[563] Annales Placentini, in Murat. xx. col. 918.
[564] E.g. Manetti. Comp. Vesp. Commentario, p. 30; so, too, Savonarola Comp. Perrens, Vie de Savonarole, i. p. 163. The shorthand writers, however, could not always follow him, or, indeed, any rapid ‘Improvisatori.’ Savonarola preached in Italian. See Pasq. Villari: Vita di Savonarola.
[565] It was by no means one of the best (Opuscula Beroaldi, Basel, 1509, fol. xviii.-xxi). The most remarkable thing in it is the flourish at the end: ‘Esto tibi ipsi archetypon et exemplar, teipsum imitare,’ etc.
[566] Letters and speeches of this kind were written by Alberto di Ripalta; comp. the Annales Placentini, written by his father Antonius and continued by himself, in Murat. xx. col. 914 sqq., where the pedant gives an instructive account of his own literary career.
[567] Pauli Jovii Dialogus de Viris Litteris Illustribus, in Tiraboschi, tom. vii. parte iv. Yet he says some ten years later, at the close of the Elogia Litteraria: ‘Tenemus adhuc (after the leadership in philology had passed to the Germans) sincerae et constantis eloquentiae munitam arcem,’ etc. The whole passage, given in German in Gregorovius, viii. 217 sqq. is important, as showing the view taken of Germany by an Italian, and is again quoted below in this connection.
[568] A special class is formed by the semi-satirical dialogues, which Collenuccio, and still more Pontano, copied from Lucian. Their example stimulated Erasmus and Hutten. For the treatises properly so-called parts of the ethical writings of Plutarch may have served as models.
[569] See below, part iv. chap. 5.
[570] Comp. the epigram of Sannazaro:
‘Dum patriam laudat, damnat dum Poggius hostem,
Nec malus est civis, nec bonus historicus.’
[571] Benedictus: Caroli VIII. Hist. in Eccard, Scriptt. vi. col. 1577.