the Council by virtue of his office. During the intervals of the Council, Poggio searched the neighboring monasteries of Switzerland and southern Germany for lost books. The following selection from one of his letters describes his visit (1416) to the famous Swiss monastery of Saint Gall, and his finding the Quintilian manuscript and other treasures there.

(a) Letter of Poggio Bracciolini

I verily believe that, if we had not come to the rescue, he [Quintilian] must speedily have perished; for it cannot be imagined that a man magnificent, polished, elegant, urbane, and witty could much longer have endured the squalor of the prison-house in which I found him, the savagery of his jailers, the forlorn filth of the place. He was indeed right sad to look upon, and ragged, like a condemned criminal, with rough beard and matted hair, protesting by his countenance and garb against the injustice of his sentence. He seemed to be stretching out his hands, calling upon the Romans, demanding to be saved from so unmerited a doom. Hard indeed it was for him to bear, that he who had preserved the lives of many by his eloquence and aid, should now find no redresser of his wrongs, no saviour from the unjust punishment awaiting him. But as it often happens, to quote Terence, that what you dare not wish for comes to you by chance, so a good fortune for him, but far more for ourselves, led us, while wasting our time in idleness at Constance, to take a fancy for visiting the place where he was held in prison. The Monastery of Saint Gallen lies at the distance of some twenty miles from that city. Thither, then, partly for the sake of amusement and partly of finding books, whereof we heard there was a large collection in the convent, we directed our steps. In the middle of a well-stocked library, too large to catalogue at present, we discovered Quintilian, safe as yet and sound, though covered with dust and filthy with neglect and age. The books, you must know, were not housed according to their worth, but were lying in a most foul and obscure dungeon at the very bottom of a tower, a place into which condemned criminals would hardly have been thrust; and I am firmly persuaded that if any one would but explore those ergastula of the barbarians wherein they incarcerate such men, we should meet with like good fortune in the case of many whose funeral orations have long ago been pronounced. Besides Quintilian, we exhumed the three first books, and a half of the fourth book of the Argonautica of (Valerius) Flaccus, and the Commentaries of Asconius Pedianus upon eight orations of Cicero.

When the manuscript was being copied, his friend, Lionardo Bruni, wrote to him as follows:

(b) Reply of Lionardo Bruni

The republic of letters has reason to rejoice not only in the works you have discovered, but also in those you have still to find. What a glory for you it is to have brought to light by your exertions the writings of the most distinguished authors! Posterity will not forget that manuscripts which were bewailed as lost beyond the possibility of restoration, have been recovered, thanks to you. As Camillus was called the second founder of Rome, so may you receive the title of the second author of the works you have restored to the world. Through you we now possess Quintilian entire; before we only boasted the half of him, and that defective and corrupt in text. O precious acquisition! O unexpected joy! And shall I, then, in truth be able to read the whole of that Quintilian which, mutilated and deformed as it has hitherto appeared, has formed my solace? I conjure you send it me at once, that at least I may set eyes on it before I die.

These two letters reveal something of the spirit and emotions of those engaged in the revival and reconstruction of Latin literature and history.

128. Reproducing Books before the Days of Printing (Sandys, J. E., History of Classical Scholarship, vol. 11, p. 24. Cambridge, 1903) Among the volumes found at Saint Gall, and copied by the enthusiasts for the recovery of the ancient manuscripts, was a copy of the Argonautica of the Roman writer, Valerius Flaccus, who died about 90 A.D. The last page and signature of his manuscript (see p. 192) illustrates well the slow method of reproducing books before the days of printing.

129. Italian Societies for studying the Classics

(Symonds, J. A., The Renaissance in Italy, vol. 1, pp. 359-61. London, 1888) In the fifteenth century there was founded, in almost every important Italian city, one or more Academies to promote the new learning. Those at Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples were the most famous. They took their name from the Academy of Plato, at Athens. The one at Florence was called the Platonic Academy of Florence. The following description of the Academy at Rome, founded in 1425 by an Italian who assumed the old Roman name of Pomponius Lætus, shows the effect of the revival of classical studies on its devotees. In 1500 a "New Academy of Hellenists" was founded at Venice, after the same plan, the mem

Last page, colophon, and signature of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, copied at Saint Gall, in 1416, by the Florentine Poggio, a pupil of the Greek teacher, Chrysoloras

bers assuming Greek names, the meetings being conducted in Greek, and one of the purposes being to edit some Greek author every month.

Under these Popes [unfriendly to the new learning] humanism had to flourish, as it best could, in the society of private individuals. Accordingly, we find the Roman scholars forming among themselves academies and learned circles. Of these the most eminent took its name from its founder, Julius Pomponius Lætus. . . . Pomponius derived his scholarship from Valla, and devoted all his energies to Latin literature, refusing, it is even said, to learn Greek, lest it should distract him from his favorite.studies. He made it the object of his most serious endeavors not only to restore a knowledge of the ancients, but also to assimilate his life and manners to their standard. Men praised in him a second Cato for sobriety of conduct, frugal diet, and rural industry. He tilled his own ground after the methods of Varro and Columella, went a-fishing and a-fowling on holidays, and ate his sparing meal like a Roman Stoic under the spreading branches of an oak on the Campagna. The grand mansions of the prelates had no attractions for him. He preferred his own modest house upon the Esquiline, his garden on the Quirinal. It was here that his favorite scholars conversed with him at leisure; and to these retreats of the philosopher came strangers of importance, eager to behold a Roman

living in all points like an antique sage. The high school (university) owed much to his indefatigable industry. Through a long series of years he lectured upon the chief Latin authors, examining their text with critical accuracy, and preparing new editions of their works. Before daybreak he would light his lantern, take his staff, and wend his way from the Esquiline to the lecture-room, where, however early the hour and however inclement the season, he was sure to find an overflowing audience. Yet it was not as a professor that Pomponius Lætus acquired his great celebrity, and left a lasting impress on the society of Rome. This he did by forming an academy for the avowed purpose of prosecuting the study of Latin antiquities and promoting the adoption of antique customs into modern life. The members assumed classical names, exchanging their Italian patronymics for fancy titles like Callimachus Experiens, Asclepiades, Glaucus, Volscus, and Petrejus. They yearly kept the birthday feast of Rome, celebrating the Palilia with Pagan solemnities, playing comedies of Plautus, and striving to revive the humors of the old Atellan farces.

130. Founding of the Medicean Library at Florence

(Vespasiano, Lives of Illustrious Men of the Fifteenth Century; from the Life of Cosimo de' Medici; trans. by Whitcomb, in his Literary Source Book of the Italian Renaissance, p. 77. Univ. Pa., 1898; by permission)

Vespasiano was a book-collector of Florence, which during his day was the leading literary and artistic center of the western world. In his Lives of Illustrious Men of the Fifteenth Century he has left us good pictures of men and events of his time. He died in 1498. The following selection from his book describes the founding of one of the great Italian libraries, that of Cosimo de' Medici (1389-1446), and illustrates the difficulty of book-collecting before the days of printing. A picture of one of the stalls in this library is to be found in the accompanying Text Book (Fig. 71, p. 251).

When he had finished the residence and a good part of the church, he fell to thinking how he should have the place peopled with honest men of letters; and in this way it occurred to him to found a fine library; and one day when I happened to be present in his chamber, he said to me: "In what way would you furnish this library?" I replied that as for buying the books it would be impossible, for they were not to be had. Then he said: "How is it possible then to furnish it?" I told him that it would be necessary to have the books copied. He asked in reply if I would be willing to undertake the task. I answered. him, that I was willing. He told me to commence my work and he would leave everything to me; and as for the money that would be

necessary he would refer the matter to Don Archangel, then prior of the monastery, who would draw bills upon the bank, which should be paid. The library was commenced at once, for it was his pleasure that it should be done with the utmost possible celerity; and as I did not lack for money I collected in a short time forty-five writers, and finished 200 volumes in twenty-two months; in which work we made use of an excellent arrangement, that of the library of Pope Nicholas, which he had given to Cosimo, in the form of a catalogue made out with his own hands. ...

And since there were not copies of all these works in Florence, we sent to Milan, to Bologna and to other places, wherever they might be found. Cosimo lived to see the library wholly completed, and the cataloguing and arranging of the books; in all of which he took great pleasure, and the work went forward, as was his custom, with great promptness.

131. Founding of the Ducal Library at Urbino

(Vespasiano, Lives of Illustrious Men of the Fifteenth Century; from the Life of Frederic of Urbino, trans. by Whitcomb, in his Literary Source Book of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 73-77. Univ. of Pa., 1898; by permission)

Another selection from the Florentine bookseller, Vespasiano (d. 1498). This description of the founding of the ducal library at Urbino, and of the books obtained for it, shows the scope, the time, and the cost required for making one of the largest book collections of the time.

XXVIII. Coming to the holy doctors, who are in Latin, he wished to have all the books of the four doctors; and what letters! what books! and how excellent! having no regard for expense. The four doctors having been finished, he then desired all the works of Saint Bernard, and all the holy doctors of antiquity; he desired that none should be wanting: Tertullian, Hilary, Remi, Hugh of Saint Victor, Isidore, Anselm, Rabanus Maurus, and all the holy doctors of antiquity that have ever written. Coming from the Latins to the sacred writings of the writers, which are converted into Latin, he desired in Latin the works of Dionysius the Areopagite, of Saint Basil, Cyril, Gregory of Nyssa, Eusebius, all his works, Ephraem the Monk, the most excellent writer Origen. Coming to the Latin doctors, as well in philosophy as in theology, all the works of Saint Thomas Aquinas, all the works of Albertus Magnus, all the works of Alexander of Hales, all the works of Scotus, all the works of Bonaventura, the works of Richard of Mediavilla; all the works of the Archbishop Antoninus, and all the modern doctors who are of authority, he wished to have, down to the Conformities of Saint Francis; all the works upon civil law, most beautiful texts; all the lectures of Bartolo, in kid-skin, and many writers in civil law. The