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HEINRICH CORNELIUS AGRIPPA


     Who would think that behind the impassive face of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa a marvelous genius lay hidden? For, having by his unlimited powers of comprehension and his prodigious memory mastered the principles and inner secrets and scaled the heights of all arts and sciences, he proceeded to attack the sciences, to challenge the truth of religious doctrines, and in his witty discourses to ridicule the labor spent on all studies. And this he did the more emphatically and effectively because he supported such novel arguments with the weight of Holy Writ, as if a man trained in letters and honored with knighthood by the Emperor for his learning could not successfully display the great resources of his cynical genius unless he approached the battering rams of empty rhetoric to the impregnable citadels of the classics in this unseemly fashion. But this book on The Vanity of Sciences, which was received with applause by many, he followed with another on Occult Philosophy, a work most corrupting to the curious and to be found only in the hands of the impious, since it was placed on the Index by the Church. In both works, however, he would seem more impressive in his earnestness and more witty in his jests and therefore would perhaps deserve immortality, had he not been so unfortunate or so foolish as to scorn purity of style as he did other virtues and accomplishments.

He died before he reached old age in a mean, dark inn at Lyons, execrated by many as a wretch suspected of practising black art, because they thought he took about with him an evil genius in the shape of a black dog. Therefore, when, as death drew near, he was urged to repent, he took off the dog's leather collar studded with nails in a pattern of magic symbols and angrily burst out with these last words, "Begone, accursed beast that has utterly destroyed me!" And that favorite dog, the constant companion of all his journeyings, deserted his dying master and was never seen again, for with one mad leap he plunged into the Arar and those who asserted they had seen the incident think he did not swim out again.


140

BATTISTA PIO


In no age will the name of Pio fail to find admirers, especially among rude grammarians, though to men of culture and refinement it will always be distasteful. For by the force of his vigorous intellect and his retentive memory he earned a reputation for great learning, when, in an illjudged attempt to rival his teacher Beroaldo, who had published a commentary on the Ass of Apuleius, he had undertaken to interpret obscure authors, among them Fulgentius, Sidonius, and the poets Plautus, Lucretius, and Valerius Flaccus. He misguidedly sought out musty and obsolete old words to the admiration of the ignorant mob of his pupils but the open derision of men with any taste. Indeed the strangeness of his speech and writing recalled in its crudity and harshness the dialects of Oscans and Aborigines, which some might desire to learn for sport if they were not afraid of catching the infection; and before long these words from a bygone and utterly ridiculous vocabulary appeared like portents on the stage in a marvelous play composed by wags. This is extant in printed form, and in it Pio is introduced babbling his peculiar idioms in his characteristic way and receiving on his bare buttocks, like a schoolboy who has not learned his lesson, a well-deserved flogging from an abusive and angry Priscian. For at that time Phaedrus73 with splendid enthusiasm was reviving among the Roman youth the dignified delivery of the ancients, having given at a festival on the Capitol a magnificent and remarkably successful production of the Poenulus of Plautus with noble lads as actors, thus recalling the vanished splendor of the city. The performance was given at the request of Leo to celebrate the bestowal of Roman citizenship on his brother Giuliano.

But the stouthearted Pio scorned all the talk of the censorious, perfectly easy in his conscience, because, he said, he considered no man deserving of the name of scholar who, when asked about the force and exact meaning even of abstruse passages, failed to answer clearly and with decision from the treasures of a ready learning. For this test he was himself accustomed to meet with equal success and pride, because he had a lively memory for everything, which was truly remarkable in an old man. Finally, however, though late, he recog141nized the defects of his much decried style so that he devoted himself wholly to Cicero and often lectured on him.

When he had taught for fifty years at Bologna, Milan, and Lucca, Pope Paul, whose old and intimate friend he was, called him to the capital. He died while holding a public professorship when he was eighty years old, having before been rendered immune to the attacks of disease by his robust constitution. He had the happiness to die by the easiest form of sudden and unexpected death in which the divine Plato is thought to have been so fortunate. For, when he had dined merrily and, after the cloth had been removed, was reading Galen's book in which he discusses the signs of approaching death, he noticed some fatal spots on his nails and said, "And so the cruel Fate is at hand to bite off the thread of my life!" And soon after, without any sharp and sudden shock since death was kind to him, he calmly breathed his last in the arms of the poet Probo of Piperno.

He was buried in the church of Sant' Eustachio and honored with the following verses by Leonardo Marso:

When Pio saw that his genius had essayed everything, he said, "Now I return to the stars. Earth, farewell."



FRANCESCO ARSILLI


Francesco Arsilli of Sinigaglia for thirty years with alternating enthusiasms worshiped the son Aesculapius and the sire Apollo, since he earned his living as a humble physician by the general practice of medicine and found his pleasure in almost daily production of verses. For, being by nature frugal and a champion of golden liberty, he avoided with a kind of stubborn pride the court of the Vatican and the "thresholds of the mighty."

He translated in verse appropriate to the subject the Proloquia of Hippocrates and dedicated to me as his old comrade a delightful treatise on the Poets of Rome. For, since Leo was a generous patron to men of talent, many illustrious poets from all quarters flocked to the capital with hopes that were not destined to be disappointed and in a sort of noble contest all wrote on the subject of a certain statue. In connection with this hodge-podge of poems Goritz of Trier, the 142 Pope's Receiver of Supplications, won fame as a most cultured patron and admirer of poets.74 The statue is that famous one of marble in the church of Sant' Aurelio and the poets were invited to celebrate the three divinities of Christ, His mother, and His grandmother portrayed together.

But Arsilli, who by fortifying himself with the aid of his profession against disease had prolonged his life considerably, fell ill of dropsy and did not live to complete his seventieth year.



MARIA MOLSA


Maria Molsa of Modena, who was endowed by Nature with an extraordinary and facile talent for poetry, plied the Muses with equal success in graceful Latin elegies and light Italian measures and won such applause from all that for thirty years the Maecenases of Rome aided him with conspicuous generosity and enthusiasm and made every effort to secure his advancement. He was, however, always greatly handicapped by his temperament, for, absorbed in one love affair after another, he refused to display industry equal to his genius nor would he by his dress or his bearing nor any intercourse that would do him credit show regard for his reputation as a poet. He was abominably extravagant, did not know the meaning of honorable shame, called his neglect of everything: "harmless independence"; and all with such indifference that he quickly ruined his undoubted prospects of achieving great fame and a more illustrious career.

Because of these habits, since he honored Venus more than Minerva, he contracted from that goddess the poison of a shameful and pitiable disease which caused his death. But from Minerva he won undying glory for his talents, not only by the charming poems in which he seems to have indulged his wanton Muse, but also by the dignified and eloquent prose in which he denounced before the outraged Romans Lorenzo dei Medici, who in an impious prank one night had struck off the heads of certain famous statues. For they say that when that speech was published, Lorenzo was so overcome with shame and fear of everlasting disgrace that, in order to make men forget in an unheard-of crime the ignominy branded upon 143 him, he conceived in his savage heart the monstrous scheme of murdering a prince who was also his particular friend:75 so that, forsooth, in despite of Heaven liberty might be won for his country even at the sacrifice of all the most sacred principles of human and brotherly love and of hospitality and that there might be no regard henceforth for the safety of any princes; for this one act was the deathblow to their security even in retirement, since with base if not accursed hand he killed the duke while he was fast asleep, on the ground that he was a tyrant.



ALBERTUS PIGHIUS


It is verily by a most shameless trick of Nature that we see in Albertus Pighius great learning and brilliant eloquence (if we consider the distinction reasonably to be expected of a Christian writer) hidden under extreme harshness of rude speech. He was born in the Dutch town of Kempen and followed the fortunes of Pope Hadrian. All that he had learned from his studies abroad he set forth in elegant Latin with such success that he unfolded with wisdom and ease the principles of most exact sciences and elucidated all the points that appear hard and difficult to writers on sacred letters because of unfamiliar facts and names. But, when he lectured, almost all the glory of his learning was ruined by the sight of his misshapen face, which was flattened like a Scythian's, and by his voice, which was harsh and guttural, and by his violent snorts and snuffles.

He combined with extraordinary cleverness of mind equal manual dexterity, for he constructed most accurately bronze instruments for observing the courses of the stars. But in his books on the Hierarchy, with which, as with the sharpest of swords, he killed Luther's cause, he won such praise for piety and learning as has seldom been bestowed on anyone. While he was composing this work, to defend the Roman pontiff's claim to the heritage of inviolable power, of which he had been robbed by the impious, a clear manifestation of the divine will rescued him from the gravest danger to his life. For, during the great procession at Bologna when Charles V after his coronation was crossing a wooden bridge, the part near 144 the Emperor collapsed from the weight of the crowd and Albertus was so completely buried under the mass of timbers and men that only his virtue and the great work on which he was engaged can account for his having been saved.

He died on his native soil before he reached old age, having been generously honored with holy offices by both Clement and Paul.



BENEDETTO GIOVIO OF NEW COMO


I hardly know by what appropriate name I may address you, Benedetto Giovio, or with what adequate praise I may honor you. You were indeed my brother in birth and love, but by the dearest service of affection my best of fathers, my kind guardian, my unwearied teacher; so that you fulfilled toward an orphan child every obligation of perfect virtue. But these services others have perhaps performed for their brothers in fuller measure: you took thought for that which concerns the hope of immortality. For when you were composing your distinguished History of our country and also your account of the history and customs of the Swiss, by pointing out to me the true path to glory you kindled my genius with rivalry within our own house; so that, I suppose, I might happily venture with your encouragement to begin and to complete the History of our times, including the events occurring in all the known world.

But this above all shall be the peculiar glory of your Christian humility, that, always contented with a simple life, you enlarged by the illustrious issue of a noble marriage the family of the Giovii which had been more famous for its antiquity than for its fortunes. And furthermore you were happy because ambition never led you to set foot outside your native city except to hear Demetrius, when he was lecturing in Greek at Milan, for the sake of improving your pronunciation of a language you had learned without a teacher.

Thus you lived to your seventy-third year, the equal of the greatest philosophers in the spotless virtue of your life and in tranquillity of soul, your body afflicted with no disease, your incredible memory for facts and names always active, and the vigor of your glowing genius unimpaired and eager, so 145 that not long ago you addressed to posterity a hundred letters of most profound learning. These letters, however, together with Greek translations of no small distinction and some graceful poems will be published through the efforts of your scholarly sons.

But I, although without doubt you are blessed with the celestial happiness your piety deserved, shall mourn you hourly with vain tears, and the more bitterly and piteously because I cannot grieve my fill that the hoped for solace of imminent old age has been snatched from me by your death, without seeming impiously and shamelessly to begrudge you an end of troubles and the long deferred enjoyment of unending bliss.

He was borne to his tomb on the shoulders of noble youths and buried in the cathedral, an honor which had never before been granted at Como to any layman.






Thus far the Elogia have accompanied painted portraits; I lack, however, the likenesses of many writers, who, though they are long dead, have left immortal portraits of their genius in their glorious works. My most careful search has been in vain, yet I am far from hopeless that men of refinement will courteously assist this worthy project of mine. For others will point out to me statues or paintings in public or private places or call to my attention those that have been shamefully overlooked or concealed by their kinsmen. And what in the whole range of noble services can be more honorable than with a generous devotion to contribute the portraits I so desire to a Museum where genius is publicly honored as a source of pleasure and an example to others?



(Elogia without portraits follow)






MAFFEO VEGIO OF LODI


Vegio, when he had completed the Aeneid by adding a thirteenth book in successful imitation of Vergil's epic style, surpassed in glory almost all famous poets of the last thousand 146 years, not excepting even the laureate Petrarch. But by his reputation also for profounder learning and great wisdom he won the friendship of Pope Martin and was appointed Abbreviator and Datary, offices which he filled so well that he was later much beloved by Eugenius and Nicholas.

We have his delightful and noble dialogue in which Earth, Sun, and Gold argue for the supremacy: and, that this true Christian might lack nothing to crown his erudition, he left glosses on sacred letters giving clear explanations and, most important of all, "a little golden book" on the notable antiquities of the basilica of St. Peter, in which he recorded the altars and tombs of the popes.



GIOVANNI TORTELLI


Tortelli, a native of Arezzo, came to Rome with a thorough training in almost all branches of knowledge and was deservedly called by the excellent Pope Nicholas to share his most intimate cares and counsels and to assist him in his sacred studies. For in charm of conversation and cheerful modesty he excelled all his contemporaries, among whom the shameful feuds resulting from passionate disputes were foully destroying all reputation for dignified scholarship. But Tortelli was contented with the name of a sound critic, which he earned by a noble and immortal work on the Power of Letters, in which we see the most brilliant light flashed on the rebirth of eloquence. At the request of Eugenius he wrote also a Latin life of Saint Athanasius. But what greater tribute of praise can appropriately be given Tortelli than that Valla, the most eloquent of all grammarians, chose him to be his supreme critic.76



BARTOLOMMEO FAZIO


This man who was born at Spezia, a Genoese town at the head of the harbor of Porto di Luna, was distinguished for his knowledge of both Greek and Latin, but he certainly would have been more illustrious if his account of the naval victories of the Genoese over the Venetians had been impartial. For Valla (though, to be sure, he was an enemy and a scoffer) 147 asserts that, while he was composing it, he weighed nothing with unbiased judgment, nothing in accordance with the principles of historical composition. But King Alfonso in his eagerness for true glory had engaged Fazio on liberal terms, that his own exploits in war, which undoubtedly deserved an accomplished historian, might be handed down to posterity. Thus he became the rival of Valla, though they wrote on different subjects, and by his disparagement of his fame so stung that quick tempered man that he added to his reputation by the ease with which he inflicted mortal wounds in his neat retorts. In another work, however, Fazio won a fairer name, for he translated from Greek into Latin Arrian's Life of Alexander the Great.

He soon followed his enemy, Valla, who had been carried off, when engaged in more elegant studies, by a like untimely cruelty of the Fates; so that the following verses, composed to be inscribed on Fazio's tomb, are not without point:

That Valla might not breathe a whisper even in the Elysian Fields without some one to confute him, Fazio died not many days later.



GUARINO OF VERONA


By the efforts of this distinguished man Greek and Latin in that dark age regained the standard of antiquity, a firm and well-ordered structure, and the grace they had long missed. Through his immortal services, too, we can read almost all of Strabo and some of Plutarch's Lives accurately translated into Latin. The fame thus acquired descended to his son, who, peculiarly distinguished by such a heritage, applied himself to the same studies in emulation of his father and by his earnest efforts increased the resources as well as the dignity of his family.



PIETRO PAOLO VERGERIO


This man, who was born in Capo d'Istria, was the pupil of Chrysoloras, and the Greek which he himself had drawn from the purest spring he poured out again most generously for his own illustrious pupils, so that thirsty Italy was watered 148 by the streams of that language which he caused to flow everywhere. His Latin style also was conspicuous in that age, as appears from the delightful and judicious treatise on The Best Way of Educating Children,77 which used to be read in the schools when I was a boy.



JACOPO BRACELLI THE LIGURIAN


This man's brilliant example makes it abundantly evident that the nature of the Ligurians, though some liken it to the bare cliffs of their God-forsaken land, is not so harsh and rough that it is not easily made gentler by the service of the Muses. For in his account of the exploits in war of King Alfonso he far surpassed in dignity all the writers who had immediately preceded him, if we may properly compare the unpolished style of an earlier age with the purer eloquence which has resulted from a closer imitation of the ancients.



GIORGIO VALLA OF PIACENZA


Valla, who included in one huge volume all sciences and letters, seems in that swift summary of his rather to have learned many things himself than to have left them in shape for posterity to learn. For, while he gathered masses of material on all subjects and was indefatigable in writing, he utterly lacked that perfect inspiration of Roman eloquence by which alone the life of books is richly nurtured and indefinitely prolonged.



GIOVANNI SIMONETA


Giovanni Simoneta wrote in Latin the biography of Francesco Sforza, imitating for his own amusement the style and structure of C. Caesar, and this book was later translated into Italian by Landino, that it might be read more widely and especially in camp by the soldiers.

Giovanni's own brother was the celebrated Cicco, a native of the Abruzzi, who, when Galeozzo was murdered by a conspiracy, undertook with unshaken fidelity the guardianship of his orphan son; but, owing to the wicked ambition of the boy's 149 uncle Lodovico, he was imprisoned and condemned to death and paid for his fatal loyalty with his head.

Fortune was somewhat kinder to Giovanni, for, after being tortured with the same cruelty for a long time, he was released; because, I suppose, the tyrant was ashamed to appear so ungrateful as to put out of the way the man who by the help of letters had immortalized beyond fear of death his father, a prince of consummate virtues.



BERNARDO GIUSTINIANO OF VENICE


This scholar set out to write the history of his native city from the very beginning and performed with great distinction the heavy task he had undertaken. For this I think he deserved a glorious reputation, since, being a patrician and the son of a learned scholar, he paid his debt to his country nobly and in full measure.



CRISTOFORO PERSONA OF ROME


Persona, Prior of the monastery of Santa Balbina on the Aventine, translated Procopius into Latin and thus brought unquestioned disgrace on Leonardo Aretino,78 who, suppressing the name of the Greek author, had shamelessly asserted in his dedication to Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini (the same who was killed at Varna by Murad) that the History of the Goths, which he had culled from various writers, was his own work.



GREGORIUS TIFERNAS79


It is owing to this very learned scholar that we can now read in a brilliant Latin translation that part of Strabo which Guarino had not touched. It is rumored also that he had applied his genius and industry to translating the Histories of Herodian, but that when he lay dying they were stolen by Poliziano, a man who was often convicted of literary theft. Yet it seems hardly credible that one so richly endowed with all eloquence and so ready of wit could have desired to win from another's labors a reputation which must overwhelm him with abuse and contumely.


150

RAFFAELLO80


This man's reading must have been almost unbounded, for he heaped together all branches of knowledge in a work useful to the indolent rather than a contribution to the glory of well-ordered learning: for without much judgment or any beauty of Latin style he treated all his topics so briefly that he seems merely to furnish his readers with a list of subjects to be investigated elsewhere. The omissions (apparently due to timidity) in his account of the princes of his own time undoubtedly impair his credibility in regard to earlier events, and show that in general the clear light of truth does not illumine those works which, written in flattery and fear, are published too soon and have no hope of immediate or future fame. Still, we certainly owe a great debt to the noble and disinterested labor with which this man of unblemished life showed dilettanti short cuts to knowledge and translated Procopius on the Persian and Vandal Wars; though his version of the latter work is remarkable for clearness rather than for brilliance



ANTONIO GALATEO


This celebrated physician and philosopher from the province of Salentina in the farthest corner of Italy added lustre to the subjects he pursued by a knowledge of the classics and even made a reputation as a poet, for which he was very highly praised by Pontano and Ermolao.81 Besides his Italian poems we have his penetrating treatises on physics, and a description of the geography of Apulia, which in my judgment can bear comparison with the ancients. But his combined learning, wit, and charm were best displayed in a most amusing poem in praise of the gout, which he composed to alleviate his sufferings when he was undergoing treatment for that incurable disease.



LODOVICO CELIO82 OF ROVIGO


This scholar's numerous volumes of Lectiones Antiquae are admired by many as showing the riches that rewarded his 151 nights of toil, but that hodge-podge, brought out, as it were, from an ancient storehouse with such pains and labor, seems to fastidious readers to have a somewhat musty odor. For in all that great organism there cannot be found a single trace of the vigor that belongs to a well-ordered and distinguished style. Nevertheless I have heard him lecture with great success at Padua and Milan for the simple reason that his whole bearing was marked by a noble dignity.



JACQUES LEFEVRE OF ETAPLES


This little man, of lowly rank and stature but in his burning genius undoubtedly the equal of patricians, roused the youth of all France to eager enthusiasm for intellectual culture. For he wished to be called the "builder"83 of intellects, since in almost every branch of learning he was considered a born teacher. His writings were deficient in purity of Latin style, which for a long time had little interest for the ardent spirits among foreigners, because it was either neglected by them or but superficially cultivated. He wrote commentaries on astronomy, which are very useful to the young, and Scholia on moral philosophy convenient to learn by heart. But when, already weakened by years, he turned to sacred letters, he came near to accepting Luther's poisonous doctrine, so that, when he died at an advanced age, suspicion of heresy cast a cloud over his last days.



ANTONIO TELESIO OF COSENZA


This man, who always took pleasure in varied and slight matter and trivial themes, had no mean reputation as a poet, since he preferred to be unique and conspicuous in small things rather than in attempting the grand manner to be mediocre and obscure, an insignificant member of a throng of bards singing of trite subjects a hundred times repeated. For he wrote in charming and finished style several short poems on subjects unusual and therefore always diverting; among them the Netted Bag, by which the scarsella of the priest is suspended from his girdle, and the Clay Lamp, which used up so much oil while he cultivated the Muses, and the Glowworm, 152 which shines at night and lends itself to children's games. He left also a tragedy, The Shower of Gold, in which his description of Danae is considered a masterpiece of thought and diction, and also short treatises on Crowns and on Grammatical Color, which are very interesting because of the novelty of the subjects.

After having lectured on Horace at the University of Rome with grace and sympathy, he obtained a benefice from Giberti, thus escaping the ruin of the capital and ending his days when not yet an old man in his native city.



PIETRO ALCYONIO


This man, who, though he suppressed the names of his two cities, confessed himself a hybrid, worked for a long time at monthly wages correcting proof in printers' offices and as a result of continued and keen observation acquired an excellent literary style. But the distinction thus won brought him no honor, since it was sullied by a character utterly mean and vulgar without a trace of the gentleman. For he was the unblushing slave of his appetite, often dining two or three times on the same day — but "at other men's boards".84 Nor did he show himself in this brutishness by any means a bad physician, for, as soon as he got home to bed, he would relieve himself of the load of his debauchery by vomiting.

Since Alcyonio had made a shamelessly inaccurate translation of some of Aristotle's works, Sepulveda, a Spaniard who has done splendid service to letters, published a book85 in which he hurled against him most piercing darts, which were assuredly not inadequate to avenge the wounds dealt such a philosopher, if under the name of vengeance his assailant was to be punished as he deserved. This was received by scholars with such applause that Alcyonio, utterly overwhelmed with chagrin at the disgrace, was driven to buy up from the shops at an exorbitant price the books of his Spanish foe, that he might burn them. Yet in a brilliant work on Enduring the Misfortune of Exile he so vindicated his reputation for learning and eloquence that many supposed he had concocted it from Cicero's treatise on Glory, which he had then impiously and spitefully destroyed. For they observed that in it, as in 153 a varied patchwork, were interwoven brilliant threads of rich purple, while all the other colors were dim. Soon, however, he gloriously lessened the odium of this deeply rooted suspicion by two magnificent orations, when, on the sack of the capital, he inveighed most bitterly against the Emperor and deplored the wrongs of the Roman People and the monstrous cruelty of the barbarians with the consummate eloquence of a perfect orator.



PIETRO MARTIRI OF ANGHIERA


This is the scholar born by Lake Maggiore in northern Italy who wrote the Oceanae Decades86 on Indian history, when, after being summoned to the court of Spain, he had offered his talents and his assiduous services to King Ferdinand. For, having hit upon a subject that richly deserved to be handled by a brilliant writer, he brought to it faithfully and conscientiously all that his meagre powers had to give; so that those on whom the generous Muses have bestowed without stint the ability to write a fluent and beautiful style seem to have been furnished by him with a theme which offers a splendid and most alluring opportunity.

We have his forceful and most accurate description of the embassy which he undertook to Kansuh-al-Ghuri, sultan of Egypt, a work which, brief as it is, records for us the final overthrow of the sultans and the history of the Mameluke cavalry, about whom our knowledge was somewhat vague. Unhappily, however, he died when he was supposed to be planning a work on the extraordinarily brilliant victories of Hernando Cortez in that other world which he had found in the west and subdued.



GABRIELLE ALTILIO


The Lucanian Gabriele Altilio, who was the tutor of the young Prince Ferdinand, so excelled in delicate elegiacs and sublime hexameters, as may be seen from his marriage song for Isabella of Aragon, that Pontano and Jacopo Sannazaro87 ranked him with the poets of antiquity. Because of his talents he was made Bishop of Policastro (the ancient Buxentum), 154 whereupon he shamelessly deserted the Muses to whom he owed his advancement, a piece of ingratitude for which he would surely have paid a heavy penalty, if his fault were not glossed over and the hope of forgiveness justified by the fact that, remembering his order, he took timely refuge in sacred letters.

He died in the episcopal palace when he was more than sixty years old and the devotion of Pontano paid him the last tribute of a noble poem, which was cut as an epitaph on his marble urn:88

The Muses give thee burial mound and well-earned tomb and the Grace whom thou didst serve gives thee thy epitaph. O revered Altilio, dost thou lie here? In this urn does the glory, the honor of the priesthood lie? Come then, O nymphs of the Sebethos, come then, maiden Parthenope, at this tomb scatter the wealth of spring. Scatter thy flowers, O flower-filled Patulcis, and do thou, Antiniana, scatter thy roses. Sing a dirge for Altilio, O Grace! Sing, O Clio! May light without end shine on my Altilio. Let all here utter reverent words and let the tomb be wet with tears; let it be wet, O maiden of Pieria, with thy dew.



MARCELLO VERGILIO89 OF FLORENCE

There was extraordinary charm in this man's winning expression and cultivated speech and, when he was lecturing to his young pupils from the platform or speaking to a group of listeners, he displayed a wide learning remarkable from its very variety. Moreover, he served the state as Chancellor, an office which Aretino and Poggio had held before him, and, when he had the leisure, he was accustomed to devote it to a third occupation. For at the urgent request of the Medici he had undertaken to translate all Dioscorides and he hoped to win from this task no mean glory, since from early youth he had toiled with most painstaking industry at the very difficult subject of botany. But immediately after this work was published there appeared two quite different versions: one by Ermolao which was generally thought to be killed by that of Vergilio, and one by the Frenchman, Jean Ruelle, 155 which was far the most highly praised of the three because of the elegance of its Latin style. We have also the noble speech which Vergilio delivered before the assembly when the insignia of Captain General were conferred on Lorenzo dei Medici, the Younger.




NOTES



73 Tommaso Inghirami, called Phaedra (not Phaedrus) because of his playing that role in the Hippolytus. See Roscoe Life of Leo X. 2.485.

74 Johann Goritz (Corycianus senex) of Luxemburg, Receiver of Supplications under six popes, entertained in his vineyard near Trajan's forum on Saint Anne's day. The Coryciana (published Rome, 1524) were poems deposited on the saint's day in the chapel in the church of Sant' Aurelio, which contained the famous statue by Sansovino.

75 Alessandro dei Medici, Duke of Florence.

76 Valla dedicated to Tortelli, the first librarian of the Vatican, his De Elegantiis.

77 De Ingenuis Moribus.

78 Cf. p. 37.

79 Gregorio da Città di Castello.

80 Raffaello Maffei.

81 Antonio Ferrari, called Galateo from his birthplace, Galatone. Ermolao Barbaro dedicated to him his paraphrase of Themistius. Cf. Pontano, Hendec. II, Ad Antonium Galateum Medicum, and De Sermone, I: cui praeter summam doctrinam summus etiam et rarus quidam inest dicendi lepos.

82 Called usually Lodovico Ricchieri.

83 In allusion to Faber, the Latin form of his name.

84 Aliena vivere quadra. Juv. 5.2

85 Errata Petri Alcyonii in Interpretatione Aristotelis a Iohanne Genesio Sepulveda Collecta.

86 De Rebus Oceanicis et Orbe Nova Decades (Paris, 1536), the first book on the discovery of America.

87 Pontano dedicated to him his dialogue, De Magnificentia. For Sannazaro's tribute see his poem De Natali Altilii Vatis and Eleg. 1.11: Cui comes intactae lustrans sacraria silvae
          Altilius docto pectore carmen hiet
.

88 Pontano, Tum. 1.16.

89 Marcello Vergilio Adriani.








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