The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy

Ibid. p. 495.

500

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

501

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.

502

See his Vita, 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 in Collezione 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.

503

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

504

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).

505

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.

506

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

507

The lives of Guarino and Vittorino by Rosmini mentioned above (p. 213 (#x9_x_9_i29), 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’s Spicilegium, tom. x. Rome, 1844, pp. 221-272, all contain much on this subject.

508

Epist. 39; Opera, p. 526, to Mariano Socino.

509

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.

510

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.

511

Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, De Poetis Nostri Temporis, speaking of the Sphaerulus of 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.

512

The best are to be found in the Deliciae 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.

513

Paul. Jov. Elogia speaking of Guido Posthumus.

514

Pierio Valeriano in his Simia.

515

See the elegy of Joh. Aurelius Mutius in the Deliciae Poetarum Italorum.

516

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 Giraldi Hecatommithi, 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).

517

Roscoe, Leone X. ed. Bossi. iv. 181.

518

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.

519

Even Alfonso was not able to please everybody—Poggio, for example. See Shepherd-Tonelli, Poggio ii. 108 sqq. and Poggio’s letter to Facius in Fac. 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.

520

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

521

Giorn. Napolet. in Murat. xxi. col. 1127.

522

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

523

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.

524