^{page 1 note 1} The substance of this paper was read to a meeting of the Hellenic Society, at Oxford, on 3rd November, 1942. At the Editors' request I have treated one or two topics rather more fully than was possible on that occasion, and have added references. Among the works consulted, the three to which I am most indebted are Voigt, G., Die Wiederbelebung des Classischen Alterthums³ (ed. Lehnard, Max, 1893)Google Scholar; Sabbadini, R., Le Scoperte dei Codici Latini e Greci ne' Secoli XIV e XV, 1905Google Scholar; and Sandys, J. E., A History of Classical Scholarship, 1903, etc.Google Scholar I have also gleaned much from Burckhardt's Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy and from Creighton's History of the Papacy during the Reformation. Other works consulted, which include a regrettably small number of the original authorities, will be mentioned in due course, but to save space I refer to the five standard works mentioned above under their authors' names only. Whitfield's, J. H.Petrarch and the Renascence (Blackwell, 1943)Google Scholar was not available, to my great regret, until this paper was almost ready for printing.

^{page 1 note 2} Voigt, i. 163 ff.; Petrarch's first letter to Boccaccio, written after they met (Epist. rerum famil. xi. 1) is dated 2nd November, 1350; for his description of their meeting, op. cit., xxi. 15. Cf. Hauvette, H., Boccace (1914), pp. 195ff.Google Scholar

^{page 1 note 3} For Petrarch's attempts to learn Greek, Voigt, i. 47 ff.; for those of Boccaccio, i. 169 ff.

^{page 1 note 4} Sandys, i. 415; for fuller details see Pauly-Wissowa, x. 2, s.v. Kallisthenes, col. 1707–8.

^{page 2 note 5} For this translation see Newman, W. L., The Politics of Aristotle, ii. xliv. ff.Google Scholar; cf. Sandys, i. 562 f.; for a summary of the MSS. authority for the Politics, Hall, F. W., Companion to Classical Texts, p. 210Google Scholar.

^{page 2 note 6} Fires at Constantinople, Gibbon, , Decline and Fall, c. xl.Google Scholar (the ‘Nika’ riots, cf. iv. 237 and 568 f. of Bury's edition), and c. lx. (fires in 1203–4), op. cit. vi. 417; Sandys, i. 415 f.

^{page 2 note 7} For the Byzantine scholars mentioned cf. Sandys, i. 388 f. (Photius); 395 f. (Arethas and Constantine Porphyro genitus); 399 (Suidas); 401 ff. (Psellus); 408 f. (Tzetzes).

^{page 2 note 8} For the intellectual interests of the élite of Florentine society in the last quarter of the fourteenth century cf. Voigt, i. 183 ff.; Greek seems not to have figured among them until the arrival of Chrysoloras in 1396.

^{page 3 note 9} Cf. Voigt, i. 222 f.; Sandys, ii. 19 f.

^{page 4 note 10} Cf. Voigt, i. 547–56 (Guarino); 532–44 (Vittorino); in addition to the authorities cited by Voigt for the latter scholar see Woodward, W. H., Vittorino da Feltre and other Humanist Educators (1897)Google Scholar; Sandys, ii. 53 ff.; Jebb, R. C. in Cambridge Modem History, i. 556–8Google Scholar.

^{page 4 note 11} Voigt, i. 232–61; Sandys, ii. 25 ff. (passim).

^{page 4 note 12} For Cosimo, Voigt, i. 292–5; for his life by Vespasiano, see The Vespasiano Memoirs (English trans, by W. G., and Waters, E., 1926), 213–34Google Scholar. For Niccolo de' Niccoli, Voigt, i. 295–306; Sabbadini, i. 53–5; for his life by Vespasiano, op. cit., pp. 395–403; the passage quoted is taken from p. 399 f. H. A. L. Fisher, in his History of Europe, Bk. II, c. ii, appropriately quotes from the same source the description of Niccolo's personal appearance and mode of life to illustrate the habits of a cultured gentleman of the Florentine Golden Age. For Vespasiano himself, Voigt, i. 399 ff.

^{page 4 note 13} For Leonardo Bruni, Vespasiano, op. cit., pp. 358 ff. (with a photograph of his tomb and effigy, in Santa Croce at Florence); Voigt, i. 306 ff.; ii. 163 ff. (for his translations); Sandys, ii. 45–7; Sabbadini, i. 51, 74 ff., etc.

^{page 4 note 14} Vespasiano (op. cit., p. 367) tells this story, but describes the Englishman as the Duke of Worcester, by a confusion with the famous Earl (John Tiptoft); cf. Sandys, ii. 46².

^{page 4 note 15} For Ciceronian Latin as expected of translators, Voigt, i. 222, 507; ii. 416.

^{page 4 note 16} Voigt, i. 262 ff; Sandys, ii. 36–9; Sabbadini, i. 43–50. Sabbadini's Biografia documentata di G. Aurispa (1891) I have not been able to consult.

^{page 4 note 17} Op. cit., i. 263 f.

^{page 5 note 18} These details are drawn by Voigt, i. 265¹, from the letters of Ambrogio Traversari, General of the Order of Camaldoli. With Traversari himself we need not concern ourselves here, as his interests and his conscience alike confined his study of Greek to the Church Fathers. This did not prevent him from enjoying the close friendship of Niccoli and his circle, as well as of Cosimo de' Medici himself. Cf. Vespasiano Memoirs, pp. 208 ff.; Voigt, i. 314 ff.; Sandys, ii. 44. His voluminous correspondence was edited by Mehus in 1759.

^{page 5 note 19} For MSS. brought by Filelfo, Voigt, i. 265, 348 f.; Sandys, ii. 55; Sabbadini, i. 48, 58 ff.; Vespasiano, whose brief memoir (op. cit., pp. 408–10) does not conceal his dislike for Filelfo's vain and quarrelsome character, says nothing of his bringing MSS. from Constantinople; the evidence for this is to be found in his own letters. We shall meet him again as a translator of the Cyropaedia.

^{page 5 note 20} For Ciriaco's activities, Voigt, i. 269–86; Sandys, ii. 39 f.; Sabbadini, i. 48, 69, etc. A fully documented study of Ciriaco is badly needed, for much has come to light concerning him since the publication of Cyriaci Anconitani Itinerarium, ed. Mehus (Florence, 1742). For the Herodotus and other Greek MSS. which he found on his travels, cf. Voigt, i. 279; but it is not quite clear whether he acquired all that he claims to have seen. Funds would not have been lacking for the purpose, as he had the financial backing of Cosimo de' Medici.

^{page 5 note 21} For Aeneas Sylvius's journey to England, see Creighton, ii. 233 ff.; for the enigmatic Thucydides, the letter to John Hinderbach (4th June, 14.51) quoted by Creighton (p. 237), runs as follows: ‘Vetus historia in manus venit, ante annos sexcentos, ut signatum erat, conscripta … auctor historiae Thucydides Graecus annotatus erat, quern fama celebrem clarum novimus, translatoris nullum nomen inveni.’ Cf. also Voigt, ii, 254⁵; Sandys, ii. 220.

^{page 5 note 22} Sandys, i. 473; James, M. R., in Cambridge Medieva History, iii. c. xx., esp. 524 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 5 note 23} For Vergerio's Thucydides, cf. Sabbadini, i. 62, but no contemporary authority is cited. For that of Francesco Barbaro, op. cit., p. 63 f.; it is now in the Vatican Library (Urbin. Gr. p. 92, f. 3) with a note saying that the owner bought it in 1415. For his De Re Uxoria, written apparently at the age of 18, cf. Sabbadini, i. 63 (note 122); Whitield, J.H., Petrarch and the Renascence, pp. 145–7Google Scholar, who denies it a title to literary merit. It was first printed, by Ascensius, in 1513.

^{page 5 note 24} For Guarino's MSS. and their disposal, Sabbadini, i. 44 f.

^{page 5 note 25} For Salutati's letters see Epistolario di Coluccio Salutati, a cura di Francesco Novati (Fonti per la Storia d'ltalia, Rome 1891–1911, 4 vols.). The reference to the Plutarch manuscript is worth quoting: ‘Ceterum scio quod de greco in grecum vulgare et de hoc in aragonicum Plutarchum de hystoria, xxxxviii ducum et virorum illustrium interpretari feceris; habeo quidem rubricarum maximam partem. Cupio, si fieri potest, hunc librum videre; forte quidem transferam in Latinum.’ This letter is addressed to Juan Fernandez de Heredia, and dated ‘Kal. Feb.’; the editor attributes it to 1392, though previous scholars had suggested an earlier year. See Novati, op. cit., ii. 289 ff.; it is numbered Bk. VII. 11 in his edition. He also points out that the original Spanish version is in the Bibliothèque Nationale (Fond. Espan. 70–2) and actually contains only thirty-nine Lives; and he does not believe that Salutati ever completed a Latin version.

^{page 6 note 26} Sabbadini, i. 36, 39.

^{page 6 note 27} Voigt, ii. 177, and note 2.

^{page 6 note 28} Vespasiano op. cit., pp. 31–58; Voigt, ii. 53 ff.; Creighton, ii. 334–344, and 521 (for a conspectus of the contemporary sources for his Pontificate).

^{page 6 note 29} Although there was no active encouragement of translation or other scholarly undertakings, statistics show a steady increase in the number of Greek MSS. in the Vatican Library, of which a large proportion were naturally theological works. According to Sabbadini's reckoning (i. 57 f.), at the death of Nicolas V it contained 414 Greek codices; Pius II added 40, and before the death of Sixtus IV in 1484 the total had passed 1000. It must be recalled that the MSS. belonging to Nicolas V were his own private collection, and that his idea of creating a Bibliotheca Vaticana was only carried out by Sixtus IV, and entrusted to the direction of Bartolomeo Platina in 1475. Cf. Wattenbach, W., Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter³ (1896), 604Google Scholar.

^{page 6 note 30} For Poggio's part in this feud, cf. Shepherd, W., Poggio Bracciolini (1802), c. xi. esp. pp. 464 ff.Google Scholar; Villari, P., Life and Times of Muchiavelli (Engl. trans., 1898), pp. 84 ff.Google Scholar For Valla, ibid., pp. 95 ff.; Voigt, i. 460 ff.; Whitfield, op. cit., pp. 121–43, who stresses the originality and audacity of Valla's mind.

^{page 7 note 31} Voigt, ii. 152.

^{page 7 note 32} Voigt, ii. 477–84.

^{page 7 note 33} A short sample of Perotti's style may be quoted from his attack on Trapezuntios, after the latter had praised the Turks (‘qui Turcas omnibus imperatoribus praestantioressse voluit’): he called him ‘foedissimum ac detestabile monstrum, Turcum, imo Turco turciorem, sceleratiorem, imo Turcorum omnium turcissimum, omnium quae memoravimus turpiorem, et si quid dici tetrius posset’! The full outburst is printed in Migne, , Patrologia Graeca, clxi. 762 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 7 note 34} Voigt, ii. 309 f.

^{page 7 note 35} The actual copy for presentation to the Pope was transcribed by Joannes Lampertide Rodenberg, and Valla certifies that he checked its accuracy (‘recognovicum ipso Joanne, qui eum tarn egregie scripsit’). His testimony is quoted in full by Wattenbach, , Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalte p. 339Google Scholar, after Vahlen, L., Laurentii Vallae Opuscula tria (SB Wien 1869), p. 64Google Scholar. I do not know how many fifteenth-century 1869), p. 64. I do not know how many fifteenth-century copies of this translation are extant, but among those with interesting associations is one in the Earl of Leicester's Library at Holkham, purchased in 1490 by Raphael de Marcatellis, a natural son of Duke Philippe le Bon. (Cf. A Handlist of the Manuscripts at Holkham, by Seymour de Ricci (Suppl. to Bibliographical Society's Transactions, No. 7, 1932), p. ix and No. 443.) A copy of Valla's Herodotus made for the same owner, ibid., No. 442 (and two others, Nos. 440 and 441). For the earliest printed editions of these two translations, see below.

^{page 7 note 36} For Alfonso of Aragon, King of Naples, etc., see Vespasiano Memoirs, pp. 59–83; Voigt, i. 457 ff.; Burckhardt, pp. 35, 225–7. I have not been able to consult the Dicta et Facia Alfonsi by Antonio Beccadelli (Panormita), of which Burckhardt cites an edition with notes by Aeneas Sylvius (Basle, 1538).

^{page 7 note 37} For Poggio's premature, and at first unsuccessful, attempt to secure Alfonso's approval, and remuneration, for his Cyropaedia see Voigt, i. 334 f. Vespasiano, Memoirs, p. 354, tells the story briefly; for Poggio's own letters on the subject, cf. Voigt, ad loc., who also mentions the actual presentation-copy preserved in the Ambrosiana Library at Milan.

For the Diodorus I am tempted to quote what Obsopoeus says of it in the preface to his Editio Princeps of books xvi–xx published at Basle in 1539. ‘Quorum versio meo quidem iudicio Poggio non recte adscribitur. Neque enim verisimile est adeo spurciloquum et virulentum sycophantam et vitilitigatorem quicquam Graecitatis calluisse, qui ne Latinam quidem linguam, cuius sibi videbatur esse peritissimus, recte calluit.’ Stephanus, in his edition of all the surviving books of Diodorus (1559), contents himself with calling it ‘versio vel potius perversio.’

^{page 8 note 38} For Decembrio's Appian, Voigt, ii. 186 f.; Hall, F. W., Companion to Classical Texts, pp. 203 f.Google Scholar, points out that the MS. of the text used by D. belongs to the ‘O’ group, represented by ‘B’ (Venice, Marciana 387, saec. xv) and ‘V’ (Vatican, Gr. 134, saec. xiv–xv). The translation was first printed at Venice, by Wendelin of Speyr in 1472, and again by Ratdolt, (ibid.), in 1477.

^{page 8 note 39} For Casaubon's opinion of Perotti's Polybius, cf. Voigt, ii. 187 f.; Sandys, ii. 71.

^{page 8 note 40} Voigt, i. 432 f.; ii. 176 f.

^{page 8 note 41} Vespasiano, op. cit., pp. 137 ff., describes him as ‘well versed in Greek and Latin, a lover of letters and of literary men.’ As a sample of his mastery of Latin it is instructive to read his Contra Turcos Exhorlationes, addressed to the Princes of Italy after the Turkish capture of Chalkis in 1470, to which he appends a fluent and vigorous rendering of the First Olynthiac of Demosthenes. The numerous classical and historical allusions in the Exhortation itself include Nestor's attempts to reconcile Agamemnon and Achilles, the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, Xenophon, Alexander, Pyrrhus, the Sack of Corinth and Plutarch's Camillus. His letter to the ‘Princeps Senatusque Venetiarum’ (from Viterbo, 4th May, 1469) conveying the gift of his library to the city is a dignified and scholarly composition. Cf. Migne, , Patrologia Graeca, clxi. 700 f.Google Scholar, for the letter, from which Sabbadini (i. 67, note 146) quotes an extract.

^{page 9 note 42} For Ferrante, cf. Burckhardt, 36 f., with references to the contemporary authorities.

^{page 9 note 43} Catalogue of Books printed in the Fifteenth Century now British Museum, Pt. VII (1935).

^{page 9 note 44} See the list of the Editiones Principes of the Greek Historians and of translations of their works into Latin and other languages, in the Appendix, pp. 13–14.

^{page 10 note 45} For Bruni's treatment of the Hellenica, cf. Voigt, ii. 172 Whilst such suppression of the name of the author translated, or even of the very fact that the work was a translation, seems to offend against modern standards of literary propriety, it is well to remember, as has been effectively pointed out by Dr. E. Ph. Goldschmidt, that this represents a survival of the medieval conception of authorship. ‘The medieval student,’ he explains, ‘looked on the contents of the books he read as part of that great and total body of knowledge, the scientia de omni scibili, which had once be the property of the ancient sages.’ See his Medieval Text and their first appearance in Print (Bibliographical Society's Transactions, No. 16, Oxford, 1943), esp. pp. 109 ff.Google Scholar Bruni's literary career, which extends down to the period when the dedication of one's work to a powerful patron was the prevalent fashion, well illustrates the transition to the typical Renaissance conception of self-expression, individuality and fame earned by literary composition. These, as Goldschmidt emphasises,‘were not medieval ideas at all; they were born in the Renaissance period.’

^{page 10 note 46} Bessarion possessed a copy in the author's own handwriting, now Bibl. Marciana, Gk. No. 406. As printed in the Basle Herodotus of 1557 the text fills barely 22 folio pages.

^{page 10 note 47} Voigt, ii. 503; for his career, ibid., pp. 143 ff.

^{page 10 note 48} Cf. Il Cortegiano, ed. Cian, V.³ (1939)Google Scholar, Bk. II, c. lxxi, and the editor's note on Leonico, p. 250.

^{page 11 note 49} Little is known of Valturio's life, and Voigt, i. 578 f., has not much to add to the briefer account in Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana (Rome, 1783), vi, Pt. i, 369 ff.Google Scholar, where his epitaph is reprinted, showing that he died at the age of seventy-one, having survived Roberto Malatesta, son of his patron Sigismondo. The father died in 1468, the son sixteen years later. Tiraboschi correctly describes him as ‘versatissimo nella lettura degli Autori Greci e Latini.’ On many grounds one would welcome a full study of his treatise be Arte Militari, with its delightful woodcuts of weapons and siege-engines.

^{page 11 note 50} Voigt, ii. 491.

^{page 11 note 51} For Flavius Blondus see Voigt, ii. 34 ff., 85 ff., 492 ff.; cf. Jebb, R. C., in Cambridge Modern History, i. 347Google Scholar.

^{page 11 note 52} Cf. Renouard, , Annales de l'Imprimerie des Aides, i. 49–61Google Scholar.

^{page 11 note 53} Cf. Creighton, vi. 339–44; Cambridge Modern History, i. c. iv. 111 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 11 note 54} Woodward, W. H., Cesare Borgia (1913), pp. 232 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 11 note 55} Botfield, B., Prefaces to the Editiones Principes (1861), 284 (Pindar)Google Scholar, 286 ff. (Plato); for those of the Herodotus and other works first printed in 1502, op. cit., pp. 256 ff.

^{page 12 note 56} For the letter of Erasmus quoted see Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami, ed. Allen, P. S., vii. 509 ff. (No. 2059)Google Scholar; cf. Sandys, ii. 123. ‘Nimirum orbis hoc excidium erat verius quam urbis.’

^{page 12 note 57} Sandys, ii. 63 f.

^{page 12 note 58} Whitfield, , Petrarch and the Renascence, p. 104Google Scholar.

^{page 12 note 59} For details see the Appendix.

^{page 12 note 60} ‘Despite the heroic efforts of Aldus, the diffusion of Greek recedes from the beginning of the sixteenth century; and in the meantime it was without influence on the course of Italian literature.’ Whitfield, loc. cit.

^{page 12 note 61} Cf. Burd, L. A., in Cambridge Modern History, i. c. vi.Google Scholar, for the part played by the intellectual heritage of Greece, and still more of Rome, on Macchiavelli's doctrines; esp. 201–8.

^{page 13 note 62} Whilst the whole setting of Il Cortegiano is full of delibeate adaptations from Cicero, De Oratore, there are many touches that reveal an understanding of Greek history and political thought, but no clear proof that Castiglione had read any of the Greek writers referred to in the original.

^{page 13 note 1} These versions by Hieronymus Boner are little more than paraphrases, based apparently on the Latin versions.

^{page 13 note 2} Poggio's version of the Cyropaedia (cf. p. 7 above) seems never to have been printed.

^{page 13 note 3} A more correct version of the Hellenica was published at Venice (1550) by Fr. de Soldo Strozzi.

^{page 13 note 4} For fuller particulars of this scholarly translation into French (1568), cf. Becker, A. Henri, Loys Le Roy (Ludovicus Regius), Paris, 1926, 186–210.Google Scholar