[302] Warton says 600, but this possibly included the Angervyle Library, which was united to Gloucester’s in 1480. The 129 volumes named above were valued at £1000. Possibly his collection included not a few of the 853 volumes sent over from Paris by his brother the Duke of Bedford.
[303] Carpenter’s Life has been written by Brewer, and a statue to his memory, on the pedestal of which are engraved all his munificent deeds, has been erected by the Corporation of London. A catalogue of his books is given in the Appendix to his Life.
[304] Stowe.
[305] The Saints Lives printed by Caxton are The Lyf of St. Katherin of Senis, Bradshaw’s Lyf of St. Wenefryde, and The Golden Legende, of which last he printed three editions.
[306] These he never lived to publish, but the autograph MS. of his translation from the French is preserved at Cambridge.
[307] Martene has published in his Collectanea an interesting letter addressed to Cecilia by Gregorio Corraro, an old schoolfellow of hers at the Joyous House, who then filled the office of Apostolic Notary, in which he affectionately encourages her in her vocation. Of her mother, Paula Gonzaga, we read that “she was a woman of singular virtue, the mirror of excellence to all Italy. She had a good knowledge of letters, always dressed with great modesty, and daily recited the Divine Office. It was enough to see her,” adds her biographer, Vespasiano Bisticci, “to understand what she was.”
[308] According to Echard, the dangerous tendency of his idolatry of Plato was pointed out to Ficinus by St. Antoninus, who engaged him to suspend his studies of the heathen philosopher till he had read the Summa against the Gentiles, of St. Thomas. And he was wont afterwards to acknowledge that if he had been saved from actual heresy, he owed it solely to the care of this good pastor.
[309] Some curious facts in connection with the proceedings of Pomponius and his associates have recently come to light. Among other discoveries made by the Cavaliere de Rossi in the Roman Catacombs, are certain inscriptions left there by the Academicians, who appear to have made use of these sacred excavations, which were at that time quite neglected by the literary world, as convenient places in which to hold their secret assemblies. One of the accusations brought against them by Paul II. was that they sought to make one of their own members Pontifex Maximus. In the Catacombs appear several inscriptions conferring this title on Pomponius: Regnante Pom. Pont. Max., Pomponius Pont. Max., &c.; and others, from which we gather that the unanimes antiquitatis amatores, as they called themselves, were lovers not merely of ancient names but of ancient manners; and that they saw no disgrace in thus perpetuating the dissolute habits of their members. It is remarkable that in none of their writings have any of the Academicians said one word about the Catacombs; for though they boasted of being the lovers of antiquity, it was only Pagan antiquity which they regarded worthy of their study: and the Catacombs were simply chosen by them for their convenient privacy. (See De Rossi, Roma Sutterranea, tom. i.)
[310] In his second journey into Greece, Lascaris brought back 200 manuscripts, of which eighty were, he informs us, of authors at that time unknown in Europe. The Medicean Library, however, was not destined long to survive its noble collector. On the death of Lorenzo, his son Pietro having become odious to the Florentines in consequence of his intrigues with Charles VIII. of France, was compelled to fly, the Medici Palace was sacked, and the great library fell a little later into the hands of the French soldiery and the Florentine mob, by whom its vast treasures were soon dispersed. Such portions as could be recovered, however, were afterwards deposited in St. Mark’s library.
[311] Bacon, Essay on Gardens.