VII. great Italian authors were inimitable in the pro- CHAP. ductions of their native language, in their Latin writings they appeared in a subordinate character. Of the labours of the ancients, enough had been discovered to mark the decided difference between their merits and those of their modern imitators; and the applauses bestowed upon the latter were only in proportion to the degree in which they approached the models of ancient eloquence. This competition was therefore eagerly entered into; nor had the success of the first revivers of these studies deprived their followers of the hope of surpassing them. (a) Even the early part of the fifteenth century produced scholars as much superior to Petrarca and his coadjutors, as they were to the monkish compilers, and scholastic disputants, who immediately preceded them; and the labours of Leonardo Aretino, Gianozzo Manetti, Guarino Veronese, and Poggio Bracciolini, prepared the way for the still more correct and classical productions of Politiano, Sannazaro, Pontano, and Augurelli. The declining state of Italian literature, so far then from medesimo, e andò tanto di mano in mano peggiorando, che non era quasi più quel desso. Il medesimo nè più nè meno avvenne nella lingua Fiorentina; perche spenti Dante, il Petrarca e 'l Boccaccio, cominciò a variare e mutarsi il modo e la guisa del favellare e dello scrivere fiorentinamente, e tanta andò di male in peggio che quasi non si riconosceva più, &c." Varchi, L' Ercolano, vol. i. p. 83. Ed. Padova, 1744. (a)" Difficilis in perfecto mora est; naturaliterque quod procedere non potest, recedit. Et, ut primo ad consequendos, quos priores ducimus, accendimur; ita ubi aut præteriri aut æquari eos posse desperavimus, studium cum spe senescit; et quod adsequi non potest, sequi desinit: præteritoque eo in quo eminere non possimus, aliquid in quo nitamur conquirimus." Velleius Paterc. lib. i. cap. 17. VII. CHAP. being inconsistent with, was rather a consequence of the proficiency made in other pursuits, which, whilst they were distinguished by a greater degree of celebrity, demanded a more continued attention, and an almost absolute devotion both of talents and of time. Emanuel Chrysoloras. Whatever may have been the opinion in more modern times, the Italian scholars of the fifteenth century did not attribute to the exertions of their own countrymen the restoration of ancient learning. That they had shewn a decided predilection for those studies, and had excited an ardent thirst of further knowledge, is universally allowed; but the source from which that thirst was allayed was found in Emanuel Chrysoloras, who, after his return to his native country from his important embassies, was prevailed upon by the Florentines to pay a second visit to Italy, and to fix his residence among them. The obligations due to Chrysoloras are acknowledged in various parts of their works, by those who availed themselves of his instructions; and the gratitude of his immediate hearers was transfused into a new race of scholars, who, by their eulogies on their literary patriarch, but much more by their own talents, conferred honour upon his memory. (a) On his arrival in Italy in the cha (a) Chrysoloras died at Constance, when the council was held there in 1415. A volume, consisting of eulogies upon him, lately existed in the monastery at Camaldoli. (Zeno. Diss. Voss. vol. i. p. 214.) Poggio, and Æneas Sylvius (Pius II.), each of them honoured him with an epitaph. In the latter, the merit of having been the reviver of both Greek and Latin literature is explicitly attributed to him. "Ille ego, qui Latium priscas imitarier artes, VII. racter of an instructor, he was accompanied by CHAP. In lucem retuli, CHRYSOLORAS nomine notus, Janus Pannonius, a scholar of Guarino Veronese, (for whose history and unhappy fate, v. Valerianus De Infelicitate Literatorum,) in an elegant Latin panegyric on his preceptor, also pays a tribute of respect to the Greek scholar: "Vir fuit hic patrio CHRYSOLORAS nomine dictus, Jani Pannonii Quinquecclesiensis Episc. Paneg. ad Guar. Ver. preceptorem suum Basil. 1518. p. 11. ap. Frobenium. (a) Mehus, in vita Amb. Trav. p. 356. This early visitor has escaped the researches of Dr. Hody. De Græc. Illust. VII. CHAP. example of Cato may stimulate me to devote to this study the little that remains of life, and I may yet add to my other acquirements a knowledge of the Grecian tongue." Conse quences of improve ment. Progress of the Lauren If we advert to the night of thick darkness in which the world had been long enveloped, we may easily conceive the sensations that took place in the minds of men when the gloom began to disperse, and the spectres of false science, by turns fantastic and terrific, gave way to the distinct and accurate forms of nature and of truth. The Greeks who visited Italy in the early part of the fifteenth century, if they did not diffuse a thorough knowledge of their language, and of those sciences which they exclusively possessed, at least prepared a safe asylum for the muses and the arts, who had long trembled at the approach, and at length fled before the fierce aspect of Mahomet II. From that period a new order of things took place in Italy; the construction of language was investigated on philosophical principles; the maxims of sound criticism began to supplant the scholastic subtilties which had perverted for ages the powers of the human mind; and men descended from their fancied eminence among the regions of speculation and hypothesis, to tread the earth with a firm foot, and to gain the temple of fame by a direct though laborious path. The establishment of public libraries in different tianLibrary. parts of Italy, whilst it was one of the first consequences of this striking predilection for the works of the ancients, became in its turn the active cause of further improvement. To no description of individuals is the world more indebted, than to those between Flo VII. who have been instrumental in preserving the wis- CHAP. dom of past ages for the use of those to come, and thereby giving, as it were, a general sensorium to the human race. In this respect great obligations are due to the venerable Cosmo. (a) From the intercourse that in his time subsisted rence and Constantinople, and the long visits made by the Greek prelates and scholars to Italy, he had the best opportunity of obtaining the choicest treasures of ancient learning; and the destruction of Constantinople may be said to have transferred to Italy all that remained of eastern science. (b) After the death of Cosmo, his son Piero pursued with steady perseverance the same object, and made important additions to the various collections which Cosmo had begun, particularly to that of his own family. (c) But although the ancestors of Lorenzo (a) Bandini, Lettera sopra i principj, &c. della Biblioteca Laurenziana. Fir. 1773. (b) The library of S. Marco, which, as we have before related, was founded by Cosmo, with the books collected by Niccolo Niccoli, and augmented at his own expense, was, in the year 1454, almost buried in ruins by an earthquake, that continued at intervals for nearly forty days, during which several persons lost their lives. Cosmo, however, not only restored the building to its former state, but raised the ceiling, so as to admit of a more extensive collection. At the same time a new arrangement of the manuscripts took place, and the Greek and Oriental works were formed into a class distinct from the Latin. Mehus in vita Amb. Trav. pp. 66, 73. (c) The manuscripts acquired by Piero de' Medici are for the most part highly ornamented with miniatures, gilding, and other decorations, and are distinguished by the fleurs de lys. Those collected by Lorenzo are marked not only by the Medicean arms, but with a laurel branch in allusion to his name, and the motto SEmper. When we advert to the immense prices which were given for these works, and the labour afterwards employed on them, they may be |