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 HUMANISM

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HUMANISM

his " Africa " with the " ^neid " of Virgil, but posterity prefers his sweet, melodious sonnets and canznni. His chief merit was the impulse he gave to the search for the lost treasures of classical antiquity. His chief disciple and friend, Boccaccio (1313-75), was honoured in his lifetime not for his erotic and lewd, though ele- gant and clever, "Decameron" (by which, however, pos- terity remembers him), but for his Latin works which helped to spread Humanism. The classical studies of Petrarch and Boccaccio were shared by Coluccio Salu- tato (d. 1406), the Florentine chancellor. By intro- ducing the epistolary style of the ancients he brought classical wisdom into the service of the State, and by his tastes and his prominence greatly promoted the cause of literature.

The men of the revival were soon followed by a generation of itinerant teachers and their scholars. Grammarians and rhetoricians journeyed from city to city, and spread the enthusiasm for antiquity to ever- widening circles; students travelled from place to place to become acquainted with the niceties of an author's style and his interpretation. Petrarch lived to see Giovanni di Conversino set out on his journey as itinerant professor. From Ravenna came Giovanni Malpaphini, gifted with a marvellous memory ani^l a burning zeal for the new studies, though more skilled in imparting inherited and acquired knowledge than in the elaboration of original thought. In another way the soul of literary research was Poggio (13S0-1459), a papal secretary and later Florentine chancellor. During the sessions of the Council of Constance (1414- 18) he ransacked the monasteries and institutions of the neighbourhood, made valuable discoveries, and "saved many works" from the "cells" {ergasluln). He found and transcribed Quintilian with his own hand, had the first copies made of Lucretius, Silius Italicus, and Ammianus Marcellinus, and, proliably, he discovered the first books of the " Annals ' of Tacitus. About 1430 practically all the Latin works now known had been collected, and scholars could devote them- selves to the revision of the text. But the real source of classic beauty was Greek literature. Italians had already gone to Greece to study the language, and since 1396 Manuel Chrysoloras, the first teacher of Greek in the West, was busily engaged at Florence and elsewhere. His example was followed by others. In Greece also, a zealous search was instituted for literary remains, and in 1423 Aurispa brought two hundred and thirty-eight volumes to Italy. The most dili- gent collector of inscriptions, coins, gems, and medals was the merchant Ciriaco of Ancona. Among those present from Greece at the Council of Florence were Archbishop (afterwards Cardinal) Bessarion, who

C resented to Venice his valuable collection of nine undred volumes, also Gemistos Plethon, the cele- brated teacher of Platonic philosophy, who subse- quently relapsed into paganism. The capture of Constantinople by the Turks (1453) drove the learned Greeks, George of Trebizond, Theodoras Gaza, Con- stantine Lascaris, etc., into Italy. One of the most successful critics and editors of the classics was Lor- enzo Valla (1407-57). He pointed out the defects in the Vulgate, and declared the Donation of Constantine a fable. Despite his vehement attacks on the papacy, Nicholas V brought him to Rome. Within a short period, the new studies claimed a still wider circle of votaries.

The princely houses were generous in their support of the movement. Under the Medici, Cosimo (1429- 64) and Lorenzo the Magnificent (1469-92), Florence was pre-eminently the seat of the new learning. Its worthy statesman Mannetti, a man of great culture, piety, and purity, was an excellent Greek and Latin scholar, and a brilliant orator. The Camaldolese monk Ambrogio Traversari was also a profound scholar, especially versed in Greek; he possessed a magnificent collection of the Greek authors, and was

one of the first monks of modern times to learn He- brew. Marsuppini (Carlo Aretino), renowned and be- loved as professor and municipal chancellor, quoted from the Latin and Greek authors with such facility that his readiness was a source of wonder, even to an age sated with constant citation. Although in mat- ters of religion Marsuppini was a notorious heathen, Nicholas V sought to attract him to Rome to translate Homer. Among his contemporaries, Leonardo Bruni, a pupil of Chrysoloras, enjoyed great fame as a Greek scholar and a unique reputation for his political and literary activity. He was, moreover, the author of a history of Florence. Niccolo Niccoli was also a citi- zen of Florence ; a patron of learning, he assisted and instructed young men, dispatched agents to collect ancient manuscripts and remains, and amassed a col- lection of eight hundred codices (valued at six thou- sand gold gulden), which on his death were, through the mediation of Cosimo, donated to the monastery of San Marco, to form a public library, and are to-day one of the most valued possessions of the Laurentiana Library at Florence. The aforesaid Poggio, a versatile and influential writer, also resided for a long time at Florence, published a history of that city, and ridi- culed the clergy and nobility in his witty, libellous "Facetiae". He was distinguished for his extensive classical learning, translated some of the Greek au- thors (e. g. Lucian, Diodorus Siculus, Xenophon), appended scholarly and clever notes, collected inscrip- tions, busts, and medals, and wrote a valuable descrip- tion of the ruins of Rome. His success in seeking and unearthing manuscripts has already been mentioned. Plethon, also mentioned above, taught Platonic phi- losophy at Florence.

Bessarion was another panegyrist of Plato, who now began to displace Aristotle; this, together with the influx of Greek scholars, led to the foundation of the Platonic academy which included among its mem- bers all the more prominent citizens. Marsilio Ficino (d. 1499), a Platonic philosopher in the full sense of the term, was one of its members, and by his works and letters exerted an extraordinary influence on his contemporaries. Along with his other literary la- bours he undertook the gigantic task of translating the writings of Plato into elegant Latin, and accom- plished it successfully. Cristoforo Landino, a pupil of Marsuppini, without sharing his religious ideas, taught rhetoric and poetry at Florence and was also a statesman. His commentary on Dante, in which he gives the most detailed explanation of the allegorical meaning of the great poet, is of lasting value. Under Lorenzo de' Medici, the most important man of letters in Florence was Angelo Poliziano (d. 1494), first the tutor of the Medici princes and subsequently a pro- fessor and a versatile writer. He was pre-eminently a philologist, and gave scholarly translations and com- mentaries on the classical authors, devoting special attention to Homer and Horace. He was, however, surpassed by the youthful and celebrated Count Pico della Mirandola (1462-94), who, to use Poliziano's phrase, " was eloquent and virtuous, a hero rather than a man". He noticed the relations between Hellen- ism and Judaism, studied the Cabbala, combated astrology, and composed an immortal work on the dignity of man. An active literary movement was also fostered liy the Visconti and the Sforza in Milan, where the vain and unprincipled Filelfo (1:398-1481) resided ; by the Gonzaga in Mantua, where the noble Vittorino da Feltre (d. 1446) conducted his excellent school: by the kings of Naples; by the Este in Fer- rara, who enjoyed the services of Guarino, after Vit- torino the most celebrated educationist of Italian Humanism; by Duke Federigo of Urbino, and even by the profligate Malatesta in Rimini. Human- ism was also favoured by the popes. Nicholas V (1447-55) sought by the erection of buildings and the collection of books to restore the glory of Rome. The