Conscious integrity, however, ere long, armed him with a dignified confidence, but he never spoke without indignation of the great man above alluded to, who after raising his hopes to the highest pitch, smiled, and smiled, and smiled, and deserted him.
Of his talents and attainments, it is necessary to say but little. The productions of his pen again and again appeared before the public, on various occasions, and in a great multitude of shapes. Most of his works were received with respect, and many are still popular. Some unfinished things remained among his papers, and there are a few scattered memoranda in our Recollections, from which it appears that he had others in contemplation.
To specify some of these can do no harm, and may perhaps be the means of inducing others to exercise their leisure on the different subjects.
He had commenced and prosecuted to some extent, an elaborate Essay on the Revival of Learning, which he purposed to enliven by a variety of literary anecdotes, illustrative of an æra so greatly, and so honourably distinguished. He had also prepared biographical sketches of the most eminent and learned of those Greeks, who, when Constantinople was taken and plundered by the Turks, under Mahomet II. in 1453, took refuge in Italy, and found a secure and hospitable asylum in the protection of the illustrious house of Medici, at Florence.
The principal names of these accomplished exiles, with very learned and interesting details concerning them, may be found in Hodius de illustribus Græcis, a work not so well known as it deserves.
The Sexagenarian had also collected many curious particulars concerning the celebrated Florentine library, the foundation of which was laid by the learned Greeks above alluded to, who were sent back to their country, by the magnificent Lorenzo, to rescue from barbarian hands, the literary treasures, which they had been compelled to forsake. One anecdote occurs among the memoranda, relating to this library, which seems to merit insertion, and is detailed in the following words in the Recollections, but without reference to the authority from whence it was taken.
On the expulsion of the house of Medici from Florence, that city was occupied by the troops of Charles the VIIIth. and the library, with the possessions of the illustrious owners, fell into the hands of the French. The King of England at that time, Henry VIII., employed emissaries to purchase of the French officers and soldiers, as many books and manuscripts as they could possibly obtain. Whether before or after their arrival in this country, has not been ascertained, but Catherine of Medicis had the artifice and address to procure their restoration, on the pretence of their being the property of her family; this portion, therefore, whatever it might have been, now forms part of the royal library at Paris.
The residue of this splendid library remained at Florence, till the popularity of Cardinal John de Medicis, afterwards Pope Leo X. seemed to open to him a reasonable prospect of succeeding to the papal throne. At this juncture, Soderini was Dictator of Florence, who, anxious to remove from the Cardinal every remaining temptation to revisit Florence, collected what was yet left of the library, and dispatched the whole to him at Rome, as a present, conceiving himself thus to have performed an act of great political sagacity. Thus, therefore, the contents of this magnificent repository of literary treasure was divided, and such a proportion of them will be found in the Vatican, as the French, in their different predatory excursions, suffered to remain.