II. BOOK studies spread, they were found to occasion distinction as well as gratification. The higher clergy delighted in a variety of attainments,13 and abandoned their pompous ignorance to imitate in their own language the graces of Athenian elegance ;14 while the powerful laity became as desirous to found and endow universities, as they had been, in the preceding centuries, to build churches and monasteries. These academical foundations stamped a than between the latter and political economy, or astronomy or poetry, tho they may have been so united; but it was this combination at that time, in a few, which caused a great slander on Grecian literature, and for a while assisted the papal church to arrest and discredit its progress. Erasmus remarks, that it had led some from their Christianity into an admiration of Paganism. Ep. 207. But this was only one of the pictures of that mind-changing day-a part of that dissatisfaction with what was existing, often merely because it was existing, which was the mental fever of the period. Our Greek scholars have long since extinguished the imputation. Almost all things may be combined with each other without any natural affinity. So the study of Hebrew then made some like Judaism; Eras. ib. as it operated on Lord George Gordon in my youth. 13 The abbot described by Langius in 1485 is an instance of this. He was earnestly pious, but he was also activus, manualis and operosusa scriba velox et excellens. He bound as well as wrote the MSS. he copied. He was likewise ingenio acer et loquendi lepore præditus; arithmeticus, musicus, decretista, ac logi-historicus insignis. He was full of moral tales, and told them remarkably well. He left some musical compositions. Chron. Liter. p. 875. 14 Cardinal Bembo distinguished himself for his emulation, and for the polished beauty of his Italian writings. His selected friends had the same taste, and great success in their refined style. Language has no where attained a softer or sweeter tone than in the compositions of this school of verbal elegance and perfect elocution. 15 Thus one duke of Saxony founded the University of Leipsic; a successor, the friend of Luther, in emulation of his taste and reputation for it, raised another at Wittemberg. Paul. Lang. p. 854. In imitation of these, the marquis of Brandenburg about the same time built a similar one at Frankfort on Oder. Cochlæus Vit. Luth. p. 5. There were 1500 students at Wittemberg in 1503. Lang. p. 888. The emulation was as great in Spain, and many universities were erected there. Ferdinand, the son of Columbus, is an instance of the generous patronage of the great to letters. He built a magnificent edifice on the Boetis, and furnished it with a library of 25,000 books, and endowed it with an annual revenue. Metamorus de Acad. Hisp. p. 821. Hisp. Illust. v. 2. Italy equally distinguished itself in the same path. See Tirab. v. 6. c. 3. p. 75-117. 16 I. new character on the fifteenth century, and exhi- CHAP. bited its aristocracy as liberal benefactors to their contemporaries, while they ensured and provided for the largeness of that intellectual harvest which electrified their posterity. It became a luxury to study, and an honor to patronize," and even an object of princely pride to compel the residence of celebrated talent within its palace or its states." 18 16 It is gratifying to read Zopf's enumeration of the new universities established in this century. 1405. Turin. 1411. St. Andrew's. 1426. Louvain. 1460. Friburg. 17 The Medici, the Italian princes of Este and Ferrara, Francis I. Henry VIII.and many of the cardinals and prelates, became the zealous Mæcenases of their age. Galileo was appointed by the duke of Florence to teach mathematics to Cosmo II., and evinced his gratitude to the family by telling his pupil that he should call the four satellites he had discovered, the Medicea Sidera,' because, he says, those who do ' egregia ac prope divina facinora,' deserve that 'una cum astris ævo sempiterno fruerentur.' Ep. Dedic. Sider. Nunc. p. 4. So Kepler extols the archbishop of Cologne, as loving and promoting these studies, and remarks, that he had seen him mirifice delectari,' with the experiments made by his noble chamberlain with his lenses and instruments. Kepl. Diop. Dedic. p. 56. The Card. Capuanus befriended Copernicus, and induced him to publish his discoveries. Copern. Revol. Orb. Celest. The Emperor Maximilian was a great protector of science and the arts. Sextus IV. largely increased the Vatican library, made Platina its keeper, and invited Philephus to Rome, and other ingenia undique.' Tirab. 6. p. 73. Tiraboschi's second chapter is on the munificenza' of the Italian princes to letters. ib. 16–75. 18 Tasso was a severe sufferer from this effect of a meritorious ambition pushed into tyranny, of the duke of Ferrara, who put him into confinement, to deter him when he suspected that he was about to leave his court. B 4 BOOK studies spread, they were found to occasion distinc II. 13 tion as well as gratification. The higher clergy delighted in a variety of attainments, and abandoned their pompous ignorance to imitate in their own language the graces of Athenian elegance;14 while the powerful laity became as desirous to found and endow universities, as they had been, in the preceding centuries, to build churches and monasteries.15 These academical foundations stamped a than between the latter and political economy, or astronomy or poetry, tho they may have been so united; but it was this combination at that time, in a few, which caused a great slander on Grecian literature, and for a while assisted the papal church to arrest and discredit its progress. Erasmus remarks, that it had led some from their Christianity into an admiration of Paganism. Ep. 207. But this was only one of the pictures of that mind-changing day-a part of that dissatisfaction with what was existing, often merely because it was existing, which was the mental fever of the period. Our Greek scholars have long since extinguished the imputation. Almost all things may be combined with each other without any natural affinity. So the study of Hebrew then made some like Judaism; Eras. ib. as it operated on Lord George Gordon in my youth. 13 The abbot described by Langius in 1485 is an instance of this. He was earnestly pious, but he was also activus, manualis and operosus— a scriba velox et excellens. He bound as well as wrote the MSS. he copied. He was likewise ingenio acer et loquendi lepore præditus; arithmeticus, musicus, decretista, ac logi-historicus insignis. He was full of moral tales, and told them remarkably well. He left some musical compositions. Chron. Liter. p. 875. 14 Cardinal Bembo distinguished himself for his emulation, and for the polished beauty of his Italian writings. His selected friends had the same taste, and great success in their refined style. Language has no where attained a softer or sweeter tone than in the compositions of this school of verbal elegance and perfect elocution. 15 Thus one duke of Saxony founded the University of Leipsic; a successor, the friend of Luther, in emulation of his taste and reputation for it, raised another at Wittemberg. Paul. Lang. p. 854. In imitation of these, the marquis of Brandenburg about the same time built a similar one at Frankfort on Oder. Cochlæus Vit. Luth. p. 5. There were 1500 students at Wittemberg in 1503. Lang. p. 888. The emulation was as great in Spain, and many universities were erected there. Ferdinand, the son of Columbus, is an instance of the generous patronage of the great to letters. He built a magnificent edifice on the Bætis, and furnished it with a library of 25,000 books, and endowed it with an annual revenue. Metamorus de Acad. Hisp. p. 821. Hisp. Illust. v. 2. Italy equally distinguished itself in the same path. See Tirab. v. 6. c. 3. p. 75-117. 16 I. new character on the fifteenth century, and exhi- CHAP. bited its aristocracy as liberal benefactors to their contemporaries, while they ensured and provided for the largeness of that intellectual harvest which electrified their posterity. It became a luxury to study, and an honor to patronize," and even an object of princely pride to compel the residence of celebrated talent within its palace or its states." 18 16 It is gratifying to read Zopf's enumeration of the new universities established in this century. 1405. Turin. 1411. St. Andrew's. 1426. Louvain. 1460. Friburg. - 1464. Bourges. 17 The Medici, the Italian princes of Este and Ferrara, Francis I. Henry VIII.and many of the cardinals and prelates, became the zealous Mæcenases of their age. Galileo was appointed by the duke of Florence to teach mathematics to Cosmo II., and evinced his gratitude to the family by telling his pupil that he should call the four satellites he had discovered, the Medicea Sidera,' because, he says, those who do ' egregia ac prope divina facinora,' deserve that una cum astris ævo sempiterno fruerentur.' Ep. Dedic. Sider. Nunc. p. 4. So Kepler extols the archbishop of Cologne, as loving and promoting these studies, and remarks, that he had seen him mirifice delectari,' with the experiments made by his noble chamberlain with his lenses and instruments. Kepl. Diop. Dedic. p. 56. The Card. Capuanus befriended Copernicus, and induced him to publish his discoveries. Copern. Revol. Orb. Celest. The Emperor Maximilian was a great protector of science and the arts. Sextus IV. largely increased the Vatican library, made Platina its keeper, and invited Philephus to Rome, and other ingenia undique.' Tirab. 6. p. 73. Tiraboschi's second chapter is on the munificenza' of the Italian princes to letters. ib. 16-75. 18 Tasso was a severe sufferer from this effect of a meritorious ambition pushed into tyranny, of the duke of Ferrara, who put him into confinement, to deter him when he suspected that he was about to leave his court. BOOK A succession of excitements, as new circumstances emerged, impelled all who felt and thought, to new views and new paths. The unexpected discovery and astonishing effects of the art of PRINTING 19 carried reasoning and knowlege, which only wealth before could purchase, to the humblest citizen, and to the poorest cottage.20 ARCHITECTURE arose in greatness to an elegance and magnificence, which had been unknown in Europe since the invasions of Alaric and the devastations of the Lombards."1 With fraternal emulation, the finest artists of the civilized world became eager to decorate, with their beautiful and grand creations, the churches, palaces and streets of Italy, like so many intellectual magicians, making colors and outlines delightful to the cultivated taste, and eloquent to the best sensibilities of our nature; 22 and that even this branch of human 19 The monk Langius, who was nearly contemporary with the first discovery, justly exclaims, Magnum certe ac vere divinum munus!' and remarks, that as much could be printed by one man in one day, as many would take a year to write. Chron. p. 865. The bishop of Aprutinus put this thought at that time into an hexameter: Imprimit ille die, quantum non scribitur, anno, ib. Langius and Trithemias ascribe the invention to Guttemberg of Mentz. 20 So Dr. Brandt of that day observed, qui divitibus, vix regi, obvenerat olim, nunc liber in tenui cernitur esse casa.' ib. 865. Printing spread so rapidly as to be in Italy in 1465. See Tiraboschi's list of the books printed there between that year and 1497. He enumerates 69 places in that country where books were printed during those 33 years. Vol. 6. p. 433-9. Architecture partook of the spirit of the day. Lanzi remarks, The taste for magnificent edifices revived throughout Italy. Many of the finest churches, many public edifices and ducal palaces, which still remain at Milan, Mantua and Venice, in Urbino, Rimini, Pesaro, and Ferrara, were executed about this period; besides those buildings in Florence and Rome where magnificence contended with elegance.' Roscoe's Lanzi, vi. p. 104. Sextus IV. raised in Rome fabbriche sopra ogni creder magnifiche.' Tirab. 6. p. 73. 22 Lanzi correctly observes, It became necessary to ornament these buildings, and this produced that noble emulation among artists; that grand fermentation of ideas which invariably advance the progress of |