The life of Poggio Bracciolini

by William Shepherd

Soon after the execution of Jerome of Prague, Poggio received from Guarino Veronese,[83] a copy of a treatise, De Re Uxoriâ, i. e. on the duties of a wife, which had been lately published by Francesco Barbaro, a Venetian scholar, who was now beginning to attain a considerable degree of celebrity. His opinion of this composition he expressed in the following terms. “I thank you, my dear Guarino, for the little volume which you have been so kind as to communicate to me. My obligation to you would be immense, had I any thoughts of matrimony; but I must acknowledge, that the perusal of this treatise has done away the little inclination which I previously felt to enter into the married state; for how can I expect to find a help-mate who concentrates in her character all the good qualities, the union of which, in the opinion of wise judges, constitutes a good wife. But to be serious. As soon as I received the book, I began to peruse it; and found the subject so novel, the style so excellent, and the method so clear, that I hastily ran over the whole in one day. I afterwards read it again more deliberately. The subject is indeed a pleasant one; and he has illustrated it by numerous and well arranged examples. I am however most of all captivated by the gravity of his diction. This dissertation on the duty of a wife, is, in my opinion, worthy to be classed with Tully’s Offices. You know that I am no flatterer, but that I always speak from the impulse of the heart. Barbaro unites with the greatest eloquence a dignity of sentiment, worthy of a man of consummate gravity. Earnestly exhort him to cultivate those talents, the first fruits of which are so admirable.”[84]

The warm approbation which Poggio expressed of this treatise De Re Uxoriâ, led the way to an intercourse of mutual good offices between him and its author, in whose character were united the dignity of the patrician, and the accomplishments of the scholar.

Francesco Barbaro was descended from a noble Venetian family, which formerly bore the name of Magadesi, but exchanged that appellation for the honourable title of Barbaro, or de’ Barbari, which was conferred upon it in the twelfth century, in consequence of the valorous exertions of Marco Magadesi, in a battle fought against the Saracens, near Ascalon. Francesco was born at Venice, in the year 1398. At an early age he was placed under the tuition of John of Ravenna, and was afterwards entrusted to the care of Gasperino Barziza.[85] Under the auspices of these instructors he made a surprisingly rapid progress in the study of the Latin tongue. In the acquisition of the rudiments of the Greek language he was assisted by Guarino Veronese, and not, as some have erroneously supposed, by Manuel Crysoloras. So suddenly did the talents of Francesco come to maturity, that he made a public exhibition of his acquirements in the eighteenth year of his age, at which early period he pronounced the funeral eulogium of Giovanni Corrodino, a physician of Padua; and also, at the command of the directors of the Paduan university, delivered an oration on the occasion of the conferring the degree of doctor of civil and canon law on Alberto Guidalotti, a noble Perugian. But a more singular instance of the precocity of his mind was displayed in the course of the same year, in the publication of his treatise De Re Uxoriâ, which was received by the learned with universal applause.[86] The vacancy of the pontifical throne still affording to the officers of the Roman chancery a considerable degree of leisure, Poggio about this time undertook an expedition of no small importance to the interests of literature. Having received information that many ancient manuscripts of classic authors were scattered in various monasteries, and other repositories in the neighbourhood of Constance, where they were suffered to perish in neglected obscurity, he determined to rescue these precious relics from the hands of barbarians, who were so little sensible of their value. He was not deterred from this laudable design by the inclemency of the season, or by the ruinous state of the roads; but with an industry and perseverance, which cannot be too highly applauded, he made several excursions to the places which were said to contain the objects of his research. These excursions he even extended to the city of Paris. For the fatigue and trouble which he encountered in these inquiries he was requited by the most signal success. A great number of manuscripts, some of which contained portions of classic authors, which the admirers of ancient learning had hitherto sought for in vain, were the reward of his literary zeal. The scholars of Italy took a lively interest in these investigations of their learned countryman. The noble art of printing has in modern times rendered books so easily accessible to all ranks of men, that we cannot enter into the feelings of those whose libraries were scantily furnished with volumes, which were slowly multiplied by the tedious process of transcription. But the epistolary correspondence of the studious of the fifteenth century contains frequent and striking intimations of the value which was then set upon good modern copies of the works of classic writers. It may therefore be easily presumed, that the discovery of an ancient manuscript was a common subject of exultation to all the lovers of the polite arts. In the following letter from Leonardo Aretino to Poggio, congratulating him on the success of his expedition, and particularly on his acquisition of a perfect copy of Quintilian’s treatise on Oratory, the writer speaks the sentiments of the literary characters of the age.

“I have seen the letter which you wrote to our friend Niccolo, on the subject of your last journey, and the discovery of some manuscripts. In my opinion the republic of letters has reason to rejoice, not only on account of the acquisition of the works which you have already recovered, but also on account of the hope which I see you entertain of the recovery of others. It will be your glory to restore to the present age, by your labour and diligence, the writings of excellent authors, which have hitherto escaped the researches of the learned. The accomplishment of your undertaking will confer an obligation, not on us alone, but on the successors to our studies. The memory of your services will never be obliterated. It will be recorded to distant ages, that these works, the loss of which had been for so long a period a subject of lamentation to the friends of literature, have been recovered by your industry. As Camillus, on account of his having rebuilt the city of Rome, was stiled its second founder, so you may be justly denominated the second author of all those pieces which are restored to the world by your meritorious exertions. I therefore most earnestly exhort you not to relax in your endeavours to prosecute this laudable design. Let not the expense which you are likely to incur discourage you from proceeding. I will take care to provide the necessary funds. I have the pleasure of informing you, that from this discovery of yours, we have already derived more advantage than you seem to be aware of; for by your exertions we are at length in possession of a perfect copy of Quintilian. I have inspected the titles of the books. We have now the entire treatise, of which, before this happy discovery, we had only one half, and that in a very mutilated state. Oh! what a valuable acquisition! What an unexpected pleasure! Shall I then behold Quintilian whole and entire, who, even in his imperfect state, was so rich a source of delight? I entreat you, my dear Poggio, send me the manuscript as soon as possible, that I may see it before I die. As to Asconius and Flaccus, I am glad that you have recovered them, though neither of these authors have conferred any additional grace on Latin literature. But Quintilian is so consummate a master of rhetoric and oratory, that when, after having delivered him from his long imprisonment in the dungeons of the barbarians, you transmit him to this country, all the nations of Italy ought to assemble to bid him welcome. I cannot but wonder that you and your friends did not eagerly take him in hand, and that, employing yourselves in the transcription of inferior writers, you should have neglected Quintilian—an author, whose works I will not hesitate to affirm, are more an object of desire to the learned than any others, excepting only Cicero’s dissertation De Republicâ. I must next admonish you not to waste your time on the works which we already possess, but to search for those which we have not, especially the works of Cicero and Varro.”[87]

Poggio was far from being unconscious of the good service which he had done to the cause of letters, by the successful assiduity of his researches after the lost writers of antiquity. [A. D. 1416.] On the sixteenth of December of this year, he wrote to Guarino Veronese an epistle, in which, after duly extolling the importance and agreeable nature of the intelligence which he was about to announce, he gave him a particular account of the treasure which he had lately brought to light. From this letter it appears,[88] that in consequence of information which Poggio had received, that a considerable number of books were deposited in the monastery of St. Gall, he took a journey to that town, accompanied by some of his friends. There they found a large number of manuscripts, and among the rest a complete copy of Quintilian, buried in rubbish and dust. For the books in question were not arranged in a library, but were thrown into the lowest apartment or dungeon of a tower, “Which,” says Poggio, “was not even a fit residence for a condemned criminal.” Besides Quintilian they found in this obscure recess the three first, and one half of the fourth books of the Argonautics of Valerius Flaccus, and Asconius Pedianus’s comment on eight of Cicero’s orations. The two latter manuscripts Poggio himself transcribed, with an intention of sending them to Leonardo Aretino, who, as appears by his letters quoted above, was so much elated by the revival of Quintilian, that he speaks of the discovery of Asconius and Flaccus as a matter of comparatively trifling moment.[89]

Poggio zealously concurred in the wish of his friend Leonardo, to rescue from obscurity the lost works of Cicero. Nor were his endeavours to accomplish this valuable object entirely unsuccessful. In a monastery of the monks of Clugny, in the town of Langres, he found a copy of Cicero’s Oration for Cæcina, of which he made a transcript for the use of his Italian friends. In the course of various journeys, which the vicissitudes of fortune obliged him to take at different periods of his life, he had the satisfaction to discover the following orations of the same author, the loss of which had been long deplored by the learned—De lege Agrariâ contra Rullum liber primus—Ejusdem liber secundus—Contra legem Agrariam ad populum—In L. Pisonem. A copy of these orations is preserved in the Abbey of Santa Maria, at Florence, to which is affixed a memorandum, which records the fact of their having been discovered by Poggio. This memorandum indeed makes mention of seven orations as having been found by him in France and Germany; and the catalogue prefixed to the manuscript, besides the works above mentioned, enumerates the Oration pro C. Rabirio Pisone—Pro C. Rabirio perduellionis reo—and pro Roscio Comœdo—but these orations have been torn from the volume in question.[90] With the assistance of Bartolomeo di Montepulciano, Poggio also restored to light the poem of Silius Italicus—Lactantius’s treatise de irâ Dei et opificio hominis—Vegetius de re Militari—Nonius Marcellus—Ammianus Marcellinus[91]—Lucretius[92]—Columella and Tertullian.[93]

Before the time of Poggio, eight only of the comedies of Plautus were known to the classical student. But by the industry or good fortune of one Nicolas of Treves, whom Poggio employed in continuing the researches in the monasteries of Germany, which he was unable to conduct in person, twelve more were brought to light. When Poggio had notice of this discovery, he was highly elated, and strenuously exhorted the cardinal Ursini to dispatch a trusty messenger to bring these valuable treasures to Rome. “I was not only solicitous, but importunate with his eminence,” says Poggio in a letter to Niccolo Niccoli, “to send somebody for the books.” The cardinal did not however second the impatience of the Italian literati, who waited nearly two years before the manuscripts in question arrived in Rome, whither they were brought by Nicolas of Treves himself.[94]

Besides Plautus’s comedies, Nicolas of Treves brought to Rome a fragment of Aulus Gellius.

Poggio also found a copy of Julius Frontinus de Aquæductis, and eight books of Firmicus’s treatise on the mathematics, lying neglected and forgotten in the archives of the monastery of Monte Cassino; and at the instance of Niccolo Niccoli he prevailed upon the governors of that religious house, to allow him to convey these manuscripts to his own residence, for the purpose of decyphering and copying them. After he had transcribed Frontinus with his own hand, he returned the original manuscript to the library where it had been discovered.[95] He also procured at Cologne a copy of Petronius Arbiter, a small fragment of which author he had before discovered in Britain. By his exertions also the entire work of Columella was brought to light, of which only fragments had been known to the earlier scholars. For the preservation of Calpurnius’s Bucolic also, the republic of letters is indebted to the sagacious diligence of Poggio.[96]