PART I. CHAP. V. upon as evidence the existence of such resentment is far from improbable. It is evident at least that his affection for his own college at Oxford exceeded his care for the university of his diocese, for his library was bequeathed to Balliol'; and it may easily be conjectured that the one or two scholars at Cambridge in those days to whom the destination of such a legacy appeared a matter of any interest, when they heard to whose keeping these treasures had been confided, observed that they might thank pope Martin v and the Ultramontanists for the loss sustained by their own university. Like Isocrates, Guarino also attained to an advanced and vigorous old age, which found him still busied on his literary labours. His productions were chiefly translations from the Greek; and only two years before his death, at the age of 88, he completed a translation of the Geography of Strabo❜. Old age of Leonardo d. 1443. Not less eminent than Guarino, though distinguished in a somewhat different manner, was Leonardo Bruni, known from the place of his birth as Aretino, and by his learned contemporaries as 'the modern Aristotle.' From him we date the commencement of a more intelligent study of Aristotle's writings, an improvement which the increasing critical faculty of the age rendered indispensable if the authority of the Stagirite were still to hold its ground. The conviction that forced itself upon Grosseteste and Roger Bacon in the thirteenth century was now the sentiment of every Italian Humanist. Even pope Pius II, though ignorant of Greek, was ready to declare that, if Aristotle were to come again to life, he would be totally unable to recognise as his own the thoughts for which he was made responsible by his Latin interpreters. Among those who were attracted by the fame of Aretino, was cardinal Beaufort's great rival, Humphrey, duke He translates of Gloucester. He had already become acquainted with the request of Aretino's translation of the Ethics, and he now besought him Gloucester. to give to the world a translation of the Politics, a copy of which had recently been brought from Constantinople by Pallas de Strozzi. Aretino acceded to his request, and laying His translations of Aristotle. the Politics at Humphrey, duke of 1 Bentham says that he also built a good part of the college library. p. 176. Hist. of Ely Cathedral, * Asia, c. 71. PART I. aside the senseless word-for-word method of translation CHAP. V. hitherto in vogue, and totally disregarding the endless subtleties of the Arabian commentators, produced, after three years' labour, a version that with respect to clearness and elegance threw every preceding version into the shade. Scholars to whom criticisms like those of Petrarch had appeared unanswerable, began to say that they could now understand how Cicero could praise the Aristotelian style. It was the first real advance towards a true knowledge of the text of Aristotle since the time of Aquinas, though soon to be completely outdone by the achievements of Argyropulos. When the translation was completed, Bruni, it is said, dedicated the work to duke Humphrey, and forwarded a copy to England. But his noble patron, immersed probably in the anxieties of his political career, delayed his acknowledgements, and the haughty Italian recalled his dedication and laid it at the feet of pope Eugenius instead'. phrey's be Oxford. But if forgetful of Italy, duke Humphrey was not un- Duke Hummindful of Oxford, and it is not improbable that the splendid quests to collections of manuscripts with which he enriched the university in the year 1439 and 1443,- donations which Mr. Anstey declares did more for the university than any other benefaction, before or after, has done,'-were partly the means of awakening that active interest in the new learning that in the latter part of the century was exhibited by various members of the community. The theological authors, that Novel eleoccupy so large a proportion of the catalogues of these two introduced. collections, would of course appear to the majority of the students of the time the most valuable element; but the above-named translations by Aretino, both included in the earlier list, and a new translation of the Republic of Plato, could scarcely fail to attract the attention of the artists.' A copy of Dante and numerous copies of Petrarch's best known treatises must have also been singularly suggestive of bold 2 Bodleian :-the translation of the Po- ments thus PART I. CHAP. V. and novel habits of thought. The Verrines and Philippics of Cicero and the letters Ad Familiares were an appreciable addition to the stores of the Latin scholar; while the theologian would find no little material for reflexion, and much that was startling and strange, in the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius. Fall of Constantinople, 1453. As the first half of the fifteenth century drew to its close, it became evident that the progress of the Turkish arms in the East was likely before long to be signalized by a decisive triumph, and in the year 1453 all Christendom learned with unmistakeable dismay, that the last of the Constantines had fallen fighting at the gates of his imperial city, and that the cry of the muezzin had been uttered from the loftiest turret of St. Sophia. Though long anticipated, the event did not fail to The flight to awaken in Italy a feeling of profound commiseration. For a Italy. time it was forgotten that the hapless fugitives who came fleeing across the Mediterranean were schismatics, only to remember that they were Christians, and they were received with every manifestation of sympathy and respect. Among them there came a few scholars of eminence,-Argyropulos, Chalcondyles, Andronicus Callistus, Constantine and John Lascaris,-bearing with them whatever literary treasures they had been able to snatch from destruction. The efforts of the Prior impor- preceding half century had fortunately already introduced Gen litera- into Italy many of the Greek classics; the collection imported by John Aurispa in 1423 forming probably the most important contribution. He had brought, according to Traversarius, nearly all the extant works of Plato, and also those of Plotinus, Proclus, Lucian, Xenophon, Dio, Arrian, Diodorus Siculus, the Orphic Hymns, the Geography of Strabo, CalliForebodings machus, Pindar, and Oppian'. To this array the poor exiles tatio of ture of Italian scholars Lament of contributed the last instalment of any magnitude, but the loss was enormous. Quirinus, a Venetian, writing to pope Nicolas V, asserts that more than a hundred and twenty thousand volumes had been destroyed by the conquering Turks. In his eyes the loss would seem to have appeared not merely irreparable in itself but fatal to the cause of Greek 1 Ersch and Gruber, Griechenland, vIII 290. PART I. of Fneas learning; and he predicts, in language that seems the utterance CHAP. V. of a genuine emotion, that the literature which had given light to the whole world, that had brought in wholesome laws, sacred philosophy, and all other branches of a noble culture,' will absolutely be lost to men'. Æneas Sylvius, in a Predictions speech delivered a few months later before the assembled Sylvius. princes of Germany at Ratisbon, echoed his despairing tones. Constantinople, he declared, had been the home of learning, the citadel of philosophy, and now that she had fallen before the Infidel, the wisdom of Hellas was destined also to perish. 'Poetry and philosophy,' he exclaims, in a letter written at nearly the same time, 'seem buried. There are, I admit, not a few illustrious seats of learning among the Latin race,Rome, Paris, Bologna, Padua, Sienna, Perugia, Cologne, Vienna, Salamanca, Oxford, Pavia, Leipsic, Erfurt,—but these are all but rivulets from the fountains of the Greeks, and if you sever the stream from its source it dries up? It would be unjust to set down these exaggerated expressions as mere rhetorical outbursts, and we may fairly suppose that the writers were in ignorance at the time of how much had already been done towards averting a calamity like that which they foreboded. They both lived to see the promise of His predic a very different future. The light in Constantinople was far by the sefrom being altogether quenched, while in western Christendom the capture of the eastern capital, with its immediate. consequences, served only to lend a new impulse to the ardour of the scholar. 'It is hardly credible,' says an author of this age, writing but a few years later, 'how many of our countrymen became almost like Greeks bred in Attica and Achaia, in their capacity for comprehending the Greek literature".' At the very time moreover that the fugitives from Constantinople were hastening across the Adriatic, it is probable that the sheets of the Mazarin Bible were issuing from the press tions falsified quel. PART I. CHAP. V. of Guttenberg at Maintz; and thus, while Italy was rescuing from destruction the most valuable thought of the ancient world, Germany was devising the means for its diffusion, in lands of which Strabo never heard and to an extent of which the Sosii never dreamed. Conduct of the Greek scholars in Italy. There was now no lack of teachers of Greek, or rather of those who professed to teach the language. But, as Voigt observes, the estimation in which the scholarship of the new comers was held appears for the most part to have declined in proportion as the knowledge of their language and literature increased among those whom they aspired to teach. 'As they continued,' he says, 'to arrive in ever-increasing numbers and yet more and more in the character of mendicants, the respect with which these scions of the Homeric heroes and of the ancient Athenians were at first regarded altogether vanished. It was seen that they were totally unable to lay aside their Byzantine arrogance; that they were surly and peevish, though dependent for their very existence on charity, destitute of the ordinary comforts of life, and under the necessity of occupying themselves as teachers or of paying court to the great. Men thought they would do better if they were to endeavour to adapt themselves to the customs of their new homes, to shave their white beards, and lay Their decline aside their dull affectation of superiority. They shewed estimation. moreover a notable incapacity for acquiring either the Latin or the Italian language. Of the former, but few, and these only after long years of toil, acquired any command, while not more than three or four attained to facility and elegance of expression'. To the Latins, who acquired the Greek language with such ardour and rapidity, and so zealously betook themselves to the study of its literature, they consequently appeared as boorish and indolent men. The sluggish By in the general 1 Even the ablest among them seem to have despaired of attaining to a complete mastery of the lan. guage: Bessarion himself says:Nostris impossibile est aliquid æquali gratia atque Latini in lingua Latina scribere, quantumcumque vel Græci in Latina, vel Latini in Græca lingua profecerint. Cujus rei tum ego tum alii de nostris digni sumus testes, qui Latinam utcumque mediocriter intelligimus linguam, nil tamen, quod ornatum Latineque compositum sit,. scribere possum.' Epist. ad Lascarin, Hody, p. 177. |