[400] Biogr. Univ. Buckinck, Donis.
[401] Andrès, ix. 88. Corniani, iii. 162.
[402] Andrès, 86.
[403] Id. 83.
Sect. V. 1480-1490.
Great Progress of Learning in Italy—Italian Poetry—Pulci—Metaphysical Theology—Ficinus—Picus of Mirandola—Learning in Germany—Early European Drama—Alberti and Leonardo da Vinci.
Greek printed in Italy. 74. The press of Italy was less occupied with Greek for several years than might have been expected. But the number of scholars was still not sufficient to repay the expenses of impression. The Psalter was published in Greek twice at Milan in 1481, once at Venice in 1486. Craston’s Lexicon was also once printed, and the Grammar of Lascaris several times. The first classical work the printers ventured upon, was Homer’s Battle of Frogs and Mice, published at Venice in 1486, or, according to some, at Milan in 1485; the priority of the two editions being disputed. But in 1488, under the munificent patronage of Lorenzo, and by the care of Demetrius of Crete, a complete edition of Homer issued from the press of Florence. This splendid work closes our catalogue for the present.[404]
[404] See Maittaire’s character of this edition quoted in Roscoe’s Leo X., ch. 21.
Hebrew printed. 75. The first Hebrew book, Jarchi’s commentary on the Pentateuch, had been printed by some Jews at Reggio in Calabria, as early as 1475. In this period a press was established at Soncino, where the Pentateuch was published in 1482, the greater prophets in 1486, and the whole Bible in 1488. But this was intended for themselves alone. What little instruction in Hebrew had anywhere hitherto been imparted to Christian scholars, was only oral. The commencement of Hebrew learning, properly so called, was not till about the end of the century, in the Franciscan monasteries of Tubingen and Basle. Their first teacher, however, was an Italian, by name Raimondi.[405]
[405] Eichhorn, ii. 562.