Leonardo Bruni has been celebrated in the works of Hans Baron for his Florentine patriotism. What stimulated this in Bruni's early works (the Laudatio Florentinae Urbis and the second of the Dialogi addressed to Vergerio), according to Baron, was the Florentine victory over Giangaleazzo Visconti in 1402. Yet Bruni had hardly completed the last of these tributes to Florence before he was off for Rome to spend ten years in the papal curia.

Recently a new theory of the structure of Spenser's Amoretti k has been put forward. It is based on the argument that Amoretti LXII refers, not to January 1 but to March 25, 'the day on which the year number is changed' [in Elizabethan times]. This revision of the day's date makes it possible to argue that the forty-seven sonnets from XXII through LXVIII correspond to the Lenten season in 1594, 'including Easter and the six Sundays before Easter.

Erasmus shared with many Renaissance men a more than passing interest in biographical writing. He recommended Plutarch's Lives on several occasions, edited and annotated Suetonius' Lives of the Twelve Caesars, and more importantly, several times tried his own hand at life-writing. In addition to biographical sketches of his contemporaries More, Colet, Vitrier, and Warham, Erasmus wrote lives of Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostom, and other early Church Fathers to serve as introductions to the Froben editions of their works.

George Saintsbury, on the occasion of the seventy-fifth birthday of the eminent scholar Dr. Frederick J. Furnivall, wrote a poem to pay tribute to his friend's achievements in philology. It begins:

The Literary remains of Christophe de Longueil (Longolius, ca. 1490-1522) were published by Junta in Florence in December 1524. The volume had no collective title, but may be listed as Orationes. It included the writing which Longueil did in Padua during his stay there 1520-1522: 'Orationes duae pro defensione sua in crimen lese maiestatis,' or, as the title appeared over the work itself, 'Perduellionis rei defensio,' a third version of his answer to the charge of treason to the Roman people.

In Book v of The Faërie Queene Spenser describes a curious combat between Artegall and Pollente. Both contestants precipitate themselves into the river from a booby-trapped bridge, where Pollente, 'who that use well knew / To fight in water, great advantage had' (v.ii.13. 5-6); 'which oddes when as Sir Artegall espide, / He saw no way but close with him in haste' (v.ii.14.1-2). Gripping his opponent's iron collar and choking him is the tactic he elects, with this result.

Erasmus offered this observation of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine in the colloquy 'A Pilgrimage for Religion's Sake.' Filled with bite and insight, it reflects Erasmus' understanding of the apostolate of the order which he formally joined in 1488. The Canons Regular of St. Augustine, also known as the Austin Canons, performed many of the duties of secular priests. They served parishes, taught in schools and colleges, and served as chaplains.

The designing of permanent indoor theatres did not command the attention of Italian Renaissance architects until the sixteenth century was well under way, temporary structures and portable facilities having previously sufficed for dramatic presentations. Yet already in the second quarter of the quattrocento a chamber in one of the most prominent palaces of fifteenth-century Rome was referred to as the sala theatri.

The Nineteenth Chapter of the second book of Montaigne's Essais has attracted the interest of critics because of its favorable treatment of Julian the Apostate. The essay is concerned with the problems raised by the Paix de Monsieur in 1576 and it is said that Montaigne's portrait of Julian was influenced by Bodin's remarks in his Méthode de l'Histoire and Ammian Marcellinus' life of the Emperor.

The Encomium of the Tuscan literary language which opens the Comento sopra alcuni de' suoi sonetti of Lorenzo the Magnificent has often been excerpted from its context and viewed in terms of its modernistic impetus to the furtherance of the volgare. Governing its survey of Tuscan tradition, however, is the spirit of cultural reminiscence which generally pervades the Comento.

John Minsheu, Shakespeare's contemporary, is primarily known as the author of id est, Ductor in Linguas, The Guide into Tongues (London, 1617). More than any other English work of the period the Ductor in Linguas reflects linguistic research and speculation at home and abroad and represents an important link in the beginnings of modern English lexicography. On the basis of this work Minsheu has been praised as a scholar, antiquarian, and etymologist of note.

More's Utopia is a 'no place' land, as the title etymologically denominates it. To name this nusquama where the main river is the Anydrus is to enter a realm of fiction and contradiction, for this place belongs to language. This verbal irony has a precedent in the Platonic text which is one of More's models and which is, like the Utopia, a fiction with practical and didactic implications. At the end of Book ix of the Republic, Plato has Glaucon ponder just where might be located that city which has been their topic of conversation for so long: it is to be found, he says, only and 'nowhere on earth.'

When Ben Jonson dedicated Volpone 'To the Most Noble and Most Eqvall Sisters the Two Famovs Vniversities,' he offered to the scholars a play packed with learning. The most obviously erudite section, of course, is the entertainment of Nano, Androgyno, and Castrone. An equally curious bit of lore is placed in III.VIII, as Volpone, attempting the virtue of the faithful Celia, exclaims