CHAP. "my own mind....Wilt thou be wanting to thyself and thy LXVI. "fortune? Wilt thou refuse to be introduced to a familiar The er, “ converse with Homer, Plato, and Demosthenes? with After his example, the restoration of the Greek letters in Greeks in Italy was prosecuted by a series of emigrants, who were A. D. destitute of fortune, and endowed with learning, or at least 1400... with language. From the terror or oppression of the Turk Italy, 1500. 99 See the passage in Aretin, Commentario Rerum suo Tempore in Italia gestarum, apud Hodium, p. 28...30. 100 In this domestic discipline, Petrarch, who loved the youth, often complains of the eager curiosity, restless temper, and proud feelings, which announce the genius and glory of a riper age (Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 700...709). 101 Hinc Græcæ Latinæque scholæ exortæ sunt, Guarino Philelpho, Leonardo Aretino, Caroloque, ac plerisque aliis tanquam ex equo Trojano prodeuntibus, quorum emulatione multa ingenia deinceps et laudem excitata sunt (Platina in Bonifacio IX). Another Italian writer adds the names of Paulus Petrus Vergerius, Omnibonus Vincentius, Poggius, (Franciscus Barbarus, &c. But I question whether a rigid chronology would allow Chrysoloras all these eminent scholars (Hodius, p. 25...27, &c). &c. ish arms, the natives of Thessalonica and Constantinople CHAP. escaped to a land of freedom, curiosity, and wealth. The LXVI. synod introduced into Florence the lights of the Greek church and the oracles of the Platonic philosophy: and the fugitives who adhered to the union, had the double merit of renouncing their country, not only for the Christian, but for the Catholic, cause. A patriot, who sacrifices his party and conscience to the allurements of favour, may be possessed however of the private and social virtues: he no longer hears the reproachful epithet of slave and apostate; and the ⚫ consideration which he acquires among his new associates, will restore in his own eyes the dignity of his character. The prudent conformity of Bessarion was rewarded with Cardinal the Roman purple: he fixed his residence in Italy; and the Bessarion, Greek cardinal, the titular patriarch of Constantinople, was respected as the chief and protector of his nation : 102 his abilities were exercised in the legations of Bologna, Venice, Germany, and France; and his election to the chair of St. Peter floated for a moment on the uncertain breath of a conclave.103 His ecclesiastical honours diffused a splendour and pre-eminence over his literary merit and service: his palace was a school; as often as the cardinal visited the Vatican, he was attended by a learned train of both nations;'04 of men applauded by themselves and the public; and whose writings, now overspread with dust, were popular and useful in their own times. I shall not attempt to enumerate the restorers of Grecian literature in the fifteenth century: and it may be sufficient to mention with gratitude the names of Theodore Gaza, of George of Trebizond, of John Argyropulus, and Demetrius Chalcocondyles, who taught their native language in the schools of Florence and Rome. Their labours were not inferior to those of Bessarion, whose pur- faults and ple they revered, and whose fortune was the secret object merits. 102 See in Hody the article of Bessarion (p. 136...177): Theodore Gaza, George of Trebizond, and the rest of the Greeks whom I have named or omitted, are inserted in their proper chapters of his learned work. See likewise Tiraboschi, in the first and second parts of the vith tome. 103 The cardinals knocked at his door, but his conclavist refused to interrupt the studies of Bessarion; "Nicholas," said he, "thy respect has cost "thee an hat, and me the tiara." 104 Such as George of Trebizond, Theodore Gaza, Argyropulus Androniens of Thessalonica, Philelphus, Poggius, Blondus, Nicholas Perrot, Valla, Campanus, Platina, &c. Viri (says Hody, with the pious zeal of a scholar) nullo ævo perituri (p. 156). Their LXVI. CHAP. of their envy. But the lives of these grammarians were humble and obscure: they had declined the lucrative paths of the church: their dress and manners secluded them from the commerce of the world; and since they were confined to the merit, they might be content with the rewards, of learning. From this character, Janus Lascaris 105 will deserve an exception. His eloquence, politeness, and Imperial descent, recommended him to the French monarchs; and in the same cities he was alternately employed to teach and to negociate. Duty and interest prompted them to cultivate the study of the Latin language; and the most successful attained the faculty of writing and speaking with fluency and elegance in a foreign idiom. But they ever retained the inveterate vanity of their country: their praise, or at least their esteem, was reserved for the national writers, to whom they owed their fame and subsistence; and they sometimes betrayed their contempt in licentious criticism or satire on Virgil's poetry and the oratory of Tully.106 The superiority of these masters arose from the familiar use of a living language; and their first disciples were incapable of discerning how far they had degenerated from the knowledge, and even the practice, of their ancestors. A vicious pronunciation, 107 which they introduced, was banished from the 105 He was born before the taking of Constantinople, but his honourable life was stretched far into the xvith century (A. D. 1535). Leo X. and Francis I. were his noblest patrons, under whose auspices he founded the Greek colleges of Rome and Paris (Hody, p. 247...275). He left posterity in France; but the counts de Vintimille, and their numerous branches, derive the name of Lascaris, from a doubtful marriage in the xiiith century with the daughter of a Greek emperor (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 224...230). 106 Two of his epigrains against Virgil, and three against Tully, are preserved and refired by Franciscus Floridus, who can find no better names than Græculus ineptus et impudens (Hody, p. 274). In our own times, an English critic has accused the Eneid of containing, multa, languida, nugatoria spiritû et majestate carminis heroici defecta; many such verses as he, the said Jeremiah Markland, would have been ashamed of owning (præfat. ad Statii Sylvas, p. 21, 22). 107 Emanuel Chrysoloras, and his colleagues, are accused of ignorance, envy. or avarice (Sylloge, &c. tom. ii. p. 255). The modern Greek pronounce the as a V consonant, and confound three vowels(nv), and several diphthongs. Such was the vulgar pronunciation which the stern Gardiner maintained by penal satures in the university of Cambridge: but the monosyllable B represented to an Attic ear the bleating of sheep; and a belwether is better evidence than a bishop or a chancellor. The treatises of those scholars, particularly Erasmus, who asserted a more classical pronunciation, are collected in the Sylloge of Havercamp (2 vols. in octavo, Lugd. Bat. 1736. 1740): but it is difficult to paint sounds by words; and in their reference to modern use, they can be understood only by their respective countrymen. We may observe, that LXVI. schools by the reason of the succeeding age. Of the power CHAP. of the Greek accents they were ignorant: and those musical notes, which, from an Attic tongue, and to an Attic ear, must have been the secret soul of harmony, were, to their eyes, as to our own, no more than mute and unmeaning marks; in prose superfluous, and troublesome in verse. The art of grammar they truly possessed: the valuable fragments of Apollonius and Herodian were transfused into their lessons; and their treatises of syntax and etymology, though devoid of philosophic spirit, are still useful to the Greek student. In the shipwreck of the Byzantine libraries, each fugitive seized a fragment of treasure, a copy of some author, who, without his industry, might have perished; the transcripts were multiplied by an assiduous, and sometimes an elegant, pen; and the text was corrected and explained by their own comments, or those of the elder scholiasts. The sense, though not the spirit, of the Greek classics, was interpreted to the Latin world: the beauties of style evaporate in a version; but the judgment of Theodore Gaza selected the more solid works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and their natural histories of animals and plants opened a rich fund of genuine and experimental science. Yet the fling shadows of metaphysics were pursued The Platonic phiwith more curiosity and ardour. After a long oblivion, losophy. Plato was revived in Italy by a venerable Greek,108 who taught in the house of Cosmo of Medicis. While the synod of Florence was involved in theological debate, some beneficial consequences might flow from the study of his elegant philosophy; his style is the purest standard of the Attic dialect; and his sublime thoughts are sometimes adapted to familiar conversation, and sometimes adorned with the richest colours of poetry and eloquence. The dialogues of Plato are a dramatic picture of the life and death of a sage; and as often as he descends from the clouds, his moral system inculcates the love of truth, of our country, and of mankind. our peculiar pronunciation of the , th, is approved by Erasmus (tom. ii. p. 130). 108 George Gemistus Pletho, a various and voluminous writer, the master of Bessarion, and all the Platonists of the times. He visited Italy in his old age, and soon returned to end his days in Peloponnesus. See the curious Diatribe of Leo Allatius de Georgiis, in Fabricius (Bibliot. Græc, tom. x. p. 739. ...756). LXVI. CHAP. The precept and example of Socrates recommended a modest doubt and liberal inquiry: and if the Platonists, with blind devotion, adored the visions and errors of their divine master, their enthusiasm might correct the dry, dogmatic method of the Peripatetic school. So equal, yet so opposite, are the merits of Plato and Aristotle, that they may be balanced in endless controversy; but some spark of freedom may be produced by the collision of adverse servitude. The modern Greeks were divided between the two sects: with more fury than skill they fought under the banner of their leaders; and the field of battle was removed in their flight from Constantinople to Rome. But this philosophical debate soon degenerated into an angry and personal quarrel of grammarians and Bessarion, though an advocate for Plato, protected the national honour, by interposing the advice and authority of a mediator. In the gardens of the Medici, the academical doctrine was enjoyed by the polite and learned: but their philosophic society was quickly dissolved; and if the writings of the Attic sage were perused in the closet, the more powerful Stagyrite continued to reign, the oracle of the church and school.109 Emulation and pro Latins. : I have fairly represented the literary merits of the Greeks; gress of the yet it must be confessed, that they were seconded and surpassed by the ardour of the Latins. Italy was divided into many independent states; and at that time, it was the ambition of princes and republics to vie with each other in the Nicholas encouragement and reward of literature. The fame of Nicholas the fifth 110 has not been adequate to his merits. From a plebeian origin, he raised himself by his virtue and learning: the character of the man prevailed over the interest of the pope; and he sharpened those weapons which were soon pointed against the Roman church. He had been the friend V. A. D. 1447... 1455. 109 The state of the Platonic philosophy in Italy, is illustrated by Boivin (Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. ii. p. 715...729.) and Tiraboschi (tom. vi. P. i. p. 259...288). 110 See the life of Nicholas V. by two contemporary authors, Janottus Manettus (tom. iii. P. ii. p. 905...962.) and Vespasian of Florence (tom. xxv. p. 267...290), in the collection of Muratori; and consult Tiraboschi (tom. vi. P. i. p. 46...52. 109.) and Hody in the articles of Theodore Gaza, George of Trebizond, &c. 111 Lord Bolingbroke observes, with truth and spirit, that the popes in this instance were worse politicians than the muftis, and that the charm which has bound mankind for so many ages, was broken by the magicians themselves (Letters on the Study of History, l. vi. p. 165, 166. octavo edition, 1779). |