[196] The latter was intended for Alfonso of Naples.
[197] Tiraboschi is the authority for these details.
[198] The more complete notices which Valla and Decembrio deserve will be given in the history of scholarship at Naples and at Milan.
[199] Of his debt to Niccolo de' Niccoli Poggio speaks with great warmth of feeling in a letter on his death addressed to Carlo Aretino: 'Quem enim patrem habui cui plus debuerim quam Nicolao? Hic mihi parens ab adolescentiâ, hic postmodum amicus, hic studiorum meorum adjutor atque hortator fuit, hic consilio, libris, opibus semper me ut filium et amicum fovit atque adjuvit.'—Poggii Opera, Basileæ, ex ædibus Henrici Petri, MDXXXVIII. p. 342. To this edition of Poggio's works my future references are made.
[200] 'Stabat impavidus, intrepidus, mortem non contemnens solum sed appetens ut alterum Catonem dixeris.'—Opp. Omnia, p. 301. This most interesting letter, addressed to Lionardo Bruni, is translated by Shepherd, Life of Poggio Bracciolini, pp. 78-88.
[201] Opera Omnia, p. 297. See Shepherd, pp. 67-76, for a translation of this letter to Niccolo de' Niccoli.
[202] Cardinal Beaufort had invited him to England.
[203] Poggi Florentini Facetiarum Libellus Unicus, Londini, 1798, vol. i. p. 282.
[204] 'Mendaciorum veluti officina' is Poggio's own explanation of the phrase.
[205] 'Ibi parcebatur nemini, in lacessendo ea quæ non probabantur a nobis.'