[87] Leonardi Aretini Epistolæ, l. iv. ep. v.
[88] This letter from Poggio to Guarino Veronese is printed by L’Enfant, in the supplement to the second volume of his Poggiana, from a MS. in the Wolfenbuttle library. See Poggiana, tom. ii. p. 309.
[89] Mehus is of opinion that the copy of Quintilian, thus found by Poggio, is preserved in the Laurentian library.—Præfatio ad vitam Ambrosii Traversarii, p. xxxiv.
[90] Mehi Præfatio ad vitam Ambrosii Traversarii, p. xxxv. xxxvi.
[91] The manuscript of this author was sent by Poggio to Martin V. who permitted Niccolo Niccoli to transcribe it. Niccolo’s transcript is preserved in the Marcian library at Florence.—Mehi Præfat. p. xxxvii. xxxviii.
[92] Poggio transmitted his newly recovered copy of Lucretius to Niccolo Niccoli, who, with his usual diligence, made with his own hand a transcript of it, which is yet extant in the Laurentian library.—Mehi Præfat. p. xxxviii.
[93] Poggio found this copy of Tertullian in a monastery of the monks of Clugny at Rome. By some means the cardinal Ursini got possession of it, and morosely locked it up from the inspection of the learned. At the instance of Lorenzo de’ Medici, however, he suffered the manuscript to be transported to Florence, where it was copied, first by Ambrogio Traversari, and afterwards by Niccolo Niccoli. The transcript of Niccoli is lodged in the library of St. Mark.—Mehi Præfatio, p. xxxix.
[94] The volume which Nicolas of Treves thus conveyed from Germany, contained, besides four comedies which had been already recovered, the following twelve, which had been till then unknown, Bacchides, Mostellaria, Menæchmi, Miles gloriosus, Mercator, Pseudolus Pœnulus, Persa, Rudens, Stichus, Trinummus, Truculentus—This volume was seized by cardinal Ursini, who would not permit Poggio to take a copy of it. Poggio highly resented the illiberality of the cardinal’s conduct. “I have not been able,” says he, addressing himself to Niccolo Niccoli, “to get possession of Plautus. Before the cardinal’s departure, I begged him to send you the book, but he refused to comply with my request. I do not understand what the man means. He seems to think that he has done something great, though in fact he has not had the least participation in the discovery of the book. It was found by another, but it is hidden by him. I told both him and his people, that I would never again ask him for the book, and I shall be as good as my word. I had rather unlearn what I have learnt, than acquire any knowledge by the means of his books.” By the interposition of Lorenzo de’ Medici, however, the cardinal was induced to intrust the volume to Niccolo Niccoli, who copied it, and returned it to the Cardinal. Niccolo’s copy is deposited in the Marcian library.—Mehi Præfatio, p. xi-xliii.
[95] Joannes Polenus, who published an elegant edition of Frontinus de Aquæductis at Padua in the year 1722, procured a transcript of this manuscript, which was still preserved in the monastery of Monte Cassino, and which he found to be much more correct than any printed editions of Frontinus’s treatise. It is in the form of a quarto volume, written on parchment, and, as appears from a fac simile of the first ten or twelve lines, in a very legible character. From the form of the letters, Polenus conjectures that it was written at the end of the thirteenth, or the beginning of the fourteenth century.—Prolegomena ad Poleni editionem Frontini de Aquæductis, p. 19, 20.
Mention is made of this manuscript by Mabillon, in his Museum Italicum, tom. i. p. 123.