Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/94

 earliest fact in Crichton's Italian tour attested by contemporary evidence. He addressed the senate of Genoa in a Latin speech, which was published with a dedication to the doge Johannes Baptista Gentilis. Crichton was well received, but early in the following year left for Venice. At Venice he introduced himself to the scholar and printer, Aldus Manutius (grandson of the founder of the Aldine press), and presented him with a poem in Latin hexameters (‘In Appulsu ad Vrbem Venetam’), which was printed in a thin quarto at the press of the brothers Guerra of Venice in 1580. Aldus was impressed by Crichton's many accomplishments, praised him extravagantly, and gave him the opportunity of pronouncing an oration before the doge and senate. Public and private debates with professors in theology, philosophy, and mathematics were arranged for the young Scotsman, who was only worsted by the scholar Mazzoni, whom he met at a private dinner given him by some Venetian noblemen. Latin odes and verses came freely from his pen, and a handbill was issued in 1580 by the brothers Guerra describing his handsome appearance, his skill as a swordsman, and his marvellous intellectual attainments. An identical account of Crichton's exploits was avowedly written and published by Aldus in the form of a tract in 1581, and again in 1582. Hence the handbill, which is an authority of the first importance in Crichton's career, doubtless came from the same pen. In the earlier edition the tract was entitled ‘Relatione della Qvalita Di Jacomo di Crettone Fatta da Aldo Manvtio. All' Illustrissimo & eccellentissimo S. Jacomo Boncompagno Duca di Sora & Gouer. Gen. di S. Ct. In Vinegia Appresso Aldo.’ The second edition is entitled ‘Relatione Fatta da Aldo Manucci Al Duca di Sora Adi x Ottobre 1581 Sopra le ammirabili qvalita del Nobilissimo Giouane Scozzese Iacomo Di Crettone … In Venetia  Presso Aldo.’ According to the statement printed there, Crichton readily disputed the doctrines of the Thomists and Scotists with Padre Fiamma ‘e con molti altri valorosi prelati’ in the presence of Cardinal Ludovico d'Este, discussed the procession of the Holy Ghost in the house of the Patriarch of Aquileia, and retired to a villa on the Brenta to prepare himself for a three days' public debate in the Chiesa San Giovanni e Paolo at Pentecost, 1581. In the course of 1581 Crichton, whose health was failing, left Venice for Padua with an introduction to Cornelius Aloisi, an eminent patron of letters. Cornelius received Crichton handsomely. The youth eulogised the city in public orations, and disputed with the university professors on their interpretation of Aristotle and in mathematics. Conferences took place almost daily, but the arrangements for a public disputation at the palace of the bishop of Padua fell through, and the misadventure led to the publication of a pasquinade, in which Crichton was denounced as a charlatan. To this Crichton replied with an elaborate challenge to the university, offering to confute the academic interpretation of Aristotle, to expose the professors' errors in mathematics, and to discuss any subject proposed to him. He would employ, he announced, ordinary logical rules, or mathematical demonstration, or extemporaneous Latin verse, according to the nature of the question under discussion. The challenge was accepted, the disputation lasted four days, and Crichton achieved complete success. The incident is fully described by Aldus Manutius in his dedication to Crichton of his edition of Cicero's ‘Paradoxa’ dated June 1581.

According to Urquhart's story, accepted by Tytler, Crichton's latest biographer, Crichton removed to Mantua (1582), and won his first laurels there by killing in a duel a far-famed swordsman. The Duke of Mantua thereupon employed him as tutor and companion to his son, Vincenzo di Gonzaga, a youth of ungovernable temper. At the Mantuan court Crichton is said by Urquhart to have composed a satiric comedy in which he acted the chief parts. Shortly afterwards, while paying a visit to a mistress, he was attacked by a band of midnight brawlers. He drew his sword upon their leader, and at once recognised in him his pupil Vincenzo. Kneeling down, Crichton presented the handle of his sword to the prince, who snatched it from him and plunged the point into his heart. Aldus Manutius dedicated ‘memoriæ Iacobi Critonii’ his edition of Cicero's ‘De Universitate’ (1583). He here lamented Crichton's sudden death, which took place, according to his account, on 3 July 1583, when the young man was barely two-and-twenty. He enlarges on his grief in a dedication of Cicero's Aratus addressed in November 1583 to a common friend, Stanislaus Niegossewski, a Pole. But Aldus gives no details of the occurrence in either passage, and makes no mention of Crichton's visit to Mantua, nor of his connection with the ducal family of Gonzaga.

That Crichton met with a tragic end at Mantua was generally accepted by the earliest writers about him. In 1601 Thomas Wrighte (Passions of the Minde) tells what seems to be the same story as Urquhart's without giving names. As early as 1603 John Johnston wrote of Crichton in his ‘Heroes Scoti,’ p. 41, that ‘Mantuæ a Ducis Mantuani filio ex