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12 were the pioneers who at a difficult period "bridged over the transition stage between two epochs of art," and their place in literature is not a mean one.

There were two distinct groups of writers belonging to the period. First, there were the writers of the court, "heedless, concerning themselves but little with religion, and busying themselves more with a good dinner, or with a well turned madrigal, than with the problem of human destiny." The second group was made up of the philosophical spirits of deep learning, men who lived obscurely in the silence of the libraries, a small circle of critical thinkers, "the last of the