[361] We may compare the name of Melanchthon.
[362] A native of Rotino, in Crete (b. 1470, d. at Rome 1517). He acquired Latin so thoroughly that Erasmus wrote of him: 'Latinæ linguæ usque ad miraculum doctus, quod vix ulli Græco contigit præter Theodorum Gazam et Joannem Lascarem.' John Lascaris was his master.
[363] Etymologicon Magnum, 1499. Didot, pp. 544-578, may be consulted for information about this Greek press. Musurus boasts in his encomiastic verses that the work was accomplished entirely by Cretans. ἀναλώμασι Βλαστοῶ πόνῳ καὶ δεξιότητι Καλλιέργου in the colophon.
[364] There is some discrepancy about this Antonio between Renouard and Didot.
[365] 'Sum ipse mihi optimus testis me semper habere comites, ut oportere aiunt, delphinum et anchoram; nam et dedimus multa cunctando, et damus assidue.' Preface to the Astronomici, dedicated to Duke Guidobaldo of Urbino, 1499. The observations of Erasmus on the motto deserve to be read with attention. See Didot, p. 299.
[366] See the passages from his letters and prefaces quoted and referred to on [p. 239], above, [note 2].
[367] The prospect of his visit to Milan in 1509 called forth these pretty April verses from Antiquari:—
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Aldus venit en, Aldus ecce venit! Nunc, O nunc, juvenes, ubique in urbe Flores spargite. Vere namque primo Aldus venit en, Aldus ecce venit. |
[368] See above, [p. 275], for his hatred of the βιβλιοτάφοι. He was the very opposite of Henri Estienne the younger, who closed his library against his son-in-law Casaubon.
[369] Didot, pp. 89, 299, 423.