125. Petrarch: On copying a Work of Cicero. 126. Benvenuto: Boccaccio's Visit to the Library at Monte Cassino. 127. Symonds: Finding of Quintilian's Institutes at Saint Gall. (a) Letter of Poggio Bracciolini on the "Find." (b) Reply of Lionardo Bruni. 128. MS.: Reproducing Books before the Days of Printing. 129. Symonds: Italian Societies for studying the Classics. 130. Vespasiano: Founding of the Medicean Library at Florence. 131. Vespasiano: Founding of the Ducal Library at Urbino. 132. Vespasiano: Founding of the Vatican Library at Rome. 133. Green: The New Learning at Oxford. 134. Green: The New Taste for Books.
QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS
1. Is it probable that Petrarch's explanation (125) of why many of the older Latin books were copied so infrequently, psalters being preferred instead, is correct?
2. How do you explain the later neglect of so valuable a library as that at Monte Cassino (126) or Saint Gall (127 a)?
3. Was Lionardo Bruni's letter to Poggio (127 b) overdrawn?
4. Was there anything unnatural about the work and customs of the Italian societies for studying the classics (129)? Compare with a modern literary or scientific society, or with the National Dante Society.
5. What does the extract from Vespasiano, telling how he got books for Cosimo de' Medici (130), indicate as to the scarcity of books in Italy toward the middle of the fifteenth century?
6. The library of the Duke of Urbino (131) was the most complete collected up to that time. List the larger classifications of the books copied, as to the lines represented in a great library of that day.
7. What does the work of Pope Nicholas V, in establishing the Vatican Library (132), indicate as to his interest in the new humanistic movement?
8. Show from the selection from Green (133) that the revival movement in England was essentially a religious revival.