by Lorenzo de' Me

e above,

Castiglion

ier's Vasari, vol. i. pp. xi.-xiii. I have paraphrased rather than

I., Age of the

's Vittorino da F

mentario, in Le Monnier'

ni Venete, serie ii.

rief dated A

the round-arched buildings of the Middl

arches, and other buildings, the glory of their founders! How many have suffered their foundations to be undermined for the mere sake of quarrying pozzolana, whereby in a short time the buildings themselves have fallen to earth! How much lime has been made of sta

4

mam, tam longa

s et tot s?c

oma qu?rit repe

hominis, sed r

Calc

orpus medica s

tygiis et re

e est raptus E

vit? mors fu

toto laniata

iro, Rapha

rum ferro, igne,

quum jam revo

invidiam; indi

nctis reddere

ies paullatim a

eta lege pa

rima cadis inte

ti nostraque

are Cas

envenuto Ce

., Age of De

ted at Ven

trocium et pudendarum deprehensi fuerimus.' Quoted

who says,'Tuscan is hardly known to all Italians, while

into 4 vols., 1608; Carmina Quinque Illustrium Poetarum, Bergomi, 1753; Poemata Select

edicatory letter to Lionello d'Este, describes how he came to write this comedy, and how it w

54, for the purpose f

olace, and of gods

lier bards. Him alone, while he sang the divine deeds of heroes, and with his lyre arrayed fierce wars, Apollo, wonder-struck, confessed his equal. Close at his side, or higher even, but for the veneration due to age

the crowns of Olympia and the garlands wherewith the Isthmus and Delphi, and the Nemean wastes that falsely claimed the moon-born monster, shade the athlete's brows. Then, like a torrent, with swelling soul, he passed to celebrate the powers and virtues of the gods and heroes, and poured forth pious lamentations for the dead. Him Ph?bus, lord of Cirrha, honoured with food and drink from his altar, and made him guest-fellow at his own board: shepherds too saw Pan in lonely caverns charming the woods with a Pindaric song. At last,

sings fair Cyrinna's charms, and Megara, and Atthis and sweet Anactoria, and Telesippa of the flowing hair. And thee, too, Phaon, beautiful in youth's rathe flower, on thee she gazes, thee s

whose triumph, justly won in old age, killed him with excess of joy, and he whose b

Ib.

atory beneath the beauteous brows of Beatrice; and Petrarch too, who tells again the tale of Cupid's triumph; or him who in ten days portrays a hundred stories,

course, and dost address the vigour of thy well-worn powers to song: blest in thy mental gifts, blest to be able thus to play so

tri Temporis.' Opp. vol. ii.

and rest from cares; Lorenzo, not the last of Ph?bus' glorious band; Lorenzo, the firm anchor of the Muses tempest-tost. If only he but grant me greater ease, the inspiration of a mightier god will raise my soul; nor shall the lofty woods alone and mounta

ls of light; so long as gloomy winter leads to spring, and summer to autumn; while breathing ocean ebbs and flows by turns, and the mixed elements put on their changing shapes-so long, for ever, shall endure great Maro's fame, for ever shall flow these

top of Pelion nods his barren head. And now the bard had soothed the whole world with his mother's song; when he ceased from singing and put down the thrilling lyre. This bold Achilles seizes; he runs his fingers o'er the strings, and chaunts an untaught lay, the simple boy. What was his theme? you ask

ano's nymphs, gave to me, culled from meadows on her father's shores; Ambra, the love of my Lorenzo, whom Umbrone, the horned stre

rsius, Satire, i. 79-82. And cf. Petronius Arbiter

uinque, &c. pp.

fair Simonetta, and others, are only valuable

from his Collected

ritings of Pontanus, Poemata Selecta, pp.

pp. 668-712. Specimens may also be read i

3; the tale of Cola Pesce, lib. iv. p. 79; the council of

poured forth Syrian perfumes at the marriage chamber. What for our garlands and our per

ll spread abroad among the people my names with mighty sound of praise, and carry through the centuries my titles

. Non enim verborum volubilitate fertur, sed limatius quoddam scribendi genus consectatur, et lima indies atterit, ut de i

part, pp. 713-761. The following couplet o

?sar vult dici

C?sar possit

ow taunt me, Jupiter, with the Tarpeian rock and those walls of thy son Mars!" he cried. "If thou prefer

e above,

pe's Poemata Italorum, vol. i. pp. 103-130; pp. 190-210. T

be remembered that Francis I., after Pavia

teous on the Spanish shore, thee and thy brother Henry. So the fortunes of thy mighty-hearted father willed, condemned to strive against unequal doom. Yet spare thy tears: perchance hard fate will soften, and a day of supreme joy will come at last, when, after thy sad exile, once more given to

4

igna s

ue paranda est,

rius, quorum va

Selecta,

ing the glories of

fas sit va

illo in pejus r

, atque retro re

enio confisus

pitu, tenditque

usque tonat sine

tus vacuos, e

la capti dul

Cf. the advice (p. 214) t

alios animo ve

re, utque potes,

4

: vulgus procu

p. 224; and aga

siis das nos a

s ?quas su

may Italy for ever hold the heights of art and learning, and most beauteous Rome instruct the nations; albeit all success in arms be lost, so great hath grown the disco

ids, for everlasting will we chaunt our holy hymns. Hail, consecrated bard! No increase to thy glory flows from praise, nor needs it voice of ours. Be ne

, Age of the Desp

4

primis oste

tu qui nullius

nsere luem, p

Select

4

vertas, tam va

r? gremio, nec

statuas reputes

emque mali con

as circum diff

. p.

bid. pp

bid. pp

ses he finds for

ficis horr

ferum tormenta

Selecta,

ge about Alessandro

ante et iter mo

, p. 125. The whole idyll addressed to Julius I

ue Illustrium Poeta

Ib. pp

inque Illustrium

Ib.

4

things he trie

h his sweet arm

, rained kisses

ose red lips t

e ripe ears o

eath the breat

Maximus? Chang

bear such

nque Illustrium P

Ib.

or Lorenzo, mixing tears with prayers, and sorrow with his tears, while sorrow suggests words of wilder freedom. Death laughed; remembering her old grudge, when Orpheus made his way to hell, she cried, "Lo, he too seeks to abrogate our laws

m fontem,' 'Leucippem amicam spe pr?miorum invitat,' 'Vota Veneri ut

tes, 'Epigrammata non falsis aculeatisque finibus, se

eming bosom givest nourishment to trees and sprouting herbs in every region of the earth, take to thyself the fainting boy, cherish his dying limbs, and make him

tem,' Carmina, &c. pp. 64-

en! What joy I feel to see you thus again, and tread your shores after so many toils endured in

labics of Johannes Matth

Zanchius, Car

nius Flaminiu

truscus, Pope's Poemata Italorum, vol. ii. p. 25, on a similar

rom a mountain-flank. A little tablet carved with simple letters will be enough to mark the spot, and to preserve my name: "Here lies Molsa, slain before his day by wasting sickness: cast dust upon him thrice, and go thy way, gentle shepherd." It may be that after many years I shall turn to yielding clay, and my tom

r's grave, cf. Omar Khayyam. Cf. too Walt Whitman's m

lcon, a part of my own soul; Alcon, the greatest par

ipe soothe the neighbouring hills, the vales repeat thy artful songs. No more shall thy Lycoris, whose name inscribed by thee the woods remember, and my Galatea hear us both together chaunt our loves. For we like brothers lived our lives till now from infancy: heat and cold, days and nights, we bore; our herd

Ib.

ough limbs are stiff with snaky scales; their beard hangs long and wide, uncombed, tang

rmina, &c. p. 97. Cf. Bembo's 'Ad Lucreti

Ib.

ce, giver of justice, peace, and tranquil ease; thou to whom alone is committed the life and salvat

or right for man to set at naught a God's command; and yet so great is Leo's k

stands, as spring and summer bring the flowers, its branches shall be hung with wreaths, its trunk shall be inscribed with thy auspicious name. As often as our shepherds drive the flocks afield, or bring them pastured home, each one, remembering that he does this under thy protection, shall pour libations of ne

ieldest upon earth the Thunderer's power, whose it

l pastures and golden-fleeced. Living waters too shall leap forth, wherewith the

ets shall exalt to heaven, and call h

above, pp.

a Quinque Poetar

lusion of the last book, is an excellent specimen of barocco style and bathos. Virgil had written, 'Ite domum pasti, si quis pudor, ite juvenci!' Paleario makes the Judge address the damned souls thus: '

shows Flaminio's sympathy with

tuos, Hieronyme,

acras dilan

ixit, crudeles

isto viscera

um.'-Poemata Selecta

ave the joy of gazing on the trees my father planted

you are dearer to me than the dear light, have pity now upon your suppliant,

distant farm, to take the joys of peace among Socratic books, among the nymphs and satyrs, unhee

Selecta, pp.

murmurs with her gently waving leaves. Fear no fever or dull headache. The place is safe. So when you are rested, we will read the rustic songs of Virgil or Theocritus; sweet

istophorum Lo

ata Select

an strength returned into my wasted limbs; my body lost the pallor and emaciation of disease, and sweet sleep cr

ata Select

ll now hath never yet been seen, nor will it afterwards be seen in any city. Contarini in his little book has proved that the best commonweal

sy without a taint of earth; her intellect was heavenly, her learning rare; her words sweeter than nectar; her n

healthy mind; pleasant to thy friends, and in thy piety unrivalled. Now, after sixteen lustres finished, thou goest to the regions of t

ghed on Italy, that so many lights could have arisen at one epoch in one little region of the land above the Po? They alone are enough to put to flight the gloom of barbarism, and to restore its antique glory and own splendour to Latin literature.' After this he goes on to add that thes

revi regione

Gazani Vici Descriptio, Fracastoro's A

ientes.' Lives writ

eeches of Dikaios Logos; Xe

sus Literatos. Op. Omn.

nullos esse cum omnium vitiorum etiam nefandissimorum genere inquinatos magis, tum i

Lines

Poetarum Lusus in Venerem

above, p.

above, C

e breasts that made you with a nose so lordly, and blessed be all those things you put your nose to!'

cally used by F. Villani in h

ratori, vol.

dem, sed instaurator ipse mihi videor, quo cum uti inciperem, adolescen

above, p

the celebrated professor, publi

um memoriam nolumus transferre ad posteros. Et ethrusca quidem lingua vix toti Itali? nota est, at latina oratio longe ac late per universum orbem est diffusa.' ('Matters I do not wish to have copied I always wr

an account of Filelfo's, Traversari

of the Despots, pp. 216

e above,

oted by Tiraboschi, vol.

ber's Er

ardi" should

r key" likely shoul

tions" likely shoul

und" should be f