The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy

644

Pier. Valer. pp. 397 sqq., 402. He was the uncle of the writer.

645

Cœlii Calcagnini, Opera, ed. Basil. 1544, p. 101, in the Seventh Book of the Epistles, No. 27, letter to Jacob Ziegler. Comp. Pierio Val. De inf. lit. ed. Menken, p. 369 sqq.

646

M. Ant. Sabellici Opera, Epist. l. xi. fol. 56. See, too, the biography in the Elogia of Paolo Giovio, p. 76 sqq. The former appeared separately at Strasburg in 1510, under the title Sabellicus: Vita Pomponii Laeti.

647

Jac. Volaterran. Diar. Rom. in Muratori. xxiii. col. 161, 171, 185. Anecdota literaria, ii. pp. 168 sqq.

648

Paul. Jov. De Romanis piscibus, cap. 17 and 34.

649

Sadoleti, Epist. 106, of the year 1529.

650

Anton. Galatei, Epist. 10 and 12, in Mai, Spicileg. Rom. vol. viii.

651

This was the case even before the middle of the century. Comp. Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, De poetis nostri temp. ii.

652

Luigi Bossi, Vita di Cristoforo Colombo, in which there is a sketch of earlier Italian journeys and discoveries, p. 91 sqq.

653

See on this subject a treatise by Pertz. An inadequate account is to be found in Æneas Sylvius, Europae status sub Frederico III. Imp. cap. 44 (in Freher’s Scriptores, ed. 1624, vol. ii. p. 87). On Æn. S. see Peschel o.c. 217 sqq.

654

Comp. O. Peschel, Geschichte der Erdkunde, 2nd edit., by Sophus Ruge, Munich, 1877, p. 209 sqq. et passim.

655

Pii II. Comment. l. i. p. 14. That he did not always observe correctly, and sometimes filled up the picture from his fancy, is clearly shown, e.g., by his description of Basel. Yet his merit on the whole is nevertheless great. On the description of Basel see G. Voigt; Enea Silvio, i. 228; on E. S. as Geographer, ii. 302-309. Comp. i. 91 sqq.

656

In the sixteenth century, Italy continued to be the home of geographical literature, at a time when the discoverers themselves belonged almost exclusively to the countries on the shores of the Atlantic. Native geography produced in the middle of the century the great and remarkable work of Leandro Alberti, Descrizione di tutta l’Italia, 1582. In the first half of the sixteenth century, the maps in Italy were in advance of those of other countries. See Wieser: Der Portulan des Infanten Philipp II. von Spanien in Sitzungsberichte der Wien. Acad. Phil. Hist. Kl. Bd. 82 (1876), pp. 541 sqq. For the different Italian maps and voyages of discovery, see the excellent work of Oscar Peschel: Abhandl. zur Erd-und Völkerkunde (Leipzig, 1878). Comp. also, inter alia: Berchet, Il planisfero di Giovanni Leandro del’anno 1452 fa-simil nella grandezza del’ original Nota illustrativa, 16 S. 4^o. Venezia, 1879. Comp. Voigt, ii. 516; and G. B. de Rossi, Piante iconogrofiche di Roma anteriori al secolo XVI. Rome, 1879. For Petrarch’s attempt to draw out a map of Italy, comp. Flavio Biondo: Italia illustrata (ed. Basil.), p. 352 sqq.; also Petr. Epist. var. LXI. ed. Fracass. iii. 476. A remarkable attempt at a map of Europe, Asia and Africa is to be found on the obverse of a medal of Charles IV. of Anjou, executed by Francesco da Laurana in 1462.

657

Libri, Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques en Italie. 4 vols. Paris, 1838.

658

To pronounce a conclusive judgment on this point, the growth of the habit of collecting observations, in other than the mathematical sciences, would need to be illustrated in detail. But this lies outside the limits of our task.

659

Libri, op. cit. ii. p. 174 sqq. See also Dante’s treatise, De aqua et terra; and W. Schmidt, Dante’s Stellung in der Geschichte der Cosmographie, Graz, 1876. The passages bearing on geography and natural science from the Tesoro of Brunetto Latini are published separately: Il trattato della Sfera di S. Br. L., by Bart. Sorio (Milan, 1858), who has added B. L.’s system of historical chronology.

660

Scardeonius, De urb. Patav. antiq. in Graevii Thesaur. ant. Ital. tom. vi. pars iii. col. 227. A. died in 1312 during the investigation; his statue was burnt. On Giov. Sang. see op. cit. col. 228 sqq. Comp. on him, Fabricius, Bibl. Lat. s. v. Petrus de Apono. Sprenger in Esch. u. Gruber, i. 33. He translated (a. 1292-1293) astrological works of Abraham ibn Esra, printed 1506.

661

See below, part vi. chapter 2.

662

See the exaggerated complaints of Libri, op. cit. ii. p. 258 sqq. Regrettable as it may be that a people so highly gifted did not devote more of its strength to the natural sciences, we nevertheless believe that it pursued, and in part attained, still more important ends.

663

On the studies of the latter in Italy, comp. the thorough investigation by C. Malagola in his work on Codro Urceo (Bologna, 1878, cap. vii. 360-366).

664

Italians also laid out botanical gardens in foreign countries, e.g. Angelo, of Florence, a contemporary of Petrarch, in Prag. Friedjung: Carl IV. p. 311, note 4.

665

Alexandri Braccii descriptio horti Laurentii Med., printed as Appendix No. 58 to Roscoe’s Life of Lorenzo. Also to be found in the Appendices to Fabroni’s Laurentius.

666

Mondanarii Villa, printed in the Poemata aliquot insignia illustr. poetar. recent.

667

On the zoological garden at Palermo under Henry VI., see Otto de S. Blasio ad a. 1194. That of Henry I. of England in the park of Woodstock (Guliel. Malmes. p. 638) contained lions, leopards, camels, and a porcupine, all gifts of foreign princes.

668

As such he was called, whether painted or carved in stone, ‘Marzocco.’ At Pisa eagles were kept. See the commentators on Dante, Inf. xxxiii. 22. The falcon in Boccaccio, Decam. v. 9. See for the whole subject: Due trattati del governo e delle infermità degli uccelli, testi di lingua inediti. Rome, 1864. They are works of the fourteenth century, possibly translated from the Persian.