Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/285

Rh in most countries of Europe. I will mention but three testimonies of him. The famous Lilius Giraldus says he had seen some of his pieces, which fully satisfied him that he was "Judicio sane quam acerrimo, et eruditione non vulgari." Henricus Stephanus dedicated a book to him; "and (says he) I refer the censure of a piece of poetry—Sagaciae et emunctae tuae nari, Ludovice et ." And he has this character given him by Menagius—"Ludovicus Castelvetrius in Commentariis illis suis eruditissimis et acutissimis;" and again—"Omnium optime acutissimus Castelvetrius." I am persuaded our Examiner has never read one line of this author, whom he abuses thus out of, a writer, without undervaluing him, many degrees inferior to Castelvetro. I had the fortune some years ago to meet with most of the pieces of Castelvetro and his antagonists; and I find that the sole occasion of all his troubles in Italy was a copy of verses made by in praise of the House of France: so that the very subject of it was enough to bias the judgements of Balzac and some others of that nation. These verses were dispersed over Italy and France, and received with mighty applause; and being