CHAPTER V. FLORENCE. State of Letters and Art in Florence in the time of the Medici. - Cosmo de Medici. The Architects Brunelleschi, Michelozzi, and Alberti. Sculpture. - Donatello and Ghiberti. Chrysoloras and his patron Palla Strozzi. -Ambrogio Traversari.-Lionardo Aretino. - Poggio Bracciolini.Filelfo.- Greeks at Florence. - - Pletho.Gennadius. — Bessarion. — George of Trebisond, and Theodore Gaza. - Introduction of the Platonic Philosophy. -Lorenzo de Medici.-The Platonic Academy at Florence Ficino.-Landino.-Poliziano.- Pico de Mirandola.— Italian Poetry. - Burchiello.· The Pulci. - Benevieni. CHAPTER V. FLORENCE. WHEN particular places and buildings at Florence brought former times to my mind, I often wished that I had lived and travelled in the days of Cosmo de' Medici, and his grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent. Yet I always consoled myself by the thought, that I could combine reflection with observation, and that my knowledge of the literature of Tuscany must be more perfect than if the subject had been viewed by me at any earlier period. When I resided at Florence, the literary heroes of the fifteenth century were yet fresh in fame, the fire which they kindled was still alive, and if in conversing with the learned men of the age, or in reading their works, I sometimes thought that literature had declined, the idea was immediately qualified by the reflection that their predecessors were giants in learning, that the present race paid adoration rather than respect to the past, and that so much had been performed that the days of originality were no more. When Florence threw off the imperial yoke, all the elements of society were set in action, and full scope was given to the moral and intellectual powers of her citizens. Amidst the contentions for mastery between the friends and the enemies of freedom, and the respective hypocrites of each party, no family was more conspicuous on the democratical side than that of the Medici. They were among the most enterprising, able, and successful merchants of Florence. Talent and good fortune appeared to be hereditary possessions, and their wisdom was as conspicuous in political as in commercial affairs. Giovanni de' Medici was the great supporter of his family's eminence at the close of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century. After many political troubles, after the commission on every side of those crimes, which state necessity is called on to justify, Cosmo de' Medici, the son of Giovanni, became the real and efficient lord of Florence, though the constitution of the city was nominally republican. The passion for knowledge had ever predominated over him, and when he became possessed of sovereign power he surrounded himself witn men of letters and art, whose works he encouraged, and in whose instructive society he found the relief of his cares. He was not the ostentatious patron, but the simple and equal friend. His anxiety respecting the discovery of manuscripts I have mentioned elsewhere. He formed one of the largest and most valuable libraries of his time, and his wealth and taste filled his native city with rich and magnificent public buildings. BRUNELLESCHI. (86) ONE of Cosmo's most favoured artists, Filippo Brunelleschi, may be regarded as the reviver of the style of ancient architecture. His original occupation was that of a goldsmith and watchmaker. He studied sculpture under the great Florentine Donatello. He learnt the rudiments of architecture from the works of Vitruvius, which had lately been recovered, but he chiefly enlarged his mind and purified his taste by studying the |