Page:Cracow - Lepszy.djvu/138

MODERN TIMES from Rome, Philip Callimachus Buonacorsi. He educated the young princes; when, later on, they ascended the throne, he became their favourite adviser. Some German scholars also resorted to Cracow: Thomas Murner, the Bavarian historiographer, John Aventinus, John Virdany, mathematician, Henry Bebelius, and others. Conrad Celtes, the laureate herald of humanism, lectured in the University of Cracow in 1489, and founded the Societas Vistulana; this was joined by the Silesians, John Sommerfeld and Laurence Corvinus, by Ursinus, a zealous champion of the new ideas, by Valentine Eckius of Switzerland; also by two Englishmen, Coxus and Licorianus. The house of the learned Rudolph Agricola the Younger became a centre of culture where the votaries of humanism met to hear his lectures, reading out their own works and debating. Public oratorical contests became exceedingly popular, in fact an everyday practice, and had a great influence on literature. During the two short reigns of John Albert (1492-1501) and Alexander (1501-1506) the current of humanism grows continually stronger. Besides the works of art, of which we shall speak presently, this is manifested in classical Latin constantly gaining ground and becoming not only the language of literature, but also of general intercourse. In the long reigns of King Sigismund the Old (1506-1548), and of his son, Sigismund Augustus (