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 morey 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

Bible, most excellent book, he had done in two pictured volumes, as rich and fine as might be made, covered with gold brocade, enriched with silver; and he had this done so elegantly, as the first of all writings. And all the commentaries, those of the Master of the Sentences, of Nicholas de Lyra, and all the doctors of antiquity who have written commentaries, as well the Latins as the Greeks, and all the glossary of Nicholas de Lyra; this is a book like to which in this age no other has been made. All the writers of astronomy and their commentaries; all the works on geometry with commentaries; all the works on arithmetic; all the works on architecture, all the works De re militari, all books treating of the machines of the ancients for conquering a country, and those of the moderns, which was a very remarkable volume. Books of painting, of sculpture, of music, of canon law, and all the texts and lectures and the Summa of the bishop of Ostia, and more works in this department. Speculum innocentiæ. In medicine all the works of Avicenna, all the works of Hippocrates, of Galen, the Continente of Almansor plus quam commentum, all the works of Averroës, both on logic and on natural and moral philosophy. A book of all the ancient councils; all the works of Boetius, as well on logic as on philosophy and on music.

XXIX. All the works of the modern writers, commencing with Pope Pius. He has all the works of Petrarch, both Latin and vulgar; all the works of Dante, Latin and vulgar; all the works of Boccaccio in Latin; all the works of Messer Coluccio; all the works of Messer Lionardo d'Arezzo, both original and translations; all the works of Brother Ambrogio original and translations; all the works of Messer Gianozzo Manetti, as well originals as translations; all the works of Guerrino, original and translations; all the works of Panormita, as well in verse as in prose; all the works of Messer Francisco Filelfo, both in prose and in verse, original and translations; all the works of Perotti, translations and original; all the works of Campano, in prose and in verse; all the original works of Maffeo Vegio; all the works of Nicolò Secondino, translations and original, he who was interpreter for the Greeks and Latins at the council of the Greeks in Florence; all the works of Pontanus, original and translations; all the works of Bartolomeo Fazi, translations and original; all the works of Gasparino; all the works of Pietro Paulo Vergerio, original and translations; all the works of Messer John Argyropolus, translated, that is; the whole of the Philosophy and Logic of Aristotle, as well moral as natural, except the Politics; all the works of Messer Francisco Barbaro, translations and original; all the works of Messer Lionardo Giustiniano, both original and translations; all the works of Donato Acciaiuoli, original and translations; all the original works of Alamanno Renuccini; all the original works of Messer Cristofano da Prato Vecchio; all the works of Messer Poggio, both translations and original; all the works of Messer Giovanni Tor

tella, both original and translations; all the translations of Messer Francesco d' Arezzo, who lived at the court of King Ferrando; all the works of Lorenzo Valla, translations and original.

XXX. Having acquired all the books of every department which were to be found, written both by ancient and modern doctors, and translations as well in every branch, he desired to have all the Greek books that were to be found; all the works of Aristotle in Greek; all the works of Plato, each volume bound in the finest kid-skin; all the works of Homer in one volume, the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Batracomiomachia; all the works of Sophocles; all the works of Pindar; all the works of Menander; and as well all the poets that were to be found in the Greek tongue; all the Lives of Plutarch, in one most excellent volume; the Cosmography of Ptolemy, with illustrations, in Greek, a most excellent book; all the moral works of Plutarch, a most worthy book; all the works of Herodotus, of Pausanias, of Thucydides, of Polybius; all the works of Demosthenes and of Æschines; Plotinus the philosopher, all his works; all the commentaries that are found among the Greeks, as for example the commentaries upon Aristotle; all the works of Theophrastus, the Physica de plantis; all the Greek lexicographers, the Greek with the Latin explanation; all the works of Hippocrates and of Galen; all the works of Xenophon; part of the Bible in Greek; all the works of Saint Basil; all the works of Saint John Chrysostom; all the works of Saint Athanasius, of Saint John of Damascus; all the works of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, of Gregory of Nyssa, of Origen, of Dionysius the Areopagite, of John Climacus, of Saint Ephraem the Monk, of Æneas the Sophist; the Collations of John Cassianus, the Book of Paradise, Vita sanctorum patrum ex Ægypto; the Lives of Barlaam and Jesaphat; a Psalter in three tongues, a wonderful thing, in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, verse for verse, a most excellent book; all the books on geometry, on arithmetic, and on astronomy that are found in any language. There are numerous Greek books, by various authors, which when he was not able to get them otherwise, he sent for them, desiring that nothing should be wanting in any tongue which it was possible to acquire. There were to be seen Hebrew books, all that could be found in that language, beginning with the Bible, and all those who have commented upon it, Rabbi Moses, and other commentators. Not only are these Hebrew books the Holy Scriptures, but also on medicine, on philosophy and in all branches, all that could be acquired in that tongue.

XXXI. His Lordship having completed this worthy task at the great expense of more than 30,000 ducats, among the other excellent and praiseworthy arrangements which he made was this, that he undertook to give to each writer a title, and this he desired should be covered with crimson embellished with silver. He began, as has been noted above, with the Bible, as the foremost of all, and had it covered,