Notwithstanding this general enthusiasm for the amenities of literature, great attention was bestowed upon the more arid study of languages. Already the Latin muse had come to dwell again beneath the beautiful sky of Ausonia; and the humanists, fleeing from the savage fury of the triumphant Ottomans, sang, in the gardens of Florence and on the banks of the Tiber, the fall of Troy and the adventures of Ulysses. Leo X. was not only a Latin scholar, he was also a refined hellenist. Moreover, he knew what vast treasures of patristic lore are contained in the Greek fathers, and hence, as a lover of sacred and profane literature, he lavished his treasures on the revival of that beautiful tongue. A little colony, fresh from the Morea, was installed in a magnificent mansion on the Esquilian hill, and a Greek seminary was opened to impart to the Italians the true pronunciation and the very genius of the Homeric idiom. The famous Lascaris, at the invitation of Leo X., relinquished his position at the French court, in order to direct the studies of his young countrymen and superintend the editions of the Greek classics that were issued from the Roman press. The Hebrew was taught at Rome by Guidacerio, who published a grammar of that language and dedicated it to Leo X.; the Syriac and Chaldaic were taught at Bologna by Ambrozio, a regular canon of the Lateran, who at fifteen could converse in Greek and Latin with as much ease and fluency as any of his contemporaries, and who subsequently mastered eighteen languages. A useful and authentic lexicon was first given to the learned world by Varino. A new Latin version of the Bible from the Hebrew having been announced by Pagnini, Leo X. requested an interview with the author, and was so well pleased with his competency as well as with the elegance and accuracy of the work, that he defrayed all the expenses of transcription and publication. Erasmus, who corresponded with Leo, and, more than any one else, knew his great desire to promote biblical studies, inscribed to him his New Testament in Greek and Latin with corrections and annotations. Giustiniani commenced, in 1516, a new edition of the Bible in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldaic. If to this we add that the famous Cardinal Ximenes dedicated to Leo X. his herculean work, the Complutensian Polyglot, we shall have some idea of the efforts made in the beginning of the sixteenth century toward the promotion of scriptural and philological studies. [Footnote 178]
[Footnote 178: It may here be remarked, in passing, that, before the Reformation, the Bible was translated into not only the classic and oriental languages, but also the vernacular of every nation of Europe. For particulars, see Cantu, Histoire Universelle, vol. xv. p. 12.]
It has been said that a genuine love of literature invariably evinces its existence by an insatiable thirst for books, "those souls of ages past." This love Leo X. possessed to an eminent degree; he was a second Nicholas V. At his request and under his patronage, sterling bibliophiles set out from Rome to overrun the world in quest of manuscripts. The monasteries of Britain and Germany and the ruins of the Byzantine libraries were diligently searched; ample pecuniary remuneration was everywhere offered for unpublished works; and as kings and princes encouraged this hunt after books, it may easily be fancied that volumes teemed in from every quarter. The Vatican was made the recipient of these literary treasures; and, thanks to the zeal of the popes, it now possesses the most valuable collection of manuscripts in the world.
Leo X. was not only a man of letters, he was also well versed in antiquities. Prior to his elevation to the pontificate, his greatest delight was to shut himself up in his library or museum, and there pore over his hoarded treasures. This antiquarian taste he inherited from his illustrious ancestors, whose collections were famous throughout all Italy. One day, while he was yet a cardinal, a statue of Lucretia was exhumed; his joy was supreme, and in the heat of his enthusiasm, he strung his lyre and commemorated the happy event in beautiful iambics. On another occasion, a piece of sculpture, representing the ship of AEsculapius, was, owing to his exertions, discovered in the Tiber. This was considered by his omen-liking friends as an augury of his future dignity. The discovery of the famous group known as the Laocoön was an epoch in Rome. That evening, the bells were rung to announce the event; the poets, among whom was Sadoleti, lucubrated all night, preparing their hymns, sonnets, and canzoni, to welcome the reappearance of the masterpiece. Next morning, all Rome was on foot, and the public works were suspended while the antique statue, festooned with flowers and verdure, was carried processionally to the capitol, amidst the sound of vocal and instrumental harmony. Such was the joy of the Roman artists on the discovery of a relic of ancient art.
The twin arts painting and sculpture shared largely in the munificence of the pontiff. Bramarte, Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci, the princes of modern art, were the worthy emulators of Phidias and Apelles. In immortalizing their names and that of their patron, they immortalized their age and their country. At their call, genius again returned to earth, and exhibited, in the chiselled marble and on the glowing canvas, such animated representations as filled the eye with wonder and stirred the deep foundations of the heart. Bramarte planned and commenced St. Peter's, which, in the estimation of the sceptic Gibbon, is the most glorious structure that has ever been applied to religion; for
"Majesty,
Power, glory, strength, and beauty, all are aisled
In the eternal ark of worship undefiled."
Michael Angelo, whose very fragments have educated eminent artists, continuing the noble structure, placed the pride of Roman architecture in the clouds, and drew the design of the Last Judgment, which connoisseurs pronounce a miracle of genius. Raphael covered the Vatican with his inimitable frescoes and sketched his Transfiguration, which was hailed by the Roman people as the type of the beautiful, a paragon of art, and the masterpiece of painting. The profound Da Vinci painted the Last Supper and thus afforded Christian families a neat ornament for their refectories and a piece of artistic finish for their drawing-rooms. Sansovino's productions, according to the historian of the arts, were among the finest specimens of the plastic art, and Romano's were worthy of his "divine" master.
Such was the flourishing state of the arts and the great impulse given to all branches of learning just before the memorable epoch when the fetters of the human intellect were, forsooth, burst asunder by the great Saxon hero, the unfrocked monk of Wittemberg, against whom Leo X. hurled the bolt of excommunication. If this grand impetus was not followed up, if the pen was forgotten for the sword, and the altars of Apollo were deserted for those of the homicide Mars; if the era of the reformation "was truly a barbarous era," [Footnote 179] it most certainly was not owing to incapacity on the part of the Roman pontiffs, since sectarians themselves proclaim them "in general superior to the age in which they lived," [Footnote 180] while historians of the depth of Neander are struck with admiration to find the popes "ever attentive to the moral and religious wants of their people;" [Footnote 181] but it must be attributed to the immediate effects of the so-called Reformation, that spirit of blind fanaticism which was equalled only by the wholesale brigandage and all-destroying vandalism of the sainted evangelicals.
[Footnote 179: Schlegel, Philosophy of History.]