134 CHA P. Bessarion, though an advocate for Plato, protected LXVI. the national honour, by interposing the advice and authority of a mediator. In the gardens of the Medici, the academical doctrine was enjoyed by the polite and learned; but their philosophic society was quickly dissolved; and if the writings of the Attic sage were perused in the closet, the more powerful Stagyrite continued to reign the oracle of the church and school. Emulation and progress tins. I have fairly represented the literary merits of the Greeks; yet it must be confessed that they of the La- were seconded and surpassed by the ardour of the Latins. Italy was divided into many independent states; and at that time, it was the ambition of princes and republics to vie with each other in the encouragement and reward of literature. The fame of Nicholas the Fifth † has not been adequate to his merits. From a plebeian origin, he raised himself by his virtue and learning: the character of the man prevailed over the interest of the Pope; and he sharpened those weapons which were soon pointed against the Roman church. He had been the Nicholas V. A. D. 1447 1455. The state of the Platonic philosophy in Italy, is illustrated by Boivin (Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. ii. P. 715-729.), and Tiraboschi (tom. vi. p. i. p. 259-288.). + See the Life of Nicholas V. by two contemporary authors, Janottus Manettus (tom. iii. p. ii. p. 905-962.), and Vespasian of Florence (tom. xxv. p. 267-290.), in the collection of Muratori; and consult Tiraboschi (tom. vi. p. i. p. 46-52. 109.), and Hody in the articles of Theodore Gaza, George of Trebizond, &c. Lord Bolingbroke observes, with truth and spirit, that the Popes, in this instance, were worse politicians than the muftis, and that the charm which has bound mankind for so many ages, was broken by the magicians themselves, (Letters on the Study of History, 1. vi. p. 165. 166. octavo edition, LXVI. the friend of the most eminent scholars of the age; CHAP. he became their patron; and such was the humility of his manners, that the change was scarcely discernible either to them or to himself. If he pressed the acceptance of a liberal gift, it was not as the measure of desert, but as the proof of benevolence; and when modest merit declined his bounty," Accept it," would he say with a consciousness of his own worth; "you will not al66 ways have a Nicholas among ye." The influence of the holy see pervaded Christendom; and he exerted that influence in the search, not of benefices, but of books. From the ruins of the Byzantine libraries, from the darkest monasteries of Germany and Britain, he collected the dusty manuscripts of the writers of antiquity; and whereever the original could not be removed, a faithful copy was transcribed and transmitted for his use. The Vatican, the old repository for bulls and legends, for superstition and forgery, was daily replenished with more precious furniture; and such was the industry of Nicholas, that in a reign of eight years, he formed a library of five thousand volumes. To his munificence the Latin world was indebted for the versions of Xenophon, Diodorus, Polybius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Appian; of Strabo's Geography, of the Iliad, of the most valuable works of Plato and Aristotle, of Ptolemy and Theophrastus, and of the fathers of the Greek church. The example of the Roman Cosmo Pontiff was preceded or imitated by a Florentine merchant, who governed the republic without arms Medicis. and Lo renzo of CHAP. LXVI. 1428 1492. 1 and without a title. Cosmo of Medicis * was a father of a line of princes, whose name and age are A. D. almost synonymous with the restoration of learning; his credit was ennobled into fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of mankind; he corresponded at once with Cairo and London; and a cargo of Indian spices and Greek books was often imported in the same vessel. The genius and education of his grandson Lorenzo rendered him, not only a patron, but a judge and candidate, in the literary race. In his palace, distress was entitled to relief, and merit to reward; his leisure-hours were delightfully spent in the Platonic academy; he encouraged the emulation of Demetrius Chalcondyles and Angelo Politian; and his active missionary, Janus Lascaris, returned from the East with a treasure of two hundred manuscripts, fourscore of which were as yet unknown in the libraries of Europe t. The rest of Italy was animated by a similar spirit, and the progress of the nation repaid the liberality of her princes. The Latins held the exclusive property of their own literature; and these disciples of Greece were soon * See the literary history of Cosmo and Lorenzo of Medicis, in Tiraboschi, (tom. vi. p. i. l.i. c. 2.), who bestows a due measure of praise on Alphonso of Arragon, King of Naples. the Dukes of Milan, Ferrara, Urbino, &c. The republic of Venice has deserved the least from the gratitude of scholars. Tiraboschi, (tom. vi. p. i. p. 104.), from the preface of Janus Lascaris to the Greek Anthology, printed at Florence, 1494. Latebant (says Aldus in his preface to the Greek Orators, apud Hodium, p. 249.), in Atho Thraciæ monte. Eas Lascaris. . . . in Italiam reportavit. Miserat enim ipsum Laurentius ille Medices in Græciam ad inquirendos simul, et quantovis emendos pretio bonos libros. It is remarkable enough, that the research was facilitated by Sultan Bajazet II. LXVI. soon capable of transmitting and improving the les- CHAP. sons which they had imbibed. After a short succession of foreign teachers, the tide of emigration subsided; but the language of Constantinople was spread beyond the Alps; and the natives of France, Germany, and England*, imparted to their country the sacred fire which they had schools of Florence and Rome t. kindled in the In the producsoil, the gifts of tions of the mind, as in those of the tuate The Greek language was introduced into the university of Oxford in the last years of the 15th century, by Grocyn, Linacer, and Latimer, who had all studied at Florence under Demetrius Chalcondyles. See Dr Knight's curious Life of Erasmus. Although a stout academical patriot, he is forced to acknowledge, that Erasmus learned Greek at Oxford, and taught it at Cambridge. + The jealous Italians were desirous of keeping a monopoly of Greek learning. When Aldus was about to publish the Greek scholiasts on Sophocles and Euripides, Cave, (say they), cave hoc facias, ne Barbari istis adjuti domi maneant, et pauciores in Italiam ventitent, (Dr Knight, in his Life of Erasmus, p. 365. from Beatus Rhenanus.). LXVI. CHAP. tuate and multiply the works of antiquity*. A single manuscript imported from Greece is revived in ten thousand copies; and each copy is fairer than the original. In this form, Homer and Plato would peruse with more satisfaction their own writings; and their scholiasts must resign the prize to the labours of our western editors. Use and abuse of ancient Before the revival of classic literature, the barbarians in Europe were immersed in ignorance; learning and their vulgar tongues were marked with the rudeness and poverty of their manners. The students of the more perfect idioms of Rome and Greece, were introduced to a new world of light and science; to the society of the free and polished nations of antiquity; and to a familiar converse with those immortal men who spoke the sublime language of eloquence and reason. Such an intercourse must tend to refine the taste, and to elevate the genius, of the moderns; and yet, from the first experiments, it might appear that the study of the ancients had given fetters, rather than wings, to the human mind. However laudable, the spirit of imi tation * The press of Aldus Maputus, a Roman, was established at Venice about the year 1494. He printed above sixty considerable works of Greek literature, almost all for the first time; several containing different treatises and authors, and of several authors, two, three, or four editions, (Fabric. Bibliot, Græc. tom. xiii. p. 605, &c.). Yet his glory must not tempt us to forget, that the first Greek book, the Grammar of Constantine Lascaris, was printed at Milan in 1476; and that the Florence Homer of 1488 displays all the luxury of the typographical art. See the Annales Typographici of Mattaire, and the Bibliographic Instructive of de Bure, a knowing bookseller of Paris. |