Niccolo Machiavelli and His Times Volume 1

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 edition. Excerpt: ...not shared the great literary movement that shewed itself in Florence in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. But in the fifteenth century it was one of the most flourishing cities of Italy, and the disorders of the Court seldom seemed to spread beyond the walls of the Ducal Palace. Ferrara had been built after a prearranged design, it was governed in an orderly way, and exiles from Florence and other Italian cities took refuge and erected palaces there. The houses and streets that are now so deserted barely sufficed for the needs of the population. Its dukes looked after everything, and invited learned men to settle among them. Among these, the first place must be given to Guarino Veronese, who, in bringing learning to Ferrara where feudal and knightly traditions were in full force, promoted the revival of letters which afterwards gave us the Orlando Inamorato, the Orlando Furioso, and so many other works of imperishable fame. The brothers were four: Alfonso I., Cardinal Ippolito, Don Ferrante and Giulio the bastard, all sons of Ercole I. Guarino, born in 1370, studied Greek at Constantinople, whence he returned to Italy with a rich store of manuscripts, and so tenderly did he value these, that there was a generally received fable of his hair having suddenly turned white on the loss by shipwreck of a large portion of his treasure, t He taught first in Florence, then at Venice, where one of his pupils was Vittorino da Feltre, in whom he infused his learning and principles of education. Called to Ferrara in 1424 by Niccolo III., he became the instructor of Lionello and professor at the university, devoting himself with feverish ardour to his double office, besides writing a great number of works: translations of Plutarch, Plato, Strabo, and...