Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/35

* RENAISSANCE. 21 RENAISSANCE. immediate followers. (iiovaiini Boceiiecio is known to posterity eliielly tluoii<,'li liis Italian prose tales, bnt his own speeial pride was in the serviee he rendered to elassieal learning by his laborious eneyelopa'die works — the llenculutjij of the llodn, a dictionary of mythology, and his Dictionuri/ of Classical (Icor/raphij. These books served as a groundwork of classical studies for the youth of two centuries to come. Boccaccio died as professor of the Divine Coiiirili/ at the University of Florence, another illustration of the equality of the modern and ancient litera- tures in the estimation of IJcnaissance Italy. Petrarca applied to learning for the first time what We have learned to call the 'collector's instinct.' Much of the classic literature was already known, but until Petrarca no one had thought of searching for more. Through his widely extended personal relations in all the countries of Europe he was able to employ will- ing hands to bring the long-forgotten manuscripts out of their hiding-places, to have them sent to him, |)rocure copies of them, compare these with the originals, and thus learn wherein they needed correction. Many indications in already known writings pointed to others not yet dis- covered, and thus made possible intelligent search after these lost treasures. All this work w'as carried on by Petrarca and his contemporaries with the fresh enthusiasm that belongs only to an interest freed from any professional quality, but it soon became the serious pursuit of men who gave their lives to it. and thus laid the foundations for a new profession, unknown to the Middle Ages, the profession of the scholar, pure and simple. These men were devoted to learning for its own sake, and ready to leave to others the application to practical things. The same instinct of discovery appears also in the field of arclueology. The Middle Ages had pitilessly despoiled the remains of ancient buildings to gajn material for their own con- structions, and had destroyed witliout scruple the choicest works of antique sculpture. Now, following the indications of what remained above ground, Petrarca and his followers began to seek for what was hidden. They gave the first feeble impulse to the va.st activities of modern research. To them we owe the beginnings of both the libraries and the museums of modern Kurope. In the generation following Petrarca the influ- ence of the new learning makes itself widely felt in many forms of activity. Men whose early training had been chiefly as scholars came to be sought for services of every kind. Coluceio Salu- tato, one of Petrarca's most ardent admirers and imitators, spent his life as secretary of the Republic of Florence, at a time when the little State was involved in the most complicated rela- tions with all the powers of Europe. It was his duty to write the ehaborate Latin essays which were then the chief medium of diplomacy, and his fame rests upon the elegance and purity of this imitated classicism. Poggio Braeciolini filled for life a similar place in the Papal chan- cery, and was no less approved and applauded because his caustic humor reveled in ribald obscenities. Niccolo Niccoli was the business centre of the Florentine group of scholars, the earliest type of the modern book-collector and publisher. Ambrogio Traversari. general of the Order of Camaldoli. devoted much time to studying and editing the works of the ancients. Francesco I'ilelfo was the earliest specimen of the haughty pedant, learned beyond others in all the detail of scholarship, but with- out the creative power that had marked the pion- eers. He touched the schoolmasterly stage of the Revival when the work of discovery had largely been done, and when the chief distinction of the scholar was to be gained by a kind of technical skill quite independent of any largeness of mental equipment. It is at this stage that we begin to see tho results of the great expansion of interest due to the stnily of iireek. Petrarca had deeplv felt the importance of this study, and had bemoaned his incapacity to engage in it. flrcck was still a living tongue in parts of Southern Italy, and conununication with the East was fre- quent enough, but Boccaccio, who seems really to have made the ell'ort, foind it impossible to procure suitable instruction. The men of the next generation, however, set themselves more earnestly to wmk; Greek teachers began t(j hear of the golden opportunities in the rich Italian towns, and Italian youths sought instruction at the ancient school of Athens. The earliest and most influential of these Greek teachers was Manuel Chrysoloras, a man of distinction in the public service at Constantinople, brought over to Italy by his duties in this capacity, and then employed as teacher of Greek at Florence, He died on his way to attend the Council of Con- stance in 1415. Another Greek of later influ- ence was John Argyropulos (died c.USO). who was successively rector of Padua and professor at Florence and finally at Rome. Of Italians who illustrated the highest application of ancient culture to the development both of Italian litera- ture and the perfection of classic learning, we may mention Guarino {d.l4<iO). Poliziano (d.l494), and Lorenzo de' Medici (d.l4!)2). The inherent charm of the Greek language and litera- ture worked at once upon the highly sensitive Italian mind, revealing a new world of beauty and of meaning. Circumstances favored a rapid spread of the new culture. The Italian cities, grown rich under democracy, but having tired somewhat of its responsibilities, had been passing into the control of that extraordinarv series of des- potic rulers who united with a brutal un- scrupulousness of character a taste for the best in literature and art without a parallel. It was one of the chief claims to |)nwer for a new-made tyrant like Cosimo de' M<'dici that he provided the means of existence for talent of every sort. Even the bloody ruffians who. one after another, held power in Milan, made .places for scholars and artists, maintained libraries, and encouraged learned research. The ancient universities of Bologna. Padua, and Salerno were reinvigorated by tile healthful breath of the new learning and stimulated by the rivalry of the new schools foimded by tlie younger republics. Tlie Papacy, with a free hand after the Council of Basel (14.31-49). passed into the control of a series of men like Nicholas V.. Pius II.. and Leo X., in whom the interest in learning and art was an absorbing passion. Tn fact, learning, under the Italian humanistic impulse, may be said to have taken on the form of a fine art and thus to have concealed much of its serious import, I'nder all these favoring conditions it is not strange that a certain flippancy of character