[572] Petrus Crinitus deplores this contempt, De honesta disciplina, l. xviii. cap. 9. The humanists here resemble the writers in the decline of antiquity, who also severed themselves from their own age. Comp. Burckhardt, Die Zeit Constantin’s des Grossen. See for the other side several declarations of Poggio in Voigt, Wiederbelebung, p. 443 sqq.
[573] Lorenzo Valla, in the preface to the Historia Ferdinandi Regis Arag.; in opposition to him, Giacomo Zeno in the Vita Caroli Zeni, Murat. xix. p. 204. See, too, Guarino, in Rosmini, ii. 62 sqq., 177 sqq.
[574] In the letter to Pizinga, Opere Volgari, vol. xvi. p. 38. With Raph. Volaterranus, l. xxi. the intellectual world begins in the fourteenth century. He is the same writer whose early books contain so many notices—excellent for his time—of the history of all countries.
[575] Here, too, Petrarch cleared the way. See especially his critical investigation of the Austrian Charter, claiming to descend from Cæsar. Epp. Sen. xvi. 1.
[576] Like that of Giannozzo Manetti in the presence of Nicholas V., of the whole Papal court, and of a great concourse of strangers from all parts. Comp. Vespas. Fior. p. 591, and more fully in the Commentario, pp. 37-40.
[577] In fact, it was already said that Homer alone contained the whole of the arts and sciences—that he was an encyclopædia. Comp. Codri Urcei Opera, Sermo xiii. at the end. It is true that we met with a similar opinion in several ancient writers. The words of C. U. (Sermo xiii., habitus in laudem liberalium artium; Opera, ed. Ven. 1506, fol. xxxviii. b) are as follows: ‘Eia ergo bono animo esto; ego graecas litteras tibi exponam; et praecipue divinum Homerum, a quo ceu fonte perenni, ut scribit Naso, vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis. Ab Homero grammaticum dicere poteris, ab Homero rhetoricam, ab Homero medicinam, ab Homero astrologiam, ab Homero fabulas, ab Homero historias, ab Homero mores, ab Homero philosophorum dogmata, ab Homero artem militarem, ab Homero coquinariam, ab Homero architecturam, ab Homero regendarum urbium modum percipies; et in summa, quidquid boni quidquid honesti animus hominis discendi cupidus optare potest, in Homero facile poteris invenire.’ To the same effect ‘Sermo’ vii. and viii. Opera, fol. xxvi. sqq., which treat of Homer only.
[578] A cardinal under Paul II. had his cooks instructed in the Ethics of Aristotle. Comp. Gaspar. Veron. Vita Pauli II. in Muratori, iii. ii. col. 1034.
[579] For the study of Aristotle in general, a speech of Hermolaus Barbarus is specially instructive.
[580] Bursellis, Ann. Bonon. in Murat. xxiii. col. 898.
[581] Vasari, xi. pp. 189, 257. Vite di Sodoma e di Garofalo. It is not surprising that the profligate women at Rome took the most harmonious ancient names—Julia, Lucretia, Cassandra, Portia, Virginia, Penthesilea, under which they appear in Aretino. It was, perhaps, then that the Jews took the names of the great Semitic enemies of the Romans—Hannibal, Hamilcar, Hasdrubal, which even now they commonly bear in Rome. [This last assertion cannot be maintained. Neither Zunz, Namen der Juden, Leipzig, 1837, reprinted in Zunz Gesammelte Schriften, Berlin, 1876, nor Steinschneider in his collection in Il Buonarotti, ser. ii. vol. vi. 1871, pp. 196-199, speaks of any Jew of that period who bore these names, and even now, according to the enquiries of Prince Buoncompagni from Signer Tagliacapo, in charge of the Jewish archives in Rome, there are only a few who are named Asdrubale, and none Amilcare or Annibale. L. G.] Burckhardt, 352. A careful choice of names is recommended by L. B. Alberti, Della familia, opp. ii. p. 171. Maffeo Vegio (De educatione liberorum. lib. i. c. x.) warns his readers against the use of nomina indecora barbara aut nova, aut quae gentilium deorum sunt. Names like ‘Nero’ disgrace the bearer; while others such as Cicero, Brutus, Naso, Maro, can be used qualiter per se parum venusta propter tamen eximiam illorum virtutem.