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 POGGIO

178

POITIERS

Constance, and Weingarten, he discovered Vegetius, already known by Petrarch, Festus in the abridg- ment of Paul the Deacon, Lucretius, Manilius, Silius Italicus, Ammianus MarcelKnus, the grammarians Caper, Eutyches, and Probus. It was during this journey or the next that Poggio discovered the Silvse" of Statins. In 1417 he went as far as Langres, France, where he recovered seven discourses of Cicero, three on the agrarian law, "Pro Rabirio", "Pro Roscio Comcedo", and "In Pisonem". This journey also resulted in the discovery of a manuscript of Columella. Unfortunately most of these manuscripts exist now only in copies. One in his own hand at Madrid (Bib. Nat., X, 81) contains Asconius and the first part of Valerius Flaccus. .\fter the Council of Constance Poggio accompanied Martin V to Italy and stayed with him at Mantua (1418). In 1423 he be- came his secre- tary. On his re- turn from a jour- ney to England Poggio discovered an incomplete Petronius at Co- logne and Nonius Marcellus at Paris. N i c c o 1 i admitted him to his confidence with regard to the "History" of Tacitus, of which he made a secret. He shared in the discovery of the lesser writings of Tacitus by Enoch of Ascoli, in that (if .^ulus Gellius, of Quintus Cur- tius and the last twelve works of Plautus by Nich- olas of Cusa. In 142!) he made a copy of the "De aquae ductibus" of Frontinus. In 1429 he published his dialogue on avarice, in which he attacked especially the professors of law and the Mendicant Friars.

Shortly after the death of Martin V (20 February, 431) he began to write the four books of his "De Varietate Fortunje", in the first of which he describes the ruins of Rome. Indeed it may be said that he was the first to practise archaeology systematically. He brought from Switzerland the valuable booklet of a ninth-century jiilgrim, the Anonymous Einsiedlensis, and he preceded J. B. de Rossi in studying it. He compared the ruins which he saw with the texts of writers and endeavoured to decipher the inscriptions. He collected some of his letters and in 1440 issued a dialogue on nobility. In 14.50 an outbreak of the pest sent Nicholas V to Fabriano and Poggio to his birth- place where he completed the compilation of the "Facetia;". This is a collection of witty sayings, anecdotes, quidproquos, and insolence, mingled with obscenities and impertinent jesting with religious sub- jects. In 1451 Poggio dedicated to Cardinal Prospero Colonna his "Historia disceptativa convivalis", in three books, of which the third alone is interesting. Poggio maintains against Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo that there was only one language spoken at Rome by the people and the educated classes. This question had a practical bearing for the Italians upon whom it was incumbent to create their literary language, but Poggio's sole ideal was Latin literature. Poggio him- self wrote only in Latin, into which tongue he trans- lated the history of Diodorus Siculus and the "Cyro- pjedia" of Xenophon. In June, 14.53, Poggio was summoned by the Medicis to Florence where he was

given charge of the chancery of the republic. Here he composed his last works, the dialogue "De Miseriis humauEe condicionis", a translation of Lueian's "Golden Ass", and the ten books of his history of Florence from 1350 to 1455, a work much admired by contemporaries, but written in a diffuse style, and partial. No mention has been made of his occasional writings, eulogies, discourses, invectives, but reference must be made to his numerous quarrels with other humanists, Filelfo, George of Trebizond, Tommaso Rieti, Lorenzo Valla (author of "Antidotus in Pog- gium"). In all the.se disputes Poggio showed the same fecundity of low insults and calumnies as his opponents. Poggio's works were collected at Basle (in folio, 1513). His letters were issued in a special edition by Tonelli (3 vols., 1832-61).

Shepherd, Life of Poggio BraccioHni (London, 1802) ; VoiGT, D. Wiederhelebung d. klassischen AUertums, 3rd ed.. I, 235 sq.; Stmonds, The Renaissance in Italy. 11 (London, 1875-86). 230 sq.; Sandys, A History of Classical Scholarship, I, 26, 38, 162; Sabbadini, Ciceronianismo, 20; Idem, Le scoperte dei codici UUini egrecine' secoliXIVe XV (Florence, 1905), 76; Clark, .dnecdota Oxoniensia, X (1905).

Paul Lejat.

Poggio Mirteto, Diocese of (Mandelensis), in the province of Perugia, central Italy. The city is situated on a pleasant height, by the River Sole, in a fertile region, where pot-herbs, cereals, grapes, and pastures are cultivated, and where ancient ruins of villas and of aqueducts are numerous; the villa of Terentius Varro was in this neighbourhood. Poggio Mirteto was under the jurisdiction of the Abbot of Farfa, and the present home of the bishop was the abbot's residence. The Abbey of Farfa, however, like that of San Salvatore Maggiore, passed to the Diocese of Sabina, from which the territory of the See of Poggio Mirteto was taken in 1841; the old collegiate church became the cathedral, and a seminary was established. The first bishop was Nicolo Crispigni. The diocese has 38 parishes, with 32,600 inhabitants, 2 religious houses of men, and 8 of sisters, under whose direction are the schools for girls in several communes. (See Farfa, Abbey of.)

L*. Benigni.

Fogla (tA naJ7Xa), titular see in Pamphylia secunda. Pogla is mentioned only by Ptolemy, V, 5, possibly by Hierocles, "Synecdemus", 680, 4, but the name is written Socla and it refers without doubt to another locality. Money was coined with the pagan Uioy\4ay (Head, "Historia numorum", 591). At present it is the town of Foughla, sandjak of Adaha, vilayet of Koniah. Le Quien (Oriens christianus, I, 1027) men- tions two bishops Paul, present at the Council of Chalcedon (451) and Nicephorus at the Council of Nicaea (787). The "Notitia; Episeopatuum" con- tinue to mention the see among the suffragans of Perge as late as the thirteenth century.

Radet, The Cities of Pisidia, extract from the Revue ArcfU- ologique (Paris, 1893), p. 13.

S. P£trides.

Poissy. Religious Conference of. See Dis- cussions, Religious.

Poitiers, Diocese of (Pictavensis), includes the Departments of Vienne and Deux-Sevres, and is suf- fragan of Bordeaux. The Concordat of 1802 added to tlie see besides the ancient Diocese of Poitiers a part of the Dioceses of La Rochelle and Saintes (see La Rochelle). Mgr Duchesne holds that its earliest episcopal catalogue represents the ecclesiastical tradition of Poitiers in the twelfth century. The catalogue reckons twelve predecessors of St. Hilary, among them Neetarius, Liberius, and Agon, and among his successors Sts. t^uintianus and Maxentius. Mgr Duchesne does not doubt the existence of these saints but questions whether they were bishops of Poitiers, .\ccording to him, St. Hilary (350-67 or 8) is the first bishop of whom we have historical evidence.