secured by mutual acts of oblivion and indemnity; all ideas of CHAP. reformation subsided; the popes continued to exercise and LXVI. abuse their ecclesiastical despotism; nor has Rome been since disturbed by the mischiefs of a contested election.”

Greek lan

Constanti

-1453.

The journeys of three emperors were unavailing for their State of the temporal, or perhaps their spiritual, salvation; but they were guage at productive of a beneficial consequence; the revival of the nople, Greek learning in Italy, from whence it was propagated to the 41, 1903 last nations of the West and North. In their lowest servitude and depression, the subjects of the Byzantine throne were still possessed of a golden key that could unlock the treasures of antiquity; of a musical and prolific language, that gives a soul to the objects of sense, and a body to the abstractions of philosophy. Since the barriers of the monarchy, and even of the capital, had been trampled under foot, the various barbarians had doubtless corrupted the form and substance of the national dialect; and ample glossaries have been composed, to interpret a multitude of words, of Arabic, Turkish, Sclavonian, Latin, or French origin. But a purer idiom was spoken in the court and taught in the college; and the flourishing state of the language is described, and perhaps embellished, by a learned Italian, who, by a long residence and noble marriage,80 was naturalized at Constantinople about thirty years before the Turkish conquest. "The vulgar speech," says Philelphus,s!

79

78

austere life of the ducal hermit; but the French and Italian proverbs most unluckily attest the popular opinion of his luxury.

77 In this account of the councils of Basil, Ferrara, and Florence, I have consulted the original acts, which fill the xviith and xviiith tomes of the edition of Venice, and are closed by the perspicuous, though partial history of Augustin Patricius, an Italian of the xvth century. They are digested and abridged by Dupin (Bibliotheque Eccles. tom. xii.) and the continuator of Fleury (tom. xxii;) and the respect of the Gallican church for the adverse parties confines their members to an awkward moderation.

78 In the first attempt Meursius collected 3600 Græco-barbarous words, to which, in a second edition, he subjoined 1800 more; yet what plenteous gleanings did he leave to Portius, Ducange, Fabrotti, the Bollandists, &c. (Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. x. p. 101, &c.) Some Persic words may be found in Xenophon, and some Latin ones in Plutarch; and such is the inevitable effect of war and commerce: but the form aud substance of the language were not affected by this slight alloy.

79 The life of Francis Philelphus, a sophist, proud, restless, and rapacious, has been diligently composed by Lancelot (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 691-751,) and Tiraboschi (Istoria della Letteratura Italiana, tom. vii. p. 282-294,) for the most part from his own letters. His claborate writings, and those of his contemporaries, are forgotten: but their familiar epistles still describe the men and the times.

80 He married, and had perhaps debauched, the daughter of John, and the granddaughter of Manuel Chrysoloras. She was young, beautiful, and wealthy; and her noble family was allied to the Dorias of Genoa and the emperors of Constantinople.

81 Græci quibus lingua depravata non sit.... ita loquuntur vulgo hac etiam tempestate ut Aristophanes comicus, aut Euripides tragicus, ut oratores omnes ut historiographi ut philosophi....literati autem homines et doctius et emendatius....Nam viri aulici veterem sermonis dignitatem atque elegantiam retinebant in primisque ipsæ nobiles mulieres; quibus cum nullum esset omnino cum viris peregrinis commercium, merus ille ac purus Græcorum sermo serva

CHAP. "has been depraved by the people, and infected by the multiLXVI. tude of strangers and merchants, who every day flock to the city and mingle with the inhabitants. It is from the disciples of such a school, that the Latin language received the versions of Aristotle and Plato; so obscure in sense, and in spirit so poor. But the Greeks who have escaped the contagion, are those whom we follow; and they alone are worthy of our imitation. In familiar discourse they still speak the tongue of Aristophanes and Euripides, of the historians and philosophers of Athens; and the style of their writings is still more elaborate and correct. The persons who, by their birth and offices, are attached to the Byzantine court, are those who maintain, with the least alloy, the ancient standard of elegance and purity; and the native graces of language most conspicuously shine among the noble matrons, who are excluded from all intercourse with foreigners. With foreigners do I say? They live retired and sequestered from the eyes of their fellow-citizens. Seldom are they seen in the streets; and when they leave their houses, it is in the dusk of evening, on visits to the churches and their nearest kindred. On these occasions, they are on horseback, covered with a veil, and encompassed by their parents, their husbands, or their servants."

Among the Greeks, a numerous and opulent clergy was dedicated to the service of religion; their monks and bishops have ever been distinguished by the gravity and austerity of their manners; nor were they diverted like the Latin priests, by the pursuits and pleasures of a secular, and even military, life. After a large deduction for the time and talents that were lost in the devotion, the laziness, and the discord, of the church and cloister, the more inquisitive and ambitious minds would explore the sacred and profane erudition of their native language. The ecclesiastics presided over the education of youth; the schools of philosophy and eloquence were perpetuated till the fall of the empire; and it may be affirmed, that more books and more knowledge were included within the walls of Constantinople than could be dispersed over the exComparison tensive countries of the West. But an important distinction Greeks and has been already noticed; the Greeks were stationary or retro

of the

Latins.

grade, while the Latins were advancing with a rapid and progressive motion. The nations were excited by the spirit of independence and emulation; and even the little world of the Italian states contained more people and industry than the decreasing circle of the Byzantine empire. In Europe, the

batur intactus (Philelph. Epist. ad ann. 1451, apud Hodium, p. 188, 189.) He observes in another passage, uxor illa mea Theodora locutione erat admodum

moderate et suavi et maxime Attica.

82 Philelphus, absurdly enough, derives this Greek or Oriental jealousy from the manners of ancient Rome.

83 See the state of learning in the xiiith and xivth centuries, in the learned and judicious Mosheim (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 434–440. 490–494.)

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lower ranks of society were relieved from the yoke of feudal CHAY. servitude; and freedom is the first step to curiosity and know- LXVI. ledge. The use, however rude and corrupt, of the Latin tongue, had been preserved by superstition: the universities, from Bologna to Oxford, were peopled with thousands of scholars; and their misguided ardour might be directed to more liberal and manly studies. In the resurrection of science, Italy was the first that cast away her shroud; and the eloquent Petrarch, by his lessons and his example, may justly be applauded as the first harbinger of day. A purer style of composition, a more generous and rational strain of sentiment, flowed from the study and imitation of the writers of ancient Rome; and the disciples of Cicero and Virgil approached, with reverence and love, the sanctuary of their Grecian masters. In the sack of Constantinople, the French, and even the Venetians, had despised and destroyed the works of Lysippus and Homer: the monuments of art may be annihilated by a single blow; but the immortal mind is renewed and multiplied by the copies of the pen; and such copies it was the ambition of Petrarch and his friends to possess and understand. The arms of the Turks undoubtedly pressed the flight of the muses; yet we may tremble at the thought, that Greece might have been overwhelmed, with her schools, and libraries, before Europe had emerged from the deluge of barbarism; that the seeds of science might have been scattered by the winds before the Italian soil was prepared for their cultivation.

learning in

The most learned Italians of the fifteenth century have con- Revival of fessed and applauded the restoration of Greek literature, after the Greeks a long oblivion of many hundred years. Yet in that country, ly and beyond the Alps, some names are quoted; some profound scholars, who in the darker ages were honourably distinguished by their knowledge of the Greek tongue; and national vanity has been loud in the praise of such rare examples of crudition. Without scrutinizing the merit of individuals, truth must observe that their science is without a cause, and without an effect; that it was easy for them to satisfy themselves and their more ignorant contemporaries; and that the idiom, which they had so marvellously acquired, was transcribed in

At the end of the xvth century, there existed in Europe about fifty universities, and of these the foundation of ten or twelve is prior to the year 1300. They were crowded in proportion to their scarcity. Bologna contained 10,000 students, chiefly of the civil law. In the year 1357 the number at Oxford had decreased from 30,000 to 6000 scholars (Henry's History of Great Britain, vol. p. 478.) Yet even this decrease is much superior to the present list of the members of the university.

35 Of those writers who professedly treat of the restoration of the Greck learning in Italy, the two principal are Hodius, Dr. Humphrey Hody (de Græcis Illustribus, Linguæ Græcæ Literarumque humaniorum Instauratoribus; Londini, 1742, in large octavo,) and Tiraboschi (Istoria della Letteratura Italiana, tom. p. 364-377, tom. vii. p. 112-143.) The Oxford professor is a laborious cholar, but the librarian of Modena enjoys the superiority of a modern and matignal historian.

CHAP. few manuscripts, and was not taught in any university of the LXVI. West. In a corner of Italy, it faintly existed as the popular,

Barlaam,

or at least as the ecclesiastical, dialect. The first impression of the Doric and Ionic colonies has never been completely erased the Calabrian churches were long attached to the throne of Constantinople; and the monks of St. Basil pursued their studies in mount Athos and the schools of the East. Calabria was the native country of Barlaam, who has already appeared as a secretary and an ambassador; and Barlaam was the first who revived, beyond the Alps, the memory, or at least Lessons of the writings of Homer.87 He is described, by Petrarch and A. D. 1339. Boccace, as a man of a diminutive stature, though truly great in the measure of learning and genius; of a piercing discernment, though of a slow and painful elocution. For many ages (as they affirm) Greece had not produced his equal in the knowledge of history, grammar, and philosophy; and his merit was celebrated in the attestations of the princes and doctors of Constantinople. One of these attestations is still extant; and the emperor Cantacuzene the protector of his adversaries, is forced to allow that Euclid, Aristotle, and Plato, were familiar to that profound and subtle logician. In the court of Avignon, he formed an intimate connexion with Petrarch, the first of the Latin scholars; and the desire of mutual instruction was Stu lies of the principle of their literary commerce. The Tuscan applied himself with eager curiosity and assiduous diligence to the study of the Greek language; and in a laborious struggle with the dryness and difficulty of the first rudiments, he began to reach the sense, and to feel the spirit, of poets and philosophers, whose minds were congenial to his own. But he was soon deprived of the society and lessons of this useful assistant: Barlaam relinquished his fruitless embassy; and, on his return to Greece, he rashly provoked the swarms of fanatic monks, by attempting to substitute the light of reason to that of their navel. After a separation of three years, the two friends again met in the court of Naples; but the generous pupil renounced the fairest occasion of improvement; and by his recommendation Barlaam was finally settled in a small

A. D. 1339 -1374.

89

90

86 In Calabria quæ olim magna Græcia dicebatur, coloniis Græcis repleta, remansit quædam linguæ veteris cognitio (Hodius, p. 2.) If it were eradicated by the Romans, it was revived and perpetuated by the monks of St. Basil, who possessed seven convents at Rossano alone (Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, tom. i. p. 520.)

87 li Barbari (says Petrarch, the French and Germans) vix, non dicam libres sed nomen Homeri audiverunt. Perhaps, in that respect, the xiiith century was less happy than the age of Charlemagne.

88 See the character of Barlaam, in Boccace de Genealog. Deorum,, I. xv. c. 6.

89 Cantacuzen. 1. ii. c. 36.

90 For the connexion of Petrarch and Barlaam, and the two interviews at Avignon in 1339, and at Naples in 1342, see the excellent Memoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, tom, i. p. 406-410, tom. ii. p. 75-77.

bishopric of his native Calabria.91 The manifold avocations CHAP. of Petrarch, love and friendship, his various correspondence LXVI. and frequent journeys, the Roman laurel, and his elaborate compositions in prose and verse, in Latin and Italian, diverted him from a foreign idiom; and as he advanced in life, the attainment of the Greek language was the object of his wishes, rather than of his hopes. When he was about fifty years of age, a Byzantine ambassador, his friend, and a master of both tongues, presented him with a copy of Homer; and the answer of Petrarch is at once expressive of his eloquence, gratitude, and regret. After celebrating the generosity of the donor, and the value of a gift more precious in his estimation than gold or rubies, he thus proceeds; "Your present of the genuine and original text of the divine poet, the fountain of all invention, is worthy of yourself and of me: you have fulfilled your promise, and satisfied my desires. Yet your liberality is still imperfect with Homer you should have given me yourself; a guide, who could lead me into the fields of light, and disclose to my wondering eyes the spacious miracles of the Iliad and Odyssey. But, alas! Homer is dumb, or I am deaf; nor is it in my power to enjoy the beauty which I possess. I have seated him by the side of Plato, the prince of poets near the prince of philosophers; and I glory in the sight of my illustrious guests. Of their immortal writings, whatever had been translated into the Latin idiom, I had already acquired; but if there be no profit, there is some pleasure, in beholding these venerable Greeks in their proper and national habit. I am delighted with the aspect of Homer; and as often as I embrace the silent volume, I exclaim with a sigh, Illustrious bard! with what pleasure should I listen to thy song, if my sense of hearing were not obstructed and lost by the death of one friend, and in the much lamented absence of another. Nor do I yet despair; and the example of Cato suggests some comfort and hope, since it was in the last period of age that he attained the knowledge of the Greek letters."92

The prize which eluded the efforts of Petrarch, was obtained of Boccars] by the fortune and industry of his friend Boccace,93 the father 1360, &c.

91 The bishopric to which Barlaam retired, was the old Locri, in the middle ages Sta. Cyriaca, and by corruption Hieracium Gerace (Dissert. Chorographica Italiæ medii Ævi, p. 312.) The dives opum of the Norman times soon elapsed into poverty, since even the church was poor; yet the town still contains 3000 inhabitants (Swinburne, p. 340.)

92 I will transcribe a passage from this epistle of Petrarch (Famil. ix. 2,) Donasti Homerum non in alienum sermonem violento alveo derivatum, sed ex ipsis Græci eloquii scatebris, et qualis divino illi profluxit ingenio... Sine tuâ voce Homerus tuus apud me mutus, immo vero ego apud illum surdus sum. Gaudeo tamen vel adspectù solo, ac sæpe illum amplexus atque suspirans dico, O magne vir, &c.

93 For the life and writings of Boccace, who was born in 1313, and died in 1375, Fabricius (Bibliot. Latin. medii Evi, tom. i. p. 248, &c.) and Tiraboschi (tom. v. p. 83. 439-451,) may be consulted. The editions, versions, imitations VOL. VI.

23

A. D.