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 VITTORINO DA FELTRE 
 
 AND OTHER 
 
 HUMANIST EDUCATORS: 
 
 ESSAYS AND VERSIONS. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO 
 THE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM HARRISON WOODWARD, 
 
 CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD ; 
 LECTURER IN EDUCATION IN VICTORIA UNIVERSITY. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
 1897 
 
 [All Rights reserved.}
 
 Education 
 Library 
 
 LA 
 
 GERALD HENRY RENDALL, 
 
 LITTERARUM DOCTORI, 
 
 OMNIS HUMANITATIS 
 
 ET EXEMPLO ET FAUTORI 
 
 HOC OPUSCULUM 
 
 A STUDIIS EIUS DILECTIS 
 
 HAUD ALIENUM 
 
 AMICUS AMICO 
 
 D. D. 
 
 W. H. W. 
 
 959179
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 LIST OF AUTHORITIES for the life of VITTORINO 
 DA FELTRE xi 
 
 I. A STUDY of the life and work of VITTORINO DA 
 
 FELTRE . i 
 
 II. P. P. VERGERIUS, De Ingenuis Moribus : an English 
 
 Version 93 
 
 III. LIONARDO BRUNI D' AREZZO, De Studiis et Literis : 
 
 an English version 119 
 
 IV. AENEAS SYLVIUS, De Liberorum Educatione : an 
 
 English version . 134 
 
 V. BATTISTA GUARINO, De Ordine Docendi et Studendi: 
 
 an English version . . . . . . .161 
 
 VI. THE AIMS AND METHODS of the Humanist Educator 179 
 
 VII. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST of works quoted . . .251
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE present volume is offered as an introduction to the 
 study of the education of the first period of Renaissance, 
 the century which followed the death of Petrarch. The 
 work falls into three divisions. The first treats of the career 
 of the characteristic Humanist School-master, Vittorino da 
 Feltre. The second consists of four noteworthy treatises on 
 education produced during this period, not now readily 
 accessible to students. These are here presented in English 
 versions. In the third section I have aimed at setting forth 
 a general review of education as conceived by humanist ) 
 scholars. 
 
 The subject is of interest in more than one direction. It 
 bears immediately upon the broaderepnceptions which we 
 form of the civilisation and ideals of the Renaissance in its 
 earlier and less self-conscious stage ; inasmuch as the edu- 
 cational aim of any age, if scientifically thought out, must 
 express, with some precision, the moral and intellectual temper 
 of the time. In the next place, though less directly, light 
 is thrown by such enquiry as the present upon the develop- 
 ment of classical scholarship. Its relation to the history of 
 educational ideals and methods needs no insistence. In 
 limiting the present Study to the period of the early Renais- 
 sance I have not been guided by considerations of space
 
 viii Introduction. 
 
 alone. Recent critics of Humanism, both in England and 
 Germany, appear to me to have overlooked the distinctive 
 character of this period of ' Origins.' Whether as regards 
 spirit or practice, the Mantuan school of Vittorino can by 
 no possibility be classed under one head with the school of 
 Sturm at Strassburg. 
 
 In this difference is implied a constant process in which 
 the ideal of the greater Humanists was slowly narrowed and 
 hardened till it reaches the pedantry which rouses the scorn of 
 Montaigne. It is not merely that the Latinity of Vergerius 
 or Guarino was freer and less artificial, nor that with them 
 literature was something more than a sequence of model 
 passages: the scholars of the first half of the Quattrocento 
 had a far broader grasp of the true content of education, and 
 with it a more sincere conception of the relation between the 
 antique and the modern world. 
 
 To bring out, even at the cost of some repetition, this de- 
 cisive feature of early Humanism has been an object which I 
 have throughout kept steadily in view. In Italy the distinction 
 is sharply drawn by such ardent and clear-sighted students 
 of Humanist literature as the late Prof. Combi, and that most 
 industrious enquirer and powerful critic, Dr Sabbadini of 
 Catania. It is one worthy of attention, not only from pro- 
 fessed students of the Revival of Learning, but from all who 
 are concerned in the status and the methods of classical teach- 
 ing. Humanist education, alike of the Elizabethan schools, 
 and of those of to-day, is, no doubt, open to criticism, either in 
 respect of its aims, or of the methods of attaining them. It 
 will serve good purpose if, in weighing what is alleged, we can 
 fall back upon the experiences and the avowed ideals of a 
 period in which our classical education of to-day received its 
 first and in some respects its noblest impress. We shall then 
 not refuse our recognition to the wonderful gifts, scholarly and
 
 Introduction. ix 
 
 educational, which mark the little band of students and school- 
 masters, who within the space of hardly more than one 
 generation, could establish a concept of education wholly new 
 to the modern world and could devise, from material in large 
 part unfamiliar, a working method which has for five centuries 
 remained, with but slight modification, adequate to the highest 
 needs of intellectual culture. 
 
 I desire to record my obligation for help received in the 
 compilation of the present work from Dr Sabbadini, Professor 
 of Latin in the University of Catania ; from Principal Kendall, 
 of University College, Liverpool ; from Dr Garnett, and the 
 officials of the Reading Room, and of the Manuscript Room 
 of the British Museum, whose courtesy is never failing ; from 
 Dr Copinger ; and from Mr John Sampson, the Librarian of 
 University College, Liverpool, who has kindly read the proofs, 
 and whose bibliographical knowledge has been of great assist- 
 ance, notably in the preparation of the List which concludes 
 the volume. 
 
 The Frontispiece shews the Medal of Vittorino by Pisa- 
 nello : I am indebted to Dr Barclay V. Head, the Keeper of 
 the Coins and Medals in the British Museum, for the cast of 
 this rare medal from which the reproduction is taken.
 
 VITTORINO DA FELTRE : AUTHORITIES. 
 
 The AUTHORITIES for the life and work of VITTORINO DA 
 FELTRE are the following: 
 
 1. The Dialogue of Francesco Prendilacqua. Born at Mantua 
 about 1422 he was a pupil of Vittorino in 1440; some years later 
 he served as Secretary to Alessandro Gonzaga. At school he was 
 contemporary with Federigo di Urbino, with whom he maintained 
 friendly relations in after years. Prendilacqua had special oppor- 
 tunities of information in all that concerned the personal character 
 of Vittorino and of his methods of instruction and discipline. The 
 date of the Dialogue is uncertain, but in any case it was composed 
 some years after the death of Vittorino (1446). 
 
 2. The Letter of Sassuolo da Prato De Victorini Feltrensis 
 vita ac disciplina. Sassuolo is found at the Mantuan school in 
 1437, and is still there in 1443. He acted as assistant in Mathe- 
 matics and Music during part of this time. His Letter is referred 
 to by contemporaries as a valuable authority upon the work of 
 Vittorino. 
 
 3. Francesco di Castiglione prefixed a short account of 
 Vittorino, whose pupil he was for eight years, to his life of 
 Antonino, Archbishop of Florence. 
 
 4. Bartolomeo Sacchi, known as Platina, is in some respects 
 the most important of all contemporary authorities. He was not a 
 pupil of Vittorino himself, but of his beloved scholar and successor 
 Ognibene da Lonigo. Platina in his turn followed Ognibene, as 
 head of the Mantuan School, in 1453, remaining there for three 
 years. His position enabled him to gather minute and accurate 
 information upon all details of subject and method adopted by 
 Vittorino. Platina is best known by his Vitae Pontificum and
 
 xii Vittorino da Feltre: Authorities. 
 
 Historia Urbis Mantuanae. He was the first ' Praefectus Biblio- 
 thecae' of the Vatican (1475). 
 
 5. Giovanni Andrea, afterwards Bishop of Aleria, was, like 
 Sassuolo, one of the free pupils of Vittorino. He is referred to on 
 p. 88, below. He devotes a portion of his Preface to the Editio 
 Princeps of Livy to a recognition of his debt to his old master, 
 from whose emended copy of Livy he was said to have printed the 
 Text. 
 
 6. The memoir by Vespasiano da Bisticci, the famous Floren- 
 tine bookseller, though inaccurate and not very definite, is interesting 
 on the personal side. Vittorino made his acquaintance during his 
 visit to Florence in 1443. 
 
 7. Certain letters of Vittorino to the Marchioness Paola 
 Gonzaga, brought to light within the past ten years from the 
 remains of the Mantuan archives, throw an interesting light upon 
 the relations between the Gonzaga family and the master of the 
 Palatine school. The Correspondence and Hodoeporicon of Am- 
 brogio Traversari is valuable upon the literary side. 
 
 The work of Cavaliere Rosmini, Idea delF ottimo Precettore, 
 nella vita e disciplina di Vittorino da Feltre, published in 1 80 1, is a 
 most appreciative and stimulating memoir of the Teacher, written, 
 as the title implies, mainly from the educational standpoint. It is 
 based chiefly upon Prendilacqua, though Rosmini showed extreme 
 diligence in collecting all the scattered notices of Vittorino available 
 from printed sources. But the wider and more precise knowledge 
 of Humanism which we owe to the research of the past half 
 century enables us to define much more exactly the place of 
 Vittorino in the Revival of Letters, and in the general history of 
 Education. 
 
 The bibliographical list which is placed at the end of the 
 volume, p. 251, will facilitate reference to the editions of works 
 actually quoted in the text or notes. Although it is by no means 
 a complete list of authorities consulted it will serve to indicate 
 the active research now in progress in Italy and Germany in 
 connection with the literary aspects of the Renaissance. It is only 
 right to acknowledge the special debt due from all students of the 
 subject to Dr Sabbadini.
 
 VITTORINO DA FELTRE. 
 
 VITTORINO DA FELTRE was born at Feltre, one of those 
 picturesque little towns which nestle under the southern 
 slope of the Eastern Alps with their faces turned toward the 
 great Venetian plain. It is near enough to the southern edge 
 of the Dolomite region to be called Titian's country ; its natural 
 centre is Venice, though at the end of the fourteenth century 
 its dependence was either upon the Visconti or the Carrara, 
 the famous condottieri and lords of Padua. Vittorino was the 
 son of one Ser Bruto di Rambaldoni and Monda his wife ; the 
 family was held in high respect ', but latterly it had fallen upon 
 evil days, and only the tradition of place and fortune survived 
 at the time of Vittorino's birth in 1378. Bruto Rambaldoni 
 was a writer or notary, and in later years his son recounted 
 how from time to time the household lacked even the bare 
 necessaries of life. Vittorino, however, in spite of a slight and 
 unimpressive figure seems to have been possessed of a sound 
 constitution, which certainly the bracing air of his native hill 
 country could not fail to strengthen. Of his boyhood we 
 know practically nothing. Feltre could offer little in the way 
 of masters or books. It lay remote from any large town and 
 no highway of importance passed through it. Vittorino, who 
 manifested as he grew up an intellectual keenness which Feltre 
 
 1 Castiglione writes of Vittorino (whose pupil he was for eight years) 
 "Non ex ignobili genere in Feltrensi civitate natus est." Mehus, Ambr. 
 Trav. ccccviii. 
 
 W. I
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 could not satisfy, left his native town at the age of 18 and in 
 1396 entered the university of Padua, where, as his pupil re- 
 cords, ' all the Arts had their home.' 
 
 The position of Padua, still part of the Lordship of the 
 Carrara, was at this moment one of some peculiar interest 
 amongst the universities of Italy. The year 1396 is at the 
 same time one of the great dates in. the history of learning. 
 For in the spring of this year the Studium of Florence ad- 
 dressed an invitation to Manuel Chrysoloras, at Constantinople, 
 to accept the chair of Greek letters as the first Professor of 
 the Greek tongue in the West. From this invitation, couched 
 in terms of grave dignity worthy of the men who sent it, date 
 the beginnings of Greek learning in Italy. We are naturally 
 accustomed to associate the revival of the study of antiquity 
 primarily with Florence, with Boccaccio, Salutati and Niccoli, 
 and to regard the municipality' or the court rather than the 
 established universities as the more potent influence in the 
 rise of Humanism. This is no doubt in the main true of all 
 cities of Northern Italy. But there is strong evidence that 
 Padua, the second great Italian university of the time, stood 
 in more friendly relation to the new studies than any other 
 'Studio Pubblico' of the peninsula except perhaps Pavia. 
 The spirit of Petrarch in the study of the Renaissance we 
 find ourselves inevitably harking back to Petrarch was still a 
 living force in Padua. He had lived for many years in its 
 immediate neighbourhood. He 4 had been equally intimate 
 with the ruling family 2 and with the learned circles of the 
 University. Francesco Carrara was his admirer, correspondent 
 
 1 The Florentine Studium was revived in 1348; it had never been 
 reckoned amongst the older universities, which had their origin from 
 Bologna. The terms of the invitation shew that it was with the citizens 
 rather than the students or regents of the Studium that it originated. The 
 Studio of Florence was curiously lacking in vitality. See Voigt, i. 340. 
 
 2 See Zardo, // Petr. ed i Carraresi, Milan, 1887. The letter on the 
 character of a prince in Ep. Senil. ed. Fracassetti, xiv. i.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 and close personal friend. One of Petrarch's most important 
 letters was addressed to him, bearing directly upon the state of 
 the university city itself. His correspondence reveals how 
 deeply interested Petrarch was in all that concerned education, 
 and his anxiety for its reform. Petrarch's library 1 , the most 
 remarkable collection of ancient books formed since classical 
 times, was for some years after his death preserved at Padua, 
 where his many friends kept alive his keen enthusiasm for 
 Latin learning in the University and throughout Venetia. 
 
 But Petrarch's connexion with Paduan scholarship is even 
 more directly marked by the presence there of Giovanni 
 Conversino da Ravenna. This great figure in the history of 
 Humanism was the man upon whom in a special sense the 
 mantle of Petrarch may be said to have fallen. He had 
 passed the critical years of early manhood as ' famulus ' and 
 pupil in the house of Petrarch. In 1379, shortly after the 
 poet's death, we find him at Padua; three years later he is 
 1 Artis Rhetoricae Professor.' A period of wandering follows ; 
 he is Chancellor to the municipality of Ragusa, or school- 
 master at Udine, until, some time after 1392, he is found in the 
 capacity of ' Protonotarius ' to the Carrara at Padua, combining 
 with that office the lectureship on Rhetoric and Latin 
 literature in the University. Conversino was thus, by his 
 position, a man of no little influence. He was a man of great 
 ability, far above the level of the ordinary Master of Grammar. 
 He had the confidence and high esteem of the reigning 
 Carrara prince, whose sympathies were, as we know from other 
 sources, heartily on the side of the revival of Latin letters. 
 The Carrarese had indeed been for two or three generations 
 men of serious tastes, and had chosen as administrators officers 
 of a congenial type : in which course they were followed, after 
 the extinction of their power in 1405, by the Venetian Council. 
 Scholars rather than soldiers or ecclesiastics were sought for as 
 
 1 Nolhac, Petrarque, ch. ii. p. 77 seqq.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 tutors to their children ; and their influence in the University, 
 direct and indirect, was favourable to the new studies 1 . 
 
 Even in such subjects as Theology and Dialectic Padua 
 had already, by the end of the fourteenth century, given 
 evidence of a new, a more objective, method of treatment. 
 In the hands of Paulus Venetus and of P. P. Vergerius, both 
 men of warm sympathies with Latin letters, the purely scholastic 
 method in Logic or Theology had no place. It would seem as 
 though Padua were, consciously or not, affected by its neigh- 
 
 1 The identity of Giovanni Conversino with Giovanni Malpaghini, a 
 confusion which dates from Cortesius in the fifteenth century, has been 
 maintained by Voigt, by Racki and by Gloria. But the question may be 
 regarded as definitely settled in the opposite sense by the research of 
 Sabbadini (Giornale Storico &c. v. 156), of Klette (Beit. i. 44), of Novati 
 (Epist. Salutati, ii. 404) and of Lehnerdt (Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i. 213, 
 3rd ed.). The identity of Conversino with the Giovanni da Ravenna who 
 was in 1364 living under Petrarch's roof has been most ably proved by 
 Lehnerdt : but Klette and Sabbadini (opp. cit.} identify Malpaghini with 
 Petrarch's pupil. Malpaghini was professor of Latin at the Studium of 
 Florence and afterwards lecturer on Dante. Gloria (Mon. Univ. Padov.) 
 maintains that both Florentine and Paduan records prove the identity of 
 the two scholars (ii. 534) but from Gherardi's collection (Statuti dello 
 Studio Fior.) we derive, as Klette shews, the opposite conclusion. 
 
 The discussion is hardly yet closed ; and Ratio's important body of 
 facts drawn from a MS. collection of the letters of Giovanni Conversino in 
 the library of Agram has not yet been fully weighed (A'ad. Jngo-Slavenske 
 Akad. 1885, p. 135 seqq.). Lehnerdt's new section in his edition of Voigt's 
 Wiederbelebung, i. p. 213, is the latest and most conclusive reconstruc- 
 tion of this much disputed chapter in the history of Humanism. Gaspary 
 and Novati are right in stating that there were three contemporary 
 scholars known as Giovanni da Ravenna. Cf. Gaspary, Letterat. Italiana, 
 
 335- 
 
 Conversino was an able teacher : Sicco Polentone, Guarino and 
 Benvenuto da Imola, besides many able scholars of less name, were his 
 pupils. Cf. the anon, letter addressed to him in Voigt, Briefs. Petrarca's, 
 p. 92. His writings, however, were tasteless and hardly survived him: 
 but he definitely made Padua the leading university centre in the Latin 
 revival, and for our purpose this is his chief importance. As a scholar 
 Vittorino, of course, far outstripped him.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 5 
 
 bourhood with Venice. There, interest in Greek lands was a 
 habit of daily life ; and scholastic learning or ascetic morals had 
 no attraction for a people whose ideals were above all things 
 practical, external, social. Not only did Venice contribute 
 perhaps the largest share of the students of the University, but 
 in turn she drew from it her schoolmasters, jurists and 
 doctors. Thus when Vittorino came to Padua in 1396 he 
 found an atmosphere as favourable to the revived taste for 
 ancient learning as existed in any Italian city, Florence alone 
 excepted. Certainly in no other of the universities would a 
 student be so likely to find that love of erudition, that critical 
 spirit, that clearness of intuition, that objective intellectual 
 habit, which were to become the characteristic marks of Italian 
 scholarship. 
 
 The repute of Padua at this period was very high, not in 
 Italy only but beyond the Alps. We find both English and 
 Scottish names amongst its students; and others came from 
 the Low Countries, France, Germany, Hungary and the East. 
 Medicine, Canon Law and Mathematics attracted the larger 
 proportion of students ; but the Arts subjects, Grammar, 
 Dialectic, Rhetoric and Philosophy, occupied a more important 
 place than at Bologna, the only other university of the same 
 standing and popularity. 
 
 It is uncertain to which of the higher Faculties Vittorino 
 proposed to devote himself. But at the outset he enrolled 
 himself under the faculty of Arts, attending the courses of 
 Giovanni da Ravenna in Grammar and Latin letters 1 . He 
 had as fellow- pupils many men afterwards distinguished, and 
 amongst them one destined to become not less famous than 
 himself as a teacher, Guarino da Verona. Vittorino soon 
 became known as himself an "able teacher of Grammar. For 
 
 1 Conversino came to Padua in the second half of 1 392 ; and he seems 
 to have remained there as Chancellor of the Carrara (a non-academic 
 office) and Professor of Rhetoric until 1405. See Novati, Epistol. Salutati, 
 ii. 405 ; Klette, Beit. i. 44.
 
 6 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 his poverty compelled him to undertake the thankless post of 
 ' magister puerorum ' or master of the rudiments of Grammar. 
 This was an altogether private venture, carrying with it neither 
 university status nor stipend. It was probably ill-paid work, 
 monotonous and laborious, but only in this way could Vittorino 
 find the means to enable him to attend the courses on Dia- 
 lectic, Philosophy and Rhetoric. Dialectic was taught by 
 Paulus Venetus, a man of some distinction, who combined 
 with his chair the teaching of Theology. Nicolas di Cusa, 
 some twenty years later, came from Treves to Padua to learn 
 from Paulus Philosophy and Mathematics. He was, ap- 
 parently, as Rossi describes him, 'originate pensatore in 
 molteplici discipline 1 .' Vergerius was at this time at Florence 
 (1397 1400). As we hear of Vittorino attending also a 
 course on Canon Law it is possible that he contemplated 
 ecclesiastical service : later on, as we shall see, his bent lay 
 decidedly towards the religious life. We have no allusion to 
 the teaching of Greek at Padua at this time : the first public 
 chair there in this language was not founded until after 
 Vittorino's death. Florence alone in 1400 possessed a master 
 of the forgotten tongue. For we must remember that in spite 
 of Boccaccio and of Petrarch Greek was absolutely an un- 
 known language in Italy when Chrysoloras came to Florence 
 early in I39? 2 . 
 
 Vittorino remained at Padua for nearly twenty years. 
 Like most of the Humanist scholars of the time he was at 
 once a teacher and a learner ; attending the lectures of public 
 professors even after he had received his Laurea (the Degree 
 
 1 G. Rossi, Niccolo di Cusa, p. 1 1. 
 
 <T) 2 This no longer admits of dispute. Nolhac, Pctrarque, describes the 
 ' true position of Greek in relation to Petrarch and L. Pilatus. Nolhac, Pit. 
 p. 329. There were of course trade relations between Venice and 
 Southern Italy and Greek lands. But it is agreed that no one was to be 
 found in Italy who could teach the grammar of ancient Greek or 
 explain an ordinary passage from a Greek author. See the complaint 
 made by Vergerius, infra, p. 106.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 of Doctor.) So Vergerius, a man of fifty, with the Laurea of 
 Arts and Medicine, did not hesitate to sit side by side with 
 boys for three years in the lecture room of Chrysoloras 1 . The 
 subjects in which the Laurea of Arts was gained at Padua were 
 the Grammar and Literature of Latin, Rhetoric or Composition, 
 Dialectic, and Moral Philosophy 2 . The date of his degree we 
 do not know. It was in any case some time before 141 1 3 : 
 probably much earlier. But it was characteristic of the man 
 that he refused to wear either the ring or the gown which 
 marked his academic rank. 
 
 After receiving his degree Vittorino turned to the study 
 of Mathematics, at that time regarded as a subject outside 
 the usual university courses. There was no public Professor 
 of Mathematics at Padua : indeed there is no evidence that 
 a chair with public stipend existed in any Italian university 
 at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Natural Philosophy 
 was combined sometimes with the chair of Moral Philosophy 
 (as in the case of Paulus Venetus) or with that of Astrology 
 (as with Pelacani). But in any case Mathematical teaching 
 was dependent, in any Studium, on the accidental presence of 
 a capable master who could attract private pupils. 
 
 Biagio Pelacani da Parma was the ablest of these private 
 masters in Mathematics. He was apparently a man of real 
 capacity. His connexion with Padua dates from 1387*, perhaps 
 earlier; and he died there in 1416. Early in the century 
 
 1 Vergerius himself refers to his own ' cupiditas discendi,' which led him 
 to attend courses in the universities even when well advanced in years. 
 Vid. -"/. 104 (Epist. Verg. p. 159). 
 
 2 Gloria, Man. Pad, ii. p. 84. 
 
 3 Vittorino after receiving his Laurea learnt Mathematics from Pelacani, 
 who left Padua in this year. Gloria, Mon. Pad. ii. p. 416. 
 
 4 He is then referred to as 'Doctor Artium profundissimus. ' In 1386 
 he had successfully predicted a defeat of the Veronese. He has left many 
 treatises in MS., including several on Aristotle. Some on astronomy and 
 geometry are decidedly in advance of the popular teaching of the day. 
 Gloria, Man. Pad. I.e.
 
 8 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 Pelacani was teaching Geometry privately at high fees. It is 
 recorded that Vittorino though now holding the degree of 
 Doctor (Artium) was still so poor that, unable to pay the 
 charges of the class conducted by Pelacani 1 , he offered himself 
 as 'famulus' in the Professor's household. In that capacity 
 he acted for six months, winning a grudging respect from his 
 master, who had the reputation of a hard man even amongst 
 private teachers. Vittorino made rapid progress with Euclid, 
 and when his course was completed acquired great popularity 
 as a mathematical teacher. This probably implies some know- 
 ledge of Algebra as well as of Euclid, though Astrology was 
 never a favourite subject with him. Vittorino's name indeed 
 was associated especially with Mathematics all his life, as is 
 shewn by the medal of Pisanello reproduced on the frontis- 
 piece. Possibly this may be due to the unfamiliar nature of 
 mathematical studies at the time and the paucity of masters. 
 For we have but the slightest reference to the extent of 
 Vittorino's use of Geometry in his school courses. 
 
 Vittorino seems to have maintained himself at Padua as 
 master of Grammar and private teacher of Mathematics until 
 1415 when he left the university city. His repute grew 
 steadily, and both in mathematical and in literary subjects his 
 teaching was much in request. During these years the fortunes 
 of the University 2 underwent some variations. The final ab- 
 sorption of Padua into the Venetian State in 1405 led to the 
 departure of many personal adherents of the Carrara family, 
 
 1 Castiglione in Mehus, Vita Ambros. ccccviii. Gloria, ii. 416, says 
 that Pelacani had to quit Padua for a time by reason of discredit due 
 to his grasping nature. As Mathematics did not form part of the usual 
 courses in any faculty the private teaching by regents was arranged on a 
 strictly commercial basis. Pelacani seems to have been able to drive 
 good bargains because of his special ability, though on the part of one 
 who was in another subject a 'Professor publicus' this was probably 
 regarded as unworthy. 
 
 2 Interesting light is thrown by Rossi, Niccolo di Cusa, Pisa, 1894, on 
 the temper of intellectual life at Padua about this period.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 and deprived the University of a sympathetic patron. But 
 Venice, proud of her new acquisition, took care to appoint 
 as her representative a scholar, Sicco Polentone, and shortly 
 afterwards we find Padua not only the most popular of all 
 Italian universities but marked perhaps by the greatest breadth 
 of intellectual aim. The discipline, however, of the students 
 was less satisfactory. Writing in February 1414 Guarino has 
 occasion to pass a severe judgement upon the student life as 
 he saw it. The tutelary deity of the Paduan students is 
 Bacchus : they celebrate his feast, not annually, but daily, and 
 indeed more than once a day. How different from the School 
 of Socrates or the Academy of Plato ! ' In illis namque disputari 
 solitum aiunt, in his vero nostris dispotari, immo trispotari 
 quaterque potari frequens patriae mos est. Academici de uno, 
 de vero, de motu disserunt, hi nostri de vino, de mero, de potu 
 dispotant 1 .' 
 
 A sudden influx of foreign students, especially from countries 
 north of the Alps, the influence of Venice, the freedom ac- 
 corded to students, often not more than fourteen years of age, 
 serve to account for that laxity of discipline and morals which 
 Guarino portrays. We shall see Vittorino at a later date 
 driven to resign his university chair by reason of similar dis- 
 orders. It is probably true that in other universities the same 
 disorders prevailed. But we must remember how intense was 
 the devotion to the New Learning in Italy at this time, especially 
 in Padua, Florence and Pavia : how absorbed in the work of 
 deciphering or interpreting the classical authors we're the few 
 scholars upon whose shoulders lay the burden of the ancient 
 literature. It was bad enough in their eyes that young men 
 with so great a harvest of honour and virtue before them could 
 be frivolous or debauched. But that a scholar whose years 
 were all too short for the great task awaiting him should waste 
 precious hours upon such auditors was an impossible thing. 
 
 1 Inedited letter, dated Flor. iiii. Kal. Mart. 1414, quoted by Sabbad. 
 Epistol. Guar, p. 61.
 
 io Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 So perhaps Padua was in reality no worse than Montpellier 
 or Paris. But Vittorino derived from his experience there his 
 lifelong conviction that the critical years of youth demand 
 first of all close and watchful care : and that this can hardly 
 be secured amid the distractions or temptations of a uni- 
 versity city. 
 
 It is necessary now to consider more closely the influences 
 which at Padua tended to mould Vittorino's intellectual nature, 
 and definitely imbued him with the finer Humanist spirit. 
 
 In 1407 Padua was so fortunate as to secure for the new 
 chair of Rhetoric 1 the greatest Latin scholar of the time, 
 Gasparino Barzizza, who had gained a considerable reputation 
 at Pavia, where he had formed an acquaintance with Chryso- 
 loras. It was by Barzizza, we may safely affirm, that the 
 Ciceronian tradition was definitely established in the revival of 
 classical learning. Guarino Veronese, and there could be no 
 better authority, wrote of him at a somewhat later date " cuius 
 ductu et auspiciis Cicero amatur, legitur, et per Italorum 
 gymnasia summa cum gloria volitat 2 ." He was indeed the 
 first to approach Cicero in a thoroughly scholarly spirit, 
 bringing to bear upon the text an analytic and comparative 
 method to which no ancient author had hitherto been sub- 
 jected. At the same time we must be careful to distinguish 
 the Latin scholarship of the first decades of the isth century 
 from the stricter Ciceronianism represented by Bembo. The 
 purely imitative treatment of Cicero was not the aim of 
 Barzizza and of the scholars whom he typifies, such as Zaba- 
 rella, Vergerio and Vittorino. In the widest sense, these men 
 set before themselves the recondHaliojajjf^th^ajicie^ 
 with the Christian life, thought and polity of their own day ; 
 they had no dream of a dead reproduction of the past. So in 
 language. Latin was to them a living tongue, to be adapted as 
 
 1 The stipend was fixed at 120 ducats, increased to 160 ducats in 1412, 
 owing to Barzizza's poverty. 
 
 * In 1422, Letter of Guarino, Bodleian Libr., Laud. MS. Lat. 64. 3.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. n 
 
 such to the needs of learned intercourse and literary treatment. 
 Thus Barzizza and it is equally true of the other scholars I 
 have just mentioned definitely set himself to enter into the 
 spirit of Cicero's style ; partly because in Cicero, orator, 
 correspondent, popular philosopher, they found a model 
 peculiarly useful in the various needs of literary or public life. 
 But they did not refrain from adding to his vocabulary for the 
 purposes of the actual life of their own day ; and, especially in 
 the epistolary style, they practised as much elasticity and 
 freedom as was compatible with the general form and con- 
 struction of the Ciceronian sentence. And indeed we may 
 claim for the Latinity 1 of this particular stage of the Revival 
 a spontaneity and Italian colour which we look for in vain 
 when the middle of the century has been turned. It is 
 necessary to bear this in mind in judging the literary methods- 
 of the period under review. The Italian scholars, the suc- 
 cessors of the Romans, aimed at restoring their literary 
 inheritance by utilising Latin for all grave and serious purposes. 
 In reality they were already too late ; and by the end of the 
 century it had become evident to their successors that in the 
 vernacular a not unworthy instrument was ready to hand even 
 for the higher purposes of Literature. Poliziano 2 and Bemba 
 used both Latin and Italian indifferently. Thereupon, as an . 
 inevitable consequence, Latin became once for all an artificial 
 language, and therefore merely imitative. In Bembo and 
 Dolet the most rigid type of Ciceronianism, quite logically, 
 
 1 Vid. Combi, Rp^ Verg. p. xxvii.; Sabbad. Ciceron. p. 14, contrasting 
 Barzizza's freedom with Valla's formal and pretentious style ; and the same 
 writer's tract upon Ognibene da Lonigo, 1880. The school of Barzizza is 
 essentially different from that of Perotti in its simplicity, and its readiness to 
 adapt Latin to current needs. 
 
 2 The definitive revival of Italian, modified and strengthened by the 
 classical influence, is due to Poliziano and dates from the last quarter of 
 the fifteenth century. Reumont's remarks upon the effects of Humanism 
 on the developement of Italian are of much weight : Loren. del Med. ii. 
 8 seqq. (English edition).
 
 12 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 appears. Henceforward structure, metaphor, vocabulary, 
 usage all the elements of style must be supported by strict 
 Ciceronian precedent. Where the subject-matter is alien from 
 classical modes of thought, as in Christian doctrine, the 
 greatest ingenuity must be exercised to bring its expression 
 within Augustan terms. But this was a hundred years after 
 Barzizza 1 . 
 
 Barzizza began by a careful exposition of the Letters ; the 
 treatises De Senectute and De Amidtia followed ; afterwards 
 he dealt with the De Oratore and other rhetorical works of 
 Cicero. Upon the De Oratore* Barzizza had from 1407 
 bestowed an extraordinary amount of labour. He had to deal 
 with a text mutilated and corrupt. In order to connect the 
 isolated passages Barzizza provided sundry marginal glosses, 
 not in any way foisting them into the text, but solely for 
 the purpose of giving a certain continuity to the fragmentary 
 work. Correspondents forwarded to him MSS. of this and 
 other classical texts for revision ; and most interesting notices 
 .are preserved as to his practice in this most delicate function 
 of scholarship 3 . His own letters were deservedly prized as 
 models of composition 4 ; so too his Academic addresses. His 
 reputation for taste is shewn by the fact that the oration on the 
 death of Manuel Chrysoloras by Andreas Giuliani 5 was sub- 
 mitted to him before publication. Barzizza represented 
 indeed the Humanist spirit on its best side, and from his 
 
 1 It is interesting to notice the close association of Ciceronianism and 
 Padua, from Barzizza and Vittorino to Bembo and Dolet. 
 
 2 See Sabbadini, Studi di Barz. su Quint, e Cicerone. Barzizza devoted 
 much time to the Rhetoric of Aristotle, which, however, he never edited. 
 His labours on the De Oratore did not cease till his death. 
 
 3 Sabbad. op. cit. pp. 10, n. 
 
 4 Bodl. Library, Codd. Canonic. Misc. 360. i. "Gasp. Barzizzae 
 Bergomatis Epistolae centum triginta tres ad exercitationem accommo- 
 .datae." See B. Mus., Add. MS. 14,786. There are works by him De 
 Orthographia, De Etimologia and a Vocabnlarium . 
 
 6 Sabbad. op. cit. p. 28.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. I 3 
 
 appointment at Padua we must date the introduction of sound 
 critical scholarship into the University. 
 
 Now Barzizza was a man of slender means. His stipend 
 was a poor one. To supplement it he received into his house 
 both fellow scholars, men of established reputation, and also 
 young students. Amongst them were such men as George of 
 Trebizond, who had come to Italy to learn Latin and to seek 
 his fortune ; Francesco Filelfo, who acted as Barzizza's deputy ; 
 and Vittorino 1 . We do not know in what year Vittorino 
 began residence with Barzizza ; but he was thirty years old 
 when the latter first came to Padua in 1407 ; and he left 
 Padua for Venice seven years later. Thus Vittorino came 
 under the direct influence of Barzizza, the first Latin scholar 8 
 of the age, and in a most important sense imbibed his spirit 
 and continued his work. Indeed it is not too much to affirm 
 that after the death of this great scholar Vittorino was the 
 foremost representative of the best type of Latin learning the 
 rational Ciceronian. His own pupils, especially Gaza and 
 George of Trebizond, a brilliant scholar whose Latinity he 
 definitely formed 3 , and others like the Bishop of Aleria and 
 Ognibene da Lonigo, were all free from the pedantry of purism 
 and upheld the flexible elastic treatment of the Latin tongue. 
 
 But apart from his place in scholarship Barzizza was a 
 notable force in Padua in other ways. His relations with 
 
 1 Sabbad. Giorn. Ligust. xviii. p. 25. Vittorino was probably still with 
 Barzizza until he left Padua to join Guarino. 
 
 2 " La maggior autorita letteraria di quel tempo," says Sabbadini of him. 
 Op. cit. p. 28. Aeneas Sylvius declares that the ' Praecepta ' of Barzizza 
 were in his day the best guide to sound prose composition, vid. Rhet. 
 Praecepta, Prologus : Aen. Syl. Opera, p. 992. 
 
 3 Any doubt on this point is definitely set at rest by the extracts from 
 inedited letters of G. of Trebizond himself (Vatic. MSS. 2926) lately 
 published by Sabbadini (Giorn, Storico d. Lett. Ital. xviii. p. 230) " ...cum 
 ego Graeca a meis, Latina a Victorino Feltrensi acceperim"; "a quo 
 (Victorino) cuncta quae ad Latinitatem pertinent hausimus"; "si quid 
 Latinae linguae in me est, te doctore, o Victorine, post deum est."
 
 14 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 Guarino 1 , a professional rival, who took from him more than 
 one of his most creditable pupils, reveal a frank and generous 
 disposition, not too common amongst scholars of the time. 
 An observer peculiarly competent records that his pupils are 
 so taught that not merely "probe ex arte dicere valeant," but 
 also "vivendo morum praecepta sequantur*"; "ut ornatissime 
 quis dicit ita et recte vivat" was a well-known motto of 
 Barzizza. Further, with the same master in his mind, Vergerius 
 adds, "eo vero demum praeclara consonantia mihi videtur, 
 cum in homine diserto mens cum lingua concordet et sermo 
 cum opere 3 ." These words are taken from a letter of P. P. 
 Vergerius, who, notwithstanding his resignation of the chair of 
 Logic in 1405, still kept up close relations with Padua and was 
 a regular correspondent of Barzizza. 
 
 Vergerius himself was a powerful force upon the side of 
 literary study in Padua during this period. He was a teacher 
 in Arts 4 (' Doctor Artium,' May 1391) at the time when Vittorino 
 arrived at the University (1396). But his fame may probably 
 have reached the young student a year or two before that date. 
 For in I392 5 he had published a work " De Ingenuis Moribus," 
 addressed to Ubertinus, a prince of the house of Carrara, in 
 which the claims of Latin letters are, for the first time in a 
 systematic treatise, upheld as an integral part of higher training. 
 Vergerius indeed lays down tentatively, but with clear convic- 
 tion, the bases upon which Humanist education was presently 
 to be built up. The book was regarded throughout the follow- 
 ing century 6 as of profound importance and undoubtedly 
 
 1 He was ever ready with advice and encouragement in the establish- 
 ment of Guarino's school at Venice, and was both in public and in private a 
 generous advocate of his claims as a scholar and a teacher. Sabbad. Gioni. 
 Ligiist. xviii. p. i\. 
 
 2 Combi, Epist. Verger, p. xlix. 
 8 Op. cit. Ep. xliii. p. 62. 
 
 4 Gloria, Univ. Pati. ii. p. 491. 
 
 6 The date fixed by Combi, Ep. Verger, p. xix. Infra, p. 93. 
 
 6 In MSS. in nearly every learned library: at least 40 editions printed
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 15 
 
 exercised much influence upon the growth of classical study. 
 The scholarship 1 of Vergerius was recognised on all sides. A 
 crucial proof of his distinction is given by the fact that to him 
 the sorrowing friends of Manuel Chrysoloras turned in 1415 as 
 to the one man worthy to compose the epitaph upon the great 
 scholar which exists to-day in the old monastery at Constance 2 . 
 To him also we owe the first translation made by an Italian \ 
 scholar from the Greek, the History of Arrian ; and the first 
 introduction to Quintilian 3 . Vergerius would have the further 
 attraction for Vittorino that, although nearing his fiftieth year, 
 he threw up his career at Padua to attend the course of Greek 
 Grammar lectures which Chrysoloras was (1397) then giving at 
 Florence. His treatise (which is to be found in full upon page 
 96 below) and his Letters reveal to us a man whose strong 
 religious temper was ample security against the perversities of 
 Humanists of the type of Valla. For we find in all that he 
 wrote that endeavour to combine in his ideal the 'virtus' of the 
 ancient world with obedience to Christian duty 4 which has 
 already been noted as the characteristic of the nobler scholars of 
 that age. It was of prime importance that the first, and perhaps 
 the most widely read, of the many tractates on Education called 
 forth by the Revival of Learning, should have distinctly upheld 
 
 before 1600. Paulus Jovius says that it was a recognised school text-book 
 in the sixteenth century. Infra, p. 94. 
 
 1 A volume of his letters in form of Epistles from and to Cicero exists 
 in Bod. Libr., MSS. Canon. 166. 17 and 18. See also Combi, Epist. 
 Verg. p. xlviii : ' ' Ben si puo dire che quanti erano allora conosciuti latini o 
 greci che fossero tutti ei li avesse letti e meditati." 
 
 2 Guarino, who would naturally be critical in the matter, recognised 
 the fitness of the choice. 
 
 The Inscription, still perfectly legible (in the kitchen of the Hotel 
 Insel !), is printed in Legrand, Bibl. Hellen. 
 
 3 This ' compendiolum ' is referred to by Combi, Epist. Verg. p. xxi. 
 
 4 "Nel Vergerio 1' umanista ed il credente mai si contradicono, ma 
 vivono quasi a dire 1' uno per 1' altro." Prof. Combi's judgment is borne 
 out by every page of Vergerius' correspondence. Epist. Verg. p. xix.
 
 1 6 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 the Christian standard of faith and life. His influence upon 
 Vittorino we can well understand ; as a scholar, as a thinker, 
 and as an educationalist, he was fitted to leave the impress of 
 his personality upon so sympathetic and earnest a nature as 
 that of the young scholar from Feltre. There is little doubt 
 that, next to his intercourse with Barzizza, the treatise of 
 Vergerius, enforced by its writer's life and example, served 
 mainly to determine Vittorino in the great decision of his life. 
 One defect, of which Vittorino was keenly aware, remained to 
 be satisfied. Padua offered no regular opportunity of learning 
 Greek 1 . 
 
 But the wave of excitement produced by the presence of 
 Chrysoloras at Florence (1397 1400) and subsequently at 
 Pa via (1400 I4Q3) 2 undoubtedly reached Padua. The great 
 scholar would naturally pass through the city on his way to 
 Venice and Constantinople. It is however incorrect to say 
 that Chrysoloras taught Greek at Padua 3 , or that Vittorino 
 learnt the rudiments of the language from him. Vergerius and 
 Guarino however were both links between the University and 
 the pioneer work of Chrysoloras. Guarino, who had lived for 
 some years (1403 1408) in the house of Chrysoloras, and in 
 intimate relations with members of his family, at Constantinople, 
 left Florence in 1414* and definitely settled in Venice. There 
 
 1 Neither Giovanni Conversino nor Barzizza taught Greek : the former 
 probably knew none ; the latter very little. 
 
 2 The chronology of Chrysoloras is not yet finally determined. He left 
 Florence in 1400, partly on account of the Plague. He was teaching at 
 Pavia between 1400 and 1403 when P. C. Decembri saw him in his father's 
 house. In 1403 he returned to Constantinople accompanied by Guarino. 
 In 1404 he was at Venice, again in 1408, 9, and 1410. Klette, Beit. i. 
 50-52. Sabbad. Giorn. Star. d. Letter. Ital. 1885, p. 156. Legrand 
 (Bibliogr. Hellbtique, Paris, 1885) must be read subject to the corrections 
 of these two scholars. 
 
 3 Mullinger, Cambridge, i. 393. 
 
 4 He was still at Florence in February, but at Venice in August. 
 Sabbad. in Vierteljahrsschr. Cult. Ren. i. 103 seqq.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 17 
 
 he opened the first humanist school established in Venice, and 
 probably in the beginning of 1415 Vittorino joined him. 
 Guarino had been for some years in close correspondence with 
 Chrysoloras during the sojourn of the latter in the West, he had 
 maintained very friendly relations with Barzizza, whom he 
 visited at Padua, and he had acquaintance with all leading 
 scholars. Vittorino thus felt it a valuable privilege to come 
 under the instruction of so distinguished a scholar 1 . Guarino 
 was undoubtedly the best Greek scholar of whom Italy could 
 boast. He had spent five years in Constantinople, at first as 
 'famulus,' in the house of Chrysoloras. He had seen Manuel 
 Chrysoloras only at intervals, owing to his long absence in 
 Western Europe in the service of the Emperor. Guarino speaks 
 of him always in terms of deepest reverence and affection 2 . 
 Guarino could speak and write Greek ; the only other scholars 
 of the first quarter of the century who could do the same were 
 Filelfo (who married a niece of Chrysoloras) and Aurispa. 
 Guarino edited, with a Latin version, the little manual of Greek 
 accidence which Chrysoloras dictated to his pupils in lecture, 
 and for many years this remained the only introduction to 
 Greek available to Western students 3 . 
 
 1 The chronology of Guarino has been entirely reconstructed by Sab- 
 badini in his Epistolario di Guarino (1885) and in his short biography 
 of the scholar (Geneva, 1891). 
 
 2 There seems to have been something very impressive about Manuel 
 Chrysoloras. P. C. Decembri's recollection of him in the days of his work 
 at Pavia is interesting: " Memini me puerulum adhuc Emmanuelem 
 Chrysoloram saepius admiratum esse, cum in hac urbe " (Pavia or Milan) 
 " litteras Graecas edoceret. Fuit illi cum patre meo summa familiaritas ; 
 tanta itaque illi virtutis emulatio, bonorum caritas, litterarum studium 
 inerat, ut non hominem videre, sed angelum quempiam intueri saepe- 
 numero existimarem. " Letter of P. C. Decembri (Riccard. Codd. 827), 
 printed Arch. Stor. Lomb. Marzo, 1893, p. 9. 
 
 3 Erotemata Chrysolorae, the accidence of Greek in Greek, ac- 
 companied by Guarino's Latin version, in question and answer. It is to be 
 found in MS. in nearly every old library in Europe, and in numerous 
 printed edd. of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Theodore Gaza's 
 Grammar dates perhaps from 1445 and that of C. Lascaris from 1460. 
 
 W. 2
 
 1 8 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 The relations between Vittorino and Guarino at Venice 
 were of the most friendly character. We are told that Guarino 
 taught Vittorino Greek in return for instruction in Latin. This 
 may imply a joint conduct of the school which Guarino had 
 opened at Venice ; but it most probably means merely that the 
 latter recognised the finer Latin scholarship of Vittorino and 
 gladly availed himself of the chance of improving his own. It 
 is clear that Vittorino worked unremittingly at Greek under 
 Guarino, and during the eighteen months which they passed 
 together (1415 1416) at Venice laid the foundations of a 
 mutual affection and respect which lasted until death. We are 
 expressly told that Guarino bestowed special pains upon the 
 method of teaching the language to beginners no light matter 
 where neither grammar, dictionary nor text was easily available. 
 
 In 1416 the Plague drove Guarino from Venice for a time 
 and broke up his school. He returned, however, a little later, 
 finally quitting Venice on his marriage 1 in 1418. Vittorino 
 had followed Guarino to Padua late in the autumn of 1416, 
 and although Guarino returned to Venice in 1417 and re- 
 opened his school it is uncertain whether Vittorino accompanied 
 him. The scanty information which we have of his movements 
 at this period shews him, next, settled in 1420 at his old 
 University. He enjoys now a high reputation as a scholar and 
 as a teacher. Following the custom of Barzizza and Guarino 
 he receives into his own house a number of students (con- 
 tubernales) who board with him, presiding thus over a student 
 family (contubemiuni). This privilege, which seems to have 
 been common to the regents of most universities of the time, 
 was ordinarily regarded merely as a profitable means of liveli- 
 hood. But to Vittorino, as to Barzizza and Guarino, the 
 ' contubernium ' presented itself as a most important responsi- 
 bility. Padua was, as we have seen, beset with dangers for the 
 mixed body of young men many of them not more than 
 
 1 The date of his marriage, 27 Dec. 1418, according to Sabbadini 
 (Giorn. Ligust. xviii. 39).
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 19 
 
 fourteen years of age who attended the public and private 
 courses of the University, and who provided their own main- 
 tenance independent of official supervision in matters of living 
 and morals. Vittorino thus took into his house a limited 
 number of students whose homes were at a distance from 
 Padua. For some of these, who were personally recommended 
 to him, he provided everything at his own charge ; to others, 
 the sons of Venetian merchants and wealthy proprietors, he 
 charged high fees, intending, as the Bishop of Aleria records, 
 to equalise the treatment of the whole household, repressing 
 indulgence on the one hand, and lifting the burden of poverty 
 on the other, and thus to all alike " libris, domo, victu, vestitu- 
 que optime consulebat." He firmly refused, now and always, to 
 increase the number of his pupils beyond a limit which made it 
 possible for him to exercise direct personal supervision, and 
 to gain an intimate knowledge of the character and capacity of 
 each student. He had no hesitation in dismissing any who 
 proved unsatisfactory in morals or, though with more reluctance, 
 who were of slow intellect or disappointed their early promise. 
 He cultivated friendly relations with parents of his pupils, 
 giving them careful advice on the future careers of their sons. 
 The instruction which he gave would no doubt include all the 
 Arts subjects, with the addition of Mathematics ; and he made 
 provision for the teaching of subjects outside his own courses. 
 
 Vittorino was, we are told, a most welcome member of all 
 University reunions. Apart from the attractiveness of his 
 personality he was one of the most conspicuous scholars now 
 in Padua. As a Latinist he was probably unequalled by any 
 one there except Barzizza himself: few had enjoyed so good 
 opportunities of acquiring Greek ; whilst in Mathematics he 
 had the reputation of the ablest master of the day. We are 
 told that he always held himself at the disposal of the students 
 of the University ; and he was not less esteemed by the citizens 
 of Padua, who prized the high tone of life and aim which he 
 imparted to their sons.
 
 2O Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 In 1418 Barzizza had received an invitation to Milan which 
 led in 1422 1 to his definite resignation of the chair of Rhetoric 
 at Padua which he had held with slight interruption since 1407. 
 This chair was now offered to Vittorino *, the students urging 
 its acceptance upon him as the one man worthy of the succes- 
 sion to the great scholar and teacher who had held it with such 
 distinction. But Vittorino yielded only after much hesitation 
 and more than one refusal. He was conscious of a call to the 
 monastic life, and it was only after he had convinced himself 
 that he could, as a teacher, do much to further true religion 
 and to strengthen character, that he consented to waive his ob- 
 jections and to accept the office. He was now forty-four years 
 of age ; and from the fact that Padua was gradually becoming 
 recognised as a University in which humanist sympathies were 
 in favour 3 , he assumed a position at once of considerable 
 importance in the world of scholars. 
 
 The picture which we are enabled to form of Vittorino at 
 this juncture is both clear and attractive. In person he was 
 slight and in appearance frail. But by dint of rigorous self- 
 discipline and of active habits he had built up a constitution 
 capable of sustaining the gravest exertions. For the greater 
 part of his life he never admitted a day's illness. The careful 
 practice of gymnastic had given him a peculiar suppleness and 
 grace of movement. His expression was grave though not 
 austere. Sympathy and affection, we are told, readily beamed 
 from his face, though his eye had a penetrative quality before 
 
 1 This date is fixed in correction of that (1418) given by Mazuchelli, 
 s. v. Barzizza, ii. p. 499. See Arch. Stor. Lomb. Marzo, 1893, pp. 28, 29. 
 
 4 Prendilacqua, p. 32, says that the chair was expressly established 
 for Vittorino by the Municipality. There is no reason to think that this 
 was a new creation ; the corrected date of the removal of Barzizza to Milan 
 simplifies the matter. Philosophy was added to Rhetoric to increase its 
 emoluments, which since 1412 had been 1 60 ducats. 
 
 8 Contrast Vittorino's position of influence with that of Aurispa at 
 Bologna shortly after this date: he could gain neither sympathy nor 
 audience as Professor of Greek at 'stately, scholastic Bologna' in 1424-5.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 21 
 
 which conscious wrong-doing stood confessed and ashamed. 
 Strong passionate instincts were by constant watchfulness re- 
 duced to obedience and a temper prone to anger became 
 softened and restrained. The simplicity of his nature shewed 
 itself in his dress ; the long cloak of rough cloth for the summer, 
 with a fur lining for the winter, contrasting with the richness of 
 dress customary in Venetia. He was careless of cold, believing 
 artificial heat to be a source of many humours. We trace 
 something of the rigour of the old Roman discipline in 
 Vittorino's temper, in his notion of authority, of reverence to 
 elders, of manliness and endurance. But we shall be wrong if 
 we ascribe to the Pagan ideal any other place than this in his 
 view of life. Vittorino was before all else a Christian imbued 
 with the spirit and the doctrine of his faith. This indeed is the 
 dominating note of his personality. It was this which preserved 
 him from exaggerations and moral perversities which disfigured 
 some of his contemporaries and gave an evil name to a certain 
 type of Humanist. It was Vittorino's aim to graft ancient 
 learning upon the stock of Christian training ; and we shall see 
 that within the next five-and-twenty years this had become his 
 achievement. 
 
 Vittorino was however destined to sad disappointment in 
 the hopes he had formed for his new career at Padua. Allusion 
 has been made to the state of discipline amongst the students 
 of the University. Whether the prevalent disorders affected 
 those whom he lodged under his own roof and for whom he 
 felt himself directly responsible, we do not know '. But Vittorino 
 was in any case unwilling to subject those for whom he was 
 answerable to temptations against which he could very im- 
 perfectly guard them ; so feeling himself powerless to remedy 
 the vicious tendencies around him he decided to leave Padua 2 . 
 
 1 Ticozzi says that it was so. Storia del Letter ati, p. 15. 
 
 2 No Humanist stayed so long at Padua as Barzizza: and he was so 
 very poor that with his family he found it difficult to consult his own 
 choice. Still Padua was more congenial to the Humanist than any other
 
 22 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 He resigned his chair and once more betook himself to Venice. 
 This occurred probably in the course of 1422. In 1423 we 
 find him conducting a school for the sons of Venetian patricians 
 and others, who were attracted by his high repute from various 
 parts of Italy. At Venice he continued the custom of receiving 
 boarders into his house, and as before this privilege was much 
 in request, parents offering large fees to secure the admission 
 of their sons. 
 
 The work in which Vittorino was now engaged was 
 thoroughly congenial to him. He was rapidly becoming 
 recognised as the most trustworthy and most capable teacher 
 of the New Learning in Italy. He had in Venice excellent 
 opportunities of acquiring Greek texts from Eastern sources ; 
 he had left privation once for all behind him. Padua was close 
 at hand; Barzizza indeed had gone to Pavia (1422), but 
 Guarino was at Verona, and Venice itself was favourably 
 placed for intercourse with scholars. Vittorino had barely 
 time to settle in his new home, and to gather his pupils around 
 him when in 1423' an invitation reached him, the acceptance 
 of which profoundly modified his prospects. 
 
 Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, the head of the family which 
 held the Lordship of M^antua, was on the whole a favourable 
 representative of the type of Condottiere prince. He was 
 respected by his subjects as a 'benevolent' despot, was on 
 good terms with the neighbouring states of Venice (in whose 
 pay he was), of Milan, and of Ferrara, and was a fairly satis- 
 factory son of the Church. His assassinations were not ob- 
 trusive, and though, as was only too often the case, he remained 
 
 university except Pavia and Florence. The Courts however competed for 
 scholars and paid them far better. Gonzaga for instance offered 300 
 ducats, whilst Padua paid 160, and that under pressure. 
 
 1 Probably towards the close of this year. Sabbad. Epist. Guar. p. 65 : 
 Paglia, in Arch. Star. Lombardo, 1884, p. 150: Luzio, Arch. Venet. 
 vol. 35, p. 330. Rosmini's date, 1425, must be definitely surrendered, 
 though accepted by Voigt.
 
 Vittorino da Felt re. 23 
 
 for some years in mortal quarrel with his eldest son, he was 
 induced ultimately to pardon him and to restore him to place 
 and favour. 
 
 Now the condottiere prince, as the 'new man' amongst 
 the dynasties, with an illegitimate title, was compelled to rely 
 upon personal qualities for due recognition of his status. 
 ' Virtus ' and ' Gloria ' personal consequence and repute 
 were the qualifications for distinction which alone were open to 
 him. " With his thirst for fame it was talent not birth which 
 the despot needed. In the company of the poet and the 
 scholar he felt himself in a new position, almost indeed in 
 the possession of a new legitimacy 1 ." This 'fama' could be 
 secured by employing great architects or painters to create 
 or embellish a cathedral or palace. But the characteristics of 
 this particular period led naturally to a preference for a dis- 
 tinguished humanist. It was in this way that the Carrara 
 had engaged Giovanni Conversino da Ravenna, and Vergerio ; 
 or the Visconti, Chrysoloras or Barzizza ; or the D'Estes, a little 
 later, Guarino and Gaza. Gonzaga, therefore, wishing to ac- 
 quire for himself a new dignity, which would be at once 
 recognised and be a source of envy, turned to search for a 
 scholar whose presence would add lustre to his Court. He 
 had a young family for whose education it was now necessary 
 to make provision. What better step could he take, to his 
 own glory and to their future consequence, than to engage 
 the services of a renowned humanist? Two men were now 
 foremost as educators in northern Italy Guarino da Verona, 
 and Vittorino da Feltre. To Guarino, now married, and 
 settled at Verona as master of Rhetoric in the service of the 
 Municipio, the invitation was first sent, probably in i42i 2 . 
 It was declined. The Marquis Gonzaga then approached 
 
 1 Burckhardt, Renaissance, p. 9 (Eng. trs.). 
 
 2 In 1421 or "al piu tardi il 1422," Sabbadini, Giorn. Ligust. xviii. 
 p. 113. But Guarino was settled at his native Verona amidst relatives and 
 friends, with a small property, and his fellow-citizens appear to have made 
 much of him.
 
 24 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 Vittorino through a Venetian patrician who was intimate with 
 both. Vittorino was busily occupied as we have seen with 
 the school which he had lately opened in Venice. He disliked 
 the unsettled habit which had been forced upon him by cir- 
 cumstances since 1415, and at first was inclined to give the 
 same answer as Guarino that he was happily employed and 
 had no desire to move. But the invitation was pressed : 
 Vittorino then declared his aversion for court life, his anxiety 
 for peace and useful work, his indifference to all external show, 
 and his dread of a position certain to arouse jealousy and ill 
 will. He acknowledged the liberal purpose of the Gonzaga, 
 who had left Vittorino free to fix his own stipend, in attaching 
 so great importance to the education of his children. Finally 
 he agreed to go to Mantua, thinking, we are told, that in 
 training the future head of a state in the right way he would 
 be benefitting his subjects, and that such a career was not less 
 a life of service than the monastic life which he would now 
 be called upon definitely to abandon. His friend Prendilacqua 
 records that on reaching Mantua Vittorino laid down one 
 condition : " I accept the post, on this understanding only, 
 that you (i.e. the Marquis Gonzaga) require from me nothing 
 which shall be in any way unworthy of either of us : and I 
 will continue to serve you so long as your own life shall 
 command respect." 
 
 The reply to this somewhat outspoken declaration satisfied 
 Vittorino, who, as the event proved, never had occasion to 
 regret his decision, finding in the Gonzaga and his wife Paola 
 di Malatesta faithful friends and firm supporters of his authority. 
 Vittorino was at work at Mantua at the end of 1423. He 
 was now forty-six years of age. He stayed there in the service 
 of the Gonzaga family until he died in 1446. During these 
 two-and-twenty years he established and perfected the first 
 great school of the Renaissance a school whose spirit, curri- 
 culum and method justify us in regarding it as a landmark of 
 critical importance in the history of classical education. It 
 was indeed the great typical school of the Humanities.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 25 
 
 Let us here recall the influences which had aided in shaping 
 Vittorino's educational ideals up to this time. The impulse 
 given originally by the intercourse with Giovanni Conversino, 
 Vergerius, and Barzizza had been strengthened, and directed 
 to a specially educational bent, by the Treatise of Vergerius 
 and his friendship with Guarino. 
 
 During the twenty years of his first residence at Padua 
 (1396-1415) Vittorino had thus become imbued with the 
 purest spirit of the Humanist revival. At Padua the study of 
 Grammar, Scholarship, Dialectic and Philosophy had already 
 far more affinity with modern than with mediaeval conceptions 
 of these great subjects. But more than this we can point to 
 certain specific incidents which gave a most important impulse 
 not only to humanist enthusiasm but to its educational method ; 
 these all fell during the ten or twelve years immediately pre- 
 ceding Vittorino's call to Mantua. 
 
 The first is the publication of Guarino' s translation of 
 Plutarch's treatise Hep! Trai'Scav dywy^s, the date of which may 
 now be regarded as fixed at 141 1. 7 The importance of this 
 translation in the development of the humanist ideal of 
 education can hardly be over-estimated. The number of 
 MS. copies scattered through the ancient libraries of Western 
 Europe and the long series of printed editions prove the depth 
 of the interest which it excited. The nevy sense of the dignity i 
 of the educated man, of the ^status of the teacher, of the ' 
 1 breadth of the educational aim, which maj^k Vittorino, Aeneas 
 Sylvius and M. Vegius, were found there for the first^time. Its 
 effect on the notion of punishments, and of the function of 
 games, or on the age of beginning the study of Letters, was due 
 less, perhaps, to the novelty of Plutarch's suggestions than to the 
 authority which his name gave to more or less inchoate ideas. 
 The second^ event referred to was the discovery by Poggio 
 at St Gallen of the complete text of Quintilian 1 . This 
 
 N t^lll 
 
 1 The well-known letter of Poggio in Shepherd, Poggio, p. 108. 
 Vergerius wrote a ' compendium ' some years before, which was un-
 
 26 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 discovery, whilst it aroused excitement throughout the entire 
 world of scholars, specially affected Padua through Barzizza. 
 For this scholar had for many years made a close study of the 
 Instates, hitherto available only in an imperfect state, and 
 beyond doubt the work formed an important subject in his 
 courses on Rhetoric at Padua. Vittorino, living under Bar- 
 zizza's roof, could not fail to become thoroughly familiar with 
 his master's work on this author, which was of an elaborate 
 character. It was natural, therefore, that one of the earliest 
 transcripts made from the St Gallen archetype should be sent in 
 all speed to Barzizza. In June 1418 we find him utterly 
 absorbed in its study. Copies were in the hands of Bruni and 
 Niccoli at Florence, and another reached Guarino a lit x tle later. 
 The insight into Roman oratory, and not less the fuller con- 
 ception of Roman education, now available for the first time, 
 were henceforward most important factors in determining the 
 course of humanist thought upon the aim and method of 
 teaching Letters. This impulse was reinforced by the dis- 
 covery, five_years later, of the entire text of the De Oratore 
 at Lodi in 1422'. This again had been known to scholars for 
 at least a century 2 ; but only in a mutilated state. Barzizza's 
 interest in this work has been already referred to. He had 
 now left Padua for Pavia, whither the newly discovered Codex 
 was at once sent to him. Vittorino, as an enthusiastic 
 Ciceronian, lectured constantly on the De Oratore, the study 
 of which he may very probably have begun under Barzizza ; in 
 any case the extreme importance attached by him and other 
 scholars to the eloquence of Cicero was confirmed by the 
 enthusiasm created by this discovery of the complete text 
 
 doubtedly familiar to Vittorino as a hand-book to the Institutes. On 
 Barzizza's work upon Quintilian, see Sabbadini, Studi etc., p. 3 seqq. 
 
 1 This famous Codex (belonging perhaps to the ninth century) was 
 again lost to view in or after 1428 (not 1425 as usually stated). Sabbadini, 
 Guarino e le Opere Rettoriche di Cicero, p. 433. 
 
 2 Petrarch possessed a copy, Nolhac, Petrarque, p. 210 (note), (as 
 against Koerting).
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 27 
 
 of the rhetorical treatises. It may seem hardly possible that 
 the so-called discovery of the bones of Livy at Padua in 1413 
 should have affected Latin scholarship. But in the temper of 
 the time such an incident appealed to more than sentiment 
 and imagination. Vittorino, and indeed every scholar of his 
 day, was susceptible to such associations in a degree which we 
 can hardly realise 1 . It is not in the least unreasonable to 
 trace his enthusiasm for Livy and his devotion to the textual 
 criticism of the great Paduan, in part at least, to a discovery 
 which sent a thrill from one end of Italy to the other. 
 
 But permeating and controlling this humanist enthusiasm 
 the Christian spirit retained its supreme place. With Vittorino 
 this was the result both of rational conviction and of devout- 
 ness of temper. Amidst the temptations of life at Padua or 
 Venice, amidst the distractions of Pagan ideals, to which so 
 many scholars succumbed, he had always lived up to a high 
 standard of Christian faith and conduct. So that he brought 
 with him to Mantua a desire to combine the spirit of the 
 Christian life with the educational apparatus of classical 
 literature, whilst uniting with both something of the Greek 
 passion for bodily culture and for dignity of the outer life. 
 
 It has been said that Vittorino was the first to conceive 
 and to carry out a system of education framed on this ideal. 
 It is worth while at this point to distinguish between this the 
 humanist conception of education on its noblest side and 
 such of the mediaeval attempts as at first sight seem not unlike 
 it. The best of the pre-Renaissance schools, as the Cathedral 
 schools of Chartres 2 or that of the Brethren of the Common 
 
 1 We may recall the incident of the discovery of the body of a Roman 
 lady in one of the tombs of the Via Appia, Symonds, Ren. i. 23, and the 
 fierce outburst of indignation against the Malatesta who destroyed the 
 statue of Vergil at Mantua, and called forth the denunciation of Vergerius. 
 See Combi, Ep, Verg. 113. 
 
 2 At Chartres Livy was specially studied. But nowhere north of the 
 Alps could such an incident as that of Niccoli and young Pazzi have been 
 possible. See Symonds, Revival of Learning, p. 41.
 
 28 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 Life at Deventer, were acquainted with ancient authors, such 
 as Livy or Ovid. But the characteristic note of the Humanist 
 is wanting. In none of these schools was Latin studied with a 
 single eye to the understanding of Roman literature, history or 
 civilisation. There was no consciousness of a re-entering 
 upon a forgotten and long-lost possession. Individual in- 
 stances of scholars of a real humanist enthusiasm may be 
 quoted, such as Bernard 1 and Landulph 2 at Chartres, or John 
 of Salisbury 3 ; and probably in Westphalia or the Low 
 Countries there were occasional scholars who in happier days 
 might have developed the powers of Agricola or Reuchlin. 
 But these cases are so to say sporadic : except perhaps at 
 Chartres we can detect no tradition of scholarship. On the 
 contrary, as L'Abbd Clerval justly sums up the evidence, 
 speaking of John of Salisbury : "Lui seul a cultivd la litte'rature 
 pour elle-meme a 1'exemple de Bernard de Chartres : les autres 
 ont etd amenes a la mettre exclusivement au service de la 
 philosophic et de la the"ologie 4 ." The ancient books when they 
 were read at all were studied in dependence upon scholasticism 
 and theology. This attitude remains even in the fifteenth 
 century. The case of Paris is significant 5 . In that century 
 Chairs were decreed they were never filled in Classics and 
 Oriental languages : but with what object ? To facilitate the 
 conversion of Mahommedans. At Paris, indeed, all classical 
 studies were despised as purely 'grammarian,' i.e., as subjects 
 fit only to be dealt with by the 'magistri puerorum.' At Char- 
 tres an interest in ancient writers was in a certain degree 
 traditional; and Livy, especially (rather than Cicero, whose 
 writings were scarce), was read as history and literature, and not 
 as a mere collection of grammatical examples. Composition 
 also was encouraged in prose and verse. But even there and 
 Chartres (1200-1400) is the most favourable case that can 
 be offered this interest was absolutely insignificant com- 
 
 1 Clerval, p. 225. 3 Ib. p. 409. 3 Ib. p. 228 sqq. 
 
 4 Ib. p. 230. e Thurot, Enseign. p. 83.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 29 
 
 pared with that taken in Law and Theology, as we can easily 
 see from the records of the Chapter library. The idea of 
 Literature, or of an ancient author as a complete subject, was 
 unknown outside Italy in the fourteenth century. Now in 
 Italy, especially in Florence, and the Lombard cities, many 
 Latin schools (municipal or private, not ecclesiastical) sprang 
 up, partly at least as a consequence of the influence of 
 Petrarch. These were not intended to provide preparatory 
 courses for higher classical study, though they did, as it proved, 
 serve that purpose. Their chief aim was to teach Latin as 
 a subject of practical use in life. But when the wave of 
 enthusiasm for the literature and the arts of the ancient world 
 swept through the centres of cultivated life in Northern Italy 
 and brought with it a new measure of the knowledge best 
 worth having, by an inevitable process the ideal of Education 
 was modified in the same direction. The humanist school- 
 master was the natural product of the humanist tastes of 
 the rulers or citizens of Milan, or Florence, or Ferrara. For 
 in every period the educational aim obeys the dominant in- 
 tellectual or religious ideals ; at best it personifies them ; it 
 can never create them. 
 
 The children of the Gonzaga constituted Vittorino's im- 
 mediate charge. There were at that time three boys, Ludo- 
 vico the eldest, born in 1414, Carlo, and Gianlucido. Their 
 ages ranged from nine years to three. Cecilia, the second 
 daughter 1 , was born in 1425 and another brother, Alessandro, 
 two years later. With them Vittorino was empowered to 
 associate at his discretion, as fellow pupils, a certain number 
 of the sons of the leading Mantuan families. Further, after a 
 year's experience, he accepted the sons of personal friends of 
 his own 2 , from Venice and elsewhere in Northern Italy, at 
 
 1 Margherita, the eldest girl, married Leonello d'Este, but I can trace 
 no allusion to her education. She was several years older than Cecilia. Cf. 
 Sabbadini, Vitadi Gttarino, p. 100. 
 
 2 Francesco Barbara recommended (in 1443) the son of an intimate
 
 3O Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 fees varying according to the position of the parents. By 
 degrees the neighbouring reigning families' sought to place 
 their sons under so able and so trustworthy a master. Thus 
 Frederic of Urbino, 'ancor fanciullo/ was sent to Vittorino, 
 who held him in much affection, and we are told 2 how deep a 
 love of letters marked the after years of this characteristic 
 figure of the Renaissance. Vittorino, moreover, mindful of 
 his own early struggles, and true to the scholar's instinct of the 
 equality of genius, continued to receive free of all charges 
 promising boys, commended to him by trusted friends. These 
 he treated absolutely on the same footing with the rest of the 
 boys, and in some cases he undertook the entire cost of their 
 maintenance, clothing, and books, for ten years or more. One, 
 Ludovico da Feltre, probably had some home associations with 
 the master ; another was taken at the instance of Sassuolo da 
 Prato 3 , a favourite scholar. The greatest scholars of the time, 
 Guarino 4 , Poggio 5 and Filelfo 6 sent their sons to Mantua. 
 They were well aware of the temptations that beset youth in 
 most university cities; with Vittorino they knew that their 
 
 friend, Fr. Clarici, as a pupil. And this practice was probably very common 
 with past pupils of Vittorino. 
 
 1 Ambrogio mentions " two sons of other princes each about ten years 
 old" (Mart, et Dur. iii. 553). One of these may well have been Frederic of 
 Urbino, who was born in 1422, and went to Mantua when about eleven 
 years of age. Dennistoun, i. 64. He was knighted by the Emperor 
 Sigismund as he passed through Mantua in 1433. 
 
 2 Castiglione, // Cortigiano, p. 5. For many years a bust of Vittorino, 
 with an inscription, stood in a place of honour in the great palace of 
 Urbino. Ottaviano Ubaldini, brought up as his brother, was a fellow 
 pupil of Frederigo, and may have been the second of the two princes 
 referred to by Ambrogio. Holtzinger, Frederigo &c. p. 210: and the 
 verses devoted to Vittorino by G. Santi, the father of Raphael, in his 
 Cronaca di Fedcrigo, \. ii. 28 seqq. 
 
 8 Saxolus Prat. ed. C. Guasli, pp. 18, 19. 
 
 4 Gregorio, born 1432; Sabbadini, EpistoL Guar. p. 81. 
 
 5 Probably Bartolomeo, born 1425. Poggio sent his eldest legitimate 
 son to Guarino in 1456 ; Vittorino had then been dead ten years. 
 
 8 Platina, p. 23.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 31 
 
 boys were certain of most careful guardianship. The Marquis 
 of Mantua, perhaps under the influence of his wife Paola, who 
 always regarded Vittorino with the deepest respect, allowed 
 him the fullest responsibility in this matter of the choice of 
 scholars. The Mantuan School rapidly became the recognised 
 'Ginnasio' for the aristocratic youth of Northern Italy, a 
 dignity of which its patron was thoroughly conscious, and its 
 repute gradually extended to France, Germany and even to 
 Greek-speaking lands. 
 
 The ages of the scholars varied considerably. L. Valla left 
 in 1430, when he was 23; he probably acted as assistant for 
 part of his stay. Sassuolo was 21 when he entered, and 
 remained till he was at least 27 ; Corraro and Perotti came at 
 the age of 14; Beccaria was younger than this; Ognibene was 
 probably eleven ; others were as young as 6 or 7. The number 
 of scholars seems to have steadily increased with the fame of 
 the School. Mention has been made of the practice of Vittorino 
 at Padua and Venice of receiving children of poor parents ' ; at 
 Mantua he extended this principle by a type of scholarship 
 which we are told, and it is not difficult to believe it, was 
 much appreciated. In addition to the free maintenance of 
 the scholar he provided an income for the parents secured 
 upon the State treasury 2 . 
 
 The Marquis of Mantua had set apart for the use of 
 Vittorino and his pupils a favourite palace, in close neighbour- 
 hood of the Curia or family residence of the prince and his 
 household. This detached villa or Casino, had been built in 
 1388 and the following years by Francesco Gonzaga IV., and it 
 had borne the name of La Gioiosa, or, in Venetian dialect, 
 ' Zoyosa ' : the Pleasure House. It lay upon the ridge of 
 slightly rising ground which commands the valley of the 
 Mincio upon the north-eastern corner of the city. The 
 
 1 Sassuolo says that at one time (about 1440) as many as 40 scholars 
 were received as free scholars. Guasti, p. 5 \ , 
 
 2 Platina, p. 26.
 
 32 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 present Piazza di Sordello and the Piazza della Fiera occupy 
 in all probability the site of the Casa Zoyosa, and of part of its 
 gardens 1 . The name of the future school-house did not how- 
 ever commend itself to Vittorino. But his ingenuity quickly 
 surmounted the difficulty. La Gioiosa became easily La 
 Giocosa 2 . The associations of La Giocosa were not less 
 bright and cheerful than those of the older name of doubtful 
 intention: it was still 'the Pleasant House': and there was 
 besides a suggestion of the Roman name for a school which 
 accorded with the ingenious taste of the time. The house was 
 probably at Vittorino's suggestion decorated anew, with frescoes 
 of children at play, and this also, together with the pleasant- 
 ness of its situation, gave further point to the name by which 
 Vittorino's school was universally known. 
 
 The house was of stately proportions. The interior was 
 spacious and dignified. Broad corridors, rooms lofty and well 
 lighted, gave to it an air of distinction which suited well 
 Vittorino's idea of what a school-house should be. For, as 
 its name implied, it was to be regarded as a ' house of delight.' 
 He believed that a certain brightness of surroundings conduced 
 to sound intellectual work. The notion so widely held that 
 the needs of study demanded that a school should be placed 
 in a gloomy, unhealthy situation*, was foreign to the true 
 humanist. La Giocosa was, on the contrary, surrounded on 
 three sides by a large enclosed meadow, bordered by the river ; 
 this was laid out with broad walks, lined with well-grown 
 trees. The open grass-covered space was highly prized by 
 Vittorino, who made much use of it as playing fields. 
 
 1 The local surroundings of La Giocosa have been cleared up by 
 Paglia, after much research in the Mantuan archives. Arch. Star. 
 Lombard. 1884, p. isoseqq. 
 
 2 Gioiosa, from gioia (gaudia) : giocosa is jocosa (jocus). Jocus is again 
 a synonym for ludus (sport) while the latter is the usual name for school. 
 As Paglia says, La Casa Zoyosa became "la casa di ludi letterarie e 
 di delizie spirituali dopo essere stata la casa delle gioie lussuriose." p. 153. 
 
 3 Mullinger, Cambridge, i. 339.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 33 
 
 La Giocosa was from the first ordered as the school house, 
 and there Vittorino himself and the princes had their home. 
 Part of the scholars were lodged in a house close at hand, not 
 unlike the palace itself in character, where they were under the 
 close supervision of the Master and his assistants. All met for 
 school work in La Giocosa. It would seem that all alike were 
 boarders ; and indeed the special discipline of Vittorino would 
 hardly have been possible on any other system. 
 
 But whilst he rejoiced in the dignity of proportion which 
 the school house offered, he ruthlessly stripped it of all its v 
 luxurious furnishings, its ornaments and plate 1 . The princes 
 received no peculiar consideration in this respect or in any 
 other. Their father trusted entirely in the judgment of the 
 Master and firmly upheld his authority in such wholesome 
 changes as these. For Vittorino had made it clear that, unless 
 temptations to luxury, idleness or arrogance were once for all 
 removed, and all scholars of whatever rank put upon the same 
 footing of plain and sober living, he could not attempt his task 
 with hope of success. 
 
 He found it necessary at the outset to discard certain 
 companions whose influence upon the Gonzaga children he 
 distrusted. It was a delicate task, for the children dismissed 
 belonged to important houses, but the Marquis supported his 
 action without hesitation. A scarcely less difficult matter was 
 the choice of suitable officers and servants ready to adapt 
 themselves to the new regimen. The Gonzaga family life was, 
 we know 2 , of a creditable type, but the new discipline was 
 unusual in a palace. Strict watch was kept over the egress of 
 the scholars, who found ordinarily ample room for games and 
 exercise in the grounds surrounding the school. 
 
 1 An inventory of the contents dated 1406 is preserved, enumerating 
 seventy beds and a very large array of hangings, furniture and appoint- 
 ments, as belonging to the palace. 
 
 2 Mart, et Durand, iii. 830. The reference is to 1425 or 1426. This 
 letter is quoted infra p. 77. 
 
 W. .1
 
 34 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 Vittorino definitely held himself the father of his scholars. 
 It was with him no formal claim '. His school entirely 
 absorbed him. He watched the youngest with affection and 
 hope, the elders with pride and confidence. Himself moving 
 always amid the larger things of life, the power that went forth 
 from him insensibly raised the tone of thought and motive in 
 those around him. His singleness of purpose was quickly felt, 
 and a word or even a glance of disapproval was, with the keenly 
 sensitive Italian youth, often sufficient to bring tears of shame 
 and repentance to the eyes of a culprit. Living a common 
 life with his scholars in meals, in games, in excursions, always 
 sharing their interests and pleasures, his control over the sixty 
 or seventy boys under his charge was such that harsh punish- 
 ments were not needed. Naturally quick-tempered, he had 
 schooled himself to a self-control which never gave way except 
 in face of irreverence or looseness. Corporal punishment was 
 very seldom resorted to, and then only after deliberation, and 
 as the alternative to expulsion. For ill-prepared work the 
 penalty imposed was the compulsory re-learning of the task 
 after school hours. But it was part of Vittorino's purpose to 
 attract rather than to drive, and to respect the dignity and the 
 freedom of his boys. So he refused, after fair trial made, to 
 force learning upon an unwilling scholar, holding that nature 
 had not endowed all with taste or capacity for study. It is 
 characteristic of the time that Vittorino could appeal with 
 confidence to the personal and family distinction conferred by 
 excellence in the study of Letters. It was a motive to which 
 most youths of spirit eagerly responded. 
 
 1 It was no doubt this characteristic of Vittorino's method that attracted 
 Pestalozzi, who is not usually supposed to have shewn much knowledge of, 
 or interest in, Renaissance education. Guasti, in his edition of Sassuolo, has 
 this note : ' E qui pure dir6 che 1' avvocato Giovacchino Benini di cara 
 memoria senti dalla bocca del Pestalozzi, che la vita di Vittorino scritta clal 
 Sassuolo era stimabile sopra tutte 1' altre, e meritava d' essere fatta meglio 
 conoscere con una traduzione.' p. 31.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 35 
 
 We are told that Vittorino watched carefully habits of self- 
 indulgence in eating and drinking 1 , and by discipline in these 
 matters eradicated even gross faults : whilst he was equally 
 attentive to those whose appetite seemed deficient. Like other 
 educators of the time, he discouraged resort to artificial heat 2 , 
 even during the severe cold of the Mantuan winter. He never 
 stood near a fire, though his hands and feet were often numbed 
 with cold. Clapping the hands, stamping the feet, or, better 
 still, discussion and reading aloud were the proper remedies for 
 anyone in health : for cold was generally the result of idleness 
 of mind or body. The healthy activity of childhood was always 
 encouraged, and skill in games was cultivated in all his pupils. 
 Two little boys were overheard by him talking earnestly apart ; 
 hearing that they were discussing their lessons, he exclaimed, 
 ' That is not a good sign in a young boy,' and sent them off 
 to join the games. Regular exercise in all conditions of 
 weather he regarded as the foundation of health, and health 
 as the first necessity of mental progress. The health of the 
 boys under his charge was a matter to which Vittorino paid 
 much attention ; in this respect again we feel how remote he 
 was from the mediaeval standards. In the excessive heats 
 he made provision for sending or accompanying parties of his 
 scholars to the villas owned by the Marquis at Goito, or at 
 Borgoforte, or to the Lake of Garda, or the lower Alps of the 
 Veronese. If any fell ill his care was unremitting. Indeed 
 the tie of personal affection which united him with his pupils 
 was manifest in all relations. His keen desire for their pro- 
 gress, and his pride in it ; his peculiar insight into individual 
 character ; the absence of all considerations of self, so affected 
 
 1 The use of wine, though discouraged, was not actually forbidden. It 
 was always diluted. He himself drank very sparingly a light and sweet 
 wine. 
 
 2 There was nothing peculiar to Vittorino in this opinion. The cold of 
 the Monastery or university Hostel must have been severely felt. Rashdall, 
 Universities, ii. 665. Vegius, De Lib, Ediic. i. 4. 
 
 32
 
 36 Vittorino da Feltrc. 
 
 the methods of discipline that in the truest sense La Giocosa 
 was an ideal school, and, so far as a school ever may be, an 
 ideal home. 
 
 What is here written may seem a fancy sketch based on 
 the adulatory method of criticism common to the fifteenth 
 century. But we have the correspondence, fragmentary but 
 most significant, of Vittorino himself, the unvarying testimony 
 of scholars' who spent their youth and early manhood under 
 Vittorino ; the indirect evidence afforded by those of his pupils 
 who became famous schoolmasters in their turn; and the 
 respect of men of so wide experience and such ample oppor- 
 tunity of information as Guarino, Ambrogio, Filelfo and Poggio, 
 a respect due not only to his attainments but to the noble 
 temper by which Vittorino gained and kept his unique authority. 
 We may trace the characteristics of this new discipline, if we 
 will, to the study of Plutarch's Treatise, and of Quintilian. 
 Something no doubt was due to the revolt of the Humanist 
 against the doctrine that the body is the enemy of the mind 
 and of the spirit. But most of all do we feel that Vittorino 
 could dispense with harshness just because he was intensely 
 sympathetic with the young, was master of his task in all its 
 detail, and pursued it with an undivided mind. Moreover, 
 we know that he was aided by able colleagues, men of like 
 mind with their Master; for most of them had been trained 
 by Vittorino himself. But the last word that can be said is 
 after all just this : the secret of his authority lay in the genius 
 of the man himself. 
 
 The aim of Vittorino, the aim of the true humanist edu- 
 cator, was to secure the harmonious development of mind, 
 body, and character 2 . As compared with the other great 
 schoolmaster of the time, Guarino da Verona, we may say 
 
 1 Esp. Sassuolo, who wrote during Vittorino's life-time (1443); Prendi- 
 lacqua, the Bp of Aleria, Castiglione. 
 
 2 He aimed at creating 'the complete citizen,' says Ticozzi. The real 
 Humanist had a very practical end in view. Ticozzi, p. 18: infra, p. 182.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 37 
 
 that whilst Guarino, the better Greek scholar and more laborious 
 reader, bent his efforts rather to turning out clever and eloquent 
 scholars', Vittorino aimed at sending forth young men who 
 should ' serve God in church and state,' in whatever position >/ 
 they might be called upon to occupy 2 . But both agreed in 
 this, that the subject matter, the educational apparatus, to be 
 employed, must in the main consist of the literature of Greece 
 and Rome. If we contrast the Humanist curriculum with its 
 mediaeval predecessor, we shall find that it is scarcely accurate 
 to say that the ancient Trivium and Quadrivium have dis- 
 appeared and have been replaced by something absolutely 
 new. But it is still less accurate to say, as M. Benoist says 
 of Erasmus, 'Trivium Erasmus intactum reliquit, neque in 
 quadrivio quidquam aliud mutavit nisi quod geometriae in 
 locum cognatam doctrinam, geographiam substituit.' On a 
 superficial view it is possible to recognise in the Humanist 
 school course the 'Seven Liberal Arts,' Grammar, Dialectic, 
 Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music. But 
 the identification loses all serious meaning when we realise, 
 first, the immense difference in the relative importance of the 
 subjects as understood by the new Teachers, and secondly, the 
 revolutionary interpretation they placed upon their contents 3 . 
 Undoubtedly, in Italy, as every student of the Renaissance 
 soon learns, the classical tradition had never been wholly lost, 
 
 1 Cortesius, De horn. doct. p. 226. Voigt, i. 551, and Burckhardt, Ren. 
 in Italy \ p. 215, both concur in this judgment. Cf. Schmidt, Gesch. 
 der Pddag. ii. 403 for a concise review of the educational aim of 
 Vittorino. 
 
 2 Prendilacqua, p. 86. Vittorino's practice was that advocated by 
 Vergejrjus and by M. Vegio in their works on Education. This broad view 
 of education may be contrasted with that set forth by Bapt. Guarino (son 
 of the elder Guarino), whose tract De Ordine Docendi et Studendi represents 
 a narrower idea. See below, p. 160. Vittorino's ideal, worked out at 
 Mantua, was seldom so fully realised in later times. 
 
 3 Benoist, Quid de Puerorum &><:., p. 44 : in many respects a valuable 
 study of Erasmus and the later Renaissance.
 
 38 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 and Latin was at no period a dead language, hardly even a 
 'learned' language. The consciousness of race and of imperial 
 position was kept alive by the ruins of Rome, by the Aeneid 
 or by the tales of Livy: it was expressed in the Papal power 
 and in the Roman Law. But the Humanists, as has been 
 already said, quickened this consciousness by bringing to bear 
 upon the whole field of ancient culture a strict method of study, 
 and an enthusiastic adaptation of the past to the needs of the 
 present. So that the spirit in which they handled the con- 
 stituent subjects of the Trivium was wholly different, even in 
 Italy, from that of educators of the previous centuries. For 
 example, the figment of the four senses of a passage the 
 literal, the metaphorical, the allegorical, the anagogical which 
 grammar and dialectic jointly endeavoured to exhibit, gave 
 way to a desire to find out what the author's words meant 
 to a plain intelligence. To Vittorino Grammar and Rhetoric, 
 combined, implied the critical scholarship of Greek and Latin, 
 a facility in composition in either language, and a power of 
 entering into, and absorbing, the spirit of the literature, history, 
 and thought of the ancient world. Dialectic, instead of domi- 
 nating all other subjects, especially Grammar 1 , sank into a 
 comparatively insignificant place. All was rational, objective, 
 in method ; the aim was erudition and not speculation, as a 
 means of adorning and moralising life. The essential founda- 
 tion of education was Letters; the rest was subsidiary. As 
 Aeneas Sylvius and Erasmus said of mathematics or dialectic, 
 'degustasse sat erit.' 
 
 Vittorino found himself entrusted with pupils of varying 
 ages. He preferred that they should come to him before they 
 had much to unlearn. He devised for the youngest letter- 
 
 1 The terminology of grammar, and the spirit in which the subject was 
 studied, were much affected by current Dialectic : the practice of Disputa- 
 tion as applied to Art-subjects led to unreality in their study. The 
 subject is treated of in the Dialogue of L. Bruni d' Arezzo (1401). Klette, 
 Beit. ii. 53 seqq.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 39 
 
 games by which children of four or five years of age might be 
 insensibly taught to read and to spell : and with this he com- 
 bined simple exercises in speech. Much importance was from 
 the first attached to right enunciation. He insisted upon the 
 necessity of opening the mouth properly, of drawing the breath 
 at right intervals ; of the clear enunciation of each syllable, of 
 avoiding sibilation, or thick guttural utterance. He repressed 
 loudness in reading or speaking, and insisted on great atten 
 tion to proper emphasis and intonation, accent and quantity 1 . 
 Grace of address, he taught, must accompany dignity of carriage 
 and refinement of manners. 
 
 Reading aloud was one of the regular exercises of each day, \J 
 and was generally taken in presence of Vittorino himself. In 
 the scarcity of books this practice found wide scope. At meals 
 rigid silence was enjoined whilst the prescribed author was 
 read. In later stages of classical teaching he held that reading 
 aloud was both an aid to and test of the intelligent under- 
 standing of historian or poet. This practice was derived from 
 Chrysoloras and was much valued by his pupil Guarino 2 , from 
 whom possibly Vittorino in turn acquired it. Declamation 
 was also carefully taught as a needful training in eloquence. 
 Both reading and recitation were considered to be very health- 
 ful exercises, fortifying the body against cold, and aiding 
 digestion. Of what did the subject matter of Reading and 
 Declamation consist? Young scholars were early taught to 
 recite with reverence and intelligence the chief religious exer- 
 cises. They were then practised in repeating short and easy 
 passages of Ovid and Vergil ; and we know that some of 
 Vittorino's pupils could, by the age of ten, recite Latin com- 
 positions of their own. Recitation, of prose and verse, was, 
 in an age when books were scarce, a favourite exercise: and 
 the length and difficulty of the works thus learnt by heart 
 
 1 Sadoleto, in the following century, used the device of reading back- 
 wards as an aid to fluency. 
 
 2 Rosmini, Guarino, i. 113 (nota 76).
 
 4O Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 t 
 
 is evidence that the memory was much stronger and a far 
 more ready instrument of education than it is to-day. With 
 Perotti, the famous scholar of Vittorino, as with Quintilian, 
 memory is 'primum ingenii signum 1 .' Its cultivation led to 
 remarkable results in young children. Whole orations of 
 Cicero or Demosthenes, books of Livy and Sallust, besides 
 large portions of Vergil and Homer, were recited with accuracy 
 and taste by boys or girls of less than fourteen years of age. 
 And this art of Recitation 2 was regarded as of the greatest im- 
 portance by Vittorino, as evidence of intelligent appreciation 
 of the matter and form of classical reading. 
 
 We have no allusion to the reading or recitation of Italian. 
 Dante, for instance, is never mentioned in any references to 
 the school of Vittorino or to that of his friend Guarino at 
 Ferrara. 
 
 This brings us to the interesting but difficult enquiry Was 
 any place allotted to the language and literature of the ver- 
 nacular in the education of the time ? It seems indeed most 
 unlikely that the Italian language was used at all except in 
 rudimentary instruction, and in conversation. It is improbable 
 that it was thought worthy of a place in a scheme of serious 
 education 3 . Translations into Italian there were, in much 
 larger numbers than we, perhaps, imagine; one, a history of 
 
 1 Rud. Gramm. f. 4 (Romae 1473)1 cf. Vegius p. 238. Ficino said that 
 memory was amongst the chief requisites of a philosopher. See interesting 
 quotations from Vespasiano in Fioretti, p. 113. 
 
 2 One of the Gonzaga boys recited a book of the Aenrid a day. 
 Prendilacqua. 
 
 3 See however the expression (very rare in a scholar) of a different 
 feeling in the title of a little manual by Filelfo ' Exercitatiunculae Latinae 
 et Italicae ' (first ed. Milan 1483) '...genus exercitiorum quo duce non 
 solum Latinae linguae flosculos decerpent verum etiam ipsius linguae 
 vernaculae (quod non ab re fuerit) elegantiam sibi comparabunt....' 
 Filelfo's own literary Italian was chiefly a string of Latin words with 
 Italianised terminations pedantic and artificial. L. B. Alberti represents 
 the reaction in favour of Italian on its strongest side.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 41 
 
 St Clement of Rome, was dedicated to Cecilia Gonzaga 1 , 
 herself a pupil of Vittorino, to whom the original Latin would 
 have offered no difficulty. Dante was honoured with a Chair 
 at the Studio of Florence, though rather in spite of, than 
 because of, the language in which he wrote. Salutati 2 re- 
 gretted the poet's choice of Italian, which Bruni curtly said 
 was due to his gross ignorance of Latin. But in truth there 
 was at this time little doubt felt that Latin was destined to be 
 henceforth the common tongue of the educated world, and 
 that all delay in acquiring it by speech and writing was so 
 much wasted opportunity. ' La lingua volgare ' might indeed 
 be convenient for common life. But it was rather a series 
 of dialects than an authoritative literary instrument 3 : hence it 
 could in no way be regarded as equal to the task of expressing 
 and interpreting the vast range of ideas now being revealed in 
 the monuments of ancient civilisation. The eternity of Rome 
 attached also to the Roman speech ; anything worthy of 
 survival must therefore be expressed through that medium 4 . 
 
 1 I only know of one copy, MSS. Ital. Canon, in the Bodleian Library 
 {Catalog, ed. Mortara, 1864, No. 5). 
 
 2 Salutati (in the Dialogue of L. Aretinus) is represented no doubt 
 accurately as saying, 'si alio genere scribendi usus esset,' he would have 
 placed Dante amongst the great figures of literature. See Klette, Beit. ii. 
 59. The chair of Dante was held by Giovanni Malpaghini and by Filelfo, 
 both, of course, Latinists. 
 
 3 Cf. the criticism of Gebhardt, Les Origints de la Renaiss. p. 171-2, 
 and of Reumont, Lorenzo dei Medici (Eng. ed.), i. 486 (upon the absence 
 of grammatical apparatus). The same feeling marks Erasmus' attitude 
 towards modern speech nearly a century later : and Vives attached the 
 greatest importance to the practice of talking in Latin (De trad. Disc. iii. 
 298). 
 
 4 The extreme Humanist contention is best stated in the Dialogue of 
 L. Aretinus already quoted. Niccoli is speaking: 'Quos tu mihi Dantes, 
 inquit, quos Petrarcas, quos Boccatios?... Nam quid est in illis quod aut 
 admirandum, aut laudandum, cuiquam videri debeat?' p. 60. 'Ego, me- 
 hercule, unam Ciceronis epistolam atque unum Virgilii carmen omnibus
 
 42 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 Italian was unfixed, crude; it had no definite grammatical 
 method ; no sanction from great names of the past. The truly 
 historic language of Italy could only be Latin. Vittorino's 
 practice coincided with this prevailing opinion. As early as 
 possible, so we may safely conclude, ordinary conversation, just 
 as all teaching, at the Giocosa, was carried on in Latin, and the 
 use of Italian discouraged. 
 
 Although Vittorino thus regarded Latin as the natural 
 medium of instruction, he by no means limited his curriculum, 
 whether for younger or elder scholars, to language alone. No 
 mistake is more common amongst superficial students of the 
 history of education than this misconception of the place 
 accorded to Grammar by the teachers of the Renaissance. 
 We are expressly told that the school hours were divided 
 amongst a varied range of subjects. ' Laudabat illam quam 
 Graeci eyKVKAoTratSeiav vocant, quod ex multis et variis dis- 
 ciplinis fieri doctrinam et eruditionem dicebat' says Platina 1 . 
 Indeed, Prendilacqua tells us that no subjects of instruction 
 were wanting, and that special masters were provided to secure 
 effective teaching. Arithmetic, which he valued highly for its 
 training in accuracy and businesslike habits of mind, was in 
 the rudimentary stage taught by games, 'following the practice 
 of the ancient Egyptians, whose method in the subject 
 Vittorino highly commended*.' Geometry, in which Vittorino 
 had gained a high reputation at Padua, and with which we 
 may believe that he associated the elements of Algebra, he 
 taught in conjunction with drawing, mensuration and sur- 
 veying. We hear much less than we should expect of Vit- 
 
 vestris opusculis (those of Dante, Petrarch or Boccaccio !) longissime ante- 
 pono.' p. 65. 
 
 Manetti, though holding Italian in genuine esteem, is compelled to 
 write in Latin : ' Cuncta, quemadmodum gesta erant, conscribere atque 
 perpetuis et aeternis Latinarum literarum monumentis mandare statuimus.' 
 Chron. Pistoriense, Praefatio, s.f,, in Muratori, xix. p. 992. 
 
 1 p. 21. 2 Sassuolo, p. 70.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 43 
 
 torino's teaching of mathematics, when we consider his interest 
 in the subject and his credit as a master in earlier years 1 . The 
 medal by Pisanello expressly records his fame in this depart- 
 ment of knowledge. We are told that he engaged masters to 
 teach the elements of Natural Philosophy and Euclid. At 
 Padua Mathematics and Astrology had been closely as- 
 sociated' 2 . Vittorino discarded Astrology for Astronomy, and 
 lessons on the heavenly bodies were included in the course. 
 Natural history was not neglected, though we may suppose 
 it to have been of an uncritical sort, like our own sixteenth 
 century 'bestiaries.' Music was admitted, although under 
 careful supervision 3 . There was much anxiety amongst edu- 
 cators at this time respecting the moral influence of music and 
 musicians. Indulgence in the art tended, it was feared, td" 
 sensuous excitement, or to mere indolence. To listen to 
 music was an excuse for doing nothing ; to practise it might 
 lead to loss of complete self-control. Music masters, carefully 
 chosen, paid special attention to those likely to excel. But 
 Vittorino held fast to the Attic distinction between base and 
 elevating harmonies. With these precautions he admitted 
 instrumental music, choral singing, and dancing. 
 
 Vittorino held the opinion that not only was the alternation 
 of study with games and exercise needful to real intellectual 
 quickness, but that the teacher must provide ample variation 
 in the subjects of instruction themselves. It was an illustration 
 common with the Humanist writers on Education that the mind 
 needs variety of food no less than the body 4 . The range of 
 
 1 Ambrogio however writes from Goito in 1435, of Gianlucido, the third 
 son : ' ostendit propositiones duas in Geometria Euclidis a se additas cum 
 figuris suis, ut aestimare plane iam nunc licet quam sit valiturus ingenio.' 
 Mehus, Vita Ambros. Epist. vii. 3 (p. 332). 
 
 2 Astrology had affinity on one side with Mathematics and on the other 
 with Medicine. See Rashdall, Univ. i. 243. 
 
 3 ' modo educata sit in philosophiae gremio ' says Sassuolo speaking of 
 Vittorino's views. 
 
 4 'Animus alternatis studiorum generibus refici solet,' says Platina r
 
 44 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 school subjects was undoubtedly narrow, as a consequence of 
 the meagre field of knowledge available at the period ; and 
 their adaptation to school purposes was certainly most im- 
 perfect. But it still remains true that in the best Italian 
 schools of the fifteenth century the restriction of school work 
 to a mechanical study of Latin and Greek Grammar and 
 Delectus was unknown. 
 
 Indeed, from the nature of the case, in its early stages the 
 teaching of the classical languages was in such a school as that 
 of Vittorino of necessity freer and more attractive than it was 
 when school tradition had become formally settled. In the 
 scarcity of books an oral method and clear intelligent ex- 
 position were indispensable. For it was necessary for each 
 scholar to accumulate, by gradual induction from the usage 
 of authors, both vocabulary and syntax. A small manual 
 of Accidence, in the case both of Latin and of Greek, might be 
 placed in the hands of every pupil, possibly the Elementarium 
 of Papias, and the Erotemata of Chrysoloras 1 . But idiomatic 
 usages, synonyms, irregularities of inflexion, were learnt by 
 observation and practice. Grammar thus provided in the 
 hands of a good teacher a valuable mental discipline : it 
 deserved the title claimed for it by Vergerius ' scientia primor- 
 dialis pedagoga,' which 'dirigit et administrat singulas facul- 
 tates,' and so forms ' fundamentum solidum cuiuslibet alterius 
 disciplinae 2 .' It was a study calling into play many other 
 and higher mental processes than verbal memory. The 
 habitual use of Latin as a spoken language enabled the 
 grammar of it to be employed with much freedom, and rapid 
 
 explaining the practice of Vittorino, p. 20. Compare Aen. Sylvius, p. 156, 
 below. 
 
 1 The manual compiled for the use of his classes at Florence and Pavia 
 by Manuel Chrysoloras. It was abridged, with Latin version, by Guarino, 
 and remained in that form (often under the title of Erotemata Guarini) the 
 most popular elementary Grammar of the century. It is written in form of 
 question and answer, as the name implies. 
 
 2 Vergerius, Epistol. p. 5.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 45 
 
 progress both in Greek and Latin was common amongst pupils 
 of average intelligence. 
 
 Vittorino treated Grammar under four heads', which he 
 required to be thoroughly mastered before definite reading 
 of authors, or continuous composition was entered upon. The 
 master first provided sufficient vocabulary by dictation, and 
 with the words themselves their chief inflexions. Then easy 
 passages from poetical authors were delivered, explained, no 
 doubt translated, and then treated as exercises in accidence. 
 Parallel with this ran a similar course in historical narrative or 
 moral anecdote, in which more stress was laid upon the matter, ^ 
 in view of subjects for elementary composition or disputation 2 . 
 Accent, especially with northern strangers, quantity, and enun- 
 ciation were taken in hand as an integral part of every lesson. ^ 
 These, the ' quattuor officia grammaticorum,' were in the eyes 
 of Vittorino the foundation of good teaching. It is evident 
 that so elastic a method of handling grammar gave scope to a 
 high order of teaching ability. Guarino in his schools at 
 Venice and Ferrara followed a somewhat similar method, which 
 was applied by Vittorino both to Greek and Latin. 
 
 Upon the foundations of Grammar thus understood Vit- 
 torino proceeded at once to raise the edifice of Letters. Cicero 
 and Virgil, to speak first of Latin writers, were naturally the 
 corner-stones. Passages from both authors were from the first 
 committed to memory 3 as the basis of style, and as aids to 
 vocabulary, and to prosody. With them Vittorino coupled 
 
 1 This is derived from Sassuolo da Prato, a very good authority on 
 points of this kind. He was pupil at Mantua between 1437 and 1443; and 
 for some time was assistant to Vittorino. 
 
 2 Sassuolo compiled a little book, which contained a selection of such 
 passages in Latin and Greek ; it is unfortunately not now to be traced. 
 Compiled at Mantua, no doubt it represented the method pursued by 
 Vittorino himself. 
 
 3 It is said that not a few of his pupils could before leaving school 
 repeat the whole of Vergil, entire speeches, treatises and letters of Cicero, 
 large parts of Livy, and the whole of Sallust. Bernardi, p. 1 14.
 
 46 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 Lucan and Ovid. But before prescribing a piece for recita- 
 tion he took the greatest care in the explanation and rendering 
 of the selected passage. His method in ' reading' an author 
 is described as follows. He dealt, first of all, with 'verba,' 
 i.e. the exact meaning of each individual word and its con- 
 struction in the sentence : that led up to the second part of 
 the lesson, the exposition of ' genus dicendi ' or style ; and 
 this includes ' ordo,' ' nexus,' and ' rhythmus verborum,' as 
 characteristic of the individual writer. Then the passage was 
 further explained under 'descriptio locorum,' or allusions, and 
 under 'affectus personarum,' or characters. All these points 
 were illustrated from other passages of the same, or of another, 
 author. We have here undoubtedly a direct reminiscence of 
 Quintilian and Plutarch 1 applied to elementary teaching. 
 Vittorino used always the simplest and most direct language 
 in class, avoiding all display and redundancy. He had great 
 power of illustration, and of putting his meaning in different 
 ways. His expressions were clear and carefully adapted to the 
 intelligence of individual scholars. His voice was musical and 
 penetrating, reaching every-one present in the room. The 
 matter thus given out was taken down by each member of 
 the class, who formed, each for himself, his own written 
 vocabulary, and collected examples of syntax and of prosody. 
 The reverence of Vittorino for Vergil was characteristic of his 
 age, and of his city. The art of the Augustan Age appealed 
 strongly to the Humanists. 'Cura et diligentia Homerum 
 superasse ' he said of Vergil. Lucan he admired ' propter 
 
 1 Quintilian, i. 8; Plutarch, De aud. Poetis, 5, 6, n. Erasmus' 
 advice to a master on this subject (De Ratione Studii, Opera I. 527) is 
 
 interesting : ' Ad haec si qua insignis elegantia, si quid prisce dictum si 
 
 durior aut perturbatior ordo, si qua etymologia, si qua figura...diligenter 
 admoneat. Turn loca similia ex auctoribus conferat, si quid diversum, si 
 quid affine, si quid imitatum, si quid allusum, si quid aliunde translatum, 
 aut mutuo sumptum, ut sunt pleraque Latinorum a Graecis profecta, ne id 
 quid taceat.'
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 47 
 
 ardorem et concitationem.' Ovid he distrusted on moral 
 grounds; but his helpfulness in forming sound poetical taste 
 was so clearly recognised that a volume of extracts from this 
 poet was never out of Vittorino's hands. Other elegiac poets 
 he used sparingly : there was nothing morally bracing in them. 
 Terence, whose 'proprietas' he rated highly, and Plautus, he 
 would read only with pupils of whose strength of character he 
 was assured. So, too, the satirists, Horace and Juvenal, needed 
 excisions, and even then were better postponed to the last 
 year of school. The Odes, on the other hand, were mootels 
 of grace and elegance of diction. The tragedies of Seneca 
 attracted him by their loftiness of sentiment, their grave 
 diction, and the seriousness of their situations. None, however, 
 amongst the poets equalled Vergil in refinement of thought 
 and in perfection of technique 1 . 
 
 Amongst historians Valerius Maximus 2 , though unduly 
 prone to flattery, presents great variety of character and inci- 
 dent Elegance, acumen, and verve are alike characteristic of 
 Caesar. In spite of accusations of provincialism in style and 
 inaccuracy in matter (which Vittorino indignantly rejects) 
 Vittorino is a warm admirer of Livy, as a master of a flowing 
 narrative style. Upon Livy Vittorino lectured frequently. He 
 indeed laid the foundations of the critical study of the text. 
 The famous editor of the Rditio Princeps, the Bishop of Aleria, 
 was a pupil of Vittorino. He has left a touching record of his 
 debt to his old master in the Preface to that splendid book. 
 He tells us that Vittorino lectured upon a large part of the 
 history of Livy, and goes on to affirm ' si quid in recognitione 
 profeci, auctori acceptum Vittorino referatur.' This points to a 
 
 1 Platina, p. 22. 
 
 2 Salutati valued Valerius Maximus, 'non tarn excerptorem historiae 
 quam moralium praeceptorem uberem.' Epistol. ed. Novati, i. 10. This 
 represents the usual attitude of the earlier Humanists towards historians. It 
 is probably even true of Erasmus. Cf. Benoist p. 137 '...forte hanc ei (i.e. 
 historiae) praecipuam utilitatem tribuit, ut praeclara apophthegmata pul- 
 chrasque sententias philosophis suppeditaret.'
 
 48 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 systematic correction of the text of Livy, a task for which the 
 scholarship of Vittorino aided by his rich collection of MSS 
 was peculiarly qualified. Sallust and Quintus Curtius were 
 used in younger classes. The Natural History of Pliny 1 , 
 though little read hitherto, was valued for its matter at least as 
 much as for its style. Quintilian took a high place in Vittorino's 
 estimation. We find him discussing this author at much length 
 with Ambrogio, and we do not doubt that in conjunction with 
 the De Oratore of Cicero, upon which he lectured almost 
 continuously 2 , it formed the basis of his teaching of Latin 
 Oratory. We have a reference to the reading of Seneca the 
 philosopher. The philosophical writings of Cicero are alluded 
 to later on. 
 
 There is occasional notice of the Christian Latinists. A 
 work of St Augustine, De Musica, and another, De Cataegoriis, 
 are spoken of by Ambrogio as amongst Vittorino's books ; but 
 we have no reference to Lactantius, who was usually regarded 
 as the Christian Cicero by Humanist teachers 3 . Vittorino un- 
 doubtedly had learnt from Barzizza to regard Cicero as the 
 best material for the foundations of scholarship ; nor was he 
 tempted to make use of such collections of model epistles, 
 orations or academic exercises, as served for substitutes for 
 Cicero in many schools 4 . Vittorino, again, does not seem to 
 
 1 Pliny was little known at this period, and MS. copies of his works 
 were rare. Lud. Gonzaga had a copy at Mantua in 1376; there was none 
 at Florence in 1378; and apparently none in the Milan library of the 
 Visconti as late as 1426. Vittorino no doubt had the use of the Gonzaga 
 copy. Petrarch bought his copy at Mantua in 1350. Nolhac, Pet. p. 770. 
 
 2 Bandini (Cat. Codd. Lat. iii. 417) notes the existence of a copy in the 
 Library of S. Marco at Florence, which bears the words ' ...revisus et cor- 
 rectus fuit Mantuae sub clarissimo...Victorino '; and again, a second reading 
 is recorded, under Vittorino, of the same book, which, the owner says, 
 ' egregie emendatum inveni.' 
 
 8 See the opinion of L. Bruni, below, p. 124. 
 
 4 Barzizza's own academic addresses, Guarino's letters, Vergerius's Tract 
 on Education, are examples of the Selections from modem Latinists which we 
 know to have been very popular.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 49 
 
 have been drawn from his allegiance to sound style by the idea 
 that possessed some of his successors that Christian education 
 required the employment of Christian rather than of pagan 
 authors. But the list of Latin writers here given 1 is probably 
 not a complete record of the texts which found a place in his 
 school course. 
 
 To pass next to the Greek authors read. We shall notice 
 that the Attic tradition was far less developed than the 
 Ciceronian. Homer, described as ' oceano similis,' but, as a 
 poet, inferior to Vergil, and Demosthenes, occupy a place 
 corresponding to that of Vergil and Cicero in Latin. So soon 
 as the preliminary stages in grammar and construing already 
 described have been carefully passed through, the scholars, 
 'quasi lacte puro atque incorrupto imbuti' were introduced to 
 the historians, Xenophon, Arrian 2 , and Herodotus. Of Vit- 
 torino's interest in the first of these we have a significant 
 illustration in the actual copy of Xenophon which he presented 
 to Sassuolo da Prato his pupil, on his leaving Mantua, with an 
 autograph inscription of the master 3 . A copy of Thucydides 
 
 1 It is compiled from various notices of his pupils or correspondents ; 
 and may be compared with a similar list drawn up, from a far wider mass 
 of material, by Prof. Sabbadini respecting Guarino's working library. 
 Museo Ital. di Antichita Class., Firenze 1887, torn. II. p. 373. 
 
 2 The mediaeval interest in Alexander the Great (cf. the Cento Novelle 
 Antiche) is illustrated by the fact that the first translation from the Greek 
 into Latin due to the Revival was that of Arrian by Vergerius. Combi, 
 Epist. Verg. p. xxi. The attempted version of the Iliad by L. Pilato does 
 not count : as Prof. Borsa drily says : ' fu ne Omero, ne poesia, ne Latino,' 
 op. cit. p. 73. 
 
 3 This volume is preserved in the Laurentian Library at Florence, and 
 is catalogued by Bandini, ii. 285-6. The inscription runs: 'Hunc librum 
 Sassulo Pratensi, et discipulo et filio dono dedi, cum a me discederet, ut 
 esset monumentum amoris riostri. Ego Victorinus Feltrensis manu propria 
 scripsi et donum obtuli.' This MS. passed into- the hands of Guarino, who 
 seems to have tried to erase the name 'Sassulo'; who in extreme 
 destitution probably was compelled to part with the book. Guasti, 
 p. 30. 
 
 W. 4
 
 5O Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 was in the library, but we have no reference to its use in 
 school. Plutarch, from the interest which the Biographies had 
 in moral and historical teaching for all Humanists, occupied a 
 prominent place. It was one of the first books acquired by 
 Vittorino from Aurispa. In Oratory, next to Demosthenes 
 stood Isocrates, as highly prized for 'perspicuity' as Demosthenes 
 for ' energy.' Plato was read chiefly with the highest class : a 
 fine copy of most of the Dialogues was bought about 1425. 
 Amongst the dramatists, Vittorino valued Aristophanes as 
 'doctrina linguae, puritate sermonis Attici, ad formandum 
 bonum virum, quod vitia insectaretur, aptum.' This is a 
 curious estimate of Aristophanes, but shews the didactic method 
 pursued by Vittorino with classical authors. Euripides was 
 ' jucundus,' and full of weighty sentiments : and, whilst the 
 admirable art of Sophocles appealed to Vittorino's taste, 
 Aeschylus was his favourite dramatist, although the condition 
 of the text at that time makes us doubtful how far he could 
 have profitably used Aeschylus in class 1 . Hesiod was read for 
 his ' practical reflections,' Pindar was valued for his wealth of 
 metaphor and of epithet. It is probable that the orations of 
 the Emperor Julian were used as a school text ; we know that 
 Chrysostom was translated as an exercise in Latin prose. 
 Ambrogio saw a version from the Greek Father by one of the 
 pupils and was delighted with it. We shall see that Vittorino 
 had in his library other Greek authors of which he may have 
 made some use in school. 
 
 Vittorino laid great stress upon the parallel teaching of 
 I^atin and Greek. At what age his scholars actually began 
 Greek we are not told. But Cecilia Gonzaga was already 
 learning the grammar at the age of seven ; and rapidly became 
 proficient*: and possibly her brother Gianlucido had begun 
 
 1 The Ed. Prin. was published by the house of Aldus in 1518, which is 
 fair evidence that Aeschylus was little read during the first century of 
 Humanism. 
 
 2 The rapidity with which Greek was learnt by pupils of Vittorino and
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 5 1 
 
 even earlier. It is repeatedly noted that Vittorino studied 
 with great care the capacity, taste, and future career of each 
 scholar, and adapted his method accordingly. But it is unlikely 
 that in any instance did he regard Greek as an ' optional ' 
 subject, as Guarino 1 did. Indeed Prendilacqua 2 says that in 
 the case of one pupil Vittorino devoted more attention to 
 Greek than to Latin in the earlier years. 
 
 Vittorino himself was probably less sound as a Greek 
 scholar than as a Latinist. We may recognise three degrees of 
 Greek scholarship in Italy during the early decades of the 
 fifteenth century. In the first rank are the three scholars who 
 were natives of Greek lands, and the forerunners of a much 
 larger group of men who after the fall of Constantinople are 
 found scattered throughout Italy. These were Manuel Chryso- 
 loras, whose presence in Western Europe lay between 1397 
 and 1415, Theodore Gaza of Salonica, and George of Trebizond. 
 They were men of high attainments, and to Chrysoloras and 
 Gaza are due the first Greek grammars compiled for Western 
 students. The next class contains the Italian scholars who in 
 their enthusiasm for the language undertook the perils of a 
 residence in Greece or Constantinople. The chief of these, all 
 of whom on their return were conspicuous as teachers, were 
 Guarino, Aurispa and Filelfo. There is no doubt that scholars 
 of this class were not a little prone to slight the knowledge of 
 Greek possessed by Humanists who had not crossed the Adriatic. 
 Aurispa, for instance, refers to Vittorino as 'Victorinus quidam 
 ...litteras Graecas mediocriter eruditus 3 .' The third degree of 
 
 Guarino is noted as especially deserving attention by Voigt i. 553. 
 Greek was perhaps used conversationally, but the statement of Schmidt 
 (Gesch. d. Padag. ii. p. 404) that Cecilia spoke Greek fluently at the age of 
 10 rests upon a misreading of Ambrogio. Cf. B. Guarino, De or dine 
 docendi, p. 167, inf. 
 
 1 Voigt i. 552. 
 
 2 Prendil. p. 45. Alessandro Gonzaga 'fu nella puerizia eccellente- 
 mente nutrito di Greche lettere, nell' adolescenza di Latine.' 
 
 8 To Ambrogio, ' Bonon. vi Cal. Sep. ' ; no year, but, I conclude, in 
 
 42
 
 52 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 scholarship was attained by those who had learnt Greek at the 
 hands of one or other of the two classes of teachers just 
 mentioned 1 . This was the nature of Vittorino's knowledge of 
 Greek, gained originally from Guarino in Venice. A man of 
 his intellectual sincerity was not likely to be under any illusion 
 as to the immense advantage which a native Greek scholar had 
 over one who, like himself, began the study of the language in 
 his thirty-eighth year. But such native teachers were apt to be 
 charlatans. Hence Vittorino kept careful watch for Greeks 
 who could produce satisfactory evidence of ability and of 
 character. Filelfo seems to have been the medium through 
 which, in or about 1430, George of Trebizond (Georgius 
 Trapezuntius) entered Vittorino's service. From a letter of 
 Filelfo 2 to him dated July 1431 we find that he is already at 
 work at Mantua. He had been for some years on bad terms 
 with Guarino, from whom it was said that he learnt the first 
 rudiments of Latin 3 . But his ability in Latin scholarship was, 
 as we have seen, according to his own declaration, due to 
 Vittorino. In return for this thorough training in Latin he 
 taught Greek at the Giocosa. Although a man of perverse 
 temper, his affection for Vittorino was deep and abiding. In 
 1426 he dedicated to him a little Tract, ' De generibus dicendi,' 
 and again, about 1432, another ' De artificio Ciceron. orationis 
 pro Q. Ligario,' in which he speaks of Vittorino as ' pater meus' 
 and of himself as his son, though indeed he was far from 
 inheriting the peace-loving spirit of his master 4 . With him 
 
 1474 or 1425 when Aurispa was professing Greek at Bologna just after 
 his return (with a store of MSS.) from the East. Mart, et Dur. iii. 
 714. There are sufficient reasons why the date cannot be much later in 
 any case. 
 
 1 There were of course more who, like P. C. Decembri, simply taught 
 themselves by help of Chrysoloras' Erotemata and one or two texts. See 
 Prof. M. Borsa in Arch. Stor. Lombard. Mar. 1893, p. 69. 
 
 1 Klette, Beit. iii. 105. Filelfo to George of Trebizond, July 1431. 
 
 8 By Giovanni Pannonio. Cf. sup. p. 13. 
 
 4 His bitterest quarrels were with his fellow-scholars, Aleria, Gaza, and 
 Perotti.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 53 
 
 were associated three others of his fellow countrymen whom 
 Ambrogio found working in the school in 1432 \ Ten or 
 twelve years later (1441) Vittorino engaged Theodore Gaza, 
 who had arrived in Italy in, or a little before, I440 2 . He also, 
 introduced by Filelfo, learnt Latin from Vittorino, and his 
 excellence as a scholar, a teacher, and a copyist of MSS. made 
 him a most valuable acquisition to the Mantuan school. For 
 the Greek grammar of Gaza was the ablest of all the manuals 
 compiled by scholars during that century. Erasmus introduced 
 it at Cambridge, and in editing a version for his own use has 
 no hesitation in putting the work in the same high category in 
 which he includes the Latin grammar of Perotti, another pupil 
 of Vittorino 3 . Budaeus also found it the ablest book available 
 in his time. The merits of Gaza as a copyist and corrector of 
 Greek MSS. have long been recognised. He was much occupied 
 by this work at Mantua, and in the paucity of books, which was 
 one of the difficulties of Humanist education at that time, Gaza's 
 presence enabled Vittorino to extend the range of his Greek 
 reading with his scholars, and even to supply the need of 
 friends at a distance. By the help of Gaza also, we have no 
 
 1 Cf. Castiglione, in Mehus, Ambrog. Trav. ccccviii. 'Semper aliquos 
 ex Graecia viros, nonnunquam tres quattuorve, domi habebat qui partim 
 nostros Graecas literas edocerent, partim ipsi Latinas docerentur, nonnullis 
 etiam pro librariis utebatur.' 
 
 2 Gaza is seeking work as teacher of Greek in 1440, but his ignorance 
 of Latin stands in his way. Filelfo sent him to Vittorino, and he is at 
 work under him in 1441. Klette, Beit. iii. 63-4. He has left Mantua in 
 1444 for Ferrara, where he is the first public professor of Greek Letters. 
 Le Grand, Bibl. Hdlenique, gives 1441 as the date of his arrival at 
 Mantua. But Sassuolo da Prato writes in 1443 'Nacti sumus nuper 
 Graecum hominem Thessalonicensem Theodorum, cum doctum, turn hac 
 aetate in sua lingua paene principem.' He stayed three years. See 
 Guasti, p. 40. 
 
 3 Erasmus, De Rat. Stud. p. 521 C: 'the first place amongst Greek 
 grammarians belongs by common consent to Th. Gaza, the next to 
 C. Lascaris.' See also his Preface to his edition (Basil. 1513) of Gaza's 
 Instit. Grammat.
 
 54 Vittorino da Felt re. 
 
 doubt, Vittorino himself continued to make further progress in 
 Greek scholarship. For no characteristic is more noteworthy 
 in the true Humanist teacher than his persistent attitude of a 
 student. And Vittorino, humble and sincere in his passion for 
 knowledge, was typical of the best of a group, worthy, not a 
 few of them, in spite of many failings, of 'a Grammarian's 
 Funeral.' 
 
 Vittorino was thus in a position to carry much farther than 
 would otherwise have been possible the reading of Greek 
 authors and the practice of Greek composition ; possibly he 
 included in certain cases the exercise of conversation in Greek. 
 It may be safely affirmed that nowhere else in Italy was 
 Greek so thoroughly and systematically taught ; certainly not 
 at Bologna, at Padua 1 or, until Gaza himself went there, at 
 Ferrara. We could not have more striking evidence of the 
 subordinate part played in the spread of Greek learning by 
 the Universities as compared with the Courts, Societies and 
 individual scholars 2 of northern Italy. 
 
 Interesting references to the method of teaching Com- 
 position, or Rhetoric in the strict sense, are preserved. The 
 first steps were taken in speaking Latin and also in reading 
 aloud, which Vittorino found helpful in acquiring vocabulary, 
 and a sense of rhythm in prose not less than in verse. There 
 were certain formal phrases, such as we find in Perotti's 
 grammar 3 with the Italian equivalent, to be learnt by heart : 
 then a book of exercises like Filelfo's, also in Italian and 
 Latin, would be used. Very early Greek was introduced, a 
 
 1 Padua had no public chair of Greek until after Vittorino's death in 
 1446. 
 
 2 See Burckhardt's remarks in this connexion, Ren. in Italy, p. 212. 
 
 3 ' Quo modo eleganter dicemus : ' Perche de la dicta litera ioho facil- 
 mente compreso e che tu sei sano e che tu non solamente me voi bene, 
 ma me ami grandemente?" "Ex his enim facile intellexi te et valere et 
 non modo me diligere sed etiam vehementer amare," (with other alter- 
 native renderings).
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 55 
 
 practice in which most leading schoolmasters 1 of the time 
 coincided. Composition in the continuous form often now 
 took the shape of a version from a simple Greek passage. 
 Ambrogio 2 found nine of Vittorino's younger pupils who 
 wrote Greek with an elegance which astonished him. Cecilia 
 Gonzaga, now ten years old, in this facility surpassed his own 
 pupils at Florence who were reaching manhood. The epis- 
 tolary style was zealously cultivated. Original compositions 
 in this form, and in oratory, were begun at the age of 1 1 or 12; 
 and certain stiff and formal models were reproduced with 
 accuracy. Latin passages were rendered into Greek, though 
 there is no allusion to Greek verses. Latin verse was, in 
 imitation of Vergil rather than Ovid, assiduously taught. 
 Carlo Gonzaga at the age of fourteen recites before Ambrogio 3 
 portions of an original production in Hexameters upon the 
 pageants at Mantua celebrated on the occasion of the 
 Emperor's visit in 1432. 
 
 The whole subject was of the first importance in Vittorino's 
 eyes. He invariably took it himself with one or other of the 
 classes. Each exercise was individually corrected, and if 
 necessary re-written, by Vittorino ; and if any scholar thought 
 to escape criticism by introducing some elaborately worded 
 compliment to the Master, he was rudely undeceived. The 
 three recognised marks of sound rhetorical composition had 
 been thus laid down by Barzizza 4 , and were accepted as 
 canons of style : compositio, elegantia, dignitas ; of which 
 compositio was again divided into iunctura (or nexus), ordo, 
 and numerus (or rhythmus). But Vittorino, we are expressly 
 told, inculcated a plain direct style, which he used himself: 
 'nullo fuco aut ambitu orationis utens, quod plerumque ad 
 
 1 Esp. Guarino and his son (cf. De Ordine &c., p. 167, infra.). 
 
 2 Mart, et Dur., iii. 553. 
 
 3 Mart, et Dur., iii. p. 451. On Prosody and Verse Composition see 
 inf. p. 165. 
 
 4 Aen. Sylv. Rhet. Praecept., (prologus), opera, p. 992.
 
 56 Vittorino da Felt re. 
 
 iactationem ingenii ac doctrinae fieri consueverint.' Fine 
 writing and the ostentation of learning he habitually dis- 
 couraged. As the general rule for young Latin scholars his 
 advice was 'A Cicerone nunquam discedendum.' He culti- 
 vated a fine taste in choice of words and in the arrangement of 
 the sentence. He laid down as a factor of great moment in 
 classical composition that the scholar must not set pen to 
 paper until he has thought out the argument of the piece and 
 determined the general form into which the matter should be 
 thrown ; and thereupon saturated himself with the reading of 
 first-rate model passages from an ancient author. In the time 
 of Vittorino, Rhetoric was not yet the elaborate art which it 
 afterwards became in the hands of Perotti 1 and his followers, 
 who by their formalism and minute analysis of style deprived 
 Latin writing of all spontaneity. Oratorical ability and ease in 
 writing and speaking Latin were arts of practical value for the 
 youths of that day, especially for those who might fill pro- 
 fessional or public positions. And with such practical aim it 
 was taught by Vittorino or Guarino. Vittorino's ability as a 
 Ciceronian and as a teacher enabled him to develope a sound 
 Latinity in his pupils. George of Trebizond became one of 
 the first Ciceronians of the century, an admitted superior to 
 Guarino, and the author of the recognised treatise on Rhetorical 
 style; Gaza, who in 1440 seems to have been all but entirely 
 ignorant of Latin, could, after eighteen months of study under 
 Vittorino, produce a version from the Greek worthy of dedica- 
 tion to a Medici. It is moreover significant that men like 
 Valla, the finest Latinist of his day, Perotti, Ognibene da 
 Lonigo 2 , and other great masters were formed under the 
 influence of Vittorino. 
 
 On the other hand he himself wrote nothing. Unlike most 
 
 1 E.g. Perotti, after defining Tropus (figure), proceeds to divide it under 
 thirteen heads : and this for beginners ! 
 
 2 See below, p. 87.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 57 
 
 scholars 1 of his rank, he has left no 'elegant epistles'; he 
 said that there was enough writing already in existence. His 
 humility led him to conceal rather than display his great 
 erudition and thorough scholarship ; and in this way one 
 aspect of his position in the history of learning has been 
 overlooked. 
 
 That Vittorino fully realised the difficulties attending the 
 use of some of the classical authors for school purposes has 
 been indicated already. The question was frequently debated 
 during the fifteenth century. Probably Vittorino was satisfied 
 with the practice of Jerome and Basil ; or with the principles 
 laid down by Plutarch as to the care necessary in the choice of 
 teachers, selection of matter, and the distinction to be drawn 
 between literary form and moral content. We may remember 
 that in the absence of printing, and in the consequent scarcity 
 of texts, the lecturer had ample freedom in omissions 2 . Vittorino 
 was we know more than ordinarily careful in all that concerned 
 the morals of his scholars, and both in selection and in com- 
 ment this consideration would be foremost in his mind. We 
 hear nothing of any difficulty, which some teachers at least 
 experienced, on score of the heathenism of the ancient writers; 
 
 1 Guarino was very prolific in letters ; Voigt rightly says that their 
 formalism and want of living interest makes many of them a poor testimony 
 to their writer's powers. Vittorino's letters to Ambrogio are lost ; they 
 were apparently of real personal interest. On Vittorino's Pythagorean 
 silence see Prof. Brambilla, Prendilacqua, p. 92. On the other hand, it 
 must be remembered that the letters most likely to be preserved were those 
 of the formal and ' elegant ' type which might be employed as models in 
 composition. There are, however, not a few, still inedited, scattered through- 
 out the libraries of Italy and southern Germany, of very great biographical 
 value. From such neglected sources the reconstruction of the earlier 
 history of Humanism is being slowly but surely attained by such scholars as 
 Prof. Sabbadinic. 
 
 2 We must not forget the difference of standard of coarseness in 
 humour, or of outspoken directness of expression between that age and our
 
 $8 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 for Vittorino's intense and living religious convictions enabled 
 him to select truth and beauty, in example or in style, from 
 pagan not less than from Christian writers, with a serene 
 confidence that seems never to have been seriously em- 
 barrassed'. 
 
 The classical scholar had two further interests besides 
 literature and style, those namely of the History and the 
 Philosophy of antiquity. The place of History in Education 
 was not clearly defined by Humanist writers, and we have 
 little light upon Vittorino's practice with respect to it. But his 
 devotion to Livy has already been mentioned, and we learn 
 that his interest was not confined to the text : he expressly 
 refused to accept criticisms of the accuracy of the historian 
 which were already mooted amongst scholars. Tacitus is 
 never mentioned, Sallust, Curtius and Valerius Maximus were 
 favourite authors. Plutarch was a favourite book of Gian- 
 francesco Gonzaga, as indeed of most public men with 
 scholarly feeling, and several biographies were translated into 
 Latin by pupils. Plutarch was the one historian of antiquity 
 then popularly read ; his use as a storehouse of moral and 
 political wisdom is illustrated by every letter-writer and 
 rhetorician. We have seen that Vittorino possessed the 
 greater Greek historians. His pupil Perotti translated Poly- 
 bius. Knowing the practical aim with which Vittorino had 
 undertaken his post at Mantua, we are surprised, perhaps, 
 that we do not find more stress laid upon the political value 
 of ancient history. For, like Aeneas Sylvius and Erasmus 2 , 
 Vittorino seems mainly attracted to history for its moral and 
 
 1 Guarino's experience at Ferrara was different : but then he was a man 
 of far less sensitiveness in such matters than Vittorino, and could even 
 commend L? Ermafrodito of Beccadelli. 
 
 2 On Erasmus' view see Benoist, De Puer. Instit. p. 137, "forte hanc 
 ei praecipuam utilitatem tribuit, ut praeclara apothegmata pulchrasque 
 sententias philosophis suppeditaret."
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 59 
 
 anecdotal interest. A really broader and more modern view 
 appears in Baptista Guarino's 1 treatise. But we must re- 
 member how little was as yet attained in the formation of 
 either historical or critical method. Vittorino's contemporaries 
 read Villani; nearly a century was to elapse before Guicciardini 
 was possible. 
 
 As regards Philosophy, Vittorino treated Ethics, not from 
 the speculative side, but as a guide to the art of living. We 
 find Vittorino very soon after his arrival buying a set of Plato's 
 dialogues 2 . He studied with the best light available the 
 leading Greek philosophies, although we do not know which 
 particular works of Aristotle he may have possessed. But 
 Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics were taught at La Giocosa as a 
 necessary part of the training of every educated man; 'for 
 they are most important in forming the man and the citizen.' 
 Younger scholars may learn their tenets from Cicero, who, as 
 having absorbed the best elements in Greek Ethics, and having 
 the truly practical temper of the Romans, is to be placed at 
 the head of all philosophers useful in actual life. Sassuolo 
 records that Vittorino himself took a select few of older pupils 
 through a course of philosophy, using both Plato and Aristotle 
 as his texts : that with this class ' every side of their teaching 
 was handled with thoroughness.' Vittorino regarded this final 
 course as the culmination of ' Letters,' affirming that those 
 who then passed on to a career in Law, Medicine, Theology, 
 or the public service, would find themselves equipped with the 
 finest possible preparation for a life of dignity and usefulness 
 in their several callings. In this conception of the place of 
 Letters as preliminary to professional training we have the 
 highest ideal of Humanist education whether in the fifteenth 
 century or the nineteenth. 
 
 A few words must be added respecting the place accorded 
 
 1 Cf. De ord. docend. et stud, infra, p. 169. 
 
 2 Infra, p. 68.
 
 60 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 to Dialectic or Logic. The attitude of the Humanists to this 
 subject needs no lengthy exposition. Although one of the 
 four 1 subjects included in the Arts course at the Universities, 
 the Italian genius had never given to Logic the dominating 
 place which it occupied in Paris or Oxford. " Quid est," asks 
 Niccoli*, "in Dialectica quod non britannicis sophismatibus 
 conturbatum est? quid quod non ab ilia vetere et vera dis- 
 putandi via separatum et ad ineptias levitatesque traductum?" 
 Vergerius, himself a Professor of Logic at Padua, had not 
 proposed the exclusion of the subject from the new education. 
 But he himself declares that he never taught Logic after the 
 manner of other Logicians, but in such a way that it might 
 serve as a guide and aid to the study of other sciences, 
 especially of natural and of moral philosophy 3 . Now this 
 coincides exactly with the judgement which is recorded of 
 Vittorino. He valued Logic expressly on the ground of its 
 use as an aid to exact thinking in definitions, in classification, 
 in inference, in the detection of fallacies. But the one aim to 
 be kept in view is that of arriving at working truth in enquiry ; 
 mere clever fence, subtilty and verbal ingenuity, is banished as 
 so much empty ostentation 4 . He would employ the Socratic 
 questioning to expose conceit. He, however, laid stress upon 
 Logic as of great service to a schoolmaster, enabling him to 
 acquire the fundamental virtues of exposition, precision, con- 
 nection, and clearness 6 . 
 
 The use of Disputation was retained by the earlier Humanist 
 
 1 Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectic, Philosophy (Ethics). 
 
 2 Klette, Beit. ii. 53. (The Dialogue of L. Aretino.) 
 
 3 Gloria ii. 423; Combi, Epistol. di Vergerio, p. xlv. The actual 
 letter, Ibid. ep. Ixxiv. p. 100. 
 
 4 This too had been Petrarch's position: he inveighed bitterly against 
 the dialectic of the schools, but adds : ' scio quod...excitat intellectum, signal 
 veri viam, monstrat vitare fallacias, denique, si nihil aliud, promptos et 
 perargutulos facit.' Petr. Ep. Fam. i. vi. (ed. Fracassetti, i. p. 56). 
 
 5 Bernard) .
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 61 
 
 teachers as a method of instruction in Classics 1 . Chrysoloras 2 
 had urged it as a process valuable only when conducted with 
 straightforward simplicity upon a. sound foundation of know- 
 ledge. The Humanist, with a wide unexplored field before 
 him of positive realities of thought, literature and action, had 
 no time to waste upon subjective puzzles, and the discipline 
 associated with them fell into disrepute. Logic, as an honest 
 aid to practical truth, had still its function to perform, but for 
 the scholar of the Renaissance it could never claim a place of 
 honour by the side of Letters. 
 
 Thus, whilst the curriculum of Vittorino covered the range 
 of subjects constituting the Arts course as recognised in a 
 University which, like Padua, was influenced by Humanist 
 sympathies, the thoroughness and breadth of classical reading 
 were probably far in advance of the standard usual for the 
 degree of Master or Doctor. Scholars anxious for the Uni- 
 versity status might indeed proceed from Mantua to Pavia, 
 Bologna, or Ferrara; and this step was indispensable in the 
 case of those who entered upon Theology, Law or Medicine. 
 For the project of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, suggested possibly by 
 Vittorino, of erecting a ' Studium Generale ' upon the foundation 
 of the ' Gymnasium Palatinum ' was not carried beyond the stage 
 of securing the necessary charter from the Emperor Sigismund 
 in I433 3 - VVe must however remember that in the Italian 
 Revival the imprimatur of the University was generally of less 
 
 1 For an instance of the form which Disputation sometimes assumed 
 in Humanist hands, see the following title of such an exercise at the Studio 
 of Florence (circ. 1440): 'Dialogus in quo fingit philosophies disputavisse 
 cum Alexandro adeo suaviter, ut etiam Dii auscultarent descendentes et ut 
 doctiores evaderent. [Begins,] Mercurius: Cur, O Charon infernas sedes 
 relinquens' &c. Arund. MSS. in B. M. 138. 82. 
 
 2 Klette, Beit. ii. 53. 
 
 3 Dated Sep. 27. Renewed by Albert II. and by Frederic III. Lunig. 
 iii. p. 1781. The diploma conferred 'all the privileges of Paris and Mont- 
 pellier.' Mantua should be added to Mr Rashdall's list of 'paper Univer- 
 sities,' Rashd. Univ. vol. ii., p. 719.
 
 62 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 importance to a student of Letters, even if he proposed to 
 become a public Teacher, than the distinction of having been 
 the pupil of a noted Humanist, who might be in the service of 
 a Prince, or Municipality, in a city where no Studium existed. 
 Hence it was possible for a school like that of Mantua to 
 obtain a repute and an influence in the world of scholarship, 
 which, so far as Letters were concerned, rendered its pupils 
 largely independent of the University degree 1 . In Italy the 
 great schools in no sense formed their curriculum upon the 
 requirements of the Studium, as in France or England. 
 
 Vittorino taught for some seven or eight hours daily. His 
 custom was to devote the early part of the day to work in class 
 or lecture, and the evenings to tutorial preparation of individual 
 scholars*. The school hours were probably shorter than the 
 practice of the following century allowed ; but the day no 
 doubt began early. ' I remember,' writes Prendilacqua, ' that 
 Vittorino, now well advanced in years, would of a winter's 
 morning come early, candle in one hand and book in the other, 
 and rouse a pupil in whose progress he was specially interested; 
 he would leave him time to dress, waiting patiently till he was 
 ready : then he would hand him the book, and encourage him 
 with grave and earnest words to high endeavour.' Class 
 teaching, as has been already said, took the form partly of 
 dictation of text, notes and translation ; partly of oral ques- 
 tioning. The 'running commentary' with its island of text 
 surrounded by notes is a relic of the first, the second is 
 illustrated by the form of all the earlier grammars. Many 
 
 1 Northern Schools were more dependent on the University for the 
 status of their scholars. Cf. Clerval, p. 439. 
 
 a Guarino's practice at Ferrara is described by Rosmini, Giiarino, 
 p. 85. ' La mattina facea pubblica lezione ai discepoli, poi passava a far la 
 privata a Lionello. II medesimo accadeva il dopo pranzo. Prima di sera 
 ritiravasi in casa, la quale sino a notte era aperta ai discepoli che qualche 
 dubbio proper volessero intorno alle cose insegnate.' With favourite pilpils 
 he would remain discoursing far into the night. Cf. Sabbadini, Vita di 
 Guarino, p. 139.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 63 
 
 contemporary woodcuts exist which shew us the Lecturer 
 standing or seated at a high desk with pupils of varying ages, 
 on comfortless benches, diligently taking down the master's 
 comments 1 . The practice of declamation varied the monotony 
 of the class lecture ; but the especial feature of Vittorino's 
 method was his careful individual work. He had, as we know, 
 an ample staff, and this enabled him to devote much time to 
 gaining that intimate knowledge of the tastes, capacity and 
 industry of each scholar, which, with his readiness to adapt 2 
 thereto his choice both of subject and of treatment, secured the 
 unique success for which his school was celebrated. He had 
 an unaffected pride in his work, and a keen interest in the 
 progress of each individual scholar; and with it all an unusual 
 insight into the teaching art itself. 
 
 In actual methods of instruction, so far as our material 
 enables us to speak, we notice the contrast with the teaching 
 characteristic of mediaeval schools. Vittorino's attitude to his 
 problem is altogether new : we have noticed the brightness 
 which characterises the surroundings of his school, his cheer- 
 ful personal relations with the boys ; his serene hopefulness as 
 to the possibilities of knowledge; his conviction of its influence 
 upon life and character. This was partly due to the temper of 
 the man; partly to the glow of Humanist enthusiasm which 
 marked his age. But Vittorino had undoubted genius for 
 teaching, and, in any Art, genius, as we know, often makes swift 
 intuitions towards right method. So that modern Italian critics, 
 such as Prof. Brambilla 3 or Dr Bernardi 4 , are not, perhaps, 
 exaggerating when they ascribe to Vittorino an unconscious 
 
 1 The well-known monument to Cino Sinibaldi in the Duomo at 
 Pistoia represents a similar subject dating from a somewhat earlier time. 
 
 2 This is specially dwelt upon by all who watched his methods of 
 teaching ; there was clearly something unusual in this concern for in- 
 dividual capacity. 
 
 3 Vid. his ed. of Prendilacqua, p. xii. 
 
 4 Bernardi, Vitt. da Felt. &c., p. 81.
 
 64 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 anticipation of some of the more important doctrines of 
 educational theory : such as the due alternation of subjects, 
 the uniform development of the faculties, the dependence of 
 mental upon physical conditions, the logical ordering of the 
 lessons, the choice of stimulus, the careful observation of the 
 child's mental powers. If he seems to have attached undue 
 weight to memory, we must bear in mind the higher importance 
 of accurate verbal recall in the absence of books, and its value 
 in public life. The superiority of Vittorino to traditional 
 methods has been by Ticozzi 1 ascribed to his study of the 
 Pythagorean schools of Magna Graecia. Prof. Sabbadini 2 
 thinks that he learnt not a little from Guarino. It is difficult 
 to find any evidence for this latter opinion ; for in all that is 
 truly characteristic of Vittorino, Guarino falls distinctly below 
 him. We may however, viewing these two famous men 
 together, safely claim for them that they rescued the function 
 of the schoolmaster from the contempt 3 in which it was 
 proverbially held. Petrarch's sarcastic comment upon the 
 school teaching of his day henceforth ceased to represent 
 educated opinion : ' Pueros doceant, qui maiora non possunt, 
 quibus mens tardier, sanguis gelidus, animus lucelli appetens, 
 negligens fastidii.' 'Let those,' he goes on, 'teach, who like 
 disorder, noise, and squalor ; who rejoice in the screams of the 
 victim as the rod falls gaily, who are not happy unless they 
 can terrify, flog, and torture. How then can teaching be 
 it of grammar or of any of the liberal arts be a fit occupation 
 for honourable age? Quit so debasing a trade while chance 
 offers 4 .' Vittorino was perhaps the first to prove that Humanism 
 
 1 Ticozzi, p. 15. 
 
 2 Ciceronianismo, p. 17. 
 
 * Cf. letter to Giov. da Ravenna (Conversino) in Voigt's Die Brief- 
 sammlungen Petrarca's, p. 92. 'Quid enim indignius oro quam versari 
 ingenium tuum... circa vilissimum exercitium omnium quae viderim ego, 
 circa doctrinam scilicet puerorum... ?' This letter is not from Petrarch. 
 
 4 Petrarch, Ep, Fam. xii. in (ed. Fracas, ii. 176).
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 65 
 
 had not only made possible, but indeed demanded, a new ideal 
 of a teacher of youth. 
 
 The important place which games and bodily exercises 
 occupy in Vittorino's scheme of education is readily accounted 
 for. For Vittorino was in one sense a continuator of the 
 Court training which had held its place beside the municipal 
 or ecclesiastical schools of the Middle Age. He was, we 
 remember, preceptor in the first place to the family of a 
 Condottiere prince; and a not inconsiderable proportion of 
 his pupils were, like Frederic of Urbino, called to follow a 
 career of arms. On the other hand Vittorino was a Humanist, 
 and therefore derives part at least of his educational ideal from 
 the example of Greece and Rome. The two influences com- 
 bined to establish the training of the body as an integral 
 element of a complete discipline. Indeed the highest level of 
 Humanist culture was only attained when the full personality 
 had received a cultivation duly proportioned to the three sides 
 of human nature. So that it is not enough to say that Vittorino 
 attached importance to the outdoor life as a means to brisk 
 intellectual activity. No doubt this was in his mind. He 
 always paid serious attention to the health of the scholars. 
 Their life out of doors was carefully organised. Whatever 
 the weather, daily exercise in some form was compulsory. 
 There was ample space for games, riding, running, and all the 
 athletic exercises then popular. We hear that he specially 
 encouraged certain games at ball, leaping, and fencing. He 
 prized excellence in sports as only less praiseworthy than 
 literary power, for in such powers he found a sound corrective 
 to self-indulgence and effeminacy. If we turn to three typical 
 treatises upon education due to the Renaissance, those of 
 Vergerius, of Castiglione, and of Milton, we see that each lays 
 special stress upon the practice of martial exercises : each of 
 them presents that union of the Courtly with the Humanist 
 ideal to which reference has just been made. But although 
 Vittorino undoubtedly kept such martial exercises in view, he 
 w. e
 
 66 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 seems to have taken generally a wider view of physical training, 
 aiming rather at strengthening the frame, inducing habits of 
 hardiness, and power of bearing fatigue, than at any special 
 athletic skill. Thus he watched with peculiar care the health 
 of the younger children, providing due supervision for them in 
 their games and walks. In the summer heats he would take 
 certain of them to the Castle of Goito, some twelve miles out 
 of Mantua towards Verona. We know this pleasant spot 
 where Bordello's youth was spent, and may wonder if Vittorino, 
 who in his early Paduan days had had his lyrical moods, felt 
 the associations of the place 1 . . We find Ambrogio visiting him 
 there one hot September day 2 . "Vittorino is staying at Goito in 
 charge of the Gonzaga children. We found him at breakfast 
 with them ; he comes out to meet us, greeting us with tears of 
 joy. He entertains us right royally. The children seem to be 
 on the happiest terms with him. We talked together for several 
 hours. Then one of the boys declaims some two hundred 
 lines which he had composed upon the state entry of the 
 Emperor Sigismund into Mantua. I was astonished by the taste 
 and scholarship displayed not less than by the grace and 
 propriety of delivery. Two younger 3 brothers and their sister 
 
 were of the party, all bright and intelligent children After 
 
 a morning's most enjoyable intercourse several other youths 
 of distinction were introduced, and after courteous greetings 
 escorted us some distance on our way." The mountains above 
 the Lake of Garda formed an accessible and favourite field for 
 longer excursions, lasting several days, when Vittorino, wiry and 
 active to the last, in company with his elder boys, explored that 
 most striking of all the gateways of the Alps. 
 
 "just a castle built amid 
 A few low mountains ; firs and larches hid 
 Their main defiles, and rings of vineyard bound 
 The rest." Browning's Sordello. 
 
 - 1435. Mart, et Dur., iii. 451 (Ambrogio to Cosmo). 
 
 3 Gianlucido, Alessandro and Cecilia.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 67 
 
 In all this we see Vittorino consciously carrying out a 
 definite aim of developing the physical not less than the 
 intellectual side of his scholars. Free, on the one hand, from 
 the sensuous cult of the body which marks a later stage of the 
 Renaissance, he had even less sympathy with that neglect of all 
 that concerns its vigour and grace which was still characteristic 
 of much of the education of his time. Something of the finest 
 temper of the antique world shews itself in this love of the 
 simplicity of the open air and the tried discipline of the body. 
 
 But we must again remind ourselves of the depth of 
 religious conviction upon which his own educational ideal 
 ultimately rested. Reverence, piety and religious observance 
 formed the dominant note of Vittorino's personal life. The 
 dignity, of human life was with him based upon its relation to 
 the Divine. Hence the transparent sincerity of his religious 
 teaching ; the insistence upon attendance at the ordinances of 
 the Church ' ; the inculcation of forgiveness and humility. He 
 himself accompanied the boys to Mass ; he set the example of 
 regular Confession. Part of the religious instruction he himself 
 took every day. Apart from the light that is thus thrown upon 
 his personality, what is of chief interest in this aspect of 
 Vittorino is its relation to his Humanism. This was with him no 
 nominal reconciliation between the new and the old. Christi- 
 anity and Humanism were the two coordinate factors necessary 
 to the developement of complete manhood. There is no 
 reason to suppose that Vittorino was embarrassed by a sense 
 of contradiction between the classical and the Christian ideals 
 of life. To him, and to men of his temper since, the 
 thought and morals of the ancient world were identified with 
 the ethical precepts of the Stoics and the idealism of Plato : and 
 it was easy for them to point to the consistency of this teaching 
 with the broader aspects of the Christian life. 
 
 1 Mass was heard daily at the Duomo, which stood close to the Gfocosa. 
 Paglia, op. tit., p. 156. 
 
 52
 
 68 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 One special service rendered by Vittorino to scholarship 
 must here be dwelt upon. He was one of the most generous 
 of book owners. He readily allowed copies to be made from 
 MSS. in his possession, and was addicted, even, to the doubtful 
 habit of lending books, which in the fifteenth century led to 
 more than one irremediable loss to literature. In his later 
 years he found his kindness so much abused that he was 
 obliged to issue, under official authority, a notice to the effect 
 that delay in returning works borrowed from his library would 
 lead to public penalties 1 . For Vittorino had found at Mantua 
 a library much more important than he had anticipated. Three 
 quarters of a century before, the Marquis of Mantua of the 
 time had been a close friend and correspondent of Petrarch. 
 Ludovic Gonzaga had acquired MSS. by his advice, certain of 
 which were of decided rarity and of some critical importance. 
 These books, in addition to a valuable series* of Romances, 
 Vittorino found in the palace Library in 1423 : and he at once 
 proceeded to add to their number. In 1425 we find him 
 corresponding with Aurispa, then professor of Greek at 
 Bologna, with this purpose. Aurispa, writing to Ambrogio, 
 says 3 , "I have received an offer from a correspondent named 
 Vittorino who is attached to the Mantuan court and who 
 appears to have some acquaintance with Greek. He proposes 
 to pay fifty florins for two volumes of Plato and Plutarch. 
 I happen to have these in duplicate : the Plutarch a 
 very careful transcript of the Lives, the Plato containing 
 all the Dialogues except the Laws, the Republic, and the 
 
 1 The Grit/a was published in 1 434, and read publicly and proclaimed 
 by the Herald of the Municipio, 13 Oct. On Vittorino's death it was 
 re-issued, declaring that persons detaining the books of the Marquis or of 
 Vittorino would be ' riputati cometere furto e puniti per furto.' Ludovico, 
 finding the decree only partly effective, committed its fuller execution to the 
 ' Armorum Capitan.' 
 
 2 Nolhac, Pftrarque, p. 414. 
 
 8 Aurispa to Ambrogio, Bonon. vi. Cal. Sept. [1425], Mart, et Dur. iii. 714.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 69 
 
 Letters. This latter MS. is as fine a one as I have ever 
 seen." 
 
 Later on, Vittorino's library ' has become a centre of interest 
 to a wide circle of scholars. Filelfo sent him various MSS., 
 some Greek codices which he had brought with him from 
 Constantinople, others more complete copies of Latin authors 
 already in the Library. Francesco Barbaro, the wealthy 
 Venetian patrician, and the dear friend of the Paduan circle, 
 added others of interest. Appended to the 'Grida' of 1434 
 was a significant clause : " that if any one possessed a copy of 
 the book called ' De Genealogia Deorum,' and were prepared 
 to part with it, he should at once offer it to Master Vittorino 
 who will purchase it and will further regard such offer as a 
 great personal favour 2 ." We have other evidence of the direct 
 interest taken in the Library by the Marquis, who seems to have 
 been always most anxious to further the wishes of Vittorino for 
 the welfare of the school. For instance, in 1444 Gian Francesco 
 writes to Guarino now at Ferrara, "longo atque vehementi 
 desiderio tenemur habendi in Graeco sermone Josephum de 
 Antiquitate Judayca, totum et integrum"; he adds that a 
 trusted friend of his starts immediately for Constantinople ; can 
 Guarino give him useful advice as to the right quarter for 
 enquiries in that city? In sending instructions to this con- 
 fidential agent, he adds "non curamo che libri siano ornati, 
 ne di exquisita litera, pur che siano boni et ben correct! 3 ." We 
 gather that Vittorino's aim was to form a good sound working 
 library, not merely a collector's cabinet of curiosities. There 
 are further interesting notices of the school-books required for 
 
 1 We cannot be sure whether Vittorino's personal library or the Palace 
 library is referred to in the allusions made to his books. His own library 
 was a good one. 
 
 2 Luzio, Cinque Lettere, c. in Archiv. Feneto, vol. 36 (1888), p. 339. 
 
 3 Id., op. cit. 337, seq. Vittorino was ill during 1444, and the 
 Marquis, possibly under his directions, undertook the correspondence re- 
 garding the Library.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 the young princes : a Latin Psalter for Alessandro (aged 4), a 
 Donatus, a Doctrinale of Alexander de Villa Dei, both manuals 
 of accidence, for Cecilia (aged 6) ; and for her also, next year, 
 (1432) a copy of the four Gospels in Greek. Vittorino attended 
 both to the copying and the binding, and the cost was provided 
 by Paola, the children's mother 1 . About the time to which these 
 latter notices refer, and some seven years later than the date of 
 the letter of Aurispa quoted above, Ambrogio paid a visit to 
 Vittorino whom he found still at Mantua, although August was 
 well advanced. He sees two sons of the Marquis and their 
 sister Cecilia ; there are also present two sons of neighbouring 
 princes, about ten years of age. His introduction to Vittorino 
 has come through Niccolo dei Niccoli, the distinguished 
 Florentine collector, and to him Ambrogio reports upon his 
 visit. "We saw and examined about seventy volumes*, most 
 of them however already known to us. We discussed Quin- 
 tilian at some length : I saw Herodotus, Thucydides, Arrian, 
 Plutarch's Lives ; a long series of the poets ; and what was new 
 to me, a life of Homer by Herodotus. He shewed me also a 
 treatise of Augustine 'De Musica,' and the 'Cathegoriae,' which 
 are ascribed to him. He had also the Commentary of Accrius 
 upon the Odes of Horace. There was, besides, the ' Mathesis' 
 in eight books of Julius Firmicus, a copy of which I com- 
 missioned him to have made for myself : I also asked on your 
 behalf for copies of the Orations of the Emperor Julian 3 , the 
 Life of Homer, the great Quintilian and the Bacchus. He 
 was only too eager to oblige us in any way ; and regretted that 
 you were not present in person to discuss these and other works 
 
 1 Luzio, op. tit., p. 331. 
 
 2 Mart, et Durand, iii. 553. Ambrogio, Hodoeporicon, p. 34, describes 
 his visit to the Library, when he was escorted by Vittorino, and the sons of 
 the Marquis and some of their fellow-scholars : there 'expositam Graecorum 
 voluminum struem evertimus,' which included all the best known philoso- 
 phers, orators, historians and poets. 
 
 3 'Quattuor prolixas orationes,' he calls them : Mehus, Atnbros., p. 419.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 71 
 
 at leisure. He sent after me to my lodging several Greek 
 MSS., the Laws, the Republic and Epistles of Plato, a volume 
 of Chrysostom, besides another work of St Augustine." 
 
 They were to become very dear friends, Ambrogio and 
 Vittorino : " mecum est jugiter," says Ambrogio, " quantum 
 per occupationes summas licet." This was their first meeting, 
 and their intimacy ripened into cordial affection. The books 
 thus commissioned for Niccolo were destined to form part of 
 that most valuable collection of MSS. which passed into the 
 hands of the Medici and so ultimately became the nucleus of 
 the great Laurentian Library 1 . It is not possible however to 
 identify any one of the volumes mentioned either from the 
 Hand-list of 1536 or from Bandini. We see that within ten 
 years Vittorino has become recognised as an important source 
 from which texts may be secured. Niccolo himself had been 
 on a visit to Vittorino a year before (1431) and writing to 
 Ambrogio 2 tells him how deeply he is impressed by his host's 
 learning and character. He had drawn from Vittorino a 
 promise to spare one of the Greek copyists at work at Mantua 
 for a similar position under Niccolo in Florence. But the true 
 distinction of Vittorino's library would seem to date from the 
 accession of Theodore Gaza to the staff in i44i 3 , or early in 
 1442. Gaza was the finest transcriber of Greek MSS. Italy has 
 ever known. He seems to have worked steadily at the editing 
 of important authors, adding in some cases paraphrase or 
 abstract as an aid to scholars. His scholarship enabled him 
 to present a text far superior in accuracy to those produced 
 during the previous five centuries ; his services were much in 
 
 1 Niccolo was the first to conceive the idea of a public library to be 
 open to all students. He had always avowed his intention of placing it 
 under the control of the Camaldolese monastery, of which Order Ambrogio 
 was General. 
 
 - July 8, 1431. Mehus, Ambr. Travers., p. 353. 
 
 3 This date follows from the fact that he went to Ferrara in 1444 : 
 Sassuolo's 'nuper' must be interpreted in this case rather broadly.
 
 72 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 request to supply the needs of the Mantuan School 1 . His 
 famous codex* of the Iliad 'cum perpetua paraphrasi inter- 
 lineari' in the Laurentian Library, and a Diodorus Siculus*, 
 also in his hand, were produced for Filelfo 4 , the friend who 
 had introduced him to Vittorino 5 . The catalogue of Vitto- 
 rino's library was long preserved amongst the archives of the 
 Municipio of Mantua until it shared the fate of that invaluable 
 collection of documents, scattered, sold as waste paper or 
 destroyed, in 1830. Our record is, as has been seen, very 
 fragmentary. We should be glad to be able to compile such a 
 list of the books which he habitually used as we may form, 
 from his correspondence, of Guarino's 6 working library. The 
 books themselves Vittorino bequeathed to his pupil Jacopo 
 Cassiano 7 of Cremona, who for a time carried on the Mantuan 
 school in succession to its founder. But not a few appear to 
 have been carried off by his pupils as mementoes of the 
 Master, an appropriation sanctioned by opinion in that, as 
 perhaps also in a later, age 8 . 
 
 1 Sassuolo (Guasti, p. 40) speaks of the peculiar advantage of Vitto- 
 rino's school accruing from Gaza's work as copyist. 
 
 3 Described in Bandini, ii. 121. i. This MS. was already in the 
 Medicean Library in 1534 (Index Bibl. Med., p. 23). 
 
 3 Bandini, ii. 677. 8. 
 
 4 Upon the high value which Filelfo placed upon this precious pos- 
 session, see Voigt, i. 400 and reflf. there. 
 
 5 Other MSS. in Gaza's hand are traced by Nolhac, La Biblioth. de 
 F. Orsini, p. 145. 
 
 8 See Sabbad., Museo Ital. di Antichitb Classica, Firenze, 1887, II. ii. 
 373 upon Latin Codices forming part of Guarino's library as inferred from 
 his letters. Nolhac has done the same, more elaborately, for Petrarch's 
 collection, ' la premiere bibliotheque de la Renaissance ' (Petr. et rhuman- 
 isme, Paris, 1892). This research into the notices of libraries and the fate 
 of MSS. is a necessity to the true history of scholarship, but much yet 
 remains unattempted. 
 
 7 Platina, p. 25. 
 
 8 Vittorino's creditors endeavoured to recover such borrowings, but 
 even with the aid of the Marquis scarcely succeeded. Giampietro, who kept 
 several books, was a man of the highest character. Luzio, op. tit., p. 340.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 73 
 
 The relations subsisting between Vittorino and the Gon- 
 zaga family have been already touched upon. From the 
 outset Vittorino had demanded a position of independence 
 and authority. The promises which then satisfied him seem to 
 have been creditably fulfilled. Francesco Gonzaga was, no 
 doubt, anxious to perpetuate the literary distinction which 
 accrued to his House from its associations with Petrarch half 
 a century earlier. He was also aware of the lustre which the 
 presence of the most successful schoolmaster of the times 
 brought to his court. Moreover, we know that his wife Paola 
 di Malatesta 1 , in spite of her ominous name, was a most devoted 
 mother and a woman of deep religious feeling. The inner life 
 of the palace was distinctly reputable. "I well remember," 
 writes Corraro to Cecilia in 1443, "the surroundings amidst 
 which you passed your childhood. I was an inmate of the 
 palace at the time when you were born, and I had ample 
 opportunity of knowing the affection, the care and the honour- 
 able example, amidst which you grew up. In the Palace no 
 wanton luxury was permitted : self restraint was encouraged in 
 all matters of food, of dress, and of habits of life. No para- 
 sites or flatterers found a place there, nor was immodest or 
 indecorous amusement permitted 2 ." We are able to form a 
 very pleasant picture of the relations of Vittorino to the 
 Marquis and the Lady Paola from a fragment of the corre- 
 spondence which was in all likelihood regularly conducted 
 between them in the frequent absence of Gianfrancesco, on 
 his adventures in war or diplomacy, or on the occasions when 
 Vittorino took his charges to Goito or Borgoforte, to escape 
 the summer heats of Mantua. The Marquis, as we should 
 expect, is of a bluff soldierly temper, very anxious for news of 
 his boys, but leaving all details to his wife. When, however, 
 Vittorino falls ill he evidently gives orders that everything 
 
 1 She was daughter of Malatesta, Lord of Pesaro, and sister-in-law of 
 Baptista di Montefeltro: see p. 119 below: and Vespasiano, iii. 296 (note). 
 
 2 The letter, in Mart, et Durand, iii. 829 seq.
 
 74 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 needful shall be most carefully supplied : when he is ill himself, 
 and near to death, he writes from his sick-bed to Vittorino, 
 ' Deum igitur pro recta valetudine nostra saepissime, ut 
 scribitis, exorate, quoniam vestris orationibus plurimum fidei 
 habemus' (Sept. 2, 1444)'. Again he is anxious for news of 
 Alessandro, the delicate child of the family, and writes thanking 
 Vittorino for his encouraging news 2 , and for his care in devising 
 special forms of exercise to suit the invalid. Several times we 
 have notices of remissions of judicial penalties on Vittorino's 
 intercession. And though there were boisterous fits 3 , when 
 Vittorino had occasion to make a decided protest against a 
 dubious type of humour in which the Marquis could, like other 
 soldiers of fortune, indulge himself at table, we may feel that 
 Vittorino had, on the whole, good grounds for his respect for his 
 patron. 
 
 It was natural, however, that Vittorino should in the matter 
 of the young princes' progress come more into contact with 
 the Marchioness Paola than with her husband. We have 
 fortunately preserved to us a very few letters of Vittorino 
 written to her, apparently in 1439*, upon matters affecting the 
 school. They are simple, straightforward letters, never in- 
 tended for the public eye, and therefore far more interesting 
 than formal epistles. We have in them, and in certain extracts 
 from the Registri Economici, or household accounts of the 
 
 1 Luzio, p. 337. 
 
 2 Id., /. c. "placet nobis permaxime quod Alexander recte se habeat." 
 
 3 Prendilacqua, who knew the house and family intimately, is careful to 
 record the firmness with which Vittorino dealt with these lapses when his 
 charges were present. 
 
 4 One short note belongs to the year 1437, but refers only to the gift of 
 a small property at Rivalta by the Marquis to Vittorino, (" Ex Burgoforti 
 xxi. Martii"). Paola had apparently paid Vittorino the graceful compli- 
 ment of making a copy in her own hand of the official deed. Another 
 letter relates to acts of trespass committed by a neighbour on this property, 
 which act of injustice he asks the Marchioness to see redressed in his own 
 absence with the children. Luzio, p. 333.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 75 
 
 palace, still surviving the disasters which have overtaken the 
 Mantuan records, evidence of a direct personal concern in the 
 details of the school. In the very first months of Vittorino's 
 engagement (Dec. 1423) we find an entry of the cost of a 
 ' mantello ' given by his direction to Ognibene da Lonigo, of 
 whom we shall speak again, one of the poor scholars from 
 whom no fees were asked. 
 
 To Paola frequent reports are sent of the progress of the 
 children, of whom Alessandro, the youngest, seems to have 
 possessed the most marked intelligence and the finest type of 
 character. There are allusions to affectionate concern for the 
 safety of the Marquis engaged (1439) in a dangerous adventure 
 against Venice. But we have also signs of a misunderstanding 
 with the Lady Paola. Vittorino has quarrelled with the 
 Matron, who was, we suppose, appointed by the Marchioness : 
 and he says bluntly, " nee [illam] amplius pad possum, nee si 
 possem volo." Vittorino regarded it as in some way essential 
 to the welfare of the school that she should be discharged. 
 Perhaps the Lady Paola demurred. But whatever the motive, 
 we have from Vittorino a letter of respectful remonstrance. 
 He has never taken thought of aught but his duty towards 
 herself, the Marquis, their children, the School. He was 
 deeply attached to them and their House. Had he been 
 actuated by other aims, ' alia erat via uberior si illis animum 
 applicare voluissem.' He is particularly anxious that the 
 Marchioness should understand the grounds of his request, 
 when he is confident she will agree to his wish. But the 
 temper of these short letters is so frank and unaffected that we 
 infer at once a relation of respect and confidence never 
 seriously impaired on either side by passing difference of 
 opinion. More than that, we are by them allowed a significant 
 glimpse of the inner side of Court life at this period of the 
 Renaissance, which contrasts pleasantly with the highly coloured 
 and distorted pictures in which the Italy of that day is often 
 portrayed.
 
 76 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 Paola, moreover, was devoted to works of charity and piety 
 in the City; we are told 1 that she spent much time in personal 
 visitation of the sick and the poor, whom she consoled not by 
 word alone. Her deep sympathy for suffering made her a 
 warm supporter of the Observantia, or restored discipline of 
 the Franciscan Order as preached by San Bernardino of Siena, 
 and under her influence Mantua became one of its most 
 important centres 2 . In this work she found a co-adjutor in 
 Vittorino whose own feelings warmed readily to sickness or 
 distress. This tie of a common charity strengthened the 
 respect and confidence with which the mother of Cecilia 
 regarded Vittorino. 
 
 It was in relation to Cecilia that Vittorino's position in the 
 councils of the family was most strikingly illustrated. As her 
 girlhood advanced she manifested a strong desire to take the 
 I veil. We must remember that apart from its attraction for a 
 .j devout spirit the religious life was still the one sure refuge to a 
 woman of studious instincts. There is no doubt that Vittorino 
 had watched the growth of this intention with at least silent 
 approval. He had lent to her a tractate 8 of Chrysostom ' In 
 vituperatores vitae monasticae,' probably knowing the in- 
 tention taking shape in her mind. Perhaps no recorded fact 
 of his career throws so strong a light upon the religious temper 
 of Humanist education, as he understood it, than the part 
 he took in combating the objections of the Marquis to his 
 daughter's wish. In the spring of 1443 we find Vittorino 
 escorting the Lady Paola to Rome ; he is staying in Florence, 
 
 1 Castiglione, Mehus, Ambrogio Traversari, ccccix. 
 
 a Guarino was also.very friendly towards the Observance : the Orders 
 seem to have left Vittorino in peace: although there 'was a strain of 
 opposition to him in Florence, perhaps amongst the Dominicans. Sassuolo 
 da Prato (ed. Guasti), p. 18. 
 
 3 See the letters of Paul of Sarzana to Ambrogio (Mehus, Amb, Trav., 
 p. 1037) in which he reports that he had sent this tract to Vittorino who 
 made a copy of it: 'is principis liberis et potissimum cuidam adolescentulae 
 Latinis Graecisque satis eruclitae legere velle aiebat.'
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 77 
 
 where he sees Vespasiano 1 and has a long conversation with 
 him, and others took this rare opportunity of meeting one of 
 whom they had heard so much. In all probability the visit 
 to Rome had reference to Cecilia's determination which </ 
 was strongly favoured by her mother. Corraro, the pupil of 
 Vittorino to whom reference has just been made, was now 
 an ecclesiastic of position, and at Florence held a conference 
 with Paola upon the subject of her journey. At Vittorino's 
 urgent request, ' assistebat namque illacrymans prae gaudio ut 
 solet 2 ,' Corraro wrote to Cecilia consoling her in the conflict of 
 duty. The journey to Rome, where Vittorino saw Eugenius IV. 
 and was greeted by him in terms of honour and respect which 
 shew that his fame had passed beyond the circle of scholars, 
 was of no effect. But the Marquis died in the following year 3 , 
 and Cecilia thereupon carried out her desire. 
 
 Vittorino was confronted with another task scarcely less 
 difficult in attempting to bring about a reconciliation between 
 the Marquis Gonzaga and his eldest son Ludovico. Vittorino 
 had had charge of the heir of the House since his tenth year 
 and had discharged this responsible duty with much discretion 
 but with unswerving firmness 4 . Vittorino himself had no 
 difficulty in winning his confidence and affection which, in 
 spite of the boy's quarrel with his father, he never lost. 
 Ludovico, though the eldest son, was not regarded by his 
 father as the soldier of the family and was in consequence 
 usually left at home to represent the Marquis when the Con- 
 dottiere was engaged in fighting, or more often, manoeuvring, 
 
 1 Sass. da Prato (ed. Guasti), p. 19. The little memoir of Vittorino by 
 Vespasiano is interesting though of slight value. Vesp. da Bisticci, Vite 
 degli Uomini Illustri (ed. 1893), ii. p. 222. 
 
 2 The letter of Corraro quoted above, p. 73 ; Mart, et Dur., iii. p. 829. 
 
 3 September, 1444. Paola and Cecilia both took the veil upon the 
 death of Gianfrancesco. 
 
 * From a letter of Guarino addressed to Ludovico Gonzaga we may 
 gather that the control under which the young prince had been trained before 
 Vittorino's arrival was far from satisfactory. Sabbadini, Guarino, p. 75.
 
 78 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 for his clients, the Venetian State. Carlo, the second son, 
 was not seldom his father's companion, and the jealousy thus 
 aroused drove Ludovico to seek service under Filippo Maria 
 Visconti, who, though friendly with the Gonzaga, was none the 
 less actually at war with Venice. This happened in 1436. 
 Ludovico protested that he had no other intention but that 
 of learning the art of war which his father so studiously 
 closed against him. The appearance of bad faith in which 
 Gianfrancesco was thus involved rendered him extremely 
 bitter against his son. On his refusal to return to his home 
 and to his allegiance the Marquis disinherited him with the 
 Imperial consent, and even condemned him to death for 
 contumacy and treason. Many were the expostulations ad- 
 dressed to the Gonzaga; amongst them letters from Poggio 
 and Guarino full of classical allusions and virtuous maxims. 
 But when neither friends, nor even wife and children could 
 avail to reconcile the father to forgiveness, (for Ludovico had 
 been easily brought by his old master to see and confess the 
 error he had committed,) Vittorino, by firmly reproving the 
 unnatural cruelty of his conduct and scorning all threats of 
 consequences, won in the end a hard-earned consent from the 
 Marquis to his son's return to favour 1 . The reconciliation 
 proved sincere and final ; it was a source of unaffected joy to 
 Vittorino and in the eyes of all a signal triumph of his influence. 
 It is interesting to note the affectionate respect which 
 Ludovico, who for the last eighteen months of Vittorino's life 
 was head of the House, and his brothers, always manifested 
 towards Vittorino. His advice or his reproof was never 
 resented even if expressed in decided terms or in the presence 
 of others. Carlo, the second son, had been as a boy severely 
 
 1 There is a record of the affectionate zeal of Vittorino on behalf of 
 Ludovico in one of his letters to Paola, in which he refers to some negotia- 
 tion actually in progress with the Duke of Milan. The young wife of the 
 exiled prince, Barbara of Brandenburg, was a pupil of Vittorino, and it is 
 evident that she found in him a great support in her anxiety. Luzio, 
 P- 336.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 79 
 
 rebuked in the presence of the whole school for unbecoming 
 speech for such offences Vittorino had a swift discipline but 
 nothing seems to have disturbed the affectionate confidence 
 with which all the young princes alike looked up to their 
 master. For Alessandro, the youngest, his affection was 
 deep-seated; in some ways the delicate, highly strung lad 
 was his master's favourite pupil. The brothers are said by 
 Platina to have been, at least during Vittorino's lifetime, 
 singularly devoted to each other in spite of the estrangement 
 of 1436, and this we may fairly ascribe in part to Vittorino's 
 influence. The picture we have of them and of their master 
 at Goito a few years earlier was no doubt typical of their 
 relations with him. On the day of Vittorino's funeral the 
 princes of the House were conspicuous amongst the crowd 
 of sincere mourners gathered at his grave. 
 
 In the city of Mantua Vittorino was, we are told, held in 
 profound veneration. He thoroughly identified himself with 
 his adopted city. He had thrown open his school to ability 
 without distinction of rank and provided an education free of 
 all charges to many deserving boys. He treated all on one 
 and the same footing and had no higher interest than their 
 success. The poor he visited as a friend, and he aided distress 
 so liberally that at his death he left no substance behind him 
 that his heirs cared to claim. His gifts to churches were 
 continuous, though made without ostentation, and often 
 secretly. He was known to be a watchful power at Court 
 on the side of mercy and good government: for he had 
 never lost sight of the motive which had been prominent in 
 bringing him to Mantua that in moulding the character and 
 guiding the conduct of a prince lay a sure opportunity of 
 benefiting his fellow men. He was thus a practical example 
 of the truest doctrine which actuated the Humanist teachers 
 of the first period of the Revival. For it was manifest that 
 Vittorino's ideal was the patriotic and the well-equipped 
 citizen rather than the self-contained scholar, and we, as
 
 8o Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 we read the memorials that have been left to us by men 
 who knew him, realize not less clearly that, with Vittorino 
 at least, scholarship was no excuse for aloofness from the 
 common duties and sympathies of life. 
 
 Vittorino stands in contrast to other Humanists of his day 
 in that his activity was confined to three cities, Padua, Venice, 
 and Mantua. Partly as a consequence of this, his circle of 
 acquaintances amongst scholars seems to have been a small 
 one. He might easily have extended it had he encouraged 
 the practice of literary correspondence. Guarino has left to 
 us at least six hundred letters, some of which are to be found 
 in manuscript in nearly every University library of Western 
 Europe. Poggio, Ambrogio and Filelfo spent a large part 
 of their working hours in elaborating tedious epistles, classical 
 in form, if often somewhat empty of content, addressed to 
 their friends or patrons 1 . Of Vittorino but six letters have 
 been preserved : others, especially a series to Ambrogio 2 , were 
 highly prized by his friends in Florence, but they have dis- 
 appeared. He avowed that he felt no call to add to the 
 bulk of written matter, and we can certainly admit that, to 
 judge from the correspondence of contemporary scholars 
 which has been handed down to us, his reputation has 
 suffered little from this self-restraint. His relations, however, 
 with those scholars with whom he came in contact were of 
 singular friendliness. In an age marked by the bitterness of 
 its 'quarrels of authors,' Vittorino notoriously was never 
 spoken of but in terms of respect or affection. It was in 
 fact impossible to quarrel with Vittorino 3 . 
 
 1 Klette writes on this subject : ' We must not be surprised to find how 
 much the formal expression of friendship, courtesy or adulation over- 
 shadows the element of actual fact in learned correspondence. Hence is 
 explained the frequent want of dates' &c. Beit, iii. p. 9. 
 
 2 Platina, p. 27. 
 
 8 Castiglione is very emphatic, Mehus, Amb. Trav., p. ccccix. : 'detesta- 
 batur plurimum quae ab aliis invective scribebantur. '
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 81 
 
 Niccoli, who offended nearly every one by his intolerable 
 patronage, who in 1400 drove Chrysoloras from Florence 1 , 
 and embittered the temper of the mild-mannered Guarino 2 , 
 could hardly find words to express his veneration for the 
 simple and earnest nature of Vittorino. He, indeed, it was 
 who brought Ambrogio and Vittorino together, initiating a 
 life-long friendship. Ambrogio Traversari, the Superior of 
 the Camaldolese Order in Florence, was Vittorino's closest 
 friend. He visited him, as we have seen, at Mantua and at 
 Goito some three or four times between 1432 and 1435. He 
 was attracted not less by his character than by his scholar- 
 ship 3 ; and in religious interests they had much in common. 
 Ambrogio records the parting with Vittorino at the close 
 of his first visit to him at Mantua. "We were on the point 
 of starting. The sun had not yet risen, when Vittorino appeared 
 at the gate, on horseback, with two or three young companions. 
 He escorted us for the first three miles of our journey, during 
 which he kept close by my side with all courtesy." In the 
 words of Ambrogio, ' Totus illi sermo de literis, de probitate, 
 de modestia, de religione, de viris nostrae aetatis illustribus'. 
 
 Ambrogio does not hesitate to ask his aid in recovering to 
 the Order the buildings and endowments of a House which had 
 been diverted from their founder's intention. He knows no 
 one more likely to be interested in such a work of justice, 
 no one whose influence with the Lord of Mantua (in whose 
 territory it stood) would so certainly avail. Vittorino replies 
 to him in a letter which is the only one of its kind which 
 
 1 Klette, Beit. i. 52. 
 
 2 Sabbad., Epistolario, p. 59. 'II Niccoli era uomo impastato di invidi- 
 uzze di puntigli pretensiosi, di prepotenzuole, che finivono per seccar Guarino, 
 il quale era molto prudente, molto paziente, ma si stancava anche lui.' It 
 was due to Niccoli that Guarino left Florence in 1414. 
 
 3 Vid. the letters already quoted, especially Mart, et Dur. , iii. p. 353. 
 * ' Condimentum humanitatis" is Ambrogio's expression respecting his 
 learning. Cf. Ambrogio, Hodoeporicon, p. 34. 
 
 w. 6
 
 82 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 has come down to us and which may for its author's sake 
 be given here. 
 
 Doleo equidem, praestantissime vir, cum tuarum vero literarum 
 causa, quas augere in dies et sacris praeceptis ornare destitisti 
 nunquam, dum tibi per otium licuit, ut jam ex Graecis hausta 
 Doctoribus complura abs te edita volumina legantur. Doleo, in- 
 quam, te tantis nunc negotiis premi ut ad ea obeunda honestissima 
 studia nihil tibi quidquam temporis supersit. Sed est quid me 
 consoler, teque pariter tua prudentia consoleris, quod egregie 
 praeter caeteros magnos et excellentes viros gerendis in rebus 
 plurimum de virtute mereris, cum et Rhetoris nostri nunc quidem 
 sententia virtutis laus omnis in actione consistat 1 . Sed haec ipse 
 melius. Vellem sane is tibi videri posse cuius et auxilio et 
 ministerio utereris. Neque enim praeceptis tuis desisterem sed in. 
 hac re tamen me id profecisse scias, ut hie domnus Jacobus 
 Alborandus consentiat, ut cum Monachis sanctae Brigidae vestri 
 Monachi disceptent quoniam id ipse facere baud sine dedecore 
 possit ut illis, quod semel ratum fecerit, nunc solvere ac rumpere 
 videatur. Quod si vos quidquam obtinueritis certissimum est 
 itaque spondet hac de re quicquid ipse decernam, id omne firmare, 
 modo si eadem conditio maneat, quae nunc hisce cum Monachis 
 perstat, quod et ipse tuis literis procul dubio polliceris. Non enim 
 ilium possessione eiicere, sed ad proprios possessores possessionem 
 traducere quaeris. Res ita acta est et hactenus deducta. Erunt 
 tibi cetera curae. Ego tibi quantulumcumque possim pollicerer, 
 sed tuam in me caritatem spero nulla ista pollicitatione indigere, 
 quae jam diu fecit ut tibi omnis omnino deditus sim. Vale. Ex 
 Mantua pridie Idus Dec. 2 
 
 The correspondence of Poggio on the other hand reveals 
 to us the irritable vanity, the pompous self-importance, which 
 marked certain of the scholars who had reached celebrity. 
 
 1 This expression of Cicero is not uncommon amongst Humanists : it is 
 significant as an indication of the practical aim which most of them, at this 
 period, set before their scholars. Cf. Aen. Sylv., De Liber. Educ. (Op., 
 p. 989). 
 
 3 Mitarelli, Bibl. Codd. S. Michaelis (Ven. 1779), p. 1207. It is a 
 reply to the letters from Ambrogio given in Menus.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 83 
 
 We do not know when Vittorino and Poggio made personal 
 acquaintance, but it was after 1436'. The quarrel between 
 Gianfrancesco Gonzaga and his eldest son, which caused so 
 much pain and anxiety to Vittorino, called forth a remarkable 
 letter from Poggio to the Marquis of Mantua, upbraiding him, 
 in irreproachable Latinity, with his conduct towards Ludovico. 
 This he enclosed in a covering letter to Vittorino, whom he 
 asked to present it formally to his patron. Now Vittorino was 
 just as anxious to bring about a reconciliation as Poggio was 
 to turn it to account for self-advertisement ; so knowing the 
 certain result of publicly reading to the Gonzaga a stilted 
 pedantic tirade, of which the writer had already distributed 
 sundry copies to scholars at neighbouring courts, Vittorino 
 prudently, in the interests of Ludovico, kept back the letter. 
 He thought it wiser to await the effect of his own more 
 tactful intervention. This delay, which apparently he did 
 not think it necessary to explain to his correspondent, produced 
 intense irritation in Poggio, who thereupon wrote to Vittorino 
 in the following strain 2 . 
 
 Poggio to Vittorino^ 
 
 " It is scarcely thoughtful or kind of you to have delayed so 
 long in presenting rny letter to the Marquis. It would have 
 been an easy matter to have handed it to him with his other 
 correspondence. For it is my habit to set forth plainly, on my 
 own authority, convictions which I have formed : and you will 
 hardly say that they are in this case lacking in sense, or in- 
 elegantly expressed. If you were afraid of the effect of my 
 communication you might have at least returned it ; how else 
 explain this long delay in putting it before your patron ? You 
 
 1 This follows from certain expressions in Poggio's letter of remon- 
 strance. 
 
 2 I have used the copy contained in the MS. volume of letters of 
 Poggio (p. 252) preserved in the Athenaeum Library, Liverpool. Portions 
 only are given by Rosmini, Vittorino da Feltre, p. 223. 
 
 62
 
 84 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 may, of course, allege the absence of fitting opportunity : or 
 you may have yielded to a base fear of some outburst of 
 temper on part of the Marquis. If that is the case, the 
 Marquis is not the man I had imagined him : nor can I 
 speak with respect of a man who resents out-spoken advice. 
 I should have thought his reading wide enough to have 
 shewn him the wisdom of following such an example as 
 that of Sulla, who recognised the literary merit of the satirist 
 even when smarting under his wit. For myself I do not lay 
 claim to learning nor to wisdom. But I have read much, 
 I have heard much, and I have seen much : and I am con- 
 fident that I wrote nothing inconsistent with the proper pride 
 of the Marquis, nothing unworthy of myself. If he object to 
 read my letter, it will certainly be handed " (it had of course 
 been handed long ago !) "to others who will peruse it eagerly, 
 and will not think it undeserving of minute study. When 
 they hear that your patron declined the same task they will 
 assuredly abate something of their opinion of his judgement. 
 I may indeed say that no little credit has accrued to me from 
 this very letter already : without referring to any other critic, 
 the Pope has expressed himself much pleased with its style. 
 
 So I send you another copy, and with it three further 
 epistles, all addressed to the Marquis on the same subject, 
 on the chance that he may now have seen the error of his 
 previous conduct in declining my advice. I regret much 
 that I have been compelled to write to you in such terms. 
 But I, at least, have nothing to reproach myself with." 
 
 In spite of this correspondence Poggio had the highest 
 respect for Vittorino: he shewed it, as Platina tells us, by 
 confiding to his care one of his own sons, prizing both the 
 watchful care and sound instruction which he thereby secured 1 . 
 
 The same course was followed by Filelfo 2 , another difficult 
 
 1 Supra p. 30. 
 
 2 I am unable to give either the name of the son, or the date.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 85 
 
 subject. He had probably made acquaintance with Vittorino, 
 his senior by some years, when acting as deputy for Gasparino 
 Barzizza in 1416 or 1417. We know that at a later period he 
 was instrumental in establishing Theodore Gaza, and possibly 
 also George of Trebizond, at Mantua. With the latter he kept 
 up a regular correspondence during his residence with Vittorino 
 as master of Greek. This, and his close relations with Gaza, 
 gave him ample opportunity of realising the greatness of 
 Vittorino as a man and as a teacher. We have no record of 
 their meeting, but friendly messages 1 came through others to 
 Vittorino from Filelfo, who, when his son was growing up, 
 could find no master to whom he would entrust him more 
 readily 2 . There must, however, have been much in Filelfo's 
 character which had little attraction for Vittorino. 
 
 It will be enough now to refer to his friendship for Guarino. 
 The acquaintance of the two men dated, as we have seen, at 
 least from the time of Guarino's residence at Venice in I4I4 3 . 
 Guarino referred 4 in later years to the intercourse which 
 subsisted between them at that period when they read Greek 
 and Latin authors together with mutual benefit. Guarino did 
 not hesitate to write in the highest terms to Gonzaga of 
 Vittorino's character and powers : he congratulated Ludovico 
 on the noble temper of his preceptor. Whether these two 
 famous school-masters, who were near neighbours for a large 
 part of their lives Guarino's work after 1418 lay always at 
 
 1 E.g. through Trapezuntius : ' d<rird<rai. QviKTOpivov ws (piXrara. ' Klette, 
 in. 105. 
 
 2 Supra p. 30. 
 
 3 Probably indeed much earlier; Guarino had been at Padua during the 
 earlier years of Vittorino's residence there : and was occasionally at the 
 University after his return from Constantinople in 1408. 
 
 4 Sabbadini, Guarino, quotes from a letter to Ludovico Gonzaga, 1424. 
 ' If he calls me his master it is more than I have a right to, and it proceeds 
 from the goodness and gratitude of his nature. I taught him but little, 
 though he loves to dwell upon the service I rendered him.' Vita di Guar. 
 P- 75-
 
 86 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 Verona or Ferrara carried on any active correspondence we 
 do not know 1 ; it is however unlikely : nor have we any definite 
 ground for thinking that they co-operated in any way in editing 
 books or texts 2 . But Guarino, himself a scholar and eager to 
 train up his sons in learning, sent his boy Gregorio to Vittorino ; 
 and this we may safely regard as a further piece of expert 
 testimony to Vittorino's ability. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the impress which 
 Vittorino left upon such scholars of the latter half of the 
 fifteenth century as had been his pupils. I would refer 
 especially to the men who were chiefly active in Latin 
 scholarship. The Ciceronian tradition securely established 
 by Barzizza at Padua and Milan was definitely accepted by 
 Vittorino. George of Trebizond was in Latin learning a 
 typical pupil of Vittorino, and we may confidently say that 
 he was an abler scholar than Guarino and that his work on 
 Rhetoric 3 had a profound influence upon the teaching of 
 style. Valla was one of the first pupils 4 of Vittorino. His 
 Latin scholarship was undoubtedly distinguished and his 
 services in furthering it are perhaps as yet scarcely estimated 
 aright. It was Valla 5 who definitely displaced the inaccurate 
 
 1 A letter, hitherto unnoticed, (Brit. Mus. Harl. MSS. 2570 f. 175) 
 from Guarino to Karolus Brugnolus, a pupil of promise to whom Vittorino 
 gave special private instruction, contains an affectionate greeting to 
 Vittorino. 
 
 2 Prendilacqua says that they did so : but no particulars are given and 
 we have no confirmation of the statement from any source. Certainly 
 nothing of the kind has survived. 
 
 3 On the repute of G. of Trebizond as a Rhetorician, see the letter of 
 Porcia (Comes Purliliensis) Epist. Famil. vi. ci., written towards the very 
 end of the i5th century: "ut reliquos rhetoricae artis scriptores in prae- 
 sentia omittam, Ciceronem, Quintilianum, Aristotelem et Trapezuntium. " 
 
 4 He came at a comparatively late age, probably he was at least 18 
 years old. He left in 1430; but he knew Greek before entering La Giocosa. 
 It is often noted that Valla on the moral side was a striking exception to 
 the type of scholar usually produced under Vittorino. 
 
 6 On the influence of Valla and Perotti on the teaching of Latin,
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 87 
 
 and incomplete grammar books of mediaeval Latinists (such 
 as Alexander de Villa Dei) from the new schools. But he 
 did not himself write a grammar. That was the work of 
 Nicholas Perotti who had been one of the later pupils of the 
 Mantuan school', and who had so brilliant a subsequent career 
 first as Professor of Rhetoric at Bologna and later as Pontifical 
 secretary. In 1468 after completing his translation of Polybius 
 he wrote his great manual of Latin Grammar which was printed 
 through the agency of his friend and fellow pupil, John, Bishop 
 of Aleria, by Sweynheym and Pannarzt at Rome in 1473 
 a magnificent folio. Grammar and Rhetoric are now combined 
 and the main lines of Latin Grammar, accidence, syntax, pro- 
 sody, as understood for centuries afterwards, were for the first 
 time determined. Grammar 2 is now defined: 'est ars recte 
 loquendi recteque scribendi, scriptorum et poetamm lectionibus 
 observata.' ' Quattuor sunt partes grammatices : Littera : 
 syllaba : dictio : et oratio.' Grammar thus defined is ' initium 
 et fundamentum omnium disciplinarum.' It is important to 
 notice that Erasmus 3 has no hesitation in praising the Grammar 
 of Perotti as the most complete manual extant in his day. 
 Perotti wrote also a tractate 4 , ' De puerorum eruditione,' which 
 has never been printed, and which has perhaps altogether 
 disappeared. It would be interesting to us as giving the 
 experience of one trained under Vittorino at his best 5 . 
 
 Ognibene da Lonigo, who became a school-master, and 
 about 1452 occupied Vittorino's place at Mantua, wrote a 
 
 Benoist, De puer. erud., p. 71, may be read in confirmation of what is urged 
 in the text. 
 
 1 Perotti entered the School in 1443. 
 
 2 These are taken from the second page of the Grammatices Rudimenta. 
 
 3 Erasmi Opera, ed. i. 521 C. 
 
 4 Vid. Fabricius (J. A.), Bibl. Lat. (ed. Mansi, Patav. 1754) v. 124. I 
 have not been able to trace a reference to a copy in any Library. 
 
 5 Perotti was for a time in the service of Card. Bessarion, and forms 
 thus a personal link between Vittorino and the great patron of Greek 
 learning.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 small Grammar 1 which he dedicated to Francesco Gonzaga. 
 It was a school book and was drawn up on the lines of 
 Vittorino's oral method of Grammar teaching. 
 
 But the most interesting figure of all is that of John, Bishop 
 of Aleria. The position which he occupies in the history of 
 scholarship is unique. For to him fell a lot whose distinction 
 can again happen to no one: he prepared for the great Roman 
 press the Editiones Principes of the chief monuments of Latin 
 literature. In one year, 1469, he edited the works of Caesar, 
 Aulus Gellius, Livy, Lucan and Vergil. Then followed in 1470 
 the Epistles of Cicero : a volume of his Orations, and Ovid, 
 appeared in 1471. This was by no means the limit of his 
 scholarly activity. But the mere recital of these names 
 exhibits the distinction which belongs to Aleria in the history 
 of learning, and at the same time confirms our respect for 
 the Master to whom he so affectionately attributes whatever 
 capacity in scholarship he possessed 2 . 
 
 Vittorino, absorbed always in the many sided work of the 
 school, became thus, unconsciously perhaps, one of the most 
 powerful formative influences of the Renaissance. La Giocosa 
 was at once a centre of erudition, a school of wide and 
 varied training, the seat of a noble discipline of manners 
 and of character. Another "Accademia," Castiglione named 
 it : so marvellous a combination of wisdom and learning, of 
 
 1 De octo partibus orationis. Padua, 1473, is the date of the first edition. 
 In his preface he refers to Vittorino : ' aetatis huius tarn sanctitate vitae 
 quam doctrina praestantissimum'...'ut litterarum magister esset simul et 
 vivendi praeceptor.' One half of the book, which is very elementary, is in 
 form of question and answer. 
 
 2 The only scholar of Vittorino who forms in any sense a link between 
 him and our own country was Antonio Beccaria, who on leaving Mantua 
 entered the service of Duke Humphrey. On the fall of his patron he 
 returned to Italy, much the poorer, in pocket at least, for his experience. 
 After the fashion of the time he translated Plutarch into Latin ; he did the 
 same for the Ethics of Aristotle. But he was chiefly known for his elegies 
 of an amorous sort. He seems to have been a rather fierce controversialist 
 on the Humanist side. Vid. Prendil., p. 54.
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 89 
 
 skill in teaching, of self-devotion, of bright and attractive 
 surroundings had no parallel since ancient times. To Vit- 
 torino's school was first applied, in modern days, the well- 
 known simile of the Trojan horse giving forth its hidden 
 band of heroes. Originally spoken of the school of Isocrates 
 at Athens, the comparison was a favourite one with the 
 Humanists, who used it to describe the school of Guarino 
 at Ferrara, Colet's school at St Paul's and many others. 
 
 As old age drew on, Vittorino won more and more the 
 affection of his scholars and the respect of his fellow Humanists. 
 Gianfrancesco Gonzaga was dead. Ludovico his son accorded 
 to his old Master no less confidence than his father had done, 
 tinged with a certain veneration alike graceful and sincere. 
 We can picture to ourselves the spare ascetic figure, perhaps 
 below the middle height, active still and vigorous, the keen 
 straight glance, the dress plain and simple as became a scholar, 
 the 'tonaca' of sombre cloth or common fur, the plain sandals. 
 In spite of the severe strain of work and the rigid discipline of 
 body, from which, even in the fiercest extremes of climate, he 
 never swerved, his health had been until 1444 uniformly good. 
 He rarely left home except for his yearly visit to Goito or the 
 Lake of Garda. He took no little pride in his ownership of 
 a small property outside the city walls given to him probably 
 by the Gonzaga : for it contained within its bounds the site 
 venerated as marking the very birthplace of Vergil himself. 
 We cannot well imagine any one to whom such an association 
 would have appealed more powerfully than to Vittorino. 
 
 Vittorino's health had been poor during the autumn of 1444, 
 and in 1445 he was seized with the low-fever which then as now 
 haunted the valley of the Mincio. The attack was a severe 
 one, but his constitution, fortified as it was by lifelong habits of 
 temperate self-restraint, enabled him to throw off the malady. 
 Early in the following year, however, the fever recurred with 
 graver symptoms. He was now nearly 69 years of age. 
 Conscious that his work was over, he resigned himself to
 
 90 Vittorino da Feltre, 
 
 contemplation, and so awaited the end. He died on February 
 the second, 1446. According to his express wish no ceremonial 
 pomp was observed at his burial. His body was placed in the 
 church of San Spirito, by the side of his mother, who, it would 
 seem, had spent her last days near her famous son. The princes 
 of the House and a great concourse of pupils and of citizens 
 attended to mourn the loss of one who had been, to some 
 amongst them at least, the truest friend and the most powerful 
 influence for good which their lives had known. 
 
 Scholars scattered throughout Italy and beyond, knew that 
 a great loss had befallen not themselves only but the whole 
 world of learning. 'Non uni civitati...sed universae Graeciae 
 atque Italiae mors haec acerba et lamentabilis,' says Platina 1 . 
 For Vittorino had lived as he had indeed desired to live, a 
 truly devoted life. His unselfishness, his contempt for vulgar 
 reputation or merely material success, which distinguished him 
 from most of his fellow scholars, was manifest in all that he 
 did. It was found after his death that his promises of help 
 for needy scholars or for pious works had mortgaged even the 
 income which he had not lived to receive. 
 
 Thus passed away one of the most attractive of all the 
 personalities which meet us in an age conspicuous, above all 
 things, for its manifold types of activity and character. In 
 an age of bitter rivalries he made no enemy. With ample 
 opportunity of self indulgent ease he remained always, as his 
 pupils boasted, ' divitiarum contemptor.' In an atmosphere of 
 moral upheaval, here and there, indeed, of semi-pagan licence, 
 he kept a high standard of personal purity and of religion. The 
 courage, sincerity and simplicity of his nature struck all who 
 came to know him. Even Filelfo, envious, sarcastic as he was, 
 could but speak of him as /caAos Kaya06s 2 a high minded 
 
 1 Platina, p. 21. 
 
 2 To George of Trebizond : July 28, 1431 : rbv KaXbv K&yatibv Oft 
 
 wj (f>L\rara. Klette, Beit. iii. p. 105 (ep. 5).
 
 Vittorino da Feltre. 91 
 
 gentleman. Platina 1 laments the character, the piety, the lofty 
 earnestness which are in Vittorino's death lost to the world, 
 never in the same measure to be replaced. To John of Aleria 2 
 he is 'pater pauperum studiosorum, honestatis specimen, 
 bonitatis exemplum.' Ambrogio 3 has nothing to add to this 
 simple judgement : ' Meliorem illo virum, ausim dicere, nescio 
 an unquam viderim.' 
 
 I have endeavoured to indicate the place of Vittorino da 
 Feltre in the history of learning and of education. It is 
 perhaps doubtful whether future research will add materially 
 to the sources of our knowledge of the man and his work. 
 But we can already see that the importance of his position 
 lay partly in his own scholarship and reading, but more 
 in the genius which he manifested in reducing the vast body 
 of re-discovered literature to the service of a new education. 
 It is hard for us to realise, even remotely, the bewildering 
 effects of the stores of ancient learning so suddenly uncovered 
 to view during the century which ended with Vittorino's death. 
 The old ideal of knowledge, the growth of centuries, was re- 
 placed, almost within a generation, by a new one, which should 
 correspond in some way with a deeper sense of national 
 continuity, and of the breadth of human interests. But this 
 ideal, hopeful and inspiring as it was, was as yet indefinitely 
 grasped : and the education which should express it was 
 tentative and uncertain. The relation of the new hope to the 
 old faith; the balance between literary form and moral content; 
 the conflict of the Greek ideal of the body and the asceticism 
 of the Church, here were some of the graver problems which 
 pressed for attention. And side by side with them were ques- 
 tions of practical procedure. Wherein lay the true canon of 
 literary excellence ? What was the true function of Logic in 
 education? or what claim to education could be allowed to 
 
 1 'nostri seculi unicum praesidium et ornamentum.' Plat., p. 28. 
 
 2 Praefatio in Livium : Botfield, p. 95. 
 
 3 Ambrogio to Niccoli. Mart, et Dur. , Hi. 553.
 
 92 Vittorino da Feltre. 
 
 women ? How should a teacher reduce to educational method 
 and apparatus that ancient learning which, imposing as it was, 
 was but slowly yielding up the secret of its own criticism and 
 interpretation? When in the first years of the fifteenth century 
 Vittorino began to teach at Padua, questions such as these 
 were taking shape in the minds of scholars. At his death in 
 1446 each of them was advancing rapidly and surely to the 
 solution which satisfied the educated opinion of Western Europe 
 for the next four hundred years. And if this solution was reached 
 partly in direct imitation of the practice of the antique world, it 
 was due in much larger degree to the activity of a very few 
 men who worked their way to the light by actual experience, 
 enforced by genius, by strong personality, and by untiring 
 zeal. Amongst them stands out preeminent in each of these 
 three main qualities of a great Teacher, the figure of Vittorino. 
 As in Petrarch we recognise, in M. Kenan's words, ' the first 
 modern Man,' so with no less truth may we claim for the 
 founder of the Mantuan School the significant title of 'the 
 first modern Schoolmaster.'
 
 THE TREATISE DE INGENUIS MORIBUS 
 BY PETRUS PAULUS VERGERIUS. 
 
 VERGERIUS has been referred to above, p. 14 seqq., in con- 
 nection with Humanism at Padua during the period when 
 Vittorino da Feltre was residing there. 
 
 Vergerius was born at Capo d' Istria in 1349: after spending 
 some years at Padua he removed to Florence, where he taught 
 Logic, and studied Civil and Canon Law. In 1391 we find 
 him again in Padua, as 'Doctor Artium," as 'Doctor Medi- 
 cinae,' 2 and as professor of Logic 3 . In his teaching of this 
 latter subject he has broken away from scholastic method, and 
 already gives evidence of an essentially modern treatment of 
 Dialectic, in which he was followed by Vittorino 4 . But he i^ 
 had already at Florence, if not earlier, imbibed the full <>\vr 
 Humanist enthusiasm. In I392 5 , or soon after, he composed 
 the Treatise De ingenuis moribus 6 , for the use of Ubertinus, 
 
 1 Gloria, Man. Pad. ii. 491. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 493. But Voigt (i. 432) is wrong in saying that he taught at 
 Padua between July 1397 and June 1400: his name never occurs during 
 those years in the University records. Gloria, ii. 492. 
 
 4 Supra, p. 60. See the important letter in Prof. Combi, Epist. Verg. 
 p. 100 and Gloria, ii. 493. 
 
 5 The date fixed by the allusion of Vergerius 'to the battle of Brescia, 
 1392: inf. p. 113. 
 
 6 The full title given in the earliest editions and in most MSS. runs :
 
 94 Vergerius De ingenuis moribus. 
 
 son of Francesco Carrara, the lord of Padua. This work, 
 which has been too much overlooked by later students of 
 the Renaissance 1 , was for a century and a half after its 
 appearance amongst the most wjdely^read of all the_jDro- 
 ductions of the Revival of tetters. In the sixteenth century 
 it was diligently studied in schools, as Paulus Jovius 2 records. 
 Bembo prized it as 'digna philosopho,' Sabellico finds it 
 'gravissimis respersa sententiis, utpote qui philosophiae prius 
 operam dedit quam ad scribendum venisset.' Brucker is 
 astonished at the knowledge of human nature, and at the 
 lofty view of the Teacher's function, so much in advance 
 of that age, which the work reveals. Prof. Combi 3 , the 
 latest and most ardent student of Vergerius, affirms that he 
 is 'one of the most illustrious of the long series of Italian 
 educators, and the first to approach the subject upon the 
 new lines, and with the larger scope, rendered possible by 
 the Revival and demanded by the altered conditions of 
 society. In this Treatise we find, for the first time, sys- 
 tematically urged and defended subjects and methods of 
 instruction hitherto neglected or indeed forbidden'.' 
 
 Vergerius was a thorough Humanist of the finer type. 
 His Latinity, natural and unaffected, proves this, as does his 
 intimacy, revealed by his Letters, with the scholars and 
 public men who were at the head of the new movement, 
 Salutato, Barzizza, Zabarella: so too, his wide acquaintance 
 with classical texts 4 ; or the privilege unanimously accorded to 
 him of composing the epitaph upon the grave of Chrysoloras 
 
 ' Petri Pauli Vergerii Justino-Politani ad Ubertinum Carariensem de 
 ingenuis moribus opus praeclarissimum. ' Some MSS. (e.g. Harl. 2678) 
 have the additional words, 'et liberalibus studiis.' 
 
 1 No edition seems to have been printed after 1 700 : the only transla- 
 tion I have traced is the recent one by Prof. E. Michele (1878). 
 
 2 Paolo Giovio, Elog, Clar. Virorum, Venet. 1546, p. 68. 
 
 3 Epistol. di P. P. Vergerio, p. xix. 
 
 4 Id., p. xlviii.
 
 Vergerius De ingenuis moribtts. 95 
 
 at the Monastery in Constance ; or the denunciation of 
 Carlo Malatesta on his destruction of the statue of Vergil at 
 Mantua 1 . But his most important contribution to classical 
 learning was undoubtedly this Treatise, the main character- 
 istic of which lies in that union of Classical enthusiasm with 
 Christianity 2 which has been the ideal of Humanist education 
 ever since. 
 
 The Contents of the Tract fall naturally under the following 
 heads : 
 
 i. Introduction. The purport of the Treatise. 
 
 2. Concerning Character and its Discipline. 
 
 3. Concerning Liberal Studies. 
 
 4. Concerning the Manner of Study. 
 
 5. Concerning Bodily Exercises and Training in the Art 
 
 of War. 
 
 6. Concerning Recreation. 
 7. Conclusion. 
 
 1 In full in Combi, Verg. p. 113. Cf. p. xxii. 
 
 2 Combi, p. xlvii, and supra, p. 15. 
 
 [The history of the earlier editions of Vergerius De Ingenuis 
 Moribus is obscure. Combi says that at least twenty editions 
 appeared before 1500; and he examined twenty more of later 
 date. The first edition has latterly been ascribed, by Combi 
 and Michele, to 1472, possibly one of those printed at Brescia. 
 Hain, 15987, is probably ' Roma, 1473.' Colle is in any case 
 wrong (Storia delV Univ. di Pad. iv. 46) in giving ' Milano, 
 1474' as the earliest. Dr Copinger, however, informs me that 
 he believes that the Ed. Pr. was printed at Venice by Adam 
 de Ambergau in 1470, a copy of which is in his own possession. 
 The Treatise was printed in Louvain in 1485, and in Paris in 
 1494. The MS. copies are very numerous : it is found 
 generally in conjunction with Plutarch's treatise, as translated 
 by Guarino, and with that of St Basil, in Bruni's version.]
 
 P. P. VERGE RIUS TO UBERTINUS OF CARRARA. 
 
 r. "Your grandfather, Francesco I., a man distinguished 
 for his capacity in affairs and for his sound judgment, was in the 
 habit of saying that a parent owes three duties to his children. 
 The first of these is to bestow upon them names of which they 
 need not feel ashamed. For not seldom, out of caprice, or 
 even indifference, or perhaps from a wish to perpetuate a family 
 name, a father in naming his child inflicts upon him a mis- 
 fortune which clings to him for life. The second obligation is 
 this : to provide that his child be brought up in a city of 
 distinction, for this not only concerns his future self-respect, 
 but is closely connected with the third and most important 
 care which is due from father to son. This is the duty of 
 seeing that he be trained in sound learning. For no wealth, h 
 no possible security against the future, can be compared with I 
 the gift of an education in grave and liberal studies. By them 
 a man may win distinction for the most modest name, and 
 bring honour to the city of his birth however obscure it may 
 be. But we must remember that whilst a man may escape 
 from the burden of an unlucky name, or from the contempt 
 attaching to a city of no repute, by changing the one or 
 quitting the other, he can never remedy the neglect of early 
 education. The foundation, therefore, of this last must be laid j 
 
 in the first years of life, the disposition moulded whilst it is I 
 * ^-*-^~- _ 
 
 susceptible and the mind trained whilst it is retentive. 
 
 This duty, common indeed to all parents, is specially incum- 
 bent upon such as hold high station. For the lives of men 
 of position are passed, as it were, in public view; and are 
 fairly expected to serve as witness to personal merit and
 
 Concerning Character. 97 
 
 capacity on part of those who occupy such exceptional place 
 amongst their fellow men. You therefore, Ubertinus, the 
 bearer of an illustrious name, the representative of a house 
 for many generations sovereign in our ancient and most learned 
 city of Padua, are peculiarly concerned in attaining this ex- 
 cellence in learning of which we speak. Our name, our birth- 
 place, are not of our own choice. Progress in learning, on 
 the other hand, as in character, depends largely on ourselves, 
 and brings with it its owiTaDTding reward. But I know that I 
 am urging one who needs no spur. Can I say more than 
 this ? continue as you have begun ; let the promise of the 
 future be consistent with your performance in the past. 
 
 To you, therefore, I have addressed this tractate upon the 
 principles of Learning and of Conduct : by which I intend the 
 subjects and the manner of study in which youth may be best 
 exercised, and the actions which it behoves them to pursue, or 
 to avoid, in the course of their daily life. Although addressed to 
 you, it is intended for all who, blessed by nature with quickened 
 minds and lofty aims, desire to shew by their lives their gratitude 
 for such gifts. For no liberal mind will readily sink into mere 
 sloth or become absorbed in the meaner side of existence. 
 
 2. In judging character in youth, we recognise, first of 
 all, that it is a mark of soundness in a boy's nature that he M 
 is spurred by desire of praise : upon this rests Emulation, ) 
 
 which may be defined as rivalry without malice, 
 notice the quality of willing and ready obedience, which in 
 itself is full of promise for future progress, whilst, combined 
 with the love of approbation, it suggests the possibility of 
 the highest excellence. For, as yet, the boy is not of an 
 age to be stimulated by the dictates of reason, which would 
 be, doubtless, (as Plato and Cicero said) the surest motive, but 
 emulation, going along with obedience, supplies that 
 reason is as yet too weak to give. {Again, we prize every sign 
 of alertness, of industry, of thoroughness, in the growing 
 character. As in a horse the mettle which needs neither whip 
 
 w. 7
 
 98 Vergerius De Ingenuis Moribus. 
 
 nor spur, so in a boy eagerness for learning, marks a temper 
 from which much may be hoped. Where all these qualities 
 are found united we need have little anxiety as to character at 
 large. Again, we may feel confidently about a boy who shews 
 signs of due shame at punishment or disgrace, or who respects 
 his master in spite of it. The boy, too, who is naturally of a 
 friendly disposition, forgiving, sociable, taking all that is said 
 and done in good part, gives good promise for the future. 
 Perhaps we may add, with Aristotle, that excessive physical 
 energy rarely goes with keen intellectual tastes. Arguments 
 drawn from physiognomy I prefer to leave to others. But we . 
 have said enough to shew how bent of character may be 
 recognised in early years. And we may admit that there is 
 often a relation between dignity of mien and loftiness of 
 temper. Socrates suggested that boys should be encouraged 
 to regard themselves in a mirror, that the boy of dignified 
 bearing may feel himself bound to act worthily of it, the boy 
 of less attractive form braced to attain an inner harmony to 
 compensate for his defect. Perhaps, however, we gain surer 
 stimulus from contemplating others than from the reflection of 
 our own selves : as Scipio, Fabius and Caesar kept before their 
 eyes the images of Alexander or other heroes of the past. 
 
 If, however, it is helpful to contemplate the outward form of 
 a dead hero, how much more shall we gain from the example of 
 living worth ? For it is with character as with instruction : the 
 ' living voice ' is of far more avail than the written letter ; the 
 life we can observe, the character actually before us, affect us 
 as no other influence can. Let, then, the examples of living 
 men, known and respected for their worth, be held up for a 
 boy's imitation. And, moreover, let those of us who are older 
 not forget so to live that our actions may be a worthy model 
 for the youth who look up to us for guidance and example. 
 
 As to the moral discipline of the young, we must remember, 
 first, that each age has its peculiar dangers, and next that these 
 are due, in part, to natural bent, in part, to defective training or 
 i v
 
 Concerning Character. 99 
 
 to inexperience of life. For instance, a boy will be of open- 
 handed and generous disposition, just as he is by virtue of his 
 years of warm and sanguine habit of body : and such a temper 
 we prefer to parsimoniousness. But yet a habit of squandering ' 
 money thoughtlessly, from indifference to its value, or careless- 
 ness as to the character of those upon whom it is bestowed, must 
 be checked. Again, the same superabundant vitality which, 
 rightly directed, inspires a young man to high endeavour, may, 
 without such guidance, generate a spirit of arrogance, or intoler- 
 able self-conceit. Herein lies that great danger to character, a 
 habit of boasting, which in turn gives rise to a disregard of truth 
 in all relations of life, a fault apt to become ingrained as years 
 roll by. Nothing so injures a young man in the eyes of serious v 
 people as exaggeration and untruthfulness. Indeed a master 
 will be well-advised to inculcate generally a habit of speaking 
 little, and seldom, and of answering questions rather than 
 asking them. For a youth who is silent commits at most but 
 one fault, that he is silent ; one who is talkative probably 
 commits fifty. Looseness of conversation must be vigorously 
 dealt with, remembering the poet's warning, repeated by 
 St Paul : the natural sense of shame may be successfully 
 appealed to in this matter. Once more, if boys are credulous 
 we may ascribe it to inexperience ; if they change their tastes 
 or opinions, it is due to the flux of the bodily humours, caused 
 by excess of natural heat. This, moreover, produces also that 
 intensity or passion in all that they do which scarcely admits of 
 precepts of moderation, and certainly not of harsh condemna- 
 tion, for it belongs to their age, and has its proper function in 
 early years. To this same natural tendency we may attribute 
 the fickle character of their first friendships. 
 
 Children, although for the most part under the unwritten 
 discipline of home, are not to be regarded as outside the 
 control of public regulation. For the education of children 
 is a matter of more than private interest ; it concerns the State, 
 which indeed regards the right training of the young as, in 
 
 72
 
 loo Vergerius De Ingemds Moribns. 
 
 certain aspects, within its proper sphere. I would wish to 
 see this responsibility extended. But to come to detail. It 
 is especially necessary to guard the young from the temptations 
 natural to their age. For, as has been said, every period of life 
 has its own besetting sins. Manhood is the age of passion : 
 middle-life of ambition : old age of avarice. I speak, of course, 
 in general terms. So, too, we find faults common to boyhood, 
 which are obvious subjects for Regulations. In order to 
 maintain a high standard of purity all enticements of dancing, 
 or suggestive spectacles, should be kept at a distance : and the 
 society of women as a rule carefully avoided. A bad companion 
 may wreck the character. Idleness, of mind and body, is a 
 common source of temptation to indulgence, and unsociable, 
 solitary temper must be disciplined, and on no account en- 
 couraged. Harmful imaginations in some, moroseness and 
 depression in others, result from want of healthy companion- 
 ship. Tutors and comrades alike should be chosen from 
 amongst those likely to bring out the best qualities, to attract 
 by good example, and to repress the first signs of evil. All 
 excess in eating and drinking, or in sleep, is to be repressed : 
 though we must not forget the differing needs of individuals. 
 But our physical nature should be satisfied only, not pampered. 
 In the matter of allowing wine to children I should prohibit 
 its use, except in the smallest quantities, and even then carefully 
 diluted, with water in the larger proportion. But in no case 
 is it allowable to eat, drink or sleep up to the point of complete 
 satisfaction; in all bodily pleasures we must accustom our children 
 to retain complete and easy control of appetite. Above all, re- 
 spect for Divine ordinances is of the deepest importance ; it should 
 be inculcated from the earliest years. This reverential temper, 
 however, must not be forced in such a way that it pass into 
 unreasoning superstition, which engenders contempt rather 
 than faith. Profane language is to be held an abominable 
 sin ; and disrespect towards the ceremonies of the Church or 
 vain swearing must be sternly repressed. Reverence towards
 
 Concerning Character. 101 
 
 elders and parents is an obligation closely akin. In this, 
 antiquity offers us a beautiful illustration. For the youth 
 of Rome used to escort the Senators, the Fathers of the City, 
 to the Senate House : and awaiting them at the entrance, 
 accompany them at the close of their deliberations on their 
 return to their homes. In this the Romans saw an admirable 
 training in endurance and in patience. This same quality of 
 reverence will imply courtesy towards guests, suitable greetings 
 to elders, to friends and to inferiors. For right bearing in these 
 points is always attractive ; and in none more than in the son of 
 a Prince, who must unite in his carriage a certain dignity with 
 a becoming and natural ease. And these details of personal 
 bearing can be learnt by observation, aided by wise guidance. 
 This, indeed, must often take the form of correction, and will, 
 perhaps, be most needed by those who are to be called to the 
 sovereignty of a city or a state. The reproofs of our friends may 
 be likened to a faithful mirror : and he who wilfully refuses to 
 listen to them flings himself thereby into the arms of flatterers. 
 For it is little short of a miracle that a man of wealth, of birth 
 and of station, brought up amidst luxury and ease, should prove 
 himself on all occasions wise and strong; the allurements 
 of pleasure, and the evil influence of parasites, with every 
 opportunity of self-indulgence, leave scarcely a chink by which 
 reason and integrity may force an entrance. Plato, in the 
 Gorgias, specially commends the man who in such surroundings 
 can resist temptation. I would have you note that one special 
 source of danger lies in the weak indulgence of parents, which 
 undermines the moral strength of their children ; and this is 
 often seen the more conspicuously when the father's stronger 
 hand has been taken away. Therefore I strongly approve of 
 the system under which children liable to such dangers are 
 educated abroad ; or if in their own city, in the house of 
 relatives or friends. For as a rule the sense that they are 
 not in their own house checks self-will and imposes a healthy 
 restraint upon boys, and removes, at least, some of the
 
 IO2 , Vergcrius De Ingenuis Moribus. 
 
 hindrances which stand between them and full devotion to 
 those liberal studies which I must now set forth. 
 
 3. We call those studies liberal which are worthy of a 
 free man ; those studies by which we attain and practise virtue \ 
 and wisdom ; that education which calls forth, trains and I 
 develops those highest gifts of body and of mind which \ 
 ennoble men, and which are rightly judged to rank next 
 in dignity to virtue only. For to a Vulgar temper gain and 
 pleasure are the one aim of existence, to ^mofty nature, moral 
 worth and fame. It is, then, of the highest importance that 
 even from infancy this aim, this effort, should constantly be 
 kept alive in growing minds. For I may affirm with fullest 
 conviction that we shall not have attained wisdom in our later 
 years unless in our earliest we have sincerely entered on its 
 search. Nor may we for a moment admit, with the unthinking 
 crowd, that those who give early promise fail in subsequent ful- 
 filment. This may, partly from physical causes, happen in 
 exceptional cases. But there is no doubt that nature has 
 endowed some children with so keen, so ready an intelligence, 
 that without serious effort they attain to a notable power of 
 reasoning and conversing upon grave and lofty subjects, and 
 by aid of right guidance and sound learning reach in manhood 
 the highest distinction. On the other hand, children of modest 
 powers demand even more attention, that their natural defects 
 may be supplied by art. But all alike must in those early 
 years, 
 
 ' Dum faciles animi iuvenum, dum mobilis aetas,' 
 
 whilst the mind is supple, be inured to the toil and effort of 
 learning. Not that education, in the broad sense, is exclusively 
 the concern of youth. Did not Cato think it honourable to 
 learn Greek in later life? Did not Socrates, greatest of 
 philosophers, compel his aged fingers to the lute? 
 
 Our youth of to-day, it is to be feared, is backward to learn ; 
 studies are accounted irksome. Boys hardly weaned begin
 
 Concerning Liberal Studies. 103 
 
 to claim their own way, at a time when every art should 
 be employed to bring them under control and attract them, 
 to grave studies. The Master must judge how far he can) 
 rely upon emulation, rewards, encouragement ; How far he 
 must have recourse to sterner measures. Too much leniency 
 is objectionable ; so also is too great severity, for we must avoid 
 all that terrifies a boy. In certain temperaments those in 
 which a dark complexion denotes a quiet but strong 'per- 
 sonality restraint must be cautiously applied. Boys of this 
 type are mostly highly gifted and can bear a gentle hand. 
 Not seldom it happens that a finely tempered nature is 
 thwarted by circumstances, such as poverty at home, which 
 compels a promising youth to forsake learning for trade : though, 
 on the other hand, poverty is less dangerous to lofty instincts 
 than great wealth. Or again, parents encourage their sons to 
 .follow a career traditional in their family, which may divert 
 them from liberal studies : and the customary pursuits of the 
 city in which we dwell exercise a decided influence on our 
 choice. So that we may say that a perfectly unbiassed decision 
 in these matters is seldom possible, except to certain select 
 natures, who by favour of the gods, as the poets have it, are 
 unconsciously brought to choose the right path in life. The 
 myth of Hercules, who, in the solitude of his wanderings, 
 learned to accept the strenuous life and to reject the way 
 of self-indulgence, and so attain the highest, is the significant 
 setting of this profound truth. For us it is the best that can 
 befall, that either the circumstances of our life, or the guidance 
 and exhortations of those in charge of us, should mould our 
 natures whilst they are still plastic. 
 
 In your own case, Ubertinus, you had before you the 
 choice of training in Arms or in Letters. Either holds a place 
 of distinction amongst the pursuits which appeal to men of 
 noble spirit; either leads to fame and honour in the world. It 
 would have been natural that you, the scion of a House 
 ennobled by its prowess in arms, should have been content to
 
 : 
 
 IO4 Vergerius De Ingenuis Moribus. 
 
 accept your father's permission to devote yourself wholly to 
 that discipline. But to your great credit you elected to 
 become proficient in both alike : to add to the career of arms 
 traditional in your family, an equal success in that other great 
 discipline of mind and character, the study of Literature. 
 
 There was courage in your choice. For we cannot deny 
 that there is still a horde as I must call them of people who, 
 like Licinius the Emperor, denounce learning and the Arts 
 as a danger to the State and hateful in themselves. In reality 
 the very opposite is the truth. However, as we look back 
 upon history we cannot deny that learning by no means expels 
 wickedness, but may be indeed an additional instrument for 
 , evil in the hands of the corrupt. To a man of virtuous 
 instincts knowledge is a help and an adornment; to a Claudius 
 or a Nero it was a means of refinement in cruelty or in folly. 
 On the other hand, your grandfather, Jacopo da Carrara, who, 
 though a patron of learning, was not himself versed in Letters, 
 / died regretting that opportunity of acquiring a knowledge 
 of higher studies had not been given him in youth; which 
 shews us that, although we may in old age long for it, only in 
 early years can we be sure of attaining that learning which we 
 desire. So that it is no light motive to youthful diligence that 
 we thereby provide ourselves with precious advantages against 
 on-coming age, a spring of interest for a leisured life, a 
 recreation for a busy one. Consider the necessity of the 
 literary art to one immersed in reading and speculation : and 
 its importance to one absorbed in affairs. To be able to speak 
 V and write with elegance is no slight advantage in negotiation, 
 whether in public or private concerns. Especially in admini- 
 stration of the State, when intervals of rest and privacy are 
 accorded to a prince, how must he value those means of 
 occupying them wisely which the knowledge of literature 
 affords to him ! Think of Domitian : son of Vespasian though 
 he was, and brother of Titus, he was driven to occupy his 
 leisure by killing flies I What a warning is here conveyed
 
 Concerning Liberal Studies. 105 
 
 of the critical judgments which posterity passes upon Princes ! 
 They live in a light in which nothing can long remain hid. 
 Contrast with this the saying of Scipio : ' Never am I less idle, 
 less solitary, than when to outward seeming I am doing nothing 
 or am alone': evidence of a noble temper, worthy to be placed v 
 beside that recorded practice of Cato, who, amid the tedious 
 business of the Senate, could withdraw himself from outward 
 distractions and find himself truly alone in the companionship 
 of his books. 
 
 Indeed the power which good books have of diverting our p 
 thoughts from unworthy or distressing themes is another * 
 support to my argument for the study of letters. Add to this 
 their helpfulness on those occasions when we find ourselves 
 alone, without companions and without preoccupations what 
 can we do better than gather our books around us ? In them 
 we see unfolded before us vast stores of knowledge, for our 
 delight, it may be, or for our inspiration. In them are 
 contained the records of the great achievements of men ; the 
 wonders of Nature ; the works of Providence in the past, the 
 key to her secrets of the future. And, most important of all, 
 this Knowledge is not liable to decay. With a picture, an 
 inscription, a coin, books share a kind of immortality. In all 
 these memory is, as it were, made permanent ; although, in its 
 freedom from accidental risks, Literature surpasses every other 
 form of record. 
 
 Literature indeed exhibits not facts alone, but thoughts, 
 and their expression. Provided such thoughts be wortrfy, and 
 worthily expressed, we feel assured that they will not die : 
 although I do not think that thoughts without style will be 
 likely to attract much notice or secure a sure survival. What 
 greater charm can life offer than this power of making the past, 
 the present, and even the future, our own by means of literature? 
 How bright a household is the family of books ! we may cry, 
 with Cicero. In their company is no noise, no greed, no self- 
 will : at a word they speak to you, at a word they are still :
 
 106 Vergerius De Ingenuis Moribtts. 
 
 to all our requests their response is ever ready and to the point. 
 Books indeed are a higher a wider, more tenacious memory, 
 a store-house which is the common property of us all. 
 
 I attach great weight to the duty of handing down this 
 priceless treasure to our sons unimpaired by any carelessness 
 on our part. How many are the gaps which the ignorance of 
 past ages has wilfully caused in the long and noble roll of 
 writers ! Books in part or in their entirety have been 
 allowed to perish. What remains of others is often sorely 
 corrupt, mutilated, or imperfect. It is hard that no slight 
 portion of the history of Rome is only to be known through 
 the labours of one writing in the Greek language : it is still 
 worse that this same noble tongue, once well nigh the daily 
 speech of our race, as familiar as the Latin language itself, is 
 on the point of perishing even amongst its own sons, and to 
 us Italians is already utterly lost, unless we except one or two 
 
 v who in our time are tardily endeavouring to rescue something 
 if it be only a mere echo of it from oblivion. 
 
 We come now to the consideration of the various subjects 
 which may rightly be included under the name of 'Liberal 
 
 V Studies.' Amongst these I accord the first place to ^History, 
 
 on grounds both of its attractiveness and of its utility, qualities 
 
 which appeal equally to the scholar and to the statesman. 
 
 Next in importance ranks Moral Philosophy, which indeed is, in 
 
 a peculiar sense, a ' Liberal Art,' in that its purpose is to teach 
 
 men the secret of true freedom. History, then, gives us the 
 
 i> concrete examples of the precepts inculcated by philosophy. 
 
 / The one shews what men should do, the other what men have 
 
 said and done in the past, and what practical lessons we may 
 
 draw therefrom for the present day. I would indicate as the 
 
 third main branch of study, Eloquence, which indeed holds a 
 
 place of distinction amongst the refined Arts. By philosophy 
 
 / we learn the essential truth of things, which by eloquence we 
 
 so exhibit in orderly adornment as to bring conviction to 
 
 differing minds. And history provides the light of experience
 
 Concerning Liberal Studies. 107 
 
 a cumulative wisdom fit to supplement the force of reason and 
 the persuasion of eloquence. For we allow that soundness of 
 judgment, wisdom of speech, integrity of conduct are the marks 
 of a truly liberal temper. 
 
 We are told that the Greeks devised for their sons a course 
 of training in four subjects : letters, gymnastic, music and 
 drawing. Now, of these drawing has no place amongst our 
 liberal studies ; except in so far as it is identical with writing, 
 (which is in reality one side of the art of Drawing), it belongs 
 to the Painter's profession : the Greeks, as an art-loving people, 
 attached to it an exceptional value. 
 
 The Art of Letters, however, rests upon a different footing. 
 It is a study adapted to all times and to all circumstances, to 
 the investigation of fresh knowledge or to the re-casting and 
 application of old. Hence the importance of grammar and of ^ 
 the rules of composition must be recognised at the outset, as 
 the foundation on which the whole study of Literature must 
 rest : and closely associated with these rudiments, the art of 
 Disputation or Logical argument. The function of this is to 
 enable us to discern fallacy from truth in discussion. Logic, 
 indeed, as setting forth the true method of learning, is the 
 guide to the acquisition of knowledge in whatever subject. 
 Rhetoric comes next, and is strictly speaking the formal study 
 by which we attain the art of eloquence ; which, as we have 
 just stated, takes the third place amongst the studies specially 
 important in public life. It is now, indeed, fallen from its old 
 renown and is well nigh a lost art. In the Law-Court, in the 
 Council, in the popular Assembly, in exposition, in persuasion, 
 in debate, eloquence finds no place now-a-days : speed, brevity, 
 homeliness are the only qualities desired. Oratory, in which 
 our forefathers gained so great glory for themselves and for 
 their language, is despised : but our youth, if they would earn 
 the repute of true education, must emulate their ancestors in 
 this accomplishment. 
 
 After Eloquence we place Poetry and the Poetic Art, which J
 
 io8 Vergerius De Ingenuis Moribus, 
 
 though not without their value in daily life and as an aid to 
 oratory, have nevertheless their main concern for the leisure 
 side of existence. 
 
 As to Music, the Greeks refused the title of ' Educated ' to 
 anyone who could not sing or play. Socrates set an example 
 to the Athenian youth, by himself learning to play in his old 
 age; urging the pursuit of music not as a sensuous indulgence, 
 but as an aid to the inner harmony of the soul. In so far 
 as it is taught as a healthy recreation for the moral and spiritual 
 nature, music is a truly liberal art, and, both as regards its 
 theory and its practice, should find a place in education. 
 
 Arithmetic, which treats of the properties of numbers, 
 Geometry, which treats of the properties of dimensions, lines, 
 surfaces, and solid bodies, are weighty studies because they 
 possess a peculiar elejiient of certainty. The science of the 
 Stars, their motions, magnitudes and distances, lifts us into the 
 clear calm of the upper air. There we may contemplate the 
 fixed stars, or the conjunctions of the planets, and predict the 
 eclipses of the sun and the moon. The knowledge of Nature 
 animate and inanimate the laws and the properties of 
 things in heaven and in earth, their causes, mutations and 
 effects, especially the explanation of their wonders (as they are 
 popularly supposed) by the unravelling of their causes this is 
 a most delightful, and at the same time most profitable, study 
 for youth. With these may be joined investigations concerning 
 the weights of bodies, and those relative to the subject which 
 mathematicians call ' Perspective.' 
 
 I may here glance for a moment at the three great pro- 
 fessional Disciplines : Medicine, Law, Theology. Medicine, 
 which is applied science, has undoubtedly much that makes it 
 attractive to a student. But it cannot be described as a 
 Liberal study. Law, which is based upon moral philosophy, 
 is undoubtedly held in high respect. Regarding Law as a 
 subject of study, such respect is entirely deserved : but Law as 
 practised becomes a mere trade. Theology, on the other
 
 Concerning the Manner of Study. 109 
 
 hand, treats of themes removed from our senses, and attain- 
 able only by pure intelligence. 
 
 4. The principal ' Disciplines ' have now been reviewed. 
 It must not be supposed that a liberal education requires 
 acquaintance with them all : for a thorough mastery of even 
 one of them might fairly be the achievement of a lifetime. 
 Most of us, too, must learn to be content with modest capacity 
 as with modest fortune. Perhaps we do wisely to pursue 
 that study which we find most suited to our intelligence and 
 our tastes, though it is true that we cannot rightly understand 
 one subject unless we can perceive its relation to the rest. 
 The choice of studies will depend to some extent upon the ^ 
 character of individual minds. For whilst one boy seizes 
 rapidly the point of which he is in search and states it ably, 
 another, working far more slowly, has yet the sounder judgment 
 and so detects the weak spot in his rival's conclusions. The 
 former, perhaps, will succeed in poetry, or in the abstract 
 sciences ; the latter in real studies and practical pursuits. Or 
 a boy may be apt in thinking, but slow in expressing himself; 
 to him the study of Rhetoric and Logic will be of much value. 
 Where the power of talk alone is remarkable I hardly know what 
 advice to give. Some minds are strong on the side of memory : V 
 these should be apt for history. But it is of importance to 
 remember that in comparison with intelligence memory is of 
 little worth, though intelligence without memory is, so far as 
 education is concerned, of none at all. For we are not able to 
 give evidence that we know a thing unless we can reproduce it. 
 
 Again, some minds have peculiar power in dealing with 
 abstract truths, but are defective on the side of the particular 
 and the concrete, and so make good progress in mathematics \ 
 and in metaphysic. Those of just opposite temper are apt in 
 Natural Science and in practical affairs. And the natural bent 
 should be recognized and followed in education. Let the boy 
 of limited capacity work only at that subject in which he shews 
 he can attain some result.
 
 no Vergerius De Ingenuis Moribus. 
 
 Respecting the general place of liberal studies, we remember 
 that Aristotle would not have them absorb the entire interests 
 of life : for he kept steadily in view the nature of man as a J] 
 citizen, an active member of the State. For the man who has 
 surrendered himself absolutely to the attractions of Letters or of 
 speculative thought follows, perhaps, a self-regarding end and is v 
 useless as a citizen or as prince. 
 
 In acquiring our knowledge we should be careful to go to ^ 
 the best teachers even for the Rudiments ; in choosing our / 
 authors to take only those of the first rank. Thus Philip en- 
 trusted Alexander to Aristotle even for the Alphabet; the 
 Romans used Vergil as the first reading book. Rightly in 
 both cases : for that which is early implanted in the growing 
 mind will strike deep roots. If, therefore, instead of sound 
 methods and right examples, wrong principles and perverse 
 standards be set before the beginner in any subject, he has a 
 twofold difficulty to overcome. The story of Timotheus, the 
 Spartan teacher of music, illustrates what I mean. He was 
 accustomed to charge double fees to those pupils who came to 
 him with a knowledge of music already acquired. For he said 
 that he had to spend one course in teaching them to forget 
 what they had previously learnt, before he could begin to give 
 them his own special instruction. 
 
 Two faults, in particular, whether in the school master or in 
 the student, seem to call for stringent correction. The first is j 
 the habit of attempting too much at once. For as the digestion I 
 refuses its task upon ill-assorted or excessive food, so the ' 
 memory cannot retain an undue burden, and the mind ill- 
 nourished becomes feebler instead of stronger with manhood. 
 The remedy for this is to limit the number of subjects in hand v 
 at one time so that the memory may fully overtake each of 
 them, and daily revision make our acquisition secure. The 
 second fault is that of hastily passing from one subject to \ 
 another, which is destructive of all steady progress. For there / 
 is an Italian proverb which warns us that 'Wine not allowed to
 
 Concerning the Manner of Study. 1 1 1 
 
 rest turns sour.' And so we shall do well to put our heart into 
 one subject at a time, and to repress a superficial curiosity. 
 There is an order in studies which should be obeyed. A habit 
 of irregular reading, or dipping into books, here the beginning, 
 here the end, here the middle, is responsible for much use- 
 less study. On the other hand, wide reading concentrated ^/ 
 round one special subject is often conducive to a thorough 
 acquaintance with it. 
 
 Again, we must remember that mental endowments differ.\ 
 There is the eager intellectual temper, which is apt to be soon' 
 discouraged by difficulties unless spurred by question or dis- 
 cussion. Where there is real capacity behind, success seems 
 generally to reward patient guidance. And there is the 
 brilliant genius, daunted by nothing, which attacks the gravest 
 problems, and refuses to admit defeat. But here keen insight"! 
 and swift acquisition often go with poor retentiveness. To 
 boys thus gifted I would urge the adoption of some such plan j i 
 as that of Cato, who, whatever he had done, seen, read during f , 
 the day, reviewed it in the evening, when he would account, 
 not only for his working hours, but for his leisure also. So a 
 regular revision of all new knowledge, at least of that which [ 
 strikes us as most important in it, will be a great help to 
 memory.] So, too, a habit of discussing our subject with a / 
 fellow student will aid us alike in understanding, in expressing, 
 and in remembering, what we have gained. This indeed is the . 
 valuable effect of disputation as an educational instrument. 
 Once more, the practice of teaching what we have learnt is a 
 certain way of securing our own knowledge of the subject. 
 Moreover, any exercise by which we may learn to distrust our 
 own attainments, and so increase our diligence and our 
 modesty is to be prized. For the temptation to exhibit their 
 prodigious erudition besets many young students: and we 
 may admit that a man deceives no one so readily as himself. 
 It is perhaps the first essential of real progress to be sceptical | 
 of our own powers, and to discard that presumption of our j
 
 1 1 2 Vergerius De Ingenuis Moribus. 
 
 own ability or knowledge which tempts us to make light of the 
 need for thoroughness. 
 
 It will always happen that a beginner meets with difficulties 
 of matter or expression in the subject, whatever it may be, 
 upon which he is engaged. Perhaps he blames the book he is 
 using or its author, whilst the fault lies, of course, in his own 
 ignorance, which is only to be overcome by quiet perseverance] 
 in the particular study. To give a fixed time each day to 
 reading, which shall be encroached upon under no pretext 
 whatsoever, is a well tried practice which may be strongly 
 recommended. Alexander read much even on campaign; 
 Caesar wrote his Commentaries, and Augustus recited poetry, 
 whilst commanding armies in the field. With such examples 
 what distractions of peaceful city life can be pleaded as excuse 
 for neglect of daily study? Nay, many leisure hours now 
 wasted may be saved by devoting them to the recreation of 
 lighter reading. Some wisely arrange a course of Readings 
 during dinner ; others court sleep, or banish it, amidst books, 
 although physicians are, no doubt, right in condemning the 
 abuse of this latter practice. In every Library let a clock be 
 so placed that it may catch the eye of the reader, to warn him 
 by the swift lapse of time of the need of diligence, and, I would 
 add, let the Library be used for no other purpose whatsoever ' 
 than that for which it is designed. 
 
 5. In what I have written thus far upon the choice of 
 studies I have had regard more particularly to those whose tem- . 
 perament inclines them to Learning rather than to War. But 
 where an active frame is conjoined to a vigorous intellect a true , 
 education will aim at the efficient training of both the Reason, 
 that it may wisely control, the Body, that it may promptly obey. 
 So that if we be involved in arms we may be found ready to 
 defend our rights or to strike a blow for honour or power. 
 Especially must the education of a Prince accord a high place 
 to instruction in the art of war, not less than to training ^ 
 in the arts of peace. Alexander the Great, himself a prince
 
 Concerning Training in the Art of War. 1 1 3 
 
 conspicuous in arms, and also a constant student of Homer, 
 preferred to every other line of the Poet that one in which he 
 speaks of Agamemnon as a great king because a valiant warrior, 
 holding him thus typical of every true ruler of men. 
 
 Now war involves physical endurance as well as military 
 skill. So that from his earliest years a boy must be gradually 
 inured to privations and grave exertion, to enable him to ) 
 bear strain and hardship when he reaches manhood. The ' 
 institutions of Minos and Lycurgus ordained that the youth of 
 Crete and Sparta should be exercised in activity and courage 
 by feats of strength, or dangers of the field ; in endurance by 
 bearing heat and cold, hunger and thirst. For as luxury 
 enervates mind and body alike, so exertion fortifies both. Nor 
 could I find, even in antiquity, a more significant example than 
 that of your own father Francesco, who always declared that 
 this stedfastness under hardship and bodily strain was the v 
 quality of which he felt most proud. Endeavour to shew 
 yourself a worthy son in this most important quality. This 
 physical power, also, is accompanied by a contempt of death * 
 and by a consequent invincible courage. For all ought to 
 regard life as of less moment than noble action. If we hold 
 it our first duty to live honourably and bravely, whether in 
 peace or war, we shall not over-rate the blessing of long life, 
 as so many do. If death comes we shall meet it manfully, 
 and, if need be, go to welcome it cheerfully. Even if it seem 
 to come untimely, we shall still have had our opportunities. 
 Scipio Africanus, the hero of the Second Punic War, hardly 
 more than a boy at the time, had at the battle of the Ticino 
 the glory of saving his father under the very feet of the enemy. 
 Aemilius Lepidus is another instance of conspicuous bravery 
 rewarded by the highest distinction of his fellow citizens. Nor 
 have you yourself been backward in the field, as you shewed 
 lately at Brescia against the German hordes, winning there the 
 highest admiration of friend and foe alike. 
 
 So, I repeat, it is of greatest importance that boys should 
 w. 8
 
 H4 Vergerius De Ingenuis Moribus. 
 
 be trained from childhood in feats of courage and endurance. 
 The Lacedaemonian discipline was indeed severe. The boys 
 were trained to be of such a temper that in their contests they 
 could not yield nor confess themselves vanquished; the severest 
 tests produced no cry of pain, though blood might flow and 
 consciousness itself give way. The result was that all antiquity 
 rehearses the deathless courage of the Spartans in the field; their 
 arms were to them part of their very selves, to be cast away, or 
 laid down, only with their lives. What else than this same 
 early and most diligent training could have enabled the 
 Romans to shew themselves so valiant, so enduring, in the 
 campaigns they fought ? Wherefore, whether a boy be trained 
 in Arms or in Letters (for these are the two chief liberal Arts and 
 fittest therefore for a prince), so soon as he be able to use , 
 his limbs let him be trained to Arms : so soon as he can 
 rightly speak let him be trained to Letters. Further, it will 
 be easy and it will be of great benefit to a boy to alternate the 
 study of letters with bodily exercises : and, indeed, at whatever 
 age he may be, the same practice is to be commended. 
 Theodosius, we are told, spent the day in martial exercises, or 
 in the business of the state ; the evening he devoted to books. 
 In choice of bodily exercises those should be adopted 
 which serve to maintain the body in good health and to 
 strengthen the limbs : and thus it will be necessary to consider 
 to some extent the case of each individual boy. For some 
 boys are of a soft and humid bodily habit: they will need 
 to be dried and hardened by vigorous exercises ; or those 
 whose blood mounts too readily will be best practised in 
 restraint if they be exercised in the full heat of the sun. In 
 childhood much care must be taken lest the growth be 
 hindered, or the nerves of the body be strained, by severe 
 exertion ; but as youth develops this may be slowly increased. 
 The order, perhaps, to be observed is this : in childhood, 
 learning first ; in youth, morals; with physical exercises, varying 
 in degree, for all.
 
 Concerning Training in the Art of War. 115 
 
 The importance attached by the Romans to systematic and 
 scientific training in arms is illustrated by the example of 
 Caius Marius, who, according to Plutarch, was present every day 
 at the Camp, in which his son was quartered as a Cadet. In 
 spite of his years and his high position, the great soldier himself 
 took his place habitually at drill. To P. Rutilius is due the 
 introduction of methodical training in the handling of the 
 sword, especially in the art of the thrust and parry ; so that 
 swordsmanship became thenceforward a matter, not merely of 
 muscle and daring, but of elaborate skill. So, too, our youth 
 must learn the art of the sword, the cut, the thrust and the 
 parry ; the use of the shield ; of the spear ; of the club ; 
 training either hand to wield the weapon. Further, swimming, 
 to which Augustus rightly attached so great importance, 
 running, jumping, wrestling, boxing, javelin-throwing, archery, 
 thorough horsemanship, in sport or in war, these are all 
 needful to the full training of the soldier. Particularly will it 
 be necessary that he be practised in the drill of the heavy 
 man-at-arms. Arms and methods of warfare change from age 
 to age. The chariot of the Homeric Greeks, the legion of the 
 Romans, have both disappeared ; the chief arm of to-day is 
 cavalry. But whatever the method or the weapon of the 
 time, let there be ample practice for our youth, with as great 
 variety of exercises as can be devised, so that they may be 
 ready for combat hand to hand or in troop, in the headlong 
 charge or in the skirmish. We cannot forestall the reality of 
 war, its sudden emergencies, or its vivid terrors, but by training 
 and practice we can at least provide such preparation as the 
 case admits. So, with Horace, we may say : 
 
 Angustam amice pauperiem pati 
 robustus acri militia puer 
 condiscat et Parthos ferocis 
 
 vexet eques metuendus hasta 
 vitamque sub divo et trepidis agat 
 in rebus. Odes, iii. 2. 
 
 82
 
 1 1 6 Vergerius De Ingenuis Moribus. 
 
 Further, it will be desirable to include the wider aspects 
 of the art of war, by which I mean the principles of generalship : 
 strategy and tactics ; discipline ; supplies ; and the ordering of 
 camps and winter quarters. For the commander must be 
 prepared to bear a heavy responsibility. If he be not calm 
 and confident, as one who has truly learnt his art, the forces 
 under him will not support the day ; and the discredit of 
 failure will, fairly or not, attach to him alone. The art of 
 war, indeed, can only be rightly acquired by constant experience 
 in the field, but such books as have been written by great 
 soldiers upon their calling must not be overlooked. Your 
 father, too, is more capable than any other of giving you 
 wise instruction in these subjects, more especially concerning 
 the use of engines of war. Indeed, your own family to-day 
 supplies you with notable instances of warlike skill, and to 
 them (your father Francesco and your uncle Jacopo in par- 
 ticular) you will turn repeatedly, with that respect and filial 
 affection which is ever due from youth to age, and is the 
 true corner stone of orderly communities of men. 
 
 6. But as we are not so constituted that we are able to be- 
 stow ourselves all day long upon our ordered tasks, I will now set / 
 forth the true place of recreation. First of all, it imports that 
 boys engage in no debasing games, or such as cannot develop 
 bodily gifts or powers of Will. We cannot, therefore, accord a 
 high place to that practice which found favour with Scipio and 
 Laelius, namely, of seeking rest for exhausted minds in aimless 
 walks along the shore, picking up pebbles and shells as they 
 went. Scaevola, on the other hand, was wiser : he spent 
 wearisome days in the Courts, and found in the sharp exertion 
 of ball-play the best refreshment alike for jaded spirits and 
 for bodily fatigue. So, too, others seek recreation in hunting, 
 hawking, or fishing; and so keen is their enjoyment, that 
 the severe efforts which these pursuits demand are cheerfully 
 borne. 
 
 " The labour we delight in physicks pain " :
 
 Concerning Recreation. 117 
 
 so to render the well known line of Horace 1 . If these be too 
 strenuous a relaxation for those who are exhausted by study, 
 it may suffice to seek it in quiet repose, in gentle riding, or in 
 pleasant walks. Wit and comely humour may find a place, 
 as Lycurgus allowed. Nor will it be unbecoming to have 
 recourse to music and to song. Did not the Pythagoreans 
 approve this ? nay, Homer himself shews us Achilles refreshing 
 his spirit after the fight by singing, though his songs were not 
 of love but of heroic deeds. Then we may choose such 
 measures as shall be best suited to our moods. The Sicilian 
 measures conduce most to restful calm ; the Gallic, on the other 
 hand, stir us to energy and movement ; the Italian hold a 
 middle place. To accompany oneself in singing is less 
 dignified than to sing to the accompaniment of another ; 
 whilst to watch dancing girls, or to dance ourselves to music, 
 is altogether unworthy; though some may defend the latter 
 as a form of exercise in spite of its tendency to lasciviousness 
 and vain conceit. The game of " tabulae " which Palamedes 
 is said to have invented during the Trojan war to keep his 
 soldiers occupied during wearisome inaction, is free from all such 
 objections. Dice-playing is to be utterly condemned. It is 
 either a base form of money-getting, or an effeminate excite- 
 ment; though a game of skill, in which chance plays but a 
 small part, is allowable. Claudius, the Emperor, wrote a book 
 on dice-playing, which the vicious have found a useful argu- 
 ment for their indulgence. 
 
 Those whose time is occupied in Letters may find sufficient 
 relaxation in change of subject. But it must not be forgotten 
 that it is sometimes needful, in the interests of our work, to do 
 absolutely nothing for a while. For the string ever stretched 
 will end by breaking. I know, indeed, that to the wise man 
 nothing is so laborious as doing nothing. We know of some who 
 divide their day into three parts, one of which is given to 
 
 1 'Molliter austerum studio fallente laborem,' Sat. II. ii. 12.
 
 1 1 8 Vergerins De Ingenuis Moribns. 
 
 sleep, one to recreation and to meals, one to liberal studies. 
 On such a point I cannot pronounce : but this at least I can 
 safely say, that the larger the place we can allot to learning, 
 the richer, the fuller, is the life we thereby secure to ourselves. 
 Lastly, I must add a word upon attention to personal habits. 
 In this matter we must not be neglectful : for whilst we may 
 not bestow too much thought upon our outward appearance, 
 which is effeminacy, we must have due regard to our dress, 
 and its suitability to time, place, and circumstance. Perhaps 
 we ought not to be too severe if a young man verging on 
 manhood seem to spend undue care upon his person ; 
 something may be forgiven him, provided he does not carry 
 his foible into the more serious years of life. 
 
 ,^7. In offering this Treatise to you, Ubertinus, I end as I 
 began. You do not need my insistence ; follow the instincts 
 of your best self, and you will be found worthy. If I seem 
 to flatter you, it is that I look confidently to see you fulfil 
 the promise of your youth. Should you prove me a true 
 prophet, you will reap the praise of men, not of your own 
 day alone, but, if my pen avail, of days far distant. Should 
 you, however, disappoint my hopes, there is one, at least, who 
 will be forced to admit, with sorrow, that nothing was lacking 
 to you but yourself.
 
 THE TRACTATE OF LIONARDO BRUNI D'AREZZO, 
 DE STUD IIS ET LITER IS. 
 
 THIS short Treatise, cast as usual in the form of a Letter, is 
 probably the earliest humanist tract upon Education expressly 
 dedicated to a Lady ; just as Baptista di Montefeltro, to whom 
 it is addressed, may stand as the first of the succession of 
 studious women who were a characteristic product of the 
 Renaissance. 
 
 Baptista was the younger daughter of Antonio, Count of 
 Urbino, who died in 1404. She was then twenty-one years of 
 age, and was married, on June 14, 1405, to Galeazzo Malatesta, 
 the heir to the lordship of Pesaro. The marriage was a most 
 unhappy one. The worthless husband was so hated as a ruler 
 that, after two years of power (1429-1431), he was driven from 
 his city. His wife thereupon found a welcome refuge in her 
 old home at Urbino. She lived for some twenty years a 
 widowed and secluded life ; she died, as a Sister of the Fran- 
 ciscan Order of Santa Chiara, in 1450. 
 
 Even before her marriage she had cultivated a taste for 
 poetry and was powerfully attracted by the passion for the 
 ancient literature which marked the close of the i4th century. 
 Her husband's father, the reigning lord of Pesaro, is known to 
 us as " II Malatesta degli Sonetti," and he aided and shared 
 the literary tastes of his young daughter-in-law. They inter- 
 changed canzoni and Latin epistles, many of which are
 
 I2O L. Bruni UArezzo. 
 
 preserved in MS. collections 1 . The Emperor Sigismund 
 passing through Urbino in 1433 was greeted by her in a 
 Latin oration 2 , which half a century later was still thought 
 worthy of print. To her Lionardo Bruni, at the time probably 
 Apostolic Secretary, addressed the Letter which is here given 
 in English form. The date of its composition cannot now be 
 determined. But we may fairly assume from the tenor of the 
 opening words that it was written not much later than the year 
 of her marriage (1405). 
 
 The interest of the tractate lies chiefly in the fact that it 
 reveals, at an early stage in the history of Humanism, a concern 
 for classical study on the part of the more thoughtful and earnest 
 of the great ladies of Italy. Baptista is the forerunner of the 
 Nogarola of Verona 3 , of Cecilia Gonzaga, of Ippolita Sforza, 
 and of her own more fortunate and distinguished descendants, 
 Costanza and her daughter, another Baptista (1447-1472), the 
 wife of the great Duke Federigo of Urbino. 
 
 There is evidence also, I think, of the bitterness with which 
 the New Learning was regarded in Florence by the Dominicans 
 of Santa Maria Novella, which had lately found expression in 
 the work of Giovanni Dominici 4 , who denounced the growing 
 
 1 Two Canzoni by Baptista of a religious cast and a Letter from her to 
 Martin V. are printed in Dennistoun, The Dukes of Urbino, i. 409. 
 
 2 We remember that Gianlucido Gonzaga composed an hexameter poem 
 of two hundred lines on the emperor's visit to Mantua soon afterwards. 
 
 3 Upon the sisters Isotta and Ginevra Nogarola, who were pupils of 
 Guarino, see Sabbad. Vita di Guarino, p. 123. In them, he says, ' L' uma- 
 nismo si sposa alia gentilezza femminile.' 
 
 4 Regola del Governo di Cura Familiare, dal B. Giovanni Dominici : 
 ed. Salvi, Fir. 1860. This work is the most important protest, in literary 
 form, against the revival of ancient learning which has come down to us. 
 Giovanni was Vicario of the Convent of Sta Maria Novella, and his book 
 set the temper of the Dominicans for the next century. Its publication fell 
 within the years 1400 1405. Bruni's version of the Homily of S. Basil 
 was intended as a direct retort to Giovanni : and Humanists were always 
 glad to defend the reading of the classics by the authority of this Father. 
 See Aen. Sylv. De Liberor. Educ., inf. p. 150.
 
 L. Bruni D'Arezzo. 121 
 
 absorption of the intelligence of his day in pagan thought and 
 letters. Bruni, however, as became his position, and in accord 
 moreover, with all that we read of the ideals of the highest 
 training of women during this century, in mapping out a course 
 of reading for his correspondent holds fast by the supreme worth 
 of morals and religion. He is anxious to shew the connection 
 between the ancient world and the Christian standards of life. 
 Hence the paragraph 1 upon the relation of profane learning 
 to the art of noble living is very significant. It expresses with 
 precision what we feel to have been the aim of Vittorino 
 da Feltre in his education of Cecilia and Barbara, and it 
 coincides in principle with the judgments on the education of 
 girls laid down in the treatise of Mafifeo Vegio 2 . The main 
 features of this course of study best adapted to a woman seem 
 to be these. Religion, as a subject of study not less than as a 
 personal quality, demands the first place : morals, as recognised 
 by the best intelligence of the ancient world, as well as by the 
 Church, stand in close relation to Faith. Philosophy, disputa- 
 tion, the art of clever conversation and discussion, history, as a 
 body of illustration of moral precepts, all these follow closely. 
 Literature, in a broad sense covering the range of Latin 
 antiquity and the greater Fathers, must be studied both for 
 its matter and its form. The importance of this last is hardly 
 to be exaggerated. For taste and fluency of expression are 
 among the finer marks of distinction accepted by educated 
 opinion. 
 
 It cannot be said that the study of Letters by women, in spite 
 of some pedantry and occasional display, was, judging from the 
 more prominent instances of which we have intimate knowledge, 
 unfavourably regarded by social opinion, or that it established 
 a new standard of womanly activity. Women, indeed, at this 
 
 1 Infra, p. 133. 
 
 3 De Education* Liberorum, the work often attributed, wrongly, to 
 Filelfo. Vid. Lib. iii. 12, 13, for his judgment upon the education of 
 girls.
 
 122 L. Brunt D'Arczzo. 
 
 epoch seem to have preserved their moral and intellectual 
 balance under the stress of the new enthusiasm better than 
 men. The learned ladies were, in actual life, good wives and 
 mothers, domestic and virtuous, women of strong judgment, 
 and not seldom of marked capacity in affairs. The duchess 
 Baptista, great in scholarship, was even more distinguished for 
 her needlework. At the same time, before the century was out, 
 Chairs at the Universities, both in Italy and in Spain, were 
 occasionally occupied by women 1 . 
 
 [Hain, 1571, gives the Cologne edition as the earliest, but no 
 date is suggested (? 1472). A Florentine edition appeared in April 
 1477, which from its Prefatory Letter would seem to be the first 
 current in that city. This was followed by a Roman issue. Two 
 others, Padua, 1483, and Munich, 1496, were printed during the 
 century. Very few editions are noted of later date.] 
 
 1 Dennistoun, op. cit. ii. 123.
 
 LIONARDO D'AREZZO CONCERNING THE STUDY 
 OF LITERATURE, A LETTER ADDRESSED TO 
 THE ILLUSTRIOUS LADY, BAPTISTA MALA- 
 TESTA. 
 
 I AM led to address this Tractate to you, Illustrious Lady, 
 by the high repute which attaches to your name in the field of 
 learning ; and I offer it, partly as an expression of my homage 
 to distinction already attained, partly as an encouragement to 
 further effort. Were it necessary I might urge you by brilliant 
 instances from antiquity : Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio, 
 whose Epistles survived for centuries as models of style; 
 Sappho, the poetess, held in so great honour for the exuberance 
 of her poetic art ; Aspasia, whose learning and eloquence made 
 her not unworthy of the intimacy of Socrates. Upon these, 
 the most distinguished of a long range of great names, I would 
 have you fix your mind ; for an intelligence such as your own 
 can be satisfied with nothing less than the best. You yourself, 
 indeed, may hope to win a fame higher even than theirs. For 
 they lived in days when learning was no rare attainment, and 
 therefore they enjoyed no unique renown. Whilst, alas, upon 
 such times are we fallen that a learned man seems well-nigh a 
 portent, and erudition in a woman is a thing utterly unknown. 
 For true learning has almost died away amongst us. True 
 learning, I say : not a mere acquaintance with that vulgar, 
 threadbare jargon which satisfies those who devote themselves 
 to Theology, but sound learning in its proper and legitimate
 
 124 L. Brunt UArezzo. 
 
 sense, viz., the knowledge of realities Facts and Principles 
 united to a perfect familiarity with Letters and the art of 
 expression. Now this combination we find in Lactantius, in 
 Augustine, or in Jerome ; each of them at once a great 
 theologian and profoundly versed in literature. But turn 
 from them to their successors of to-day : how must we blush 
 for their ignorance of the whole field of Letters ! 
 
 This leads me to press home this truth though in your 
 case it is unnecessary that the foundations of all true learning 
 must be laid in the sound and thorough knowledge of Latin : 
 which implies study marked by a broad spirit, accurate 
 scholarship, and careful attention to details. Unless this solid 
 basis be secured it is useless to attempt to rear an enduring 
 edifice. Without it the great monuments of literature are 
 unintelligible, and the art of composition impossible. To 
 attain this essential knowledge we must never relax our careful 
 attention to the grammar of the language, but perpetually 
 confirm and extend our acquaintance with it until it is 
 thoroughly our own. We may gain much from Servius, 
 Donatus and Priscian, but more by careful observation in 
 our own reading, in which we must note attentively vocabulary 
 and inflexions, figures of speech and metaphors, and all the de- 
 vices of style, such as rhythm, or antithesis, by which fine taste 
 is exhibited. To this end we must be supremely careful in our 
 choice of authors, lest an inartistic and debased style infect 
 our own writing and degrade our taste ; which danger is best 
 avoided by bringing a keen, critical sense to bear upon select 
 works, observing the sense of each passage, the structure of 
 the sentence, the force of every word down to the least 
 important particle. In this way our reading reacts directly 
 upon our style. 
 
 You may naturally turn first to Christian writers, foremost 
 amongst whom, with marked distinction, stands Lactantius, by 
 common consent the finest stylist of the post-classical period. 
 Especially do I commend to your study his works, ' Adversus
 
 Concerning the Study of Literature. 125 
 
 falsam Religionem] ' De via Dei,' and ' De opificio hominis? 
 After Lactantius your choice may lie between Augustine, 
 Jerome, Ambrose, and Cyprian ; should you desire to read 
 Gregory of Nazianzen, Chrysostom, and Basil, be careful as to 
 the accuracy of the translations you adopt. Of the classical 
 authors Cicero will be your constant pleasure : how unap- 
 proachable in wealth of ideas and of language, in force of style, 
 indeed, in all that can attract in a writer ! Next to him ranks 
 Vergil, the glory and the delight of our national literature. Livy 
 and Sallust, and then the chief poets, follow in order. The 
 usage of these authors will serve you as your test of correctness 
 in choice of vocabulary and of constructions. 
 
 Now we notice in all good prose though it is not of course 
 obtrusive a certain element of rhythm, which coincides with 
 and expresses the general structure of the passage, and conse- 
 quently gives a clue to its sense. I commend, therefore, to you 
 as an aid to understanding an author the practice of reading 
 aloud with clear and exact intonation. By this device you will 
 seize more quickly the drift of the passage, by realising the 
 main lines on which it is constructed. And the music of the 
 prose thus interpreted by the voice will react with advantage 
 upon your own composition, and at the same time will improve 
 your own Reading by compelling deliberate and intelligent ex- 
 pression. 
 
 The art of Writing is not limited to the mere formation of 
 letters, but it concerns also the subject of the diphthongs, and 
 of the syllabic divisions of words ; the accepted usages in the 
 writing of each letter, singly and in cursive script, and the 
 whole field of abbreviations. This may seem a trivial matter, 
 but a knowledge of educated practice on these points may 
 fairly be expected from us. The laws of quantity are more 
 important, since in poetry scansion is frequently our only 
 certain clue to construction. One might ask, further, what 
 capacity in poetic composition or what critical ability or taste 
 in poetical literature is possible to a man who is not first of all
 
 126 L. Bruni D'Arezzo. 
 
 secure on points of quantity and metre ? Nor is prose, as I 
 have already hinted, without its metrical element; upon which 
 indeed Aristotle and Cicero dwelt with some minuteness. A 
 skilful orator or historian will be careful of the effect to 
 be gained by spondaic, iambic, dactylic or other rhythm in 
 arousing differing emotions congruous to his matter in hand. 
 To ignore this is to neglect one of the most delicate points of 
 style. You will notice that such refinements will apply only to 
 one who aspires to proficiency in the finer shades of criticism 
 and expression, but such a one must certainly by observation 
 and practice become familiar with every device which lends 
 distinction and adornment to the literary art. 
 
 But the wider question now confronts us, that of the subject 
 matter of our studies, that which I have already called the 
 realities of fact and principle, as distinct from literary form. 
 Here, as before, I am contemplating a student of keen and 
 lofty aspiration to whom nothing that is worthy in any learned 
 discipline is without its interest. But it is necessary to exercise 
 discrimination. In some branches of knowledge I would rather 
 restrain the ardour of the learner, in others, again, encourage it 
 to the uttermost. Thus there are certain subjects in which, 
 whilst a modest proficiency is on all accounts to be desired, a 
 minute knowledge and excessive devotion seem to be a vain 
 display. For instance, subtleties of Arithmetic and Geometry 
 are not worthy to absorb a cultivated mind, and the same must 
 be said of Astrology. You will be surprised to find me 
 suggesting (though with much more hesitation) that the great 
 and complex art of Rhetoric should be placed in the same 
 category. My chief reason is the obvious one, that I have in 
 view the cultivation most fitting to a woman. To her neither 
 the intricacies of debate nor the oratorical artifices of action 
 and delivery are of the least practical use, if indeed they are 
 not positively unbecoming. Rhetoric in all its forms, public 
 discussion, forensic argument, logical fence, and the like lies 
 absolutely outside the province of woman.
 
 Concerning the Study of Literature. 127 
 
 What Disciplines then are properly open to her ? In the 
 first place she has before her, as a subject peculiarly her own, 
 the whole field of religion and morals. The literature of the 
 Church will thus claim her earnest study. Such a writer, for 
 instance, as St Augustine affords her the fullest scope for 
 reverent yet learned inquiry. Her devotional instinct may 
 lead her to value the help and consolation of holy men now 
 living ; but in this case let her not for an instant yield to the 
 impulse to look into their writings, which, compared with those 
 of Augustine, are utterly destitute of sound and melodious style, 
 and seem to me to have no attraction whatever. 
 
 Moreover, the cultivated Christian lady has no need in the 
 study of this weighty subject to confine herself to ecclesiastical 
 writers. Morals, indeed, have been treated of by the noblest 
 intellects of Greece and Rome. What they have left to us 
 upon Continence, Temperance, Modesty, Justice, Courage, 
 Greatness of Soul, demands your sincere respect. You must 
 enter into such questions as the sufficiency of Virtue to 
 Happiness ; or whether, if Happiness consist in Virtue, it can 
 be destroyed by torture, imprisonment or exile ; whether, ad- 
 mitting that these may prevent a man from being happy, they 
 can be further said to make him miserable. Again, does 
 Happiness consist (with Epicurus) in the presence of pleasure 
 and the absence of pain : or (with Xenophon) in the conscious- 
 ness of uprightness : or (with Aristotle) in the practice of 
 Virtue ? These inquiries are, of all others, most worthy to be 
 pursued by men and women alike ; they are fit material for 
 formal discussion and for literary exercise. Let religion and 
 morals, therefore, hold the first place in the education of a 
 Christian lady. 
 
 But we must not forget that true distinction is to be gained 
 by a wide and varied range of such studies as conduce to the 
 profitable enjoyment of life, in which, however, we must observe 
 due proportion in the attention and time we devote to them. 
 
 First amongst such studies I place History: a subject which
 
 128 L. Brunt D'Arezso. 
 
 must not on any account be neglected by one who aspires to 
 true cultivation. For it is our duty to understand the origins 
 of our own history and its development ; and the achievements 
 of Peoples and of Kings. 
 
 For the careful study of the past enlarges our foresight in 
 contemporary affairs and affords to citizens and to monarchs 
 lessons of incitement or warning in the ordering of public 
 policy. From History, also, we draw our store of examples - 
 of moral precepts. 
 
 In the monuments of ancient literature which have come 
 down to us History holds a position of great distinction. We 
 specially prize such authors as Livy, Sallust and Curtius ; and, 
 perhaps even above these, Julius Caesar; the style of whose 
 Commentaries, so elegant and so limpid, entitles them to our 
 warm admiration. Such writers are fully within the compre- 
 hension of a studious lady. For, after all, History is an easy 
 subject : there is nothing in its study subtle or complex. It 
 consists in the narration of the simplest matters of fact which, 
 once grasped, are readily retained in the memory. 
 
 The great Orators of antiquity must by all means be 
 included. Nowhere do we find the virtues more warmly 
 extolled, the vices so fiercely decried. From them we may 
 learn, also, how to express consolation, encouragement, dis- 
 suasion or advice. If the principles which orators set forth are 
 portrayed for us by philosophers, it is from the former that we 
 learn how to employ the emotions such as indignation, or 
 pity in driving home their application in individual cases. 
 Further, from oratory we derive our store of those elegant or 
 striking turns of expression which are used with so much effect 
 in literary compositions. Lastly, in oratory we find that wealth 
 of vocabulary, that clear easy -flowing style, that verve and 
 force, which are invaluable to us both in writing and in 
 conversation. 
 
 I come now to Poetry and the Poets a subject with which 
 every educated lady must shew herself thoroughly familiar.
 
 Concerning the Study of Literature. 129 
 
 For we cannot point to any great mind of the past for whom 
 the Poets had not a powerful attraction. Aristotle, in constantly 
 quoting Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Euripides and other poets, 
 proves that he knew their works hardly less intimately than 
 those of the philosophers. Plato, also, frequently appeals to 
 them, and in this way covers them with his approval. If we 
 turn to Cicero, we find him not content with quoting Ennius, 
 Accius, and others of the Latins, but rendering poems from the 
 Greek and employing them habitually. Seneca, the austere, not 
 only abounds in poetical allusions, but was himself a poet ; 
 whilst the great Fathers of the Church, Jerome, Augustine, 
 Lactantius and Boethius, reveal their acquaintance with the 
 poets in their controversies and, indeed, in all their writings. 
 Hence my view that familiarity with the great poets of 
 antiquity is essential to any claim to true education. For in 
 their writings we find deep speculations upon Nature, and upon 
 the Causes and Origins of things, which must carry weight 
 with us both from their antiquity and from their authorship. 
 Besides these, many important truths upon matters of daily 
 life are suggested or illustrated. All this is expressed with such 
 grace and dignity as demands our admiration. For example, 
 how vividly is the art of war portrayed in Homer : the duties 
 of a leader of men : the chances of the field : the varying 
 temper of the host ! Wise counsel, too, is not wanting, as when 
 Hector upbraids Aeneas for too rashly urging the pursuit. 
 Would, indeed, that in our own day our captains would deign 
 to profit by this ancient wisdom, to the security of the common- 
 wealth and the saving of valuable lives ! Consider, again, how 
 fitly Iris, descending upon Agamemnon in his sleep, warns 
 against the sloth of rulers could Socrates, Plato or Pythagoras 
 more pointedly exhibit the responsibility of a king of men? 
 There are the precepts also, not fewer nor less weighty, which 
 pertain to the arts of peace. But it is time to pass to our own 
 Poets, to Vergil, who surpasses, it seems to me, all philosophers 
 in displaying the inner secrets of Nature and of the Soul : 
 
 w. o
 
 130 L. Bruni d'Arezzo. 
 
 " Know first, the heaven, the earth, the main, 
 The moon's pale orb, the starry train, 
 
 Are nourished by a soul, 
 A bright intelligence, whose flame 
 Glows in each member of the frame 
 
 And stirs the mighty whole. 
 Thence souls of men and cattle spring, 
 And the gay people of the wing, 
 And those strange shapes that ocean hides 
 Beneath the smoothness of the tides. 
 A fiery strength inspires their lives, 
 An essence that from heaven derives, 
 Though clogged in part by limbs of clay 
 And the dull 'vesture of decay 1 .'" 
 
 Nor can we deny a certain inspiration to a poet who, on the 
 very eve of the Redeemer's birth, could speak of ' the Virgin's 
 return,' and 'the Divine offspring sent down from on High.' 
 So thought Lactantius, who held that the Sibyl here alludes 
 directly to the Saviour. Such power of reading the future is 
 implied in the name ' vates,' so often given to the true poet, 
 and we must all recognise in such one a certain ' possession,' 
 as by a Power other and stronger than himself. 
 
 We know, however, that in certain quarters where all 
 knowledge and appreciation of Letters is wanting this whole 
 branch of Literature, marked as it is by something of the 
 Divine, and fit, therefore, for the highest place, is decried as 
 unworthy of study. But when we remember the value of the 
 best poetry, its charm of form and the variety and interest of its 
 subject-matter, when we consider the ease with which from our 
 childhood up it can be committed to memory, when we recall 
 the peculiar affinity of rhythm and metre to our emotions and 
 our intelligence, we must conclude that Nature herself is 
 against such headlong critics. Have we not often felt the 
 sudden uplifting of the Soul when in the solemn Office of the 
 
 1 Vergil, Aeneid vi. (Conington's version).
 
 Concerning the Study of Literature. 131 
 
 Mass such a passage as the ' Primo dierum omnium ' bursts 
 upon us ? It is not hard for us, then, to understand what the 
 Ancients meant when they said that the Soul is ordered in 
 special relation to the principles of Harmony and Rhythm, and 
 is, therefore, by no other influence so fitly and so surely moved. 
 Hence I hold my conviction to be securely based; namely, 
 that Poetry has, by our very constitution, a stronger attraction 
 for us than any other form of expression, and that anyone 
 ignorant of, and indifferent to, so valuable an aid to knowledge 
 and so ennobling a source of pleasure can by no means be 
 entitled to be called educated. If I seem to have dwelt at 
 undue length upon this matter, please believe that my difficulty 
 has rather been to restrain myself, so keenly do I feel upon it. 
 I do not forget that one of your own House has expressly 
 taken up a position in a contrary sense. He, indeed, justly 
 commands the respect of all. But there are disputants of 
 another class. Their attitude is merely this : ' the themes of 
 the ancient poets are chosen from stories of love and sin.' But 
 I point to the tale of Penelope and Ulysses, of Alcestis and 
 Admetus, which are but typical of many others, and I ask, 
 ' Where can you find nobler examples of constancy and devotion, 
 or more pointed lessons in the highest virtues of womanhood?' 
 ' True,' it is replied, ' but there are stories of a different kind, of 
 Phoebus and Danae, of Vulcan and Venus.' But who can fail 
 to understand that such fictions are not to be read literally, that 
 such episodes are insignificant in number as compared with 
 that great array of noble figures which stand forth from the 
 pages of Vergil and Homer, and that it is unjust criticism to 
 ignore the beauties of any work of art and to call attention only 
 to its blemishes? 'Yes, but, like Cato, we are willing to sacri- 
 fice the beauties so we be not soiled by the blots : hence we 
 would neither read the poets ourselves nor put them into the 
 hands of others.' Plato and Aristotle, however, studied the 
 poets, and I decline to admit that in practical wisdom or in 
 moral earnestness they yield to our modern critics. They were 
 
 92
 
 132 L. Bnmi d'Arezzo. 
 
 not Christians, indeed, but consistency of life and abhorrence 
 of evil existed before Christianity and are independent of it. 
 Suppose we turn to the Scriptures. We must admit that they 
 contain not a few narratives which compare unfavourably with 
 any treated by the poets, but we do not for that reason prohibit 
 the Bible. When I read the loves of Aeneas and Dido in the 
 Aeneid I pay my tribute of admiration to the genius of the 
 poet, but the matter itself I know to be a fiction, and thus it 
 leaves no moral impression : and so in other instances of the 
 kind, where literal truth is not the object aimed at. The 
 Scriptures, on the other hand, whose literal accuracy no one 
 questions, not seldom cause me misgivings on this head. 
 
 But I am ready to admit that there are two types of poet : 
 the aristocracy, so to call them, of their craft, and the vulgar, 
 and that the latter may be put aside in ordering a woman's 
 reading. A comic dramatist may season his wit too highly : a 
 satirist describe too bluntly the moral corruption which he 
 scourges : let her pass -them by. Vergil, on the other hand, 
 Seneca, Statius, and others like them, rank with the noblest 
 names, and may, nay must, be the trusted companions of all 
 who aspire to be called cultivated. 
 
 To sum up what I have endeavoured to set forth. That 
 high standard of education to which I referred at the outset is 
 only to be reached by one who has seen many things and read 
 much. Poet, Orator, Historian, and the rest, all must be 
 studied, each must contribute a share. Our learning thus 
 becomes full, ready, varied and elegant, available for action or 
 for discourse in all subjects. But to enable us to make 
 effectual use of what we know we must add to our knowledge 
 the power of expression. These two sides of learning, indeed, 
 should not be separated : they afford mutual aid and distinction. 
 Proficiency in literary form, not accompanied by broad ac- 
 quaintance with facts and truths, is a barren attainment ; whilst 
 information, however vast, which lacks all grace of expression, 
 would seem to be put under a bushel or partly thrown away.
 
 Concerning the Study of Literature. 133 
 
 Indeed, one may fairly ask what advantage it is to possess 
 profound and varied learning if one cannot convey it in lan- 
 guage worthy of the subject. Where, however, this double 
 capacity exists breadth of learning and grace of style we 
 allow the highest title to distinction and to abiding fame. 
 If we review the great names of ancient literature, Plato, 
 Democritus, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Varro, Cicero, Seneca, 
 Augustine, Jerome, Lactantius, we shall find it hard to say 
 whether we admire more their attainments or their literary 
 power. 
 
 But my last word must be this. The intelligence that 
 aspires to the best must aim at both. In doing so, all sources 
 of profitable learning will in due proportion claim your study. 
 None have more urgent claim than the subjects and authors 
 which treat of Religion and of our duties in the world ; and it 
 is because they assist and illustrate these supreme studies that 
 I press upon your attention the works of the most approved 
 poets, historians and orators of the past.
 
 THE TREATISE OF AENEAS 
 SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, AFTERWARDS PIUS II, 
 
 DE LIBERORUM EDUCATIONE. 
 
 WRITTEN FOR LADISLAS, KING OF BOHEMIA 
 AND HUNGARY. 1450. 
 
 LIKE the Treatise of P. P. Vergerius, this Tractate of 
 Aeneas Sylvius was primarily addressed to the scion of a ruling 
 House. Ladislas, the young King of Bohemia, was born after 
 the death (1439) f ^is father, Albert II, and his ward-ship 
 was one of the many responsibilities which awaited the new 
 Emperor, Frederick III, on his election in the following year. 
 Ladislas remained in the charge of the Emperor until 1452, 
 and died at the age of 18 in November 1457. It may be said 
 that his short life hardly gave promise of much capacity or 
 strength of character. 
 
 Aeneas Sylvius, after his experiences at the Council of 
 Basel, had entered the service of the Emperor, as Secretary, in 
 1442. He was thus thrown into close contact with the child, 
 who for political reasons was never allowed to be far from the 
 Court. In 1446 Aeneas took Holy Orders and next year was 
 preferred to the Bishopric of Trieste. His many gifts led to 
 his employment upon missions demanding delicacy of touch, 
 and he thus attained a position of trust and authority in the 
 household and Chancellery of the Emperor. His relations 
 with Ladislas seem to have been inspired by a genuine interest 
 in the boy ; and when he had reached the age of ten years the
 
 Aeneas Sylvius De Liberorum Educatione. 135 
 
 Bishop addressed to him, in formal shape, his general views 
 upon the education desirable in a Prince. 
 
 Aeneas Sylvius, as an Italian of good circumstances, had 
 been brought up in the atmosphere of Humanism. He 
 regarded it as his function to prepare a way by which the new 
 light might reach even the barbarous people amongst whom 
 his career now lay. But he was not a scholar in the strict 
 sense; his Latinity was fluent rather than 'elegant'; he knew 
 very little Greek. Translations, however, already supplied, in 
 part, the needs of the superficial student of Greek thought and 
 letters. Moreover, Aeneas was naturally of active tastes, life 
 rather than study was his main interest ; and he was of too 
 practical bent and too clear-headed to be misled by the 
 affectations and self-conceit which disfigured some even of the 
 abler humanists of his time. It is therefore evidence of the 
 hold which the new educational ideal had already secured 
 that a man whose interests lay in practical life, and who had 
 few illusions as to the ultimate power of literature, should yet 
 treat Letters as the indispensable foundation of Education. 
 We may wonder that one who showed elsewhere so broad and 
 rational a concern in history and geography should have dwelt 
 so briefly on these subjects ; his main purpose seems to be to 
 warn his correspondent, for reasons of style 1 , against the study 
 of the history of his own country 2 . 
 
 [The first edition known to bibliographers is that of 
 W. Zell, Colon, s.a., but circ. 1475. No other is noted as of 
 the fifteenth century. It was included in the collected edition 
 of the works of Pius II printed at Basel 1551. This was 
 reissued with additions in 1571; the Tract on Education has 
 never been since reprinted.] 
 
 1 See p. 152. 
 
 2 On the position of Aeneas Sylvius in the Revival of Learning see 
 Voigt, Enea Silvio, ii. p. 248 seqq.
 
 AENEAS SYLVIUS P1CCOLOMINI TO LADISLAS, 
 KING OF BOHEMIA AND HUNGARY. 
 
 i. IN addressing ourselves to the question of the educa- 
 tion of a boy in whom we are interested, we must first of all 
 satisfy ourselves that he is endowed by Nature with a good and 
 a teachable disposition. Now this is a gift, not an acquirement ; 
 although a gift which has been not sparingly granted. For, 
 as Quintilian rightly says, if flying is instinctive with birds, or 
 galloping with horses, so an eager and forward temper is the 
 natural mark of a child. The educator, therefore, is generally 
 entitled to assume a native bent towards mental activity on 
 part of his charge, although, to be productive of real progress, 
 this innate energy needs to be developed by methodical 
 training and experience ; nature, training, practice these seem 
 to be the three factors of all education. 
 
 Now both mind and body, the two elements of which we 
 are constituted, must be developed side by side. At what age 
 intellectual education should be definitely begun need not here 
 be discussed. You have already reached boyhood, and the 
 instruction I now offer has regard to your own particular case. 
 Yet I have not yourself only in mind, but your Masters also 
 may with profit heed what I here lay down. Socrates, indeed, 
 is said to have visited the negligence of a pupil upon the head 
 of his teacher; Seneca is blamed by some for the crimes of 
 Nero; Plutarch records the public reprimand of school- 
 masters for faults of their scholars. So important a matter,
 
 Concerning the Discipline of the Body. 137 
 
 even in the earliest stages of education, is the choice of 
 Teachers that we stand amazed at the carelessness which is 
 daily exhibited in their selection. The example of Philip of 
 Macedon, in committing Alexander to the care of Aristotle, 
 not to mention the ancient story of Peleus and Phoenix, may 
 serve as sufficient rebuke to such indifference. 
 
 A conceit of knowledge in a master is only less injurious 
 to his efficiency than looseness of character. Bad example 
 may easily lead to habits which no efforts in later life will 
 enable a man to shake off. The master, therefore, must be 
 intellectually able and sincere, of wide experience, and of 
 sound morals. In demeanour he should avoid austerity 
 without falling into vulgar familiarity. A master thus qualified 
 will be competent to fulfil his duty, which is to fence in the 
 growing mind with wise and noble precept and example, as a 
 careful gardener hedges round a newly-planted tree. For in 
 right training of the boy lies the secret of the integrity of the 
 man. But this training must be enforced by friendly but 
 effective authority, and should require no recourse to the rod. 
 For, as Quintilian and Plutarch taught, a boy must be won to 
 learning by persuasive earnestness, and not be driven to it like 
 a slave. For whilst praise must never degenerate into flattery, 
 so on the other hand correction which takes the form of 
 personal indignity gives rise to hatred for teacher and subject 
 alike. In fine, the master, as Juvenal says, does in reality 
 exercise a parental function towards his pupil and should 
 not be satisfied unless he attract a corresponding filial affec- 
 tion. 
 
 2. As regards a boy's physical training, we must bear in 
 mind that we aim at implanting habits which will prove 
 beneficial through life. So let him cultivate a certain hard- 
 ness which rejects excess of sleep and idleness in all its forms. 
 Habits of indulgence such as the luxury of soft beds, or the 
 wearing of silk instead of linen next the skin tend to enervate 
 both body and mind. Too much importance can hardly be
 
 138 Aeneas Sylvius De Liber orum Echicatione. 
 
 attached to right bearing and gesture. Childish habits of 
 playing with the lips and features should be early con- 
 trolled. A boy should be taught to hold his head erect, to 
 look straight and fearlessly before him and to bear himself with 
 dignity whether walking, standing, or sitting. In ancient 
 Greece we find that both philosophers and men of affairs 
 Socrates, for instance, and Chrysippus, or Philip of Macedon 
 deemed this matter worthy of their concern, and therefore it 
 may well be thought deserving of ours. Games and exercises 
 which develope the muscular activities and the general carriage 
 of the person should be encouraged by every Teacher. For 
 such physical training not only cultivates grace of attitude but 
 secures the healthy play of our bodily organs and establishes 
 the constitution. 
 
 Every youth destined to exalted position should further be 
 trained in military exercises. It will be your destiny to defend 
 Christendom against the Turk. It will thus be an essential 
 part of your education that you be early taught the use of the 
 bow, of the sling, and of the spear ; that you drive, ride, leap 
 and swim. These are honourable accomplishments in every- 
 one, and therefore not unworthy of the educator's care. 
 Ponder the picture which Vergil gives of the youth of the 
 Itali, skilled in all the warlike exercises of their time. Games, 
 too, should be encouraged for young children the ball, the 
 hoop but these must not be rough and coarse, but have in 
 them an element of skill. Such relaxations should form an 
 integral part of each day's occupations if learning is not to be 
 an object of disgust. Just as Nature and the life of man 
 present us with alternations of effort and repose toil and 
 sleep, winter and summer so we may hold, with Plato, that it 
 is a law of our being that rest from work is a needful condition 
 of further work. To observe this truth is a chief duty of the 
 Master. 
 
 In respect of eating and drinking the rule of moderation 
 consists in rejecting everything which needlessly taxes digestion
 
 Concerning the Discipline of the Body. 139 
 
 and so impairs mental activity. At the same time fastidiousness 
 must not be humoured. A boy, for instance, whose lot it 
 may be to face life in the camp, or in the forest, should so 
 discipline his appetite that he may eat even beef. The aim of 
 eating is to strengthen the frame; so let vigorous health 
 reject cakes or sweets, elaborate dishes of small birds or eels, 
 which are for the delicate and the weakly. Your own country- 
 men, like all northern peoples, are, I know, sore offenders in 
 this matter of eating and drinking. But I count upon your 
 own innate self-respect to preserve you from such bad example, 
 and to enable you to despise the sneers and complaints of 
 those around you. What but disease and decay can result 
 from appetite habitually over-indulged? Such concession to 
 the flesh stands condemned by all the great spirits of the past. 
 In Augustus Caesar, in Socrates, we have instances of entire 
 indifference in choice of food. Caligula, Nero and Vitellius 
 serve as sufficient examples of grossly sensual tastes. To the 
 Greeks of the best age eating and drinking were only means 
 to living not the chief end and aim of it. For they recognized, 
 with Aristotle, that in this capacity for bodily pleasures we are 
 on the same level with the lower creatures. 
 
 As regards the use of wine, remember that we drink to 
 quench thirst, and that the limit of moderation is reached 
 when the edge of the intellect is dulled. A boy should be 
 brought up to avoid wine ; for he possesses a store of natural 
 moisture in the blood and so rarely experiences thirst. Hence 
 highly diluted wine alone can be allowed to children, whilst 
 women are perhaps better without it altogether, as was the 
 custom in Rome. The abuse of wine is more common 
 amongst Northern peoples than in Italy. Plato allowed its 
 moderate enjoyment as tending to mental relaxation, and, 
 indeed, temperance in the true sense is hardly consistent with 
 the absolute prohibition of all that might seduce us from our 
 virtuous resolutions. So that a young man's best security 
 against excess may be found to lie in a cautious use of wine,
 
 140 Aeneas Sylvius De Liberorum Educatione. 
 
 safeguarded by innate strength of will and a watchful temper. 
 There is no reason why social feastings should not be dignified 
 by serious conversation and yet be bright and gay withal. 
 But the body, after all, is but a framework for the activities of 
 the mind ; and so we hold fast to the dictum of Pythagoras 
 that he who pampers the body is devising a prison for himself. 
 Even if we had not the support of the Ancients, it is evident to 
 the serious mind that food and clothing are worthy of regard 
 only so far as they are indispensable to the vigorous activity of 
 body and spirit : all beyond that is triviality or effeminacy. 
 But this is not to exclude that care for the outward person 
 which is, indeed, demanded from everyone by self-respect, but 
 Js peculiarly needful in a prince. 
 
 3. We must now hasten on to the larger and more 
 important division of our subject, that which treats of the most 
 precious of all human endowments, the Mind. Birth, wealth, 
 fame, health, vigour and beauty are, indeed, highly prized by 
 mankind, but they are one and all of the nature of accidents ; 
 they come and they go. But the riches of the mind are a 
 stable possession, unassailable by fortune, calumny, or time. 
 Our material wealth lies at the mercy of a successful foe, but, 
 as Stilpho said, 'war can exact no requisition from personal 
 worth.' So too, you will remember the reply of Socrates to 
 Gorgias, applying it to your own case : ' How can I adjudge the 
 Great King happy, until I know to what he can truly lay claim 
 in character and in wisdom?' Lay to heart the truth here 
 conveyed : our one sure possession is character : the place and 
 fortune of men change, it may be suddenly, profoundly ; nor 
 may we, by taking thought, cunningly hedge ourselves round 
 against all the chances of life. As Solon long ago declared, 
 no sane man dare barter excellence for money. Nay rather, 
 it is a function of true wisdom, as the Tyrants found by their 
 experience, to enable us to "bear variations of fortune. Philo- 
 sophy, or, in other words, the enquiry into the nature of Virtue, 
 is indeed a study specially meet for princes. For they are
 
 Concerning True Wisdom. 141 
 
 in a sense the arbitrary embodiment of Law : a responsibility 
 which may well weigh heavily upon them. Truly has it been 
 said that no one has greater need of a well-stored mind than 
 he whose will counts for the happiness or misery of thousands. 
 Like Solomon he will rightly pray for wisdom in the guidance 
 of the State. 
 
 Need I, then, impress upon you the importance of the study 
 of Philosophy, and of Letters, without which indeed philosophy 
 itself is barely intelligible? By this twofold wisdom a Prince is 
 trained to understand the laws of God and of man, by it we 
 are, one and all, enlightened to see the realities of the world 
 around us. Literature is our guide to the true meaning of the 
 past, to a right estimate of the present, to a sound forecast of 
 the future. Where Letters cease darkness covers the land ; and 
 a Prince who cannot read the lessons of history is a helpless 
 prey of flattery and intrigue. 
 
 Next we ask, at what age should a boy begin the study of 
 Letters? Theodosius and Eratosthenes regarded the seventh 
 year as the earliest reasonable period. But Aristophanes, 
 followed by Chrysippus and Quintilian, would have children 
 from the very cradle begin their training under nurses of 
 skilled intelligence. In this matter of nurses the greatest care 
 is necessary, so subtle are the influences which affect the 
 growing mind. But above all other safeguards stands the 
 unconscious guidance of the mother, who, like Cornelia of old, 
 must instil by example a refined habit of speech and bearing. 
 
 In Religion, I may assume from your Christian nurture that 
 you have learnt the Lord's Prayer, the Salutation of the 
 Blessed Virgin, the Creed, the Gospel of St John, and certain 
 Collects. You have been taught in what consist the chief 
 Commandments of God, the Gifts of the Spirit, the Deadly 
 Sins ; the Way of Salvation and the doctrine of the Life of 
 the world to come. This latter truth was, indeed, taught by 
 Socrates, as we know from Cicero. Nor can any earthly 
 interest have so urgent a claim upon us. We shall not value
 
 142 Aeneas Sylvius De Liberorum Educatione. 
 
 this human existence which has been bestowed upon us 
 except in so far as it prepares us for the Future State. The 
 fuller truth concerning this great doctrine is beyond your 
 years : but you may, as time goes on, refer to what has been 
 laid down by the great Doctors of the Church ; and not only by 
 them, for, as Basil allows, the poets and other authors of 
 antiquity are saturated with the same faith, and for this reason 
 deserve our study. Literature, indeed, is ever holding forth to 
 us the lesson ' God before all else.' As a Prince, moreover, 
 your whole life and character should be marked by gratitude 
 for favours showered upon you for no merit of your own, and 
 by reverence, which, in all that concerns the services, the faith, 
 and the authority of the Church, will lead you to emulate the 
 filial obedience of Constantine and Theodosius. For although 
 the priesthood is committed to the protection of kings, it is 
 not under their authority. 
 
 In the choice of companions be careful to seek the society 
 of those only whose example is worthy of your imitation. 
 This is indeed a matter which closely concerns your future 
 welfare. We are all, in youth especially, in danger of yielding 
 to the influence of evil example. Above all, I trust that your 
 Tutors will keep you clear of that insidious form of flattery 
 which consists in agreeing with everything we may affirm or 
 propose. Extend your intimacy only to those of your own 
 years who are frank and truthful, pure in word and act, 
 modest in manner, temperate and peaceful. Seize every 
 opportunity of learning to converse in the vulgar tongues 
 spoken in your realm. It is unworthy of a prince to be 
 unable without an interpreter to hold intercourse with his 
 people. Mithridates could speak with his subjects of whatever 
 province in their own language; whilst neglect of this plain 
 duty lost to the Empire and its German sovereigns its fair 
 province of Italy. The ties that bind monarch and people 
 should be woven of mutual affection, and how is this possible 
 where free and intelligible communication cannot exist? As
 
 Concerning Eloquence. 143 
 
 Homer says, silence is becoming in a woman, but in a man, 
 and that man a king standing before his people, it is rather a 
 shame and a disgrace. 
 
 4. But further : we must learn to express ourselves with 
 distinction, with style and manner worthy of our subject. In 
 a word, Eloquence is a prime accomplishment in one im- 
 mersed in affairs. Ulysses, though a poor warrior, was 
 adjudged worthy of the arms of Achilles by virtue of his 
 persuasive speech. Cicero, too, admonishes us to the same 
 effect: "let arms to the toga yield." But speech should ever 
 follow upon reflection ; without that let a boy, nay, a man 
 also, be assured that silence is his wiser part. Such orators as 
 Pericles or Demosthenes refused to address the Assembly 
 without opportunity for careful preparation. A facile orator 
 speaks from his lips, not from his heart or his understanding ; 
 and forgets that loquacity is not the same as eloquence. 
 How often have men cause to regret the gift of too ready 
 speech, and ' the irrevocable word ; of which Horace warns us. 
 Still there is a middle course ; a moderation in speech, which 
 avoids alike a Pythagorean silence and the chatter of a 
 Thersites; and at this we should aim. For without reason- 
 able practice the faculty of public speech may be found 
 altogether wanting when the need arises. The actual delivery 
 of our utterances calls for methodical training. The shrill 
 tremulous tone of a girl must be rigidly forbidden, as on the 
 other hand must any tendency to shout. The entire word 
 must in every case be uttered, the proper value given to each 
 syllable and each letter, with especial attention to the final 
 sound. Words must not, as it were, linger in the throat, but 
 be clearly emitted, both tongue and lips taking duly their re- 
 spective parts. Your master will arrange as exercises words in 
 which the form or connexion of syllables demands peculiar care 
 in their enunciation. You remember the device by which 
 Demosthenes trained his voice to reach a crowded assembly. 
 
 To express yourself, then, with grace and distinction is a
 
 144 Aeneas Sylvius De Liber or um Educatione. 
 
 proper object of your ambition ; and without ambition ex- 
 cellence, in this or other studies, is rarely attained. But if 
 speech be, as Democritus said, the shadow, of which thought 
 and conduct are the reality, you will be warned by corrupt con- 
 versation to avoid the corrupt nature from which it proceeds. 
 We know that Ulysses cunningly guarded his comrades from 
 the song of the Sirens ; and that St Paul quotes Menander 
 upon the mischief wrought by 'evil communications.' But 
 this by no means implies that we must be always at the 
 extreme of seriousness in social intercourse. In conversation, 
 kindliness and courtesy are always attractive : pertinacity or 
 pretentiousness are odious : a turgid affected style arouses 
 contempt. Insincerity or malice are, of course, not mere 
 defects in form but positive sins. So let your address be 
 frank, outspoken, self-respecting, manly. 
 
 Nature and circumstances thus provide us with the general 
 material of speech, its topics, and the broader conditions of 
 their treatment. When, however, speech is considered as an 
 art, we find that it is the function of Grammar to order its 
 expression ; of Dialectic to give it point ; of Rhetoric to 
 illustrate it ; of Philosophy to perfect it But before entering 
 upon this in detail we must first insist upon the overwhelming 
 importance of Memory, which is in truth the first condition of 
 capacity for Letters. A boy should learn without effort, 
 retain with accuracy, and reproduce easily. Rightly is 
 memory called ' the nursing mother of learning.' It needs 
 cultivation, however, whether a boy be gifted with retentiveness 
 or not. Therefore let some passage from poet or moralist be 
 committed to memory every day. 
 
 5. Grammar, it is allowed, is the portal to all knowledge 
 whatsoever. As a subject of study it is more complex and 
 more fruitful than its name would imply, and it yields its full 
 profit only to such as enter early and zealously upon its 
 pursuit. The greatest minds have not been ashamed to shew 
 themselves earnest in the study of Grammar. Tully, Consul
 
 Concerning the three functions of Grammar. 145 
 
 and defender of the state, Julius Caesar, the mighty Emperor, 
 and Augustus his successor, gave evidence in their writings of 
 skill in this fundamental branch of learning, and no prince 
 need feel it unworthy of him to walk in the steps of so great 
 exemplars. I have already said that learning is a necessary 
 equipment of Kings, and this the Royal Prophet of old 
 enforces, when he declares : 
 
 ' Be wise now therefore, O ye Kings ; be learned, ye that 
 are judges of the earth.' 
 
 But how, in our day, can a man be learned and acquire 
 wisdom unless first he master that which is the very foundation 
 of all knowledge, viz. Grammar ? 
 
 Now the term Grammar, as Quintilian says, is identical 
 with Literature (ypa/x/m i.e. litera), and this art of Grammar falls 
 naturally into three parts, the first being the art of right 
 speech, or eloquence, the second that of composition in prose 
 and verse, the third that of the epistolary style. Grammatical 
 correctness in speaking signifies the right choice both of 
 vocabulary and of construction. As regards the former point, 
 the usage of words and the source from which they are 
 derived have to be carefully noted. For words are either of 
 native or of foreign origin ; they are either simple or com- 
 pound ; they may bear a natural and direct, or a metaphorical 
 and transferred, sense; or, once more, we may distinguish 
 between words of accepted usage and invented words. For 
 instance, all words of Italian origin are native ; foreign words 
 have many sources, as Gaul (e.g. reda), Spain (e.g. gurdi, i.e. 
 stolidi), Germany (marchio) ; but, of course, Greece provides us 
 with far the greater number. In the use of words of Greek 
 origin it is right to choose the Latin form of inflexion, though 
 Vergil's usage justifies the preference of the Greek form in 
 verse. Of simple words ' amo,' ' lego,' are sufficient instances ; 
 ' per-lego,' ' im-probus ' we call compound : and there are, again, 
 more complex forms, 'im-per-territus,' ' male-volus,' 'Anti- 
 christus.' By a word in its natural sense we mean one 
 
 w. 10
 
 146 Aeneas Sylvius De Liberorum Educatione. 
 
 which retains its original direct application : ' flumen ' (fluo), 
 for instance, is simply a 'flowing body of water'; but ' durus' 
 as referring to a man's disposition is obviously used in a 
 metaphorical sense. As a literary artifice this use of words in a 
 transferred sense is common enough, as we speak of ' lumen 
 orationis,' ' contentionum procellae,' or say of a parrot, 
 'monetare voces,' when he imitates the human voice. But 
 when such employment of metaphor obscures the plain 
 meaning of discourse, it ceases to be an ornament and becomes 
 a weariness. If long drawn out, this affectation of figure tends 
 to allegory or to mere verbal puzzles. By accepted words we 
 mean those which form the recognised vocabulary of the 
 language, and upon these only ought we to rely. To very 
 few, the great creators of a tongue, is it given to coin new 
 words with impunity. But in all composition one controlling 
 rule must be observed. Secure euphony, indeed, and grace, 
 wherever you may be able, but first and foremost choose the word 
 which will most exactly express the sense you wish to convey. 
 
 Having thus grasped the characteristics of words generally, 
 you will go on to study inflexions, diminutives and other 
 derived forms; examples of the latter are 'scabellum,' 'bipennis,' 
 ' excido.' Inflexional changes expressing the modifications of 
 case, mood, or tense are sufficiently exhibited in the Grammars 
 and must be carefully learnt; so too the distinctions of 
 gender, and the forms by which they are expressed. The 
 right order of words in the sentence and the methods of 
 connecting subordinate clauses are of even greater importance. 
 
 In speaking Latin, barbarisms of all kinds need to be 
 avoided with great care. The term ' barbarism ' includes a 
 variety of faults, partly against taste, partly against the standard 
 usage of the best writers. It is, for example, a ' barbarism ' to 
 employ foreign words not recognised in Roman speech, such 
 as German importations. Again, exaggerated or violent de- 
 livery comes under the same heading. Ignorant or perverse 
 changes in the usual forms of words or inflexions, pardonable,
 
 Concerning the right Choice of Words. 147 
 
 perhaps, in verse, if metre requires, disfigure prose. A false 
 quantity in the same way is a decided ' barbarism.' Solecism 
 is another, but closely-allied, type of grammatical error ; such 
 as the mis-use of gender, or of case ; the wrong force of the 
 preposition ; the confusion of ' an,' ' ne,' and ' non ' ; the em- 
 ployment of such forms as ' nex,' ' mortes,' and others unknown 
 to the best writers. Care must be taken to distinguish apparent 
 solecisms ; ' equulus grandis ' is to be avoided but it is not a 
 solecism. So 'Ludi floralia'; 'Catalina,' 'Galba,' and other 
 masculine names in -a, and ' Glycerium ' and others in -um, 
 though they seem incorrect, are all in order. Real may be 
 distinguished from apparent solecisms by falling back upon 
 four canons : Reason, Antiquity, Authority, Usage. 
 
 By Reason we may mean, first, analogy, and analogy 
 implies comparison of similars. So we compare a word whose 
 use is doubtful with another, parallel in certain respects, whose 
 use is definitely settled. Secondly, reason rests upon ety- 
 mology, but neither derivation nor analogy may determine the 
 form of a word in contradiction to fixed Usage; thus we do 
 not say 'audaciter,' nor 'conire': and indeed analogy alone 
 will often lead us astray, as we may see from the declension of 
 ' domus.' Etymology is the enquiry into the origin of words, 
 but too ingenious guesses tend to bring the science into 
 contempt : such an one as that which derives ' homo ' from 
 'humus' (as a being sprung from the ground), ' Stella' from 
 ' stilla ' (a drop of light) ; ' caelebs ' from ' caelum ' (as one who 
 is free from the heaviest burden of existence, i.e. a wife). 
 Even the great Varro errs in connecting ' ager ' with ' ago ' (as 
 a place where work is done). Nor should etymology, even 
 when sound in itself, induce you to tamper pedantically with 
 the spelling accepted by the best writers. Antiquity and 
 Authority demand our respect, for they carry with them a 
 certain dignity of their own not to be lightly regarded. At the 
 same time, nothing is worse in a young writer than affectation ; 
 beware, therefore, of the forced imitation of an older style, and 
 
 10 2
 
 148 Aeneas Sylvius De Liberorum Educatione. 
 
 abstain from introducing words and expressions, now obsolete, 
 into speech whose cast is of to-day. As said Phavorinus to a 
 pupil you will find the anecdote in Aulus Gellius ' Copy 
 the virtues of the great men of old, but let their archaisms 
 die with them.' Speech should above all things be intelligible, 
 and without pretension. Who would now use 'nox' as an 
 ablative, or 'im' as an accusative for 'eum'? Yet the 
 'Twelve Tables' exhibit both. 
 
 The Authority to which we appeal must be that of orators 
 and historians, in the first place ; of poets, only in the second, 
 owing to their dependence upon metrical limitations. But 
 one and all must be drawn from the best age, when oratory 
 was marked by perspicuity of matter and style. 
 
 Authoritative usage, then, affords the final canon to be 
 obeyed in all composition ; and no argument from analogy, 
 from venerable antiquity, or from opinion can set this aside. 
 Now, to determine this usage is not so simple a matter as it 
 may seem. For in style as in more important matters we 
 may not take usage to be merely the practice of the majority, 
 as Quintilian warns us. Eloquence, like wisdom, like nobleness 
 of life, is a gift of the minority. The usage of the commonalty 
 degrades Latin ; ' erit cito venire ' would be a popular version 
 of ' he will come.' So we must look for a higher standard for 
 our usage, and we shall find it. For as in Conduct we agree 
 to take as our norm the customary motive and action of good 
 men, so by usages in style we mean only such as are exhibited 
 in the uniform practice of scholars and men of education. 
 
 6. Let this stand as a sketch or suggestion it is nothing 
 more of the first of the three functions of Grammar above 
 alluded to, viz., that which concerns correct speech and 
 eloquence. But, as the study of Letters forms in reality one 
 complete whole, the second function of grammar, as the art of 
 written composition in prose and verse, is illustrated by what 
 has been written above upon the spoken language. So I 
 repeat that skill in composition can only be attained by close
 
 Concerning the Reading of the Poets. 149 
 
 and copious reading of the standard authors in oratory, history 
 and poetry, in which you must direct your attention not only 
 to the vocabulary employed by them, but also to their method 
 of handling their subject-matter. Following ancient precedent, 
 Homer and Vergil, the masters of the Heroic style, should be 
 your first choice in poetry. The loftiness of theme and the 
 romantic spirit of the Iliad and the Aeneid mark them out, as 
 Augustine held, as an inspiring training for boys. But this 
 advice implies the study of Greek in which you are unlikely to 
 find a competent tutor. Still, the immense advantage of this 
 branch of Letters should urge you to seek for one if oppor- 
 tunity offers : for, as King of Hungary, you will reign over not 
 a few descendants of that ancient race. Moreover, true freedom 
 in the use of the Latin tongue can only be assured by a 
 simultaneous study of the older language. I cannot forget the 
 authority of Cato in this respect, although I feel I am offering 
 a counsel of perfection to one living in remote Pannonia. 
 Meanwhile we will confine ourselves to the speech and litera- 
 ture of Rome. 
 
 Now I meet an objection. You will be confronted by the 
 opposition of the shallow Churchman. ' Why waste precious 
 time in studying such sources of corruption as the pagan 
 poets?' They will quote Cicero and Plato, Jerome and 
 Boethius, and will cry out for the banishment of the very 
 names of the ancient poets from the soil of your country. To 
 this your answer can only be : 'If this tirade indeed represents 
 the serious opinion of my people, I can but shake off the dust 
 from my feet and bid farewell to a land shrouded in darkness 
 so appalling.' Happily, however, there are in Hungary not a 
 few to whom the poets of antiquity are a precious possession. 
 You will have no difficulty in quoting classical precedent for 
 honouring them as they deserve. Nay the Fathers themselves, 
 Jerome, Augustine, Cyprian, did not hesitate to draw illus- 
 trations from heathen poetry and so sanctioned its study. 
 
 Further, if we are to reject the great writers of antiquity
 
 150 Aeneas Sylvius De Liberornm Educatione. 
 
 for the errors they contain, how shall we treat the masters of 
 theology ? From them proceeded the heresies. Shall we, then , 
 expel them and their writings, as once the Romans banished 
 doctors because they made mistakes ? Finally, it is enough to 
 remember that Paul the Apostle availed himself of Epimenides 
 or Menander to enforce a doctrine. Is not this a sufficiently 
 strong position : ' you despise Paul's authority ; can you ask us 
 then to respect yours'? 
 
 But I do not assert that all the poets are suited to the 
 youthful mind ; nor, I would add, are all the theologians suited 
 to the Christian student. The crucial question is : how do you 
 use your authors? Basil has left us a clear guidance on the 
 matter: we leave on one side their beliefs and superstitions, 
 their false ideas of happiness, their defective standard of 
 morals ; we welcome all that they can render in praise of 
 integrity and in condemnation of vice. Consider the habits of 
 the bees. Other creatures enjoy the colour, or the scent, of 
 the flower ; they, however, are wise to extract its lurking sweet- 
 ness. Thus they choose where they will settle, and are content 
 with just that fruition of their choice which serves their end. 
 So, as Jerome says, in reading the ancient poets we absorb the 
 things of life and beauty, leaving that which is but idolatry, 
 error, or lust, to pass to its natural decay. Herein is laid down 
 an admirable principle by which we may be guided in reading 
 all authors of antiquity. Wherever excellence is commended, 
 whether by poet, historian or philosopher, we may safely 
 welcome their aid in building up the character. For with the 
 young the early impressions of moral worthiness are usually the 
 most enduring. To quote Horace 1 : 
 
 'After long years the scent will still imbue 
 The jar of that which seasoned it when new.' 
 
 Thus morals and learning are alike forwarded by the judicious 
 use of Literature in education. 
 
 1 Epist. i. n. 70 (Sir Theodore Martin's version).
 
 Concerning Orators and Historians. 151 
 
 In making our selection of individual authors, we must 
 consider not poets only, but historians, philosophers and orators. 
 Christian writers I leave for the present. As regards the poets, 
 amongst the Latins the first place belongs of perpetual right to 
 Vergil. So noble is the music of his language, so enduring his 
 fame, that here, at least, praise can no further exalt, nor 
 criticism detract. Let the scholar observe his varying style, 
 now terse, now abounding, now severe, now luxuriant. Lucan 
 dignifies his historical theme and Statius, less impressive, is yet 
 worthy of a place beside him. Ovid, pathetic, appealing, 
 wanton, is best read in his Metamorphoses. Of other poets of 
 the heroic vein, scarcely fit to rank as poets, Claudian and the 
 poet of the Argonauts may be preferred. Horace holds a place 
 only next to Vergil : the charm of style and of subject graces 
 each variety of his work. But here, once more, we must 
 choose what is fit for youthful study. This is even more 
 necessary in the case of the other great Satirist, Juvenal, in 
 spite of his moral earnestness and severity of judgment. In 
 handling Martial one cannot gather the roses for the thorns. 
 Persius is helpful only to one who can master his obscurities. 
 
 The Elegiac poets are one and all unsuited for boys' 
 reading: all are enervating. Plautus and Terence must be 
 studied for diction ; in Tragedy, a most valuable discipline, we 
 have Seneca alone. In Speech we aim at dignity and grace. 
 Tragedy presents us with the one, Comedy with the other. 
 Moreover in reading the Dramatists let the master win his 
 pupil to judge characters and situations, with grave warnings 
 against all pleadings in favour of wrong-doing. 
 
 Of Orators, with Cicero at their head, there is no small 
 choice. Frank and straightforward in style he is always in- 
 telligible. To read his book De Officiis is not merely a useful 
 exercise but an absolutely necessary one. St Ambrose wrote, 
 in imitation of it, a work which may be wisely read to supple- 
 ment his model, and so Cicero's teaching made good on the 
 Christian side. Lactantius, Augustine and Jerome have each
 
 152 Aeneas Sylvius De Liber orum Educatione. 
 
 a polished style ; and Gregory may be profitably used. Of our 
 own contemporaries, Lionardo Aretino, Guarino, Poggio and 
 Ambrogio exhibit a chaste diction which is valuable for study. 
 
 Among historians Livy and Sallust take the first rank ; 
 though Justin, Quintus Curtius, Valerius Maximus, and Arrian, 
 in a translation, may be read by boys; Suetonius I exclude. 
 Under this same head of history I strongly urge that portions 
 of the Old and New Testaments, such as extracts from the 
 books of Genesis, the Kings, the Maccabees, Judith, Esdras 
 and Esther ; and parts of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles 
 be taught. History, as Cicero says, is the living witness of the 
 past, the lamp of truth ; it is our guide to the days that are 
 now, because it exhibits those that are gone. It is most 
 important, therefore, to be thoroughly versed in the works of the 
 chief historians and from their study learn practical wisdom in 
 affairs. But I would add here a most serious caution. Beware 
 of wasting time over such a subject as the history of Bohemia 
 or the history of Hungary. For such would be but the pro- 
 ductions of mere ignorant Chroniclers, a farrago of nonsense 
 and lies, destitute of attraction in form, in style, or in grave 
 reflections. For boys must from the earliest be made familiar 
 only with the best, if we look for them to develope a sound 
 judgment in their later years. 
 
 7. The third part of Grammar is concerned with the art 
 of Letter-writing. This, too, is an art which a Prince may by 
 no means regard as beneath his attention. Apart from the fact 
 that correspondence is to him a duty of importance, a regular 
 habit of composing in this style is helpful to the study of 
 authors. Several of the great Caesars of the early Empire 
 were conspicuous for their powers as letter-writers. So too 
 were the late Pontiff Nicolas V. and his predecessor. Further, 
 a Prince may, perhaps, not write very often, but let him learn 
 to write legibly. It was no credit to the great Alfonso that his 
 signature was most like the traces of a worm crawling over the 
 paper. It is worth while to be careful over so small a thing as
 
 Concerning Accuracy in Writing. 153 
 
 the shape of the letters; let round letters be round, looped 
 letters shew their loops, and so on. Both neatness and accuracy 
 in writing should be cultivated. The ancient style of hand- 
 writing was neater, more legible, than ours, and was more like 
 that of the Greeks, from whom indeed it was derived. But 
 whatever be the style adopted care must be taken to provide 
 good models. Moreover, in choosing writing copies select 
 useful and elevating subjects, for instance moral maxims from 
 famous prose writers or poets, so that unconsciously the scholar 
 absorb ennobling thoughts. As to spelling, rules may indeed 
 be laid down but the real method is that of practice in writing 
 combined with observant reading of good authors ; in the case 
 of poetry prosody aids the spelling. I will now add a few 
 words on Orthography. In dealing with compound words 
 (e.g. those with ' ad- ' as prefix) usage will be the safest guide, 
 as the same compound may be differently written with equal 
 authority. The rules for doubling the consonant in compo- 
 sition need attention. For since x is equivalent to cs, or gs, 
 ' ex-surgo ' should be written ' exurgo,' ' ex-sanguis,' ' exanguis.' 
 Notice the usage as to compounds of 'iacio'; and the more 
 important modifications of prepositions in composition. In a 
 word borrowed from the Greek retain the spelling ph for <. 
 With Quintilian distinguish cum the preposition from quum the 
 conjunction. Purists write 'Caius' but pronounce 'Gaius.' From 
 this we observe that the written form has not always preserved 
 for us the true phonetic value : though Quintilian tells us that 
 ' Caius ' is a man, ' Gaius ' a woman. Other doubtful cases are 
 ' quidquid ' or ' quicquid,' ' id-circo ' or ' icirco.' Consonants 
 are sometimes inserted for euphony, e.g. 'si-^r-ubi'; *em-/-tum'; 
 ' am-^-io ' ; ' ob-j-curus ' ; ' ob-/-iquus.' K is a redundant letter, 
 always to be replaced by c, in spite of usage which supports 
 '^Talendas,' '.ffarolus.' 
 
 Usage, indeed, has practically determined spelling in the 
 majority of cases and we must be careful in our own practice to 
 abide by the standard of the best scholars and writers of the past.
 
 154 Aeneas Sylvius De Liberorum Educatione. 
 
 The use of the aspirate in the two words containing the 
 Greek letter p, fifienus and .ff/jodanus, indicates that in earliest 
 times both Germans and Gauls made use of Greek letters and 
 that these rivers derived their names from the Greeks. In 
 other adopted words the right rule of the aspirate must be 
 observed. No Latin consonant is aspirated, unless with Servius 
 we except " pulcher." Hence we should write ' mihi,' ' nihil,' 
 and probably ' incoo,' ' sepulcro.' Other aspirated consonants 
 met with in Latin are Greek derivatives: 'rhetor,' 'archiepis- 
 copus,' 'monarcha'; and so we correctly write 'Phoebus,' 
 ' Orpheus.' We note as an exception ' fama ' from ' <f>ijfu,' 
 'films' from '<t'A.os,' 'fero' from '<epo>.' 'Yerusalem' is 
 wrongly spelt : the first syllable consists of the simple vowel 
 sound I. So too are 'autumpnus,' 'contempno,' where euphony 
 does not require /: but we write 'contempsi.' Latin superla- 
 tives are written regularly in -ssimus : not -ximus. ' Nurus ' 
 (from nitor) implies physical, ' nmis ' mental, effort. So far for 
 general rules of orthography ; the spelling of individual words 
 can only be learnt, as already said, by observation of usages in 
 your own reading. 
 
 8. Between Grammar and Rhetoric there is of necessity 
 the closest connection ; for it is by means of Rhetoric that the 
 author, whether historian or poet, displays his literary style and 
 artifice, and derives the form in which he casts his judgments 
 of men and things, or the Orator exhibits his appeals and his 
 conclusions. Both poet and historian have habitual recourse 
 to the rules of Rhetoric, for which you will do wisely to betake 
 yourself exclusively to the great authorities, to Cicero, Quinti- 
 lian and Aristotle, whose Rhetoric has lately appeared in a 
 translation. You, indeed, are not destined to the career of an 
 orator, but to the responsibilities of Kingship ; yet a sound 
 knowledge of the usages of Rhetoric will be of no small gain to 
 you, even though in actual life a moderate skill in oratory is all 
 that circumstances may require or admit of. 
 
 Nor can you neglect Dialectic, which in its turn has so near
 
 Dialectic, Music and Geometry. 155 
 
 relation with Rhetoric ; for both alike aim at convincing the 
 reason. Logic, indeed, has no profit except it serve as a direct 
 aid to clear and precise thinking and expression, enabling us to 
 recognise in our reasonings the fundamental difference between 
 certain, probable, and manifestly false steps in argument. But 
 beware of logicians who waste time and ingenuity in mere 
 verbal subtleties, in whose hands Logic is a thing, not of living 
 use, but of intellectual death. You will remember that Cicero 
 reproached Sextus Pompey for too great devotion to Geometry, 
 and affirmed that far too much time was spent in his day upon 
 Civil Law and Dialectic. His reason was that the true praise 
 of men lies in doing*, and that consequently all ingenious 
 trifling, however harmless in itself, which withdraws our 
 energies from fruitful activity, is unworthy of the true 
 Citizen. 
 
 If that be so, we must ask whether we are to include Music 
 .amongst pursuits unsuited to a Prince ? The Romans of the 
 later age seem to have deprecated attention to this Art in their 
 Emperors. It was, on the other hand, held a marked defect in 
 Themistocles that he could not tune the lyre. The armies of 
 Lacedaemon marched to victory under the inspiration of song, 
 although Lycurgus could not have admitted the practice had 
 it seemed to him unworthy of the sternest manhood. The 
 Hebrew poet-king need be but alluded to, and Cicero is on 
 his side also. So amidst some diversity of opinion our judge- 
 ment inclines to the inclusion of Music, as a subject to be 
 pursued in moderation under instructors only of serious 
 character, who will rigorously disallow all melodies of a 
 sensuous nature. Under these conditions we may accept the 
 Pythagorean opinion that Music exerts a soothing and re- 
 freshing influence upon the mind. 
 
 1 Vittorino urges the same sentiment to Ambrogio (supra p. 82). Both 
 of these men shared the strong practical instincts which marked the best 
 side of the new Learning. With all three Literature was a means rather 
 than an end in itself.
 
 156 Aeneas Sylvius De Liberorum Educatione. 
 
 Geometry is peculiarly fitted to the earlier stages of a boy's 
 education. For it quickens alike the perceptive faculty and 
 the reasoning powers. Combining with this subject Arithmetic 
 your Masters will certainly include the two in your course of 
 training. The value of Geometry may be proved by the case 
 of Syracuse, which city prolonged its defence simply by virtue 
 of the skill of the geometrician Archimedes. Further the study 
 of Geometry provides us with a more exact method of reasoning 
 than is always supplied by Dialectic ; for many apparently just 
 assumptions are corrected by the strict observation of the truths 
 of Geometry. For instance, the most perfect form of the line, 
 which is the circle, is that which encloses the largest space : and 
 the equilateral triangle contains more than the scalene : al- 
 though reason, apart from the aid of geometrical method, 
 would not suggest these truths. At the same time, though an 
 attractive study, Geometry should not be allowed to become too 
 absorbing. A prince must not be ignorant of Astronomy, 
 which unfolds the skies and by that means interprets the 
 secrets of Heaven to mortal men. Did not the greatest rulers 
 of antiquity hold this wisdom in high esteem? Pericles and 
 Sulpicius both alike restored the day in a crisis in the field by 
 their ready use of this lore. Dion and Nicias are examples of 
 the gain and the loss which may be involved in the right or 
 wrong study of eclipses. And one may fairly ask how without 
 a knowledge of astronomy we can understand the many allu- 
 sions to the Heavens contained in the ancient Poets. On 
 these grounds let the young Prince include this science in his 
 courses. 
 
 But we must here interpose a caution. There is a danger 
 lest in our interest in natural, or external, objects we find but a 
 lower place for those weightier things which concern character 
 and action. Two difficulties confront us, that of the choice of 
 subjects and methods of instruction, and that of the risk we 
 run of overburdening the learner's mind by too great a variety 
 of study. But we must bear in mind that the thinking faculties
 
 Philosophy and Conduct. 157 
 
 find relief from strain in this very variety, just as the digestion 
 is aided by succession in diet. So that I have no fear lest 
 your mind should suffer from alternations in subjects or change 
 of masters. Therefore let grammar, dialectic and other subjects 
 occupy you in turn, due regard also being had to the place 
 which physical training must occupy in your education. 
 
 9. So far we have touched upon studies by which we may 
 attain enlightenment of the mind. We have not yet however 
 directly considered how we may most surely distinguish the 
 true and the just from the base and degrading in our Reading 
 and in Life : and what as a consequence must be imitated and 
 what avoided. The poets, the orators and the historians, 
 suggest, perhaps, rather than enforce, the Virtues : hence we 
 must look for final guidance to a higher source, viz. to 
 Philosophy. Now Philosophy signifies desire for wisdom ; 
 and wisdom includes more than is contained within the limit 
 of the seven Liberal arts, for it enquires into the causes of all 
 things human and divine. To Thales philosophy meant 
 Natural Science ; Socrates followed, and brought the divine 
 laws of morality from heaven to man : Plato completed 
 Philosophy by adding the science of mind. For the truths of 
 conduct, then, we send our scholar to Moral Philosophy, a truly 
 indispensable study. For here he will more exactly learn the 
 duty he owes, in the first place, to the Deity; to his parents, 
 to his elders, to strangers ; to the civil and military powers, 
 and to his fellow-citizens; he will learn what becomes him 
 towards wife, towards friend, towards tenant and slave. 
 
 Moreover Philosophy will teach you to despise avarice 
 that lust for wealth which Sallust tells us the truly wise never 
 feel. Respect towards women, affection for children and for 
 home ; pity for the distressed, justice towards all ; self-control 
 in anger, restraint in indulgence, forbearance in success : 
 contentment, courage, duty these are some of the virtues to 
 which philosophy will lead you. In order that from early 
 youth this true wisdom may be duly inculcated I would
 
 158 Aeneas Sylvius De Liberorum Educatione. 
 
 prescribe the study of books, carefully prepared and attractive 
 in style, specially adapted to this end. I have already alluded 
 to one or two works suited to this purpose ; to them I would 
 add all the writings of Cicero which touch upon moral duty, as 
 the treatises on Old Age, Friendship, and others ; the Letters 
 of Seneca, Boethius upon Consolation ; others of later date 
 may be advised, provided always that the Master restrict the 
 choice to works recognised by good judges as sound both in 
 matter and in style.
 
 THE TREATISE OF BATTISTA GUARINO, 
 DE ORDINE DOCENDI ET STUDENDL 
 
 BATTISTA GUARINO was the youngest son 1 of Guarino 
 Veronese, and was born in 1434 during his father's residence 
 at Ferrara, where Guarino held the post of tutor to the heir of 
 the House, Leonello d'Este 2 , and kept school. We gather 
 that he was the only one of the sons of Guarino who shewed 
 any genuine taste for scholarship, and that his father built high 
 hopes upon his abilities. As a boy he was brought up and 
 educated under the immediate direction of Guarino, who was 
 led, by his early promise, to entrust him with a share in 
 the private tuition of the students resident in the Master's 
 house (contubernales). It was Guarino's purpose in this way to 
 secure a continuity for his methods. 
 
 In 1455, when only twenty-one years of age, Battista was 
 elected to the chair of Rhetoric at Bologna, which is decisive 
 evidence of his reputation for scholarship. This he held for 
 two years, when he returned to join his father at Ferrara. He 
 had become an expert in textual emendation and devoted 
 much time to the study of the MSS. of Catullus. He wrote 
 the treatise Upon the method of Teaching and of Reading the 
 Classical Authors at the age of twenty-five, probably at his 
 father's suggestion ; for we have no recognised publication 
 
 1 Sabbadini, Epistol. Guar. p. 81. 
 
 2 Guarino, like Vittorino, associated many other pupils with the princes 
 forming his immediate charge. The University of Ferrara was founded in 
 1 436, when Guarino was made Professor of Rhetoric.
 
 160 B, Guarino De Ordine Docendi et Studendi. 
 
 upon the educational art from the elder Guarino, if we except 
 such a Letter as that addressed by him to Leonello d'Este 1 . 
 The date of the Treatise is given as October 1459; Guarino 
 Veronese died in December of the following year. We may 
 take it, then, that the tract represents, as it claims to do, the 
 general principles which guided the teaching at the School at 
 Ferrara. On the death of his father, Battista was unanimously 
 elected his successor in the Professorship in the University. 
 
 The Treatise is narrower in scope than that of Vergerius 
 or of Aeneas Sylvius. It contains no reference to subjects 
 outside Ancient Literature ; History, by which of course Livy 
 and Plutarch are intended, has a sympathetic paragraph, but 
 Logic or Ethics seem to be regarded mainly as illustrations of 
 Cicero. The Greek authors, however, occupy an important 
 place; and it is evident that this Tract marks the time 
 when the claim to be considered an educated gentleman will 
 only be allowed to one who is familiar with both the ancient 
 Literatures. This standard of culture is upheld and de- 
 fended in formal terms for the first time in this Treatise 2 . 
 
 [The Treatise bears date 'Verona xv Kal. Martii, 1459. 
 Hain, *8128, is the earliest (apparently) edition recorded, but no 
 place, date, nor printer, is given. The Heidelberg edition of 
 1489 (Hain *8131] and the Modena edition of 1496 (Hain 
 8129} are the only others of the century so far distinguished. 
 It is not met with in later collections of such Tracts published 
 in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Paris or 
 Amsterdam.] 
 
 1 Sabbadini, Epistolario, no. 373: 'prima di 1441'; the letter itself, 
 nearly in full, in Rosmini, Guarino^ i. 113. 
 
 2 The practice of Vittorino da Feltre was, we know, in advance of 
 general opinion, and I believe that, in reality, at the Mantuan School far 
 more weight was attached to Greek than at the school of Guarino at 
 Ferrara.
 
 BATTISTA GUARINO TO MAFFEO GAMBARA, 
 OF BRESCIA, 
 
 CONCERNING 7W ORDER AND THE METHOD TO BE 
 OBSERVED IN TEACHING AND IN READING THE 
 CLASSICAL AUTHORS. 
 
 IN offering this short Treatise for your acceptance, I am 
 fully aware that you need no incentive to regard the pursuit of 
 Letters as the most worthy object of your ambition. But you 
 may find what I have written a not unwelcome reminder of 
 our past intercourse, whilst it may prove of use to other 
 readers into whose hands it may fall. For I have had in view 
 not only students anxious for guidance in their private reading, 
 but masters in search of some definite principles of method in 
 teaching the Classics. Hence I have treated both of Greek 
 and of Latin Letters, and I have confidence that the course I 
 have laid down will prove a thoroughly satisfactory training in 
 literature and scholarship. I should remind you that the 
 conclusions presented in this little work are not the result of 
 my own experience only. It is indeed a summary of the 
 theory and practice of several scholars, and especially does it 
 represent the doctrine of my father Guarino Veronese ; so 
 much so, that you may suppose him to be writing to you by my 
 pen, and giving you the fruit of his long and ripe experience 
 in teaching. May I hope that you will yourself prove to be 
 one more example of the high worth of his precepts ? 
 
 w. u
 
 1 62 B. Guarino De Or dine Docendi et Studendi. 
 
 Let me, at the outset, begin with a caution. No master 
 can endow a careless and indifferent nature with the true 
 passion for learning. That a young man must acquire for 
 himself. But once the taste begins to develope, then in 
 Ovid's words 'the more we drink, the more we thirst.' For 
 when the mind has begun to enjoy the pleasures of learning 
 the passion for fuller and deeper knowledge will grow from 
 day to day. But there can be no proficiency in studies unless 
 there be first the desire to excel. Wherefore let a young man 
 set forward eagerly in quest of those true, honourable, and 
 enduring treasures of the mind which neither disease nor 
 death has power to destroy. Riches, which adventurers seek 
 by land and sea, too often win men to pleasure rather than to 
 learning ; for self-indulgence is a snare from whose enticements 
 it is the bounden duty of parents to wean their children, by 
 kind word, or by severity if need arise. Perchance then in 
 later years the echo of a father's wise advice may linger and 
 may avail in the hour of temptation. 
 
 In the choice of a Master we ought to remember that his 
 position should carry with it something of the authority of a. 
 father : for unless respect be paid to the man and to his office 
 regard will not be had to his words. Our forefathers were 
 certainly right in basing the relation of teacher and pupil 
 upon the foundation of filial reverence on the one part and 
 fatherly affection on the other. Thus the instinct of Alexander 
 of Macedon was a sound one which led him to say that, whilst 
 he owed to his father Philip the gift of life, he owed to his tutor 
 Aristotle an equal debt, namely, the knowledge how to use it. 
 Care must be taken therefore from the outset to avoid a wrong 
 choice of master: one, for instance, who is ill-bred, or ill- 
 educated. Such a one may by bad teaching waste precious 
 years of a boy's life; not only is nothing rightly learnt, but 
 much of that which passes as instruction needs to be un- 
 done again, as Timotheus 1 said long ago. Faults, moreover, 
 1 For the anecdote, see p. no, above.
 
 Concerning Grammar. 163 
 
 imbibed in early years, as Horace reminds us, are by no 
 means easy to eradicate. Next, the master must not be 
 prone to flogging as an inducement to learning. It is an 
 indignity to a free-born youth, and its infliction renders learning 
 itself repulsive, and the mere dread of it provokes to unworthy 
 evasions on the part of timorous boys. The scholar is thus 
 morally and intellectually injured, the master is deceived, and 
 the discipline altogether fails of its purpose. The habitual 
 instrument of the teacher must be kindness, though punish- 
 ment should be retained as it were in the background as a 
 final resource. In the case of elder boys, emulation and the 
 sense of shame, which shrinks from the discredit of failure, 
 may be relied upon. I advise also that boys, at this stage, 
 work two together with a view to encouraging a healthy spirit 
 of rivalry between them, from which much benefit may be 
 expected. Large classes should be discouraged, especially for 
 beginners, for though a fair average excellence may be ap- 
 parently secured, thorough grounding, which is so important, 
 is impossible. In the case of more advanced pupils, however, 
 numbers tend rather to stimulate the teacher. 
 
 2. As regards the course of study. From the first, stress 
 must be laid upon distinct and sustained enunciation, both in 
 speaking and in reading. But at the same time utterance 
 must be perfectly natural; if affected or exaggerated the 
 effect is unpleasing. The foundation of education must be 
 laid in Grammar. Unless this be thoroughly learnt sub- 
 sequent progress is uncertain, a house built upon treacherous 
 ground. Hence let the knowledge of nouns and verbs 
 be secured early, as the starting point for the rest. The 
 master will employ the devices of repetition, examination, 
 and the correction of erroneous inflexions purposely in- 
 troduced. 
 
 Grammar falls into two parts. The first treats of the rules 
 which govern the use of the different Parts of Speech, and is * 
 called therefore ' Methodice,' the second includes the study of 
 
 II 2
 
 164 B. Guarino De Ordine Docendi et Studendi. 
 
 continuous prose, especially of historical narrative 1 , and is 
 called ' Historice.' 
 
 Now these Rules can be most satisfactorily learnt from the 
 Compendium 8 written by my father which briefly sets out the 
 more important laws of composition. In using this or a 
 similar text-book the pupil must be practised both in written 
 and in oral exercises. Only by rapid practice in oral com- 
 position can fluency and readiness be gained. And this will 
 be further secured if the class is accustomed to speak in Latin. 
 Certain general Rules of a crucial nature must be early learnt, 
 and constantly practised, by the whole class. Such are those 
 by which we recognise the differences between active, passive 
 and deponent verbs, or between those of transitive or in- 
 transitive meaning. It is most important that each boy be 
 required to form examples in illustration of the main rules of v 
 accidence and syntax, not only with accuracy but also with a 
 certain propriety of style, as for instance with due attention to 
 the order of words in the sentence. In this way the habit of 
 sound and tasteful composition is imbibed during the earliest 
 stages of education. A master who is properly qualified for 
 his work will be careful to use only such transcripts of texts as 
 can be relied upon for accuracy and completeness. The work 
 just referred to has been much disfigured by additions and 
 alterations due to the ignorance or conceit of the would-be 
 emendator. As examples of what I mean you may turn to 
 the rule as to the formation of the comparative of adjectives of 
 the second declension where an inept correction is added in 
 some copies ('vowel before a vowel' is turned into 'vowel 
 before -us'); and in another place the spelling 'Tydites' is 
 substituted for my father's (and, of course, the correct) form 
 'Tydides.' 
 
 1 This would take the form of Delectus, Extracts, or continuous 
 reading of an easy historical author in Greek or Latin. 
 
 2 The Regulae Guarini, a very popular manual of accidence, intended 
 to be learnt by heart.
 
 Concerning Grammar. 
 
 But to return. Let the scholar work at these Rules until 
 they are so ingrained, as it were, into the memory that they 
 become a part and parcel of the mind itself. In this way the 
 laws of grammar are accurately recalled with effort and- 
 almost unconsciously. Meanwhile rules of quantity and metre 
 have been entered upon. This branch of Letters is so im- 
 portant that no one who is ignorant of it can claim to be 
 thought an educated man. Hence it is significant that so 
 much attention was paid to the subject by the ancients ; even 
 Augustine, that great pillar of the Church, did not disdain to 
 publish a tract upon Scansion 1 . In reading the Poets a 
 Knowledge of Prosody is indispensable to the enjoyment, nay 
 even the understanding, of their works. An acquaintance 
 with metrical structure enables us to enter into the beauties of 
 the rhythm, whilst our only clue to the exact meaning of the 
 writer is not seldom given by the quantity of a vowel. Nor is 
 the artifice of rhythm confined to poetical composition. 
 Orators often shew themselves masters of this art ; and in 
 order to duly appreciate the flow of their eloquence, much 
 more to reproduce it for ourselves, we must be skilled in the / 
 ordinary laws of metre. On this ground it is possible to 
 commend the use of the manual of grammar which passes 
 under the name of Alexander 2 ; it is founded upon the great 
 work of Priscian, but it is much more readily committed to 
 memory on account of its metrical form. When the rudiments 
 of prosody have been carefully learnt we shall find that 
 proficiency is best gained by the daily reading of the poets. 
 The works of Vergil must be learnt by heart, and recited as a 
 regular task. In this way the flow of the hexameter, not less 
 than the quantity of individual syllables, is impressed upon the 
 ear, and insensibly moulds our taste. Other metres may 
 afterwards be attempted, so that no form of ancient poetry be 
 left neglected. 
 
 1 The De Musica was in the library of Vittorino, supra p. 70. 
 
 2 The Doctrinale of Alexander de Villa Dei.
 
 1 66 B. Guarino De Ordine Docendi et Studendi. 
 
 3. I have said that ability to write Latin verse is one of V 
 the essential marks of an educated person. I wish now to in- 
 dicate a second, which is of at least equal importance, namely, 
 familiarity with the language and literature of Greece. The 
 time has come when we must speak with no uncertain 
 voice upon this vital requirement of scholarship. I am well 
 aware that those who are ignorant of the Greek tongue decry 
 its necessity, for reasons which are sufficiently evident. But I 
 can allow no doubt to remain as to my own conviction that 
 without a knowledge of Greek Latin scholarship itself is, in N 
 any real sense, impossible. I might point to the vast number 
 of words derived or borrowed from the Greek, and the 
 questions which arise in connection with them ; such as the 
 quantity of the vowel sounds, the use of the diphthongs 1 , 
 obscure orthographies and etymologies. Vergil's allusion to 
 the Avernian Lake : 
 
 ' O'er that dread space no flying thing 
 Unjeoparded could ply its wing,' 2 
 
 is wholly missed by one who is ignorant of the relation 
 between the name of the lake and the Greek word opvis. Or 
 again the lines of Ovid, 
 
 ' Quae quia nascuntur dura vivacia caute 
 Agrestes aconita vocant,' 3 
 
 is unintelligible unless we can associate 'cautes' with the Greek 
 (oLKovrj). So too the name Ciris (Kctpw), and the full force of 
 Aphrodite*' (a<po>v) are but vaguely understood without a clear 
 perception of their Greek etymologies. The Greek grammar, 
 again, can alone explain the unusual case-endings which are 
 met with in the declension of certain nouns, mostly proper 
 names, which retain their foreign shape ; such as ' Dido ' and 
 ' Mantus.' Nor are these exceptional forms confined to the 
 
 1 Guarino Veronese wrote a treatise De arte diphthongandi. 
 
 2 Aen. vi. 739 (Conington). 
 8 Metam. vii. 418, 9. 
 
 4 Cicero, De Nat. Deor. iii. 23. 59.
 
 Concerning the Study of Greek. 167 
 
 poetic use. But I turn to the authority of the great Latins 
 themselves, to Cicero, Quintilian, Cato and Horace : they are 
 unanimous in proclaiming the close dependence of the Roman 
 speech and Roman literature upon the Greek, and in urging 
 by example as well as by precept the constant study of the 
 older language. To quote Horace ' alone : 
 
 ' Do you, my friends, from Greece your models draw, 
 And day and night to con them be your law.' 
 
 And again, 
 
 'To Greece, that cared for nought but fame, the Muse 
 Gave genius, and a tongue the gods might use.' 
 
 In such company I do not fear to urge the same contention. 
 
 Were we, indeed, to follow Quintilian, we should even 
 begin with Greek in preference to Latin. But this is 
 practically impossible, when we consider that Greek must be 
 for us, almost of necessity, a learned and not a colloquial 
 language ; and that Latin itself needs much more elaborate 
 and careful teaching than was requisite to a Roman of the 
 imperial epoch. On the other hand, I have myself known not 
 a few pupils of my father he was, as you know, a scholar of 
 equal distinction in either language who, after gaining a 
 thorough mastery of Latin, could then in a single year make 
 such progress with Greek that they translated accurately entire v ' 
 works of ordinary difficulty from that language into good read- 
 able Latin at sight. Now proficiency of this degree can only 
 be attained by careful and systematic teaching of the rudiments 
 of the Grammar, as they are laid down in such a manual as 
 the well-known 'EpwT^/xara of Manuel Chrysoloras, or in the 
 abridgement which my father drew up of the original work of 
 his beloved master. In using such a text-book the greatest 
 attention must be paid to the verb, the regular form, with its 
 scheme of moods and tenses ; then the irregular verbs must be 
 equally mastered. When the forms of noun and verb can be 
 
 1 De Arte Poetica, 11. 268, 9; 323, 4. (Sir Theodore Martin's Version.)
 
 1 68 B. Guarino De Or dine Docendi et Studendi. 
 
 immediately distinguished, and each inflexion of voice, mood 
 and tense recognised, and this can only be tested by constant 
 viva voce exercises then a beginning should be made with 
 simple narrative prose. At this stage all authors whose 
 subject matter requires close thought should be avoided, for 
 the entire attention must be concentrated upon vocabulary 
 and grammatical structure. Only when some degree of 
 freedom in these latter respects has been secured should the 
 master introduce books of increasing difficulty. 
 
 Our scholar should make his first acquaintance with the 
 Poets through Homer, the sovereign master of them all. For 
 from Homer our own poets, notably Vergil, drew their inspira- 
 tion ; and in reading the Iliad or the Odyssey no small part of 
 our pleasure is derived from the constant parallels we meet 
 with. Indeed in them we see as in a mirror the form and 
 manner of the Aeneid figured roughly before us, the incidents, 
 not less than the simile or epithet which describe them, are, 
 one might say, all there. In the same way, in his minor works 
 Vergil has borrowed from Theocritus or Hesiod. After Homer 
 has been attempted the way lies open to the other Heroic poets 
 and to the Dramatists. 
 
 In reading of this wider range a large increase of vocabulary 
 is gained, and in this the memory will be greatly assisted by 
 the practice of making notes, which should be methodically 
 arranged afterwards. The rules of Accentuation should now 
 be learnt and their application observed after the same method. 
 It is very important that regular exercises in elementary com- 
 position be required from the first, and this partly as an aid to 
 construing. The scholar will now shortly be able to render a 
 Latin author into Greek, a practice which compels us, as 
 nothing else does, to realise the appropriateness of the writer's 
 language, and its dignity of style, whilst at the same time it 
 gives us increased freedom in handling it. For though delicate 
 shades of meaning or beauties of expression may be overlooked 
 by a casual reader they cannot escape a faithful translator.
 
 Concerning tlie Historians and the Poets. 169 
 
 But whilst a beginning is being thus made with Greek, 
 continued progress must at the same time be secured in Latin. 
 For instance the broader rules of grammar which sufficed in 
 the earlier stages must give place to a more complete study of 
 structure, such as we find in Priscian, and irregularities or 
 exceptions, hitherto ignored, must be duly noted. At the 
 same time the Epistles of Cicero will be taken in hand for 
 purposes of declamation. Committed to memory they serve 
 as one of the finest possible aids to purity, directness, and 
 facility of style, and supply admirable matter in no less 
 admirable form for adaptation to our own uses. Yet I would 
 not be understood to claim the Letters of Cicero as alone 
 offering a sufficient training in style. For distinction of style 
 is the fruit of a far wider field of study. To quote Horace 
 once more : 
 
 ' Of writing well, be sure, the secret lies 
 In wisdom: therefore study to be wise.' 1 
 
 4. But we are now passing from the first, or elementary, to 
 the second, or more advanced, stage of grammar which I called 
 'Historice,' which is concerned with the study of continuous 
 prose authors, more particularly the Historians. Here we 
 begin with a short but comprehensive view of general history, / 
 which will include that of the Roman people, by such writers 
 as Justin or Valerius Maximus. The latter author is also 
 valuable as affording actual illustrations of virtuous precepts 
 couched in attractive style. The scholar will now devote his 
 attention to the Historians in regular order. By their aid he 
 will learn to understand the manners, laws and institutions of 
 different types of nation, and will examine the varying fortunes 
 of individuals and states, the sources of their success and failure, 
 their strength and their weakness. Not only is such Knowledge 
 of interest in daily intercourse but it is of practical value in the 
 ordering of affairs. 
 
 1 De Arte Poetica, 309 (Conington).
 
 170 B. Guarino De Ordine Docendi et Studendi. 
 
 Side by side with the study of history a careful reading of 
 the poets will be taken in hand. The true significance of 
 poetic fiction will now be appreciated. It consists, as Cicero 
 says, in the exhibition of the realities of our own life under the 
 form of imaginary persons and situations. Thus Jerome could 
 employ Terence in bringing home his exhortations to Tem- 
 perance. Let us not forget that Vergil as a subject of deep 
 and regular study must always stand not first, but alone. Here 
 we have the express authority of Augustine, who urges the 
 supreme claim of the great poet to our life-long companionship. 
 Lucan may perhaps with good reason be postponed to a later 
 stage. Quintilian regarded him as 'the rhetorical poet': and 
 undoubtedly his poem has much affinity with certain aspects of 
 the forensic art. There is a certain strain of the keen debater 
 in particular portions of his work. So I should advise that 
 Vergil be followed by Statius, whose Thebats, fashioned upon 
 the Aeneid, will be found easy reading. The Metamorphoses of 
 Ovid form a useful introduction to the systematic knowledge 
 of Mythology a subject of wide literary application and as 
 such deserves close attention. The rest of the works of this 
 poet, if I except the fasti unique as a source of antiquarian 
 lore, and, alas ! as incomplete as it is interesting may very 
 wisely be omitted from the school course. The Tragedies of 
 Seneca attract us by the gravity of their situations and the 
 moral distinction of their characters by which they are 
 rendered specially useful for teaching purposes. Terence has 
 the sanction of Cicero as regards grace and appropriateness of 
 diction ; he urged that parts of the Comedies should be com- 
 mitted to memory upon those grounds. If with Terence we 
 couple Juvenal, the greatest of Satirists, we shall find that these 
 two writers afford us a copious and elastic vocabulary for all the 
 needs of ordinary intercourse, and not that alone, but that 
 they provide us with a store of sound and dignified judgments. 
 It is objected, indeed, without sufficient reason, that Juvenal 
 is unsuitable for educational purposes in that he describes too-
 
 Concerning Rhetoric. 171 
 
 freely the vicious morals which come under his lash. But in 
 the first place this applies to but very few passages, whilst the 
 rest of the Satires must command the admiration of all earnest 
 men : in the second, if we must shew our indignation in the 
 matter we should direct it rather against the vices themselves 
 than against their critic. Plautus is marked by a flow of 
 eloquence and wit which secures him a high place in Latin 
 literature. That the Muses, if they spoke in Latin, would 
 choose 'the Plautine diction,' was a common saying; and 
 Macrobius placed the comic poet, in company with Cicero, at 
 the head of the great masters of the Roman tongue. Horace 
 throws unusual light upon the Art of poetry: he has a specially 
 delicate sense of expression ; and in his choice of epithets is 
 only surpassed by Vergil. His Satires again form the best 
 introduction to that type of poetry : for Persius is much less 
 clear. There are other poets of literary importance, but their 
 study may be postponed to a later period. It will be of advan- 
 tage that the reading of the poetical authors should be 
 accompanied by occasional perusal of writers who have treated 
 of Astrology and of Geography : such as Pomponius Mela, 
 Solinus, and Strabo, which latter author has been lately 
 translated from the Greek by my father. A clear conception, 
 too, ought to be attained of the Ptolemaic Geography, to 
 enable us to follow descriptions of countries unfamiliar to us. 
 
 The course of study which I have thus far sketched out 
 will prove an admirable preparation for that further branch of 
 scholarship which constitutes Rhetoric, including the thorough 
 examination of the great monuments of eloquence, and skill in 
 the oratorical art itself. The first work to claim our attention 
 in this subject is the Rhetoric of Cicero 1 , in which we find all 
 the points of Oratory concisely but comprehensively set forth. 
 The other rhetorical writings of Cicero will follow, and the 
 principles therein laid down must be examined in the light of 
 
 1 The Rhetorica ad Herennium, which Guarino Veronese had already 
 determined to be unauthentic.
 
 172 B. Gnarino De Ordine Docendi et Studendi. 
 
 his own speeches. Indeed the student of eloquence must 
 have his Cicero constantly in his hand; the simplicity, the 
 lofty moral standard, the practical temper of his writings 
 render them a peculiarly noble training for a public speaker. 
 Nor should the admirable Quintilian be neglected in this same 
 connection. 
 
 It will be desirable also to include the elements of Logic 
 in our course of studies, and with that the Ethics of Aristotle, 
 and the Dialogues of Plato ; for these are necessary aids to the 
 proper understanding of Cicero. The Ciceronian Dialogue, 
 in form and in matter, seems often to be modelled directly 
 upon Plato. None of his works however are so attractive to 
 myself personally as the De Officiis and the Tusculans. The 
 former reviews all the main duties of life ; the latter exhibits a 
 wealth of knowledge most valuable both as to material and 
 expression to every modern writer. I would add that some 
 knowledge of the principles of Roman Law will be helpful to 
 the full understanding of Latin authors. 
 
 A master who should carry his scholars through the 
 curriculum which I have now laid down may have confidence 
 that he has given them a training which will enable them, not 
 only to carry forward their own reading without assistance, but 
 also to act efficiently as teachers in their turn. 
 
 5. I now approach the second theme of my discourse : 
 the method to be followed by those compelled to rely upon 
 independent study. My first and most urgent precept is this. 
 Let a young student regard himself habitually as likely to be 
 called upon to teach the subject at which he is working at the 
 moment. There is no better check to careless or superficial 
 acquirement. For, as Quintilian long ago reminded us, one 
 who knows that it will be his duty to teach the subject which 
 he is studying will be diligent to examine it upon all sides, 
 and in all its aspects, and will make himself secure upon every 
 point that may fairly arise out of it. If opportunity offer, he 
 will discuss the matter in hand with a fellow student, or in
 
 Concerning Private Study. 173 
 
 default of that he will devise an imaginary disputation in which 
 he will expound or defend what he has acquired. 
 
 In reading an author it is not enough to be content with 
 the exposition of a single Scholar. Every commentary of 
 importance must be consulted to enable us to form our own 
 judgment as to the precise meaning of the text and the force 
 of each individual word. Our notes should be regularly written 
 up, as carefully and as fully as though we destined them to 
 publication. This practice quickens our intelligence and 
 concentrates our attention : it tends to careful construing, to 
 ready composition, to more exact recall of details. A volume 
 of notes duly ordered serves the purpose of a common-place 
 book. A student who is just entering upon a course of 
 independent reading should direct his attention to those 
 authors who have treated of a wide range of subjects, as Aulus 
 Gellius, Macrobius, and Pliny, whose Natural History is indeed 
 as wide as Nature herself. To these I may add St Augustine 
 De Civitate Dei, so valuable for the light it throws upon the 
 historic rites and ceremonies and the religious beliefs of the 
 Ancient World. In such reading the practice of making extracts, 
 where the interest of the subject matter suggests it, and of 
 collecting parallel passages from different authors, is an im- 
 portant help to the student. Nor do I forget to urge the well- 
 known device of the Pythagoreans, who in the evening revolved 
 whatever of worth they had heard or had read during the day. 
 Nothing more surely conduces to the clear memory of what we 
 have acquired. I would propose, in addition to this, a monthly 
 revision, upon a fixed day, of the entire course of our reading 
 during the previous four weeks. 
 
 In Greek, the private student who has mastered the 
 rudiments of the grammar, may confidently adopt a method 
 which I know from experience to have proved effectual, in the 
 absence of a teacher, in securing a high level of attainment in 
 the language. He should select an author whose works have 
 been accurately rendered into Latin. Keeping the original and
 
 174 B> Guarino De Ordine Docendi et Studendi. 
 
 the translation side by side let him make the most careful 
 comparison of the two word by word : the vocabulary of Greek 
 thus becomes readily familiar. At the same time let him 
 practise the habit of reading aloud to himself from a Greek 
 author, a custom which has unfortunately been allowed to fall 
 into neglect to the detriment of our scholarship. I say 
 ' reading aloud ' ; for each word must make its due impression 
 upon the ear if attention is to be sharply aroused to it, and its 
 true significance reach the mind. Apart from its value mentally, 
 reading aloud is physically beneficial, in the opinion of the 
 experts in medicine. Plutarch held that the action of the 
 respiratory powers through the voice has direct effect upon the 
 entire system, increasing the bodily heat, quickening and 
 cleansing the blood. So also Pliny and Ariston thought that 
 the healthy activity of all the digestive functions is aided by 
 the exercise of the voice. Shouting and undue strain of 
 any kind must, of course, be avoided, or injury to the throat 
 results. 
 
 Another effect of this practice in reading will be to develope 
 self-confidence in public-speaking, a quality of the utmost 
 importance in an Orator but one by no means common. For 
 want of it Isocrates, ' the father of eloquence,' as Cicero calls 
 him, could never deliver the speech as he had committed it to 
 memory. Now the points of good reading are not difficult to 
 seize. In the first place, however accurate the enunciation, 
 however fluent the delivery, unless a fine perception of the 
 author's meaning is conveyed in every tone of the Reader we 
 pronounce the effort a failure. In the next place, this implies 
 a carefully trained intonation, with observance of recognised 
 pauses, which correspond to the flow of ideas contained in the 
 passage. No pains must be spared by the student to achieve 
 this nicely-adjusted relation of thought and expression. For 
 expression without thought, words without ideas, can never 
 satisfy the lover of sound learning. 
 
 This leads me to the reflection that, whilst in Nature we
 
 Concerning Methods of Study, 175 
 
 find some animals which are content to feed upon flowers, like 
 bees ; others on leaves, like goats ; others again on roots, like 
 swine ; the appetite of the Scholar demands the best of each 
 and every kind of mental food. In purity and grace of style, 
 in worthy deeds worthily presented, in noble thoughts nobly 
 said, in all these, and not in one alone, he finds the nourish- 
 ment of his mind and spirit. In respect to poetry, however, a 
 caution seems necessary. For like the Polypod, which, indeed, 
 is pleasant enough to the taste, but provokes terrible visitations 
 in the hour of sleep, so Poetry, whilst it feeds, as nothing else, 
 our sense of delight, has yet in it a power to disturb and to 
 excite the spirit. We need, then, to be careful in reading the 
 fictions of the Poets to fix our thought rather on the underlying 
 truths which are therein concealed than upon the imaginations 
 in which they are expressed. In this way we are not disturbed 
 by the impieties, cruelties, horrors, which we find there; we 
 judge these things simply by their congruity to the characters 
 and situations described. We criticise the artist, not the 
 moralist. Chrysoloras used to illustrate this canon of literature 
 by analogy. We shrink from the touch, nay from the sight, of 
 a snake or a scorpion : a clever drawing of either is a source of 
 pleasure. Or we are afraid of the roar of the tempest, or we 
 shudder at the grating of a saw, whilst a cunning imitation 
 with the voice may provoke our laughter. What in real life 
 repels us may in fiction win our admiration by its skilful 
 presentation. But where the poet treats, with the same skill, 
 of things in themselves noble, then we may accept his guidance 
 without reserves. 
 
 In ordering our reading it is of great help to allot specific 
 hours to each subject, and to observe the rule, once made, 
 with strictness. In this way we may check our progress day by 
 day. Hesiod long ago pointed the lesson, that the heap after 
 all is only an accumulation of tiny grains. So to rescue even 
 a few minutes each day for definite study of a particular author 
 is always a gain. In the pursuit of learning as in other activities
 
 176 B, Guarino De Ordine Docendi et Studendi. 
 
 order and method are the secret of progress. A chorus sings 
 in harmony of time and note, or it produces merely a noise ; an 
 army is a highly organised array of various arms, with its 
 proper train of foragers, transport and camp followers, or else 
 it is a bewildered and dangerous mob. Hence we see the 
 crucial importance of system, which applies not less to study 
 than to the captaincy of an army. For unless we map out 
 clearly our course of reading and arrange our working hours in 
 accordance with it, so many subjects claim our attention that 
 concentration and thoroughness are impossible ; our mind is 
 divided between books of equal attractiveness, with the result 
 that no solid work is done at all. When the day's reading is 
 over, and we sit down to review and to secure what we have 
 acquired, we find that our impressions are blurred and un- 
 certain, that facts have escaped us and that definite conclusions, 
 therefore, are not possible. 
 
 6. Before I bring this short treatise to a close I would 
 urge you to consider the function of Letters as an adornment of 
 leisure. Cicero, as you remember, declares Learning to be the 
 inspiration of youth, the delight of age, the ornament of happy 
 fortunes, the solace of adversity. A recreation in the Study, 
 abroad it is no hindrance. In our work, in our leisure, whether 
 we keep vigil or whether we court sleep, Letters are ever at 
 hand as our surest resource. Do we seek refreshment for our 
 minds ? Where can we find it more happily than in a pursuit 
 which affords alike utility and delight ? If others seek recrea- 
 tion in dice, in ball-play, in the theatre, do you seek it in 
 acquiring knowledge. There you will see nothing which you 
 may not admire ; you will hear nothing which you would gladly 
 forget. For good Books give no offence, call forth no rebuke ; 
 they will stir you, but with no empty hopes, no vain fears. 
 Finally, through books, and books alone, will your converse be 
 with the best and greatest, nay, even with the mighty dead 
 themselves. A life spent amidst such interests deserves the 
 title which the younger Pliny gives to it ' the true, the kingly,
 
 Concerning Leisure. 177 
 
 life ' : or, as Attilius was wont to say, no leisure could be more 
 nobly occupied than that spent amongst books. Learned 
 labour, he said, was pleasanter than any pleasures. The elder 
 Pliny, indeed, took this ground when he gently reproached his 
 nephew for using his leisure in taking walks ; for no one was 
 more careful in rescuing every minute for his beloved studies. 
 His secretary was reading to him one day in the presence of a 
 friend, who asked that a sentence carelessly read should be 
 repeated; which was done. Pliny impatiently turned to his 
 visitor, "Why interrupt? The sense was clear, and now 
 we have lost ten lines or more by this stoppage." Cato of 
 Utica would, in the Senate House itself, remain absorbed 
 in books until the beginning of public business. Theo- 
 phrastus was in the habit of reproaching nature for granting 
 long years of life to the stag and the crow, who could not use 
 them, whilst denying them to man who has before him the 
 illimitable task of knowledge. Let us, then, heeding these 
 great names, see to it that we allow not our short working 
 years to pass idly away. To each species of creatures has 
 been allotted a peculiar and instinctive gift. To horses 
 galloping, to birds flying, comes naturally. To man only is 
 given the desire to learn. Hence what the Greeks called 
 ' iraiSeia ' we call ' studia humanitatis.' For learning and 
 training in Virtue are peculiar to man ; therefore our fore- 
 fathers called them ' Humanitas,' the pursuits, the activities, 
 proper to mankind. And no branch of knowledge embraces 
 so wide a range of subjects as that learning which I have now 
 attempted to describe. 
 
 1 will end as I began. If this little work fulfils, perhaps 
 more than fulfils, the promise which I held out, it is because it 
 does but exhibit that order and method of study which my 
 learned and revered father has followed for so many years in 
 his own school. For as from the Trojan Horse of old the 
 Greek heroes spread over the captured city, so from that 
 
 w. 12
 
 178 B. Guarino De Ordine Docendi et Studendi. 
 
 famous Academy of my father has proceeded the greater 
 number of those scholars who have carried learning, not 
 merely throughout Italy, but far beyond her borders. You, as 
 my pupil, are in a sense his intellectual heir. Continue to 
 follow with all zeal the precepts herein laid down ; you will 
 then fulfil the hopes I have always cherished of your future ; 
 if it be possible, you will, I know, endeavour to surpass 
 them. 
 
 At Verona, xv Kal. Mar. MCCCCLVIIII.
 
 A REVIEW OF THE EDUCATIONAL AIMS AND 
 METHODS OF THE FIRST CENTURY OF 
 HUMANISM. 
 
 THE purpose of the present chapter is to exhibit a general 
 view of the Educational aims and methods of the Scholars of 
 the first century of Humanism. In order to limit the enquiry 
 to matter strictly pertinent I have confined attention to such 
 sources as represent the definite educational practice of the 
 time. The authorities referred to are, therefore, either actual 
 schoolmasters, as Vittorino and Guarino, or Scholars of mark 
 who compiled treatises upon one or another aspect of edu- 
 cation. In this way I have practically excluded reference to 
 the vast body of Commentaries, academic Addresses, or 
 correspondence, produced in so great abundance by the 
 Humanists of the fifteenth century. However interesting in 
 the history of classical scholarship, they yield very little to the 
 student of Education, in the strict sense, which is not to be 
 found in more definite shape in the Treatises upon which I 
 have mainly relied. 
 
 A singular harmony is presented by our authorities both 
 as to the general aims pursued and the methods advocated 
 to secure them. This renders it possible to offer in some 
 detail a consistent and intelligible sketch of the higher type 
 of educational practice of a period whose originating impulse 
 is still, within that sphere, powerfully operative amongst us. 
 Quotations are often given at some length, for the reason that 
 my purpose has been to introduce the student to enquiry, at 
 
 12 2
 
 i8o Humanism and Education 
 
 first hand, into an epoch of critical importance in the history 
 of Education. And in this department of history, as in all 
 others, a habit of direct acquaintance with original sources 
 alone can obviate misunderstanding as to the true drift both of 
 ideas and of facts. For the same reason I have generally 
 abstained from criticism, and have allowed the authorities to 
 exhibit their own case. 
 
 The principal Treatises upon Education of this period are 
 the following : 
 
 1. Vergerius, De Ingenuis Moribus : (circ. 1393). 
 
 2. L. Bruni d'Arezzo [Leonardus Aretinus], De Studiis et 
 
 Literis: (circ. 1405). 
 
 3. Francesco Barbaro, De Liberorum Educatione, a chapter 
 
 (Lib. ii. 9) of his Tract De Re Uxoria, 
 
 This chapter was probably the result of the author's 
 intercourse with Guarino Veronese, in whose house it 
 was actually composed 1 . (1428.) 
 
 4. Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (afterwards Pius II.), a Letter 
 
 to Archduke Sigismund, to which we may give the title 
 Upon the Right Education of a Prince: (circ. 1445). 
 
 5. The same, Tractatus de Liberorum Educatione editus ad 
 
 Ladislaum Ungariae et Bohemiae Regem : (i45o) 2 . 
 
 6. Battista Guarino, De Ordine Docendi et Studendi: (1459). 
 
 7. Maffeo Vegio, De Educatione Liberorum clarisque eorum 
 
 Moribus. In six Books : a systematic treatise modelled 
 on that of Vergerius, but more copious in ex- 
 hortation to good manners and to moral and religious 
 duty. The work was the product of Vegio's later 
 
 1 See the Prefatory Letter: ' Erat is libellus pervetustus transcriptus 
 quippe anno Domini MCCCCXXVIII die xxix Novembris Veronae in domo 
 Guarini Veronensis.' Ed. Paris, 1513. 
 
 2 Large sections of this work, especially that dealing with Grammar, 
 are borrowed with little or no modification from Quintilian Bk I. I have 
 ventured to compress these in the version given above, p. 136.
 
 in the Fifteenth Century. 181 
 
 and more definitely religious stage of development : 
 Augustine and Monica are more frequently referred to 
 than Aristotle and Plutarch. (Circ. 1460.) 
 
 8. Gian Pannonio, Silva Panegyrica ad Guarinum : (circ. 
 
 1457). He was a pupil of Guarino, and specially 
 intimate with his son Battista. This metrical descrip- 
 tion of Guarino's school and method is of interest, 
 although, naturally, exaggerations abound. It was 
 written during the life-time of Guarino. It contains 
 about 2900 lines. 
 
 9. Jacopo Porcia, Count of Porsiglia (Purliliarum Comes), 
 
 De Generosa Liberorum Educatione: (circ. 1475). 
 
 The author is better known as a writer on the Art 
 of War. This short Treatise has fallen into almost 
 complete oblivion. 
 
 Certain Letters, mainly to Princes, are occasionally 
 classed amongst Educational Tracts : e.g. ' Guarino to 
 Leonello D'Este,' Rosmini, Guar. Veron. i. 113, and 
 ' Filelfo to M. Triviano,' Id. Vila di Fildfo, ii. 463. 
 Of the above those referred to under i, 2, 5 and 6, are 
 given, in translation, in the present work. 
 
 There are notices of certain other Tracts which seem 
 to be now lost : 
 
 10. Gianozzo Manetti, De Liberis Educandis. 
 
 11. Secco Polentone, De Ratione Studendi. The writer was 
 
 a pupil of Barzizza and a friend of Vittorino. 
 
 12. Nicolas Perotti, De Puerorum Eruditione. 
 
 This list is, perhaps, incomplete, but I have purposely 
 confined myself to the century which followed the death of 
 Petrarch (1374). With Perotti we are introduced, as has been 
 already said, to a more elaborate type of scholarship, which 
 found expression in the educational methods of the second 
 period of Humanist education, viz. that marked by the 
 Treatises of Erasmus, Sadoleto, Vives and Nausea, which,
 
 1 82 i. The general purpose 
 
 deeply interesting as it is, lies outside the scope of the 
 present work. 
 
 I. THE GENERAL PURPOSE OF THE HUMANIST 
 EDUCATOR. 
 
 There is no doubt that the Humanists as a body were 
 profoundly convinced of the practical character of Classical 
 studies. It was said long ago of Vittorino 1 that his aim was 
 the development of 'the complete citizen.' Vergerius 2 , at 
 the outset of our period, is anxious to set forth the ideal 
 of Education as the perfection of the man as Citizen, which he 
 found in Aristotle. The choice of studies and the temper 
 in which they are to be pursued should be determined by this 
 general aim. Learning 3 is not to be regarded as an excuse 
 for withdrawal from active life and concern for the common 
 good. Vittorino writes to Ambrogio, quoting Cicero with 
 
 1 By Ticozzi : cf. his Storia dei Letterati etc., p. 19: ' Soleva dire, 
 non tutti i suoi discepoli aver bisogno per vivere onoratamente, di 
 professare filosofia, legge, medicina,... ne tutti essere ugualmente da 
 natura favoriti...; essere bensi tutti a vivere in societa destinati ed a 
 professare la virtu.' 
 
 2 De Ingenuis Moribus, p. 479 : ' Nam qui totus speculation! et 
 literarum illecebris deditus est, is est forsitan sibi ipsi carus, ac parum 
 certe utilis urbi aut princeps est aut privatus.' 
 
 Aen. Sylvius, Opera, p. 604 : ' Nee ego hos homines laudo qui sic se 
 literis dedunt ut res caeteras parvi faciant, qualem fuisse Democritum 
 Diogenemque constat.' 
 
 3 For Vittorino's attitude we may refer to his motive for accepting the 
 invitation to Mantua in 1423, and his actual life in that City. Sup. pp. 24, 
 79. Vergerius also writes in the same spirit : ' Ea mihi praestans 
 philosophia visa est, quae in urbibus habitat et solitudinem fugit, quae cum 
 sibi turn communibus studet commodis, et prodesse quam plurimis cupit.' 
 Epistol., ed. Combi, p. xliv. 
 
 The Treatise of M. Vegio (vid. supra, p. 180) is written with the 
 same end in view. ' Der beriihmte und im Staate tiichtige Mann ist sein 
 Ziel, nicht allein der Gelehrte,' says Voigt, Wiederbelebung, ii. 461.
 
 of the Humanist Educator. 183 
 
 approval : virtiitis lans omnis in actione consistit 1 . That was 
 his own ideal, and it was notorious that a full training for 
 practical life was the leading purpose of the Mantuan school. 
 This, indeed, is one of the characteristic marks of the lay 
 spirit of Humanism, coinciding, as it did, with the objective 
 temper of the Italian intelligence. Aeneas Sylvius impresses 
 upon the young king Ladislaus a similar truth. He, too, 
 quotes the sentence from Cicero in praise of action as distinct 
 from self-absorption. He deprecates studies which may divert 
 attention from the true ends of life ; he instances, especially, 
 Dialectic and Geometry 2 . Such studies are legitimate in them- 
 selves, but their tendency is against practical interests. Letters, 
 indeed, may be so studied that they produce a similar effect. 
 But 3 the examples of Demosthenes, Aristotle, Caesar and 
 Pliny, shew that, rightly pursued, literature proves the highest 
 possible aid to genuine public spirit and to administrative 
 capacity. Practical judgment in affairs is one main result 
 of humanist teaching 4 . So far he is in accord with Ver- 
 gerius 5 , who lays down that 'sound judgment, wisdom 
 speech, and integrity of conduct' are the qualities cultivated 
 by liberal learning. The Prince, especially, needs this training : 
 by it he may safely count on being able to detect flattery, 
 wilful imposition, insincerity of counsel 6 : his governing capacity 
 
 1 Supra, p. 82. 
 
 2 Opera, p. 989. ' Quamvis enim artes huiusmodi in veri investiga- 
 tione versantur, earum tamen studio a rebus gerendis abduci contra officium 
 est. ...Fugienda est omnis artis supervacua imitatio quae...ab utili negotio 
 detrahit.' Supra, p. 155. 
 
 3 Aen. Sylv. Opera, p. 604 : ' Hi namque quod ex literis hauserant in 
 administranda republica exercebant.' 
 
 4 Ibid. p. 603: '...ut te in consilio loquente caeteri sileant, cum tu 
 unus plus omnibus sapias.' 
 
 5 Vergerius, supra, p. 108. See also his definition of Liberal Studies, 
 supra, p. 102. 
 
 6 Aen. Sylv. Opera, p. 607 : ' At cum his servandum est quod supra 
 dixi, ut temporis aliquod spatium concedas literis, quae reliquas virtutes
 
 184 I. The general purpose 
 
 will be established on the firm basis of knowledge, and his 
 wisdom will render him 'principum speculum,' and the ad- 
 viser and moderator to whom neighbouring rulers will naturally 
 turn. In the professional training 1 of the time, the study of 
 antiquity when completed by its final course of ancient phi- 
 losophy, was held to be the finest preparation for special 
 studies, as Law, Medicine, or Theology. In Florence again 
 no Humanist doubted that in Letters consisted the best pre- 
 paration for the career of a Merchant or a Banker. 
 
 But apart from the broader effects of classical culture it 
 was held that on nearly every side of practical life the best 
 guidance attainable was to be derived from the study of 
 ancient books. Aristotle's Politics is the soundest manual of 
 statecraft : Vegetius and Caesar are the best guides to the Art of 
 War; Vergil, to agriculture. In ruling a household, Cicero, 
 Plutarch Upon Education^ and Francesco Barbaro, whose work 
 De Re Uxoria was regarded as worthy of a place in the noble 
 company, could be safely relied upon. In all departments of 
 government 2 , in war, justice, council, and domestic policy, 
 Literature is the one sure source of practical wisdom. 
 
 Citizenship then being the highest end of education, we 
 are prepared to find that the conviction of the Ancients, that 
 the training of the young is a matter of State concern, is not 
 lost sight of by the theorists. Vergerius 3 definitely affirms 
 
 tuas condiant et illustrent quibus si fueris, ut spero futurum, rite imbutus... 
 non par aliis sed omnium principum eris speculum, teque vicini omnes 
 suarum litium moderatorem et arbitrum facient.' 
 
 1 Sassuolo da Prato (in 1443), of Vittorino, p. 71: '...sicque a 
 se dimissos facit, affirmans illos cuicumque se arti et disciplinae dederint, 
 vel Medicinae, vel Juri Civili, vel Theologiae, quidquid de illis et 
 quantum voluerint facile confecturos. ' 
 
 2 Aen. Sylv. Op. p. 604 : ' Nunc indicium facies, nunc tenebis 
 consilium, nunc arma tractabis, nunc rem familiarem respicies, et in his 
 omnibus quid literae valeant experieris...et vel solus vel cum paucis orbe 
 toto mirandus habeberis princeps. ' 
 
 3 De Ingenuis Moribus, supra, p. 99: 'Cum plurimum domesticae
 
 of the Humanist Educator. 185 
 
 this position, although it is in relation to character that he 
 regards the action of the State as necessary. The Community 
 is directly interested in the virtuous up-bringing of its future 
 members, since good citizenship redounds to the profit of the 
 State not less than to the advantage of the individual. Ver- 
 gerius limits his principle to provisions safeguarding the young 
 against moral dangers; nor is it clear how far he realised a 
 method which should secure, in practice, the virtues of con- 
 tinence, moderation, and diligence by means of public regu- 
 lation. We may remember, however, the close analogy of 
 the Italy of this age and ancient Greece in respect not only 
 of political but also of social and ethical problems. The 
 attempt, therefore, to mould the social order on Hellenic lines 
 was by no means wholly visionary. 
 
 But in the fifteenth century the conception of the ' perfect 
 citizen ' involved as a necessary condition that of the full 
 development of the individual. To the humanist educator 
 this carried the limitation of obedience to Christian faith and 
 morality; in this way was secured a working compromise be- 
 tween the claims of Church, State and Personality, in the training 
 of the ' complete man.' That the compromise was regarded as 
 dangerous we know from the treatise of Giovanni Dominici 1 ; 
 and we are conscious of a certain uneasiness in many minds 
 of the finer type as to the respective claims of religious obe- 
 dience and unfettered devotion to scholarship. Vittorino 2 
 came serenely through a conflict of this kind, but his pupil 
 and intimate friend Gregorio Corraro abandoned the hu- 
 manities for the Cloister (1430), and the instances of Isotta 
 
 disciplinae permissum sit, nonnulla tamen solent legibus diffiniri, deberent 
 autem, ut fere dixerim, omnia. Nam et Reipublicae interest iuventutem in 
 civitatibus bene moratam esse, et si fuerint adolescentes ratione instituti, 
 erit id quidem utile et civitatibus et ipsis bonum ' : p. 453. 
 
 1 Supra, p. .120; a quotation from his invective is given, infra, p. 212. 
 
 2 Supra, p. 20.
 
 1 86 I . The general purpose 
 
 Nogarola 1 and Cecilia Gonzaga 2 shew the same tendency in 
 learned women. 
 
 The broader aspects of the sense of Personality 3 amongst 
 Italians of this time do not fall within the scope of this work. 
 It is enough to trace its influence as an inspiring motive of 
 i the Humanist teacher. The consciousness of personal distinction, 
 which perhaps best conveys the idea involved in the Italian 
 use of the word Virtus, is, of course, by no means peculiar 
 to this period. Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch were all alike 
 animated by it. It was intimately associated with the desire 
 for the public acknowledgment of this distinction, and for its 
 posthumous survival (Jama, gloria, laus posteritatis). With 
 the Humanist however, it becomes a definite educational end. 
 Disadvantages of birth 4 may be overcome by a distinguished 
 education, which again is an effectual safeguard against ab- 
 sorption in the less honourable side of life. For as to a vulgar 
 temper gain and pleasure are the end of existence, to a lofty 
 nature the consciousness of distinction and the repute which 
 accompanies it are the dominant motives 5 . This higher nature 
 is to be cherished by liberal studies, for from them proceed 
 ' honor et gloria, quae sunt sapienti prima post virtutem pro- 
 posita praemia.' Vergerius, further, in concluding his Treatise, 
 reaches the climax of his exhortation by a direct appeal to 
 the posthumous honour 6 which he will confer upon Ubertinus 
 
 1 Upon Isotta see Sabbadini, Guartno, p. 128: 'L' ascetismo soffoco in 
 lei P umanismo.' See p. 250 below. 
 
 2 Supra, p. 77. 
 
 3 Upon Individuality and Fame as motives of Italian culture generally, 
 see Burckhardt's admirable review, in his Renaissance in Italy, pp. 129 
 seqq. 
 
 4 Vergerius, De Ingenuis Moribus, p. 443 : ' quibus praediti rebus et 
 obscura suae gentis nomina et humiles patrias attollere atque illustrare 
 consueverunt.' 
 
 6 Vergerius, Op. cit., p. 459 : ' Nam ut illiberalibus ingeniis lucrum et 
 voluptas pro fine statuitur, ita ingenuis virtus et gloria. ' 
 
 6 Ibid. s. f. : ' Si probe itaque gesseris habebis quidem ab omnibus
 
 of the Humanist Educator. 187 
 
 by celebrating his literary distinction. Indeed it was held 
 out 1 as one special attraction of Letters at the opening of the 
 Century that their pursuit was as yet limited to a small number 
 of select natures. Immediate renown was therefore the certain 
 reward of proficiency. But the highest fame attaches only 
 to those who are distinguished by a wide range of studies 2 , 
 which will have for their result both knowledge and a full, 
 dignified life. They indeed may be further stimulated by the 
 reflection of the fame they are bound to win for themselves 3 . 
 
 Natural gifts are hardly sufficient to develop distinction ; 
 they must be reinforced by learning 4 . History teaches us that 
 this was true of Princes in the past. A statesman of so remote 
 a land as Britain 5 Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester is brought 
 within the circle of Fame by his literary sympathies. 
 
 So far as concerned moral development, the humanist 
 teacher was not willing to allow too much scope for the 
 exercise of individual temperament. The accepted morality 
 of the day, which was in large part identified with the practical 
 Stoicism of the severer Roman writers, satisfied the better 
 type of scholar. But it was not doubted that the moral nature 
 
 praesentem laudem ; a me vero etiam litteris, si qua nobis eius modi 
 facultas erit, posteritati commendabere.' 
 
 1 L. Bruni, De Stud, et Lit., p. i : ' Et tua quidem laus illustrior erit, 
 quam illarum fuerit...tu his temporibus florebis in quibus usque adeo 
 prolapsa studia sunt, ut miraculi loco habeatur, videre virum nedum 
 feminam, eruditam.' 
 
 2 Bruni, Op. cit., p. 17: ' Prorsus enim excellentia hominis ilia 
 admirabilis quae veram inclytamque famam nomini conciliat, non nisi ex 
 multarum variarumque rerum fit cognitione. ' 
 
 3 Id. p. 34: '...currentem, ut aiunt, ad gloriam cohortari.' 
 
 * Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 601 : ' Nemo in clarum virum aut famosum 
 principem potest evadere nisi cum naturae dotibus adiunctam habeat 
 doctrinam.' P. 604: ' Omnes sane qui superioribus saeculis claruerunt 
 principes studiosi fuerunt litterarum....Tu ergo (i.e. Sigismund) hos seque- 
 ris, hosque audies, hosque leges, quos tibi praenominavi, si vis princeps 
 toto in orbe...mirandus haberi.' 
 
 5 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 602.
 
 1 88 I. Tlie general purpose 
 
 was in no slight degree amenable to the influence of liberal 
 studies'. Patriotism, self-sacrifice, courage, restraint, and the 
 active virtues, were regarded as amongst the most important fruits 
 of a sound education : whence sprang also a more worthy view 
 of life, its interests and its opportunities. In all this there was 
 scope for virtus or praestantia, for the exhibition of the element 
 of personality, not less than in the moral temper which defied, 
 or simply ignored, the recognized standard of conduct. This 
 nobler type of Christian individuality, so to call it, was one 
 of the definite aims of humanist education. ' Omnis bene vi- 
 vendi norma literarum studio continetur' : this dictum of 
 Aeneas Sylvius 2 represents, perhaps, the view of the theorist 
 rather than of the Teacher of actual experience. Vergerius 3 
 devotes considerable space to the training of character by 
 careful observation of individual temperaments and by adap- 
 tation thereto of the needful discipline. It is upon example 
 and guidance that he relies rather than upon edification, 
 whether drawn from Classical or Biblical sources. Guarino, 
 however, attached weight to the moral lessons afforded by 
 ancient literature. To him Terence was a teacher of morality 
 of the highest value 4 , and he used him largely in this sense. 
 We are told that he invariably drove home the precepts which 
 his authors suggested 5 . On the other hand it was clearly 
 
 1 Bruni, De Stud, et Lit., p. 34: ' Religionis studia et bene vivendi 
 mihi praecipua sunt ' ; and this with the definite end of character in view. 
 ' Caetera vero omnia,' he continues, ' ad ista referri debent vel adiuranda 
 vel illustranda, eaque de causa Poetis et Oratoribus et scriptoribus 
 inhaerendum. Providendum, autem in literis ut perceptio adsit ingenua et 
 pervigil sollertia, nee unquam nisi optima probatissimaque legamus.' 
 
 2 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 60 1. 
 
 3 Supra, pp. 97 seqq. 
 
 4 Sabbadini, Guarino, p. 145: ' Se poi voleva proporre un maestro di 
 moralita, designava Terenzio.' 
 
 5 ' Omnes enim lectiones, omnia documenta, omnia praecepta, ad bene 
 beateque vivendum referebantur.' Ludovicus Carbo, a pupil of Guarino, 
 quoted by Rosmini, Guarino, i. 115.
 
 of the Humanist Educator. 189 
 
 accepted that Learning was no guarantee against evil ten- 
 dencies : that it might even serve as an instrument of de- 
 pravity '. Vittorino, so we judge, although exceedingly 
 vigilant in his choice of authors and undoubtedly careful to 
 turn them to right account in moral teaching, seems to have 
 studied to develope strength of will, sincerity and modesty, 
 rather by the discipline of the playing fields, by wise religious 
 observance, and by his own example. But it is characteristic 
 of Humanism that morality is regarded as a subject for rational 
 acquiescence : the broad duties of life are indeed pre-supposed, 
 but there is no attempt made to pass beyond their mundane 
 and objective significance, or to regard them as superior to 
 all need of confirmation from non-Christian sources' 2 . The 
 attitude of Bruni 3 is a peculiarly noteworthy assertion of this 
 position. 
 
 Distinction in social life was marked by power of con- ' 
 versation, and by personal carriage, by resourceful leisure and 
 dignified old age. No Humanist teacher left these ends out 
 of account in his view of education. They betoken a Society 
 of ordered habit and of refinement, in which a definite standard 
 of taste and manners is already recognised. To depreciate 
 these elements of individuality as 'accomplishments,' pertaining 
 
 1 Porcia, De Generosa Liberoritm Educations, p. 112: 'ex literarum 
 studiis si boni natura sunt viri, meliores, si mali, deteriores fiant necesse est.' 
 Vergerius, supra, p. 105 : 'persaepe sunt instrumenta perniciosioris iniuriae.' 
 
 2 Aeneas Sylvius indicating the sources from which moral duty may 
 be imbibed instances only Classical moralists, Cicero, Seneca, Boethius: 
 and he is particularly anxious that approved writers only be selected for 
 
 ' the purpose. Opera, p. 991; and supra, p. 158. So Bruni, De Studiis 
 etc., p. 16: 'Nee sacris literis contentam esse volo, sed ad secularia 
 traducam studia, videatque quid de his quae pertinent ad bene vivendum 
 exculptissima Philosophorum ingenia tradidere." 
 
 3 Bruni, De Studiis et Literis, p. 30. He is defending the reading of 
 ancient Poets by the example of Plato and Aristotle, when an imaginary 
 opponent replies : ' Christianus sum, at illi forte suo more vixerunt.' 
 ' Quasi vero honestas gravitasque morum non tune eadem fuerit quae nunc 
 est ! ' is his rejoinder.
 
 190 I. The general purpose 
 
 merely to ' the leisure side of life,' would be to misconceive 
 altogether the idea both of manhood and of citizenship as 
 accepted in the Quattrocento. To be self-contained and yet 
 to contribute some special or personal element to society was 
 the double function of 'the complete man.' 
 
 The place occupied in Italian society of the Renaissance 
 by polite intercourse, with its characteristics of discussion, 
 romantic narrative, or polished conversation, needs to be recog- 
 nised by the student of education in its true importance. This 
 lay in its influence on the formation of public opinion in 
 matters both of taste and morals. Social intercourse, even 
 more than literature, tended to propagate common standards 
 of intellectual and moral judgement. Humanism, at least, 
 owed no small debt to this widely-ramifying but intangible 
 force. It is not surprising, therefore, that the humanist educator 
 should set forth definitely as one of his aims the higher art 
 of conversation, through which, especially, intellectual individu- 
 ality made its impress upon social opinion 1 . 
 
 The Humanist insists that Learning should be available 
 alike for action and for discussion. Bruni, writing on the 
 place of studies in a woman's life, naturally places their social 
 aspect in the forefront*. It is essential that knowledge should 
 be allied with expression, each gaining distinction from the 
 other. ' Indeed,' he declares 3 , 'one may fairly ask what advant- 
 age it is to possess profound and varied learning unless one 
 
 1 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 975 : ' aequales tuos orationis ornatu 
 gravitateque superare contendas.' Vergerius, supra, p. 102, refers to the 
 power of conversation amongst children of higher intelligence. 
 
 2 Bruni, De Stud, et Lit., p. 32 : ' sic enim resultat ' (from wide reading 
 and observation) 'plenum quiddam, ac sufficiens, ut copiosi, ut varii, ut 
 ornati, ut in nulla re vacui rudesque videamur...nam et literae sine rerum 
 scientia steriles sunt et inanes, et scientia rerum, quamvis ingens, si 
 splendore careat literarum, abdita quidem obscuraque videtur.' 
 
 3 Bruni, Op. cit., p. 33: ' Et rogabo quid iuvat aliquem multa et 
 pulchra scire si neque loqui de his cum dignitate possit.'
 
 of the Humanist Educator. 191 
 
 can convey it in language worthy of the subject. Only where 
 this double capacity exists can we allow the highest title to 
 distinction and to abiding fame.' In the training of a Prince 
 this quality of a social leader is not to be lightly esteemed 1 . 
 The essentials of good conversation are laid down with some 
 care, and they include clear directions as to the cultivation 
 of the voice 2 . Ease and lightness of touch, courtesy, willing- 
 ness to listen are necessary qualities 3 . A too solemn manner 
 repels, as does pertinacity in enforcing a point; whilst to allow 
 your interlocutor the pleasure of convincing you is often a 
 wise concession. Vehemence, loss of temper, arrogance, and 
 exaggeration which amounts to falsehood, are destructive of 
 all conversation. 
 
 Dignity of bearing was an essential factor in personal 
 distinction. Vittorino, following Vergerius, desires to see 
 grace of carriage express the corresponding qualities of the 
 moral and intellectual nature 4 . The realisation of his own 
 physical powers, not less than the consciousness of superi- 
 ority of mind and spirit, was a necessary element in the 
 development of the complete man. We shall see later how 
 this function of education was treated in practice. It is enough 
 to note here the place which it occupied amongst the general 
 aims of the humanist. 
 
 Upon Relaxation and Old Age the Humanists have much 
 to say. It is one of the ends of liberal studies to make a 
 
 1 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 974 : ' Dicendum existimamus, ut cum 
 virilem togam induerit, quibus in modis puer non solum loqui sed ornate 
 loqui prudenterque valeat.' 
 
 2 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 143; Vittorino's care in this respect is 
 noted supra, p. 39. 
 
 3 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 975 : ' Adsit in colloquendo facilitas, in 
 obvios compellendo suavitas, in respondendo benignitas. Nam graves in 
 collocutionibus mores digna in se odia contrahunt. Absit pertinacia;... 
 non solum vincere, sed forte vinci, speciosum est.' 
 
 4 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 967: 'Gestus formae respondeant ' ; p. 968: 
 ' Servandus est igitur in motu omnique statu decor': Vergerius, supra, p. 98.
 
 I9 2 2. Early Training: 
 
 man truly worthy of his freedom, to secure him against the 
 tyranny of ignoble pleasures or of varying circumstance. Man 
 thus rejoices in that liberty 1 which alone deserves the name. 
 Since in no other region of our life is this liberty so consciously 
 realised as in our leisure, it is an urgent function of sound 
 education to prepare us for its opportunity 2 . Hence Cicero 
 is naturally appealed to in support of Literature; Scipio or 
 Cato on more general grounds : Domitian is the sad warning. 
 Vergerius is especially eloquent upon the aim of education as 
 the aid to the true use of leisure. Learning is a resource against v 
 unworthy or unwelcome thoughts, it is the channel to the 
 brightest and most elevating intellectual companionship. But 
 education, as the Humanist understood it, provided other alter- 
 natives of recreation 3 : music, singing, games, and outdooi 
 accomplishments. It aims at preparing the scholar to avail 
 himself of all these in so far as each may contribute to a self- 
 respecting, dignified existence. 
 
 2. EARLY TRAINING THE HOME. 
 
 The Humanist was keenly alive to the importance of the 
 first years of infancy in the development of the child 4 . Parental 
 care must be directed from the outset to each of the three 
 sides of education. It is most desirable that, wherever possible, 
 
 1 Vergerius, De Ingenuis Moribus, supra, p. 102: 'We call those 
 studies liberal which are worthy of a free man ' etc. 
 
 2 Id., supra, p. 106. So Barbaro, De Re Uxoria, xxxi. v. : 'In his 
 (early disciplines of mind and body) studium, animum et cogitationem 
 adhibeant, quae grandioribus factis decori, usui et iucunditati sint.' This 
 conveys exactly the complete idea of humanist education, in its relation to 
 action, distinction and leisure. 
 
 3 Vergerius, Op. at., supra, p. 116. 
 
 4 F. Barbaro, De Re Uxoria, xxix. v. : ' Restat educatio liberorum 
 prorsus uxorii muneris maxime fructuosa et longe gravissima.' Vergerius, 
 De Ingenuis Moribus, p. 459 : ' Oportet igitur a prima infantia his 
 intendere et ad sapientiam omni studio conari': and supra, p. 102.
 
 The Home. 193 
 
 the mother should act as nurse to her child 1 ; if resort must 
 be had to strangers the greatest heed must be taken in their 
 choice. Due regard should be had not to character only but 
 to the manners, the speech, and accent of all who surround 
 the child; rustic provincialisms are often acquired from the 
 nurse and are with difficulty got rid of in later boyhood. 
 
 So soon as infancy is passed 2 the child begins to acquire 
 knowledge, to form moral habits, and to develop physical 
 characteristics. This training is still the chief responsibility of 
 the Mother, to whom it falls to impart the first lessons of love 
 towards God, Country, and Home, lessons which form the 
 sound basis of future moral stability. So, too, the qualities of 
 respect for elders, courtesy towards inferiors, frank ease with 
 equals are inculcated at this stage 3 . Actual instruction is not 
 on any excuse 4 to be omitted, though there may be reasonable 
 question 5 as to the age at which it should be first pressed. 
 This is, probably, a matter of individual capacity 6 and health. 
 
 1 F. Barbara, Op. cit., xxxi. r. : ' Enitantur, igitur, nobiles feminae ut 
 suos alant liberos.' But if impossible, 'nutrices...ingenuas, moratas, et 
 exquisite sermone praeditas suscipiendas...ne tener infans corruptis et 
 moribus et verbis imbuatur.' So also Porcia, De Generosa Liberorum 
 Educ., p. 1 08, dwells on the necessity of securing nurses who possess a 
 good accent, and do not use provincialisms. 
 
 2 F. Barbara, Op. cit., xxxi. : ' Postquam ex infantibus excesserint, ut 
 animi et corporis dotibus excellant ingenium, curam, operam, impendant 
 matres. ' 
 
 3 L.c. 
 
 4 Porcia, Op. cit., p. 107 : ' Ad liberalem generosi pueri educationem 
 licet multa quidem observanda sint nihil tamen magis quam ipsa in- 
 stitutionis initia a parentibus animadvertenda esse censeo.' 
 
 5 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 966: ' Quidam fieri utrumque' (i.e. 
 physical and intellectual training) ' simul censent ab infantia et primis, 
 ut aiunt, ab unguiculis incipere debere institutionem pueri.' 
 
 6 Vergerius, Op. cit., p. 460: ' Est quidem ex natura in plerisque 
 iuvenibus tanta ingenii celeritas....' Supra, p. 102. Erasmus, at a later 
 period, wrote an important Treatise upon the necessity of beginning 
 intellectual training at the earliest possible age: De Pueris statim ac 
 liberaliter instituendis. 
 
 w. 13
 
 194 2. Early Training. 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose that early promise often leads to 
 disappointment, and that forward children should, therefore, 
 be deliberately kept back in the first stages of childhood '. It 
 is at least as true that if time be lost in entering upon the 
 pursuit of learning in early youth, that loss can never be 
 adequately recovered in later years. We hear of reading and 
 arithmetic taught by games 2 , and we have a record of intro- 
 ductory grammars provided for the Gonzaga children before 
 the age of six 3 . 
 
 But the home training is to be devoted, primarily, to the 
 formation of right personal habits, as, for instance, in eating 
 and drinking, in which the most careful moderation should 
 be inculcated from the first 4 . Amusements, and games 5 ; in- 
 tercourse with other children 6 , who will never, by a well 
 brought-up child, be reproached with the misfortunes or lower 
 station of their parents; demeanour and bodily carriage; all 
 these are points demanding close attention in the first five 
 years of childhood. It will be needful to have regard to the 
 dress 7 suitable to children, from the point of view of health 
 and of self-respect : whilst such luxuries as beds of soft 
 feathers 8 , or too fine linen, or garments of silk, should be 
 
 1 Vergerius, /. c . , ' Nee veto suscipiendum est, quod omnibus pene 
 vulgo usurpatum est, ut existimemus eos qui iuvenes super aetatem recte 
 sapiant, maiores factos desipere aliquando solere : quamquam et hoc in 
 quibusdam non abhorreat a physica ratione.' 
 
 2 Supra, pp. 38, 42 (of Vittorino). 
 
 3 Supra, p. 69. 
 
 4 Fr. Barbaro, Op. cit., xxxi. v.: 'Cibi potusque temperantiam sic 
 ediscant ut ad futuram aetatem omnis continentiae quasi fundamenta 
 iaciantur.' 
 
 5 Barbaro, I.e.: ' Voluptates illas effugere commonefaciant, quae ullo 
 dedecore involutae sunt.' 
 
 6 Barbaro, I.e. : ' Subinde praecipiant [parentes] ne inopiam maiorum 
 ignominiam et ceteras calamitates ullis obiecerint, quibus ex rebus... arro- 
 gandi consuetudinem imbibant.' 
 
 7 Porcia, Of. fit. t p. 112. 
 
 8 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 967: 'Mollis educatio, quam vocamus
 
 3- The Liberal Studies. 195 
 
 scrupulously avoided. Recourse to artificial heat ', or the use 
 of gloves 2 , should be discouraged at the earliest possible age. 
 
 It is clear that a healthy, hardy habit of body, an affec- 
 tionate and yet high-spirited moral temper, a reverent and 
 modest bearing, and an intellectual passivity 3 rather than 
 curiosity, are the main qualities which the home training of 
 the first five years of childhood should aim at instilling. It 
 is assumed that the example of parents 4 , and of all who may 
 come into contact with the young 5 will enforce precepts at 
 this stage of education ; and this influence may be early ex- 
 tended by pointing to the esteem in which fellow citizens of 
 distinction are held, as an encouragement to youthful as- 
 piration. 
 
 3. THE LIBERAL STUDIES. 
 
 We consider next the general lines of the superstructure 
 which the Humanists proposed to rear upon the basis of the 
 home training here indicated, in their endeavour to satisfy the 
 broad aims sketched in the opening section of this chapter. 
 
 Vergerius 6 , at the outset of our period, had defined a 
 
 indulgentiam, nervos omnes et mentis et corporis frangit. Vitanda est 
 plumarum mollities etc.'; supra, p. 137. 
 
 1 Vegius, De Educatione Liberorum, p. 174. Supra, p. 35. Vittorino's 
 practice referred to by Prendilacqua, p. 28 and supra, p. 35. 
 
 2 Platina specially records this of Vittorino ; Vairani, p. 24. 
 
 3 Barbaro, Op. cit., xxxii. r. : ' Pauca nisi iussos loqui doceantur.... 
 Disciplinae enim impedimento erit si quod non satis exploratum sit 
 impudentius explicare voluerint.' He explains that it is rather the duty of 
 children to await the knowledge which the wisdom of their parents may 
 lead them to impart. Vergerius, supra, p. 99, is in substantial agreement. 
 
 4 Vergerius advises that children be sent early from home if the 
 example and control of the parents is defective: supra, p. 101. Aeneas 
 Sylvius, supra, p. 141. 
 
 5 Vergerius, p. 98. Porcia, De Gener. Lib. Educ., p. 113, thinks no 
 stimulus equal to that of the example, ever pointed out, of distinguished 
 living worth amongst citizens. 
 
 6 Vergerius, supra, p. 102. 
 
 I 3 2
 
 196 3- The Liberal Studies: 
 
 liberal education to be one which enables a man to attain to 
 and pursue a life of moral and intellectual distinction, and 
 which trains and develops his physical powers. Such an edu- 
 cation will prepare men for the career of a statesman, of a 
 soldier, or of a simple citizen. But its object is not to train a 
 mere student 1 . This comprehensive aim is obviously sug- 
 gested by the Graeco-Roman ideal, although it is at the same 
 time held to be in complete accord with the spirit of the 
 Christian life. In its practical working this education was 
 exhibited in the most developed form in the Mantuan school. 
 Vittorino claimed for his method, following Plutarch, the 
 title of 'encyclopaedic', 2 in that he definitely purposed the 
 threefold end of the moral, intellectual and physical training 
 of his pupils. 
 
 It was held that the most profound truths in all, or nearly 
 all, departments of life were to be sought for in the ancient 
 Literatures, in which were included the works of the greater 
 ecclesiastical Fathers, so far at least as their religious and 
 moral contents were concerned 3 . So whilst Letters form the 
 dominant study upon the intellectual side 4 , philosophy 5 and 
 the Fathers the instruction in morals, gymnastic and military 
 exercises provide for physical culture. At the same time 
 Mathematics 6 , the study of Nature, and Astronomy, have 
 
 1 Vergerius, supra, p. no. 
 
 2 Platina, of Vittorino, p. 21: ' Laudabat illam quam Graeci ^JKVK\O- 
 iraideiav vocant, quod ex multis et variis disciplinis fieri doctrinam et 
 eruditionem dicebat.' Vegio, De Educations Liberorum, p. 263, urges the 
 adoption of that ancient education ' qui orbis doctrinarum appellatus est.' 
 
 3 Bruni, De Stud, et Litt,, p. 15. He is referring to religious know- 
 ledge: 'quid est enim quod literata mulier ab Augustino discere non 
 possit?' See also, supra, p. 124. 
 
 4 This of course runs through the writings of every Humanist. 
 Vergerius is typical of his class: supra, p. 105. 
 
 8 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 991 in enumerating writers to be studied 
 for Morals confines himself to Roman classical writers. See Bruni, 
 supra, p. 127. 
 
 6 Vergerius, supra, p. 108.
 
 Their Contents. 197 
 
 their due place; and music, singing and dancing, the latter 
 with some reserves, are admitted. Drawing is treated as a 
 technical rather than a liberal subject. Eloquence, recitation 
 and reading are cultivated as aids to scholarship and for their 
 own sakes. It is by no means assumed that every student 
 can cover 1 the entire field of learning now thrown open to 
 him. Ill-digested knowledge is condemned 2 , for a restless 
 curiosity that hurries from one subject to another is hurtful 
 to all true progress. But amidst all this variety the essential 
 feature of education consists in systematic discipline and 
 practice. ' Natura sine disciplina caeca ' was a doctrine uni- 
 versally accepted 3 . Where this is secured alternation of sub- 
 jects 4 , and corresponding change of masters, is desirable: 
 indeed intellectual health demands variety. But it still re- 
 mains true that to unite knowledge with style, to impart fact 
 and truth in literary dress, was the humanist schoolmaster's 
 ideal 5 on the side of erudition. 
 
 The curriculum proposed for a woman was, on its moral 
 and intellectual sides, identical with that of a man, with, per- 
 haps, a little less stress upon Rhetoric and more upon Re- 
 ligion 6 . There was no assumption that a lower standard of 
 attainment is inevitable as a consequence of smaller capacity. 
 
 1 M. Vegio, De Educatione Liberorum, p. 264 : ' Non quo exacta 
 omnium exigenda sit, id enim hand unquam fieri posset, sed quo ea 
 transcurrentes per quandam quasi degustationem attingant.' Vergerius, 
 supra, p. 109. 
 
 2 Vergerius, supra, p. no. 
 
 a Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 966 and p. 601 : natural gifts need to be 
 trained by ' doctrina.' 
 
 4 M. Vegio, Op. cit., p. 264, urges variety of subjects as against the 
 varied treatment of literary instruction alone. Out of these subjects one or 
 two will, no doubt, be chosen for special study. 
 
 5 Bruni, De Studiis et Litteris, p. 3: 'Eruditionem intelligo legitimam 
 illam et ingenuam quae litterarum peritiam cum rerum scientia coniungit.' 
 Vergerius, De Ingenuis Moribus, p. 469 : ' Nam quae sine dignitate 
 scribuntur ea nee sortiuntur fidem nee subsistere diu possunt.' 
 
 6 Bruni, supra, pp. 126, 7.
 
 198 3- The Liberal Studies: 
 
 It is, however, accepted that only women of leisure or position 
 can expect to enter upon the pursuit of learning with that 
 undivided mind which it demands. 
 
 Vittorino established the Renaissance tradition that in 
 education ability is the test of a claim to share its privileges. 
 The equality of scholars was his principle in accepting pupils : 
 and his system of free education carried it to its fullest de- 
 velopment. He, too, like all the great teachers of the period 
 was a layman, and the secular character of the school in no 
 way detracted from its high moral and religious temper. A 
 comparison between the two famous schools of Northern Italy 
 with the recent foundations of William of Wykeham in England 
 enables us to realise the distinction between the humanist and 
 the ecclesiastical ideal of education. Colet, in the following 
 century, was the first Englishman to accept frankly the prin- 
 ciple that education was primarily the concern of the layman 
 and the citizen. 
 
 The age at which the child should enter upon a definite 
 and systematic course of instruction is the subject of some 
 divergence of opinion. Vittorino, we know, directed the 
 training of the younger Gonzaga children before they reached 
 the age of five 1 . Their mother was an exceptional woman, 
 and continued to take the deepest practical interest in the 
 training of the children. It seems likely that the Humanist 
 urged the cooperation of the mother with a home tutor 
 (praeceptor) after the fifth year 2 ; although there is a tendency 
 
 1 Supra, p. 29. 
 
 2 Porcia, De Generosa Liber. Educ., p. no. Under a tutor the boy 
 should remain at home, learning morals and manners ; school he thinks is 
 dangerous for young boys, owing to the mixture of classes, and consequent 
 bad examples. However, 'exacto decennio publicas ad scholas accedant.' 
 Vegio, De Educ. Liber., p. 112: ' Proximum erit, ut cum firmari magis 
 eorum anni coeperint, in publico, quo ceteri convenire pueri solent, auditorio 
 doceantur, non domi sub privati praeceptoris cura habeantur.' He is 
 anxious that boys should be plunged, as early as it could be safely done, 
 into the society of their equals in age and ability.
 
 The Choice of School. 199 
 
 to postpone regular lessons until two years later, or to leave 
 the matter open to be settled by individual circumstances', 
 School should begin at the tenth year in any case. There 
 is a general agreement that the memory is at its best in the 
 early years, and as the elements of learning fall mostly within 
 the operations of that faculty, it is undesirable to delay the 
 commencement of grammar beyond the fifth year. 
 
 Whether the child should remain at home 2 attending, a 
 day school, was much debated. On the one hand it was 
 desirable on many grounds that a boy should live under the 
 eye of his parents. But against this was to be set the risks 
 which were incurred by retaining him amid the associations 
 of women-folk, whose foolish indulgence and ignorance of 
 moral discipline retarded the right development of manliness 
 and self-reliance 3 . It was, therefore, often advisable to send 
 boys away from home, even though they remained in their 
 native city 4 . In the choice of a school at a distance, it was 
 of importance to take into account the moral and intellectual 
 distinction of the city in which it was placed 5 . Not to speak 
 of the proper pride which boys ought to take in their school 
 and their adopted city, the stimulating atmosphere of a famous 
 place of learning reacts directly upon the youthful mind and 
 keeps a generous youth from sinking to a lower level of 
 aspiration. Parents should consider it a duty to hear the 
 recitations 6 learnt for school; they should cultivate the use 
 
 1 Vegio, Op. cit., p. 211. Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 972. 
 
 2 So Vegio and Porcia ; Vergerius (supra, p. 101) affirms that this 
 depends entirely on the character of the parents themselves. 
 
 3 Vegio and Vergerius state this very strongly. 
 
 4 Vergerius, supra, p. 101. 
 
 5 M. Vegio. A boy should not be sent to school in a city, ' ubi nulla 
 dignitas morum, nulla habitatorum generositas et elegantia habeatur ;...sunt 
 enim, ut hominum ita et civitatum, a natura insita singularia quaedam ac 
 propria ingenia.' ' Ad celebres doctisque refertas praeceptoribus urbes 
 mittantur.' De Educ. Liber., p. 214. 
 
 6 M. Vegio, Op. cit., p. 216.
 
 2OO 3- The Liberal Studies : 
 
 of sound Latin in the family circle, and should carefully regu- 
 late and supervise home preparation 1 . 
 
 The subjects of instruction available for children at this first 
 stage of their education would seem to have been these : reading, 
 taught by moveable letters, arithmetic, taught by games, writing 
 and drawing; the Psalms, Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Hymn to 
 the Virgin, learnt by heart ; Latin, acquired in conversation, 
 with the first rudiments of accidence as contained in a metrical 
 form, with a vocabulary or phrase book in Italian and Latin. 
 The vernacular language was probably ignored as a subject of 
 instruction, but the habit of exact enunciation and of refined 
 conversation in Italian was regarded as of much importance. 
 Children's stories existed in abundance. Vegio 2 tells us, from 
 his own experience, that it was customary to make children 
 acquainted at a very early age with the subjects of ancient his- 
 tory and mythology, with the view of rendering them familiar 
 with the contents of the literature which afterwards formed the 
 staple of their education. Partly in the form of lessons, partly 
 of conversations and for amusement, an introduction to Livy, 
 Vergil, Homer and Plutarch was thus provided for young 
 children. Vegio records that the stories of the Aeneid, told 
 by a skilful master by way of relaxation to the class, were 
 never forgotten. Training in virtue and manners was afforded 
 by careful religious observance, by teaching moral stories from 
 the Bible or Plutarch, and by the stress laid upon reverent 
 and modest demeanour at home. No criticism is less jus- 
 tifiable than that which charges against humanist education 
 that it ignored childhood. 
 
 The choice of the Tutor (praeceptor, paedagogus) is a 
 matter demanding much forethought. On the one hand he 
 must be selected mainly for his personal character 3 ; for his 
 relations with his charge and with the whole home circle are 
 
 1 Porcia, De Generosa Liber. Educ., p. 112. 
 
 2 De Liber. Educ., p. 262. 
 
 3 Porcia, Op. a'/., p. 110.
 
 The Choice of Masters, 201 
 
 necessarily close, and should be thoroughly easy and con- 
 fidential. But he should be at the same time a man of genuine 
 ability 1 . Too much care can scarcely be bestowed upon the 
 first rudiments of learning. Philip engaged Aristotle to teach 
 Alexander to read. It would be better almost that a boy 
 be left ignorant than be so ill-taught that the schoolmaster 
 has to undo the mischief of bad preparation. Thus the tutor 
 should be on all grounds a man who commands respect : 
 though parents are sadly careless upon this point 2 . The true 
 light in which to regard him is that he stands ' in loco pa- 
 rentis 3 ,' and this will carry with it the habit of treating him 
 with courtesy and of upholding his authority. The father 
 will do well to imitate the example of P. Aemilius who took 
 a close personal interest in the work of the schoolroom, for 
 this will encourage the tutor and stimulate his charge 4 . Indeed, 
 it belongs to the parents no less than to the master to inculcate 
 habits of study and love of knowledge. 
 
 Vittorino and Guarino were, as regards the Gonzaga and 
 the D'Este princes, at once tutors and schoolmasters (ma- 
 gistri). The tie which united Vittorino to his pupils was, as 
 we have seen, that of mutual affection, marked by respect and 
 veneration on one side and deep personal interest on the 
 other. This was the realisation of the humanist ideal. For 
 
 1 B. Guarino, De Ordine docendi, supra, p. 162. Vergerius, supra, 
 p. no. 
 
 2 Vegio, Op. cit., p. 220, denounces the indifference of many parents of 
 wealth to the education of their sons. 'They will not greet their boys' 
 Tutor, nor even acknowledge his existence. They pay him as little as they 
 can and that, too, with the air of one who is losing a tooth or an eye.' 
 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 137. 
 
 3 B. Guarino, Op. cit. , p. 4 : 'In praeceptore colligendo paternam sibi 
 constituant sanctitatem....' He adds that ' our ancestors held the Tutor to 
 stand in a quasi-parental relation to their pupils that so he might realise 
 more deeply the responsibility that was entrusted to him.' 
 
 4 Vegio, Op. cit., p. 219: ' Debebit autem paterfamilias, cum idoneum 
 erudiendo filio magistrum nactus fuerit, magnopere studere ut eum habeat 
 quam familiarissimum.'
 
 2O2 3- The Liberal Studies: 
 
 the master should have under his charge only so many pupils 
 as he can know and guide individually 1 . His responsibility 
 is that of the father of their moral and intellectual nature 2 ; 
 and by this presumption he will be determined in his devotion 
 to his work in the discipline 3 which he enforces, and in the 
 example 4 which he himself sets forth. 
 
 The humanist teacher, true to his aim of developing indi- 
 viduality, attaches the greatest importance to the observation 
 and encouragement of the personal taste and capacity of his 
 scholars. Both Vergerius 5 and Vegio devote much attention 
 to the recognition of varying disposition. But the study of the 
 intellectual powers of each individual child was a matter of 
 more urgency still. It is, in the first place, a duty of every 
 parent 6 to afford the right mental occupation to their young 
 children. When the master steps in to undertake their charge 
 he takes over this responsibility. Unless he be an acute 
 observer of mental bent and ability he will prove a failure. 
 Vittorino held it his first function to thoroughly understand his 
 
 1 Vegio, De Ed. Lib., p. 218, and B. Guarino, supra, p. 163, urge 
 smallness of numbers, especially in the earlier stages. With older boys 
 larger classes stimulate the master. 
 
 2 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 967 : ' non minus amabis praeceptores quam 
 ipsa studia, et parentes esse non quidem corporis sed mentis tuae iudicabis.' 
 Vegio, De ,duc. Liber., p. 223: 'non aliter ac filios omni cura et amore 
 prosequentur. ' 
 
 8 ' Placidi et mitis ingenii..., nam praeceptorum inhumanitas atque, ut 
 ita dixerim, ariditas maxime impedit profectum qui ad literas in ea aetate 
 sit.' Vegio, /. c. 
 
 * This was the strong point in Vittorino's discipline. ' II maestro 
 doveva sopratutto essere ai suoi discepoli uno specchio vivente di onesta e 
 costumatezza,' says Sabbadini, Guarino, p. 100, speaking of the method by 
 which these two great masters enforced their unique authority. 
 
 6 For Vergerius, vide supra, p. 97 seqq.; Vegio, Op. dt., Lib. i. 18. 
 
 8 Vergerius, Op. cit., p. 446 : ' Principio igitur erit unicuique suum 
 ingenium per se spectandum... parentes ceterique quibus curae erimus 
 animadvertere debebunt et in "quas res natura proni aptique fuerimus eo 
 potissimum studia nostra conferri et in eis totos versari conveniet.'
 
 Observation of Children. 203 
 
 material and then to adapt both subjects and methods to its 
 needs 1 . Prendilacqua has an important passage, illustrating 
 Vittorino's practice, which confirms all that we gather from 
 other sources on this head. ' In truth, so Vittorino used to 
 say, we are not to expect that every boy will display the same 
 tastes or the same degree of mental capacity ; and whatever 
 our own predilection may be we recognise that we must follow 
 Nature's lead. Now she has endowed no one with aptitude for 
 all kinds of knowledge, very few indeed have talent in three or 
 four directions, but everyone has received some gift, if only we 
 can discover it. Then he went on to compare the human 
 intellect to the soil, with its varying degree of fertility, here 
 good, here poor, but even the worst capable of some return to 
 suitable cultivation. Hence he sought out that subject and 
 that method of instruction which he believed to be best adapted 
 to each individual intelligence. Upon the dullest he would 
 bestow infinite pains, that by devising simple tasks or some 
 special form of training he might meet the needs even of the 
 least promising scholars 2 .' Vergerius shews much insight into 
 the differences of mental capacity 3 . Where the intelligence 
 has a fine and keen edge difficulties of subject-matter serve 
 only to stimulate exertion. Danger then lies rather in reliance 
 upon cleverness to the neglect of memory, by which alone 
 knowledge is secured for future use. But in the case of those 
 whose intellect is dull to be compared to lead rather than to 
 steel the master must provide the constant stimulus of oral 
 
 1 Prof. Brambilla, in his edition of Prendilacqua, p. 97, says, ' E cosl 
 fatta osservazione (attenta, perspicua, continua) fu, per cosl esprimermi, il 
 capolavoro del massimo Vittorino e la vera forza del suo metodo 
 educativo.' 
 
 2 Prendilacqua, p. 42. 
 
 8 Vergerius, supra, p. 109. His preference for the practical and 
 concrete interests of one type of mind as contrasted with the spec- 
 ulative and abstract studies which appeal to another is essentially 
 Italian.
 
 2O4 3- The Liberal Studies : 
 
 teaching and questioning '. Let the master study carefully the 
 taste of such boys, in order that they may devote themselves to 
 those studies which they are likely to pursue with most pleasure 
 and profit. We may not count upon capacity for Letters in 
 every child : and Literature though the best, is not the only 
 educational instrument. It is obvious that business, agricul- 
 ture, or the profession of arms are all careers for which due 
 preparation may be made in other ways 2 . The end to be kept 
 in view must be to interest and occupy the learner's mind and 
 to devise a curriculum accordingly. 
 
 There is, however, practically little definite suggestion as to 
 the course of instruction to be followed by those whose tastes 
 do not fit them for classical learning. We shall see how 
 difficult it is to form any clear conception of an instrument of 
 instruction which was not either Letters or the training of 
 arms. It is unlikely that the elder Guarino, his son Battista, 
 or Lionardo Bruni contemplated an education in which Letters 
 should occupy an inferior place. At least, it may be said with 
 confidence that taste for, and proficiency in, classics was held 
 by every Humanist to indicate with certainty the possession of 
 the higher type of intelligence. 
 
 The observation of individual character and ability naturally 
 determines the methods of Discipline 3 . By discipline the 
 Master both stimulates and restrains. The friendly personal 
 
 1 Vergerius, De Ingenuis Moribits, p. 482. 
 
 2 Vegio, Op. cit., p. 290 : ' Non omnium ingenia literis affecta deditaque 
 esse possunt.' Even those who are best trained by methods of literature 
 should not confine themselves to that subject alone. Vergerius, Op. tit., 
 p. 477, remarks : ' ita sunt coniunctae doctrinae omnes ut nulla quaevis, 
 ignoratis prorsus aliis, egregie percipi valeat.' Bruni lays great stress 
 on the necessity of uniting ' scientia rerum' with 'peritia literarum.' 
 Supra, p. 132. 'Res,' however, .by no means implies external and 
 concrete realities. It covers simply contents as distinct from literary form. 
 
 3 Vegio, Op. '/., p. 195 : ' Summa vero ante omnia opus erit prudentia 
 atque mentis iudicio in cognoscenda filiorum natura, discernendaque varia 
 ingeniorum indole, ut in emendandis eonim moribus...adhibeantur cuique 
 vitio atque animi morbo contraria etiam affectionis remedia.'
 
 Discipline. 205 
 
 relation of teacher and pupil is the prime factor in either 
 regard '. The scholar responds to the quasi-parental affection 
 of the Master. He is encouraged by praise 2 , which must, 
 however, be sparingly used, partly lest jealousy be aroused. 
 Healthy emulation, between individual boys or sections of a 
 class 3 , is needful in early stages of school life; flattery, some- 
 times resorted to, is but weak indulgence ; boys are not pet 
 dogs 4 . A desire for personal distinction may, in later years, 
 be safely relied upon ; and as the boy nears manhood the 
 force of reason will supersede all forms of external stimulus 5 . 
 The restraint of corporal punishment will rarely be needed ; 
 with younger boys it is to be strongly condemned. In all cases 
 it is an indignity, and carries with it 'servile quiddam 6 ': it 
 engenders indifference to, or positive dislike of, learning, and 
 not seldom arouses a passionate hatred to the master. If, like 
 a wise physician, the teacher carefully observes the nature of 
 the moral disease 7 , he will learn to rely upon patient rather 
 than forcible remedies. Thus the master must possess a calm 
 but firm temperament ; he may indulge the expression of 
 indignation but he must keep it well under control ; he must 
 
 1 Sabbadini, Guarino, p. 100 : ' La base fondamentale del Metodo 
 didattico di Guarino era 1' intimo legame del Maestro con gli scolari.' 
 
 2 Vegio, p. 227 ; and p. 234 : ' Ita ergo modice laudandi sunt ut laudis 
 amore aequales suos virtute ac literis superare, non indignari illis, aut 
 irasci, aut odio infensos esse, contendant.' 
 
 3 Especially urged by Vegio, from his own experience. He gives an 
 interesting personal reminiscence of a method employed by his own Master, 
 a humanist teacher of eminence. The class was divided into small groups, 
 who were exercised in disputation, under the direction of the ablest boy, in 
 the presence of the Master. ' Non possum satis dicere quantum me, ne 
 inferior aliis saltern iudicarer, ad sustinendam omnem vigiliarum studiorum- 
 que molem incendebat.' De Educatione Liber., p. 228. 
 
 4 Vegio, p. 203. 
 
 5 Vergerius, supra, p. 97, and B. Guarino, supra, p. 163. 
 
 6 B. Guarino, /. c. 
 
 7 For instance, irascible natures need to be controlled by a low diet. 
 Vergerius, supra, p. 99.
 
 2o6 3. The Liberal Studies: 
 
 lay aside harshness, sarcasm and vindictiveness in all his 
 dealings with boys'. 
 
 There is no doubt that the discipline of Vittorino, on the 
 side both of stimulus and of restraint, was a successful applica- 
 tion of these principles. The secret of this success has already 
 been indicated. It is to be noted further that small classes 
 and much individual teaching 2 are essential factors, and where 
 the further condition of genuine devotion to the work itself is 
 present, as was the case with Guarino, and apparently with 
 certain of Vittorino's pupils, we can well understand that the 
 need for severity seldom arose. Further, it would seem to be 
 of importance to consider the circumstances of the teaching art 
 itself at the time. The oral type of instruction, rendered 
 necessary by the absence of text-books, the personal, and 
 therefore elastic, methods of treating the entire apparatus of 
 learning, which belonged to a tentative stage of education, and 
 a certain patriotic enthusiasm for the literature which formed 
 its staple subject-matter, all contributed to secure a higher level 
 of interest, and, therefore, an easier discipline, in the early, as 
 contrasted with the later, period of Humanism 3 . We know 
 
 1 Vegio, Op. cit., p. 234 : ' Talem, in summa, se exhibebit discipulis, ut 
 sit austerus sine tristitia, comis sine scurrilitate ;...irascatur sed modice, 
 obiurget sed non contumeliose, corrigat sed non acerbe,' etc. 
 
 2 Rosmini, Guarino, i. 86. Guarino devoted the entire evening to 
 private tuition of his pupils, who came to him with any subject which they 
 happened to be reading. The pupils who lived in his own house were 
 systematically taught in this way : ' a questi ripeteva la sera insino a notte 
 molto innoltrata le cose insegnate (i.e. in his public lectures), e secondo la 
 loro inclinazione e i bisogni in varie altre scienze istruiva.' The section 
 of Rosmini 's work dealing with Guarino's actual practice at Ferrara, 
 i. 78 seqq., is still well worthy of study : it has not been superseded 
 by Sabbadini's recent and in most respects far more accurate and 
 instructive biography. 
 
 s This important characteristic of the first period of humanist education 
 is not recognised by Paulssen or Schmidt in their histories of education, 
 nor by any of the critics of the education of the Renaissance.
 
 Reading as an Art. 207 
 
 that punishments were savage in the common schools of 
 Petrarch's day 1 , and again that they were hardly less so a 
 century later when Erasmus was a boy 2 . But, beyond a doubt, 
 the early humanists not only contemplated, but actually ex- 
 hibited, an educational practice in which the capacity of the 
 teacher and the inherent attractiveness of his subjects made 
 the ideal discipline both possible and effective. 
 
 The art of Reading was diligently cultivated. The earliest 
 steps were gained by means of moveable letters employed 
 in the form of play 3 . The first object aimed at was the 
 attainment of clear and effective enunciation 4 , which received 
 attention from the outset of school life. The faults to be 
 avoided are repeatedly dwelt upon. Tone must be full, not 
 thin, shrill, or tremulous, like that of a woman, whilst all 
 overbearing loudness must be avoided 5 . To secure this, 
 each organ of the voice 6 must do its part : the breathing 7 , 
 
 1 Supra, p. 64. 
 
 2 Erasmus, De Pueris statim etc. , Op. \. 504 ; a most significant auto- 
 biographical passage. He adds : ' nee ulli crudelius excarnificant pueros 
 quam qui nihil habent quid illos doceant,' p. 505. 
 
 3 Supra, p. 38. Platina, p. 21: 'literarum formas variis coloribus 
 pictas ad lusum pueris proponebat' (of Vittorino). 
 
 4 Guarino writing to Leonello d'Este : 'Primum quidem non introrsum 
 aut sub lingua immurmurare, sed clariore pronunciare voce jubebat' 
 [Chrysoloras]. Rosmini, Guarino, i. 113. Vegio, Op. cit., p. 249: 
 ' Exercenda erit eorum vox, debitisque ac castigatis rationibus informanda.' 
 Aen. Sylvius, Opera, p. 975, ' Formanda est inprimis vox.' 
 
 B Aen. Sylvius, I.e. : ' ne [vox] feminea exilitate frangatur, neve 
 similiter tremat, aut nimium boet.' B. 'Guarino, De Ordine, p. ifc 'vox 
 clamosa et violenta raucitatem inducit.' Vegio, I.e. 'vox distincta sit, 
 robusta, sonora.' 
 
 6 B. Guarino, Op. cit., p. 6: 'obscura est intra dentes murmuratio et 
 verborum conculcatio.' 
 
 7 Aen. Sylvius, I.e.: ' expressa sint verba, suisque literis totis enun- 
 cientur ; non excidant extremae syllabae, non audiatur vox in faucibus, 
 atque expedita sit lingua et os, absolutior, expressiorque sermo.' Platina, 
 p. 21 : ' vetabat eos aut in faucibus aut in extremis labiis, quod exsibilla- 
 tionem prae se ferrent et audientes laederent, enunciare.'
 
 2o8 3. The Liberal Studies : 
 
 the throat, the teeth, the lips. Each word must be completely 
 uttered ; the final syllable must not be slurred, nor may the 
 words run indistinctly into each other. Exercises were devised 
 to secure practice in words involving various difficulties of 
 utterance 1 . It was important, also, that enunciation should 
 not be accompanied by marks of undue effort, such as 
 grimaces or uncouth gestures 2 . 
 
 In pronunciation and intonation the most important element 
 is careful, deliberate pace 3 , which enables the reader to grasp 
 the meaning of the passage and consequently to express it with 
 judgment and taste. As the sense may demand, the reader 
 will increase the speed 4 , lower or raise the tone, and indicate 
 the rhythm with which a great prose-writer instinctively adorns 
 his composition 5 . The observance of the pause, in order 
 to mark parenthesis, clause or period, of accent, and of 
 quantity, is essential to all good reading. The mere me- 
 chanical delivery of a succession of words and sentences is not 
 reading at all 6 . 
 
 Good reading serves various ends. Grace, self-possession 
 and readiness in conversation and public speaking 7 are amongst 
 
 1 Aen. Sylvius, I.e. ; supra, p. 143. So Quintilian, i. i. s. f. 
 
 2 Vegio, Op. cit., p. 249. He urges practice of controlling movements 
 of the mouth and all gestures during reading : the uncouthness of the 
 rustic and the elaborate facial play of the actor are both objectionable. 
 Vittorino was most particular in this matter : Platina, p. 24. 
 
 3 L. Bruni, De Studiis et Literis, p. 8 : ' Illud ex hac lectione conse- 
 quetur, ut verba suo tempore proferat, neve properet, cum immorandum 
 est, neve cum properandum sit immoretur.' 
 
 4 Vegio, Op. cit., p. 249 : 'quando vel attolli, vel moderari, vel deprimi 
 debeat [vox] ; ubi suspendendus est spiritus, ubi claudendus sensus.' 
 
 8 L. Bruni, Op. cit., p. 8 : 'ea ergo cum alte leget manifestius deprehendet 
 repleri aures veluti harmonia quadam.' 
 
 6 B. Guarino, De Ordine, supra, p. 174. 
 
 7 Aen. Sylvius, Opera, p. 974: 'ut cum virilem togam induerit non 
 solum loqui sed ornate loqui prudenterque valeat.' B. Guarino considers 
 that ' audaciam ' in public speaking would be much assisted by practice in 
 reading : /. c .
 
 The First Steps in Grammar. 209 
 
 them. The habit of reading Greek or Latin aloud is a valuable 
 aid to entering into general drift and meaning of the pas- 
 sage. So Chrysoloras advised, and Guarino urgently enforces 
 the practice 1 . Matter thus read is far more securely im- 
 pressed upon the mind. The exercise, too, reacts beneficially 
 upon the reader's own style, and, especially in view of com- 
 position, it is desirable to read aloud model passages before 
 attempting to write either in prose or in verse 2 . Apart from 
 the intellectual and social advantages involved, definite physical 
 benefits accrue. Vittorino urged reading aloud as a better 
 remedy for cold than artificial warmth. B. Guarino agrees 
 with Plutarch and Pliny that nothing is more favourable to the 
 digestive processes than vigorous reading and recitation 3 . 
 
 The custom of speaking Latin at home, so much encouraged 
 by humanist teachers, served as the natural introduction to the 
 more systematic study of Grammar. This was begun very 
 early, soon after the close of the fifth year. During our period 
 the Doctrinale of Alexander de Villa Dei the Latin accidence 
 in hexameters seems to have served as the first text book, 
 which would be in parts learnt by heart. This was gradually 
 supplemented by the Elementarium of Papias, the Regulae of 
 Guarino, or Donatus, and superseded in the case of more 
 advanced scholars by Priscian. Where means permitted, each 
 pupil would possess a copy of these works, but in the great 
 majority of cases he would be required to take down from 
 dictation such passages from the text book in use as the master 
 should select. 
 
 It is probable that by degrees each successful teacher 
 provided his own manual for the use of his pupils : and that 
 
 1 Rosmini, Guarino, I.e., 'cum aures ipsae, quasi aliud extrinsecus 
 sonat, mentem moveant, te ad cognoscendum acrius exsuscitent.' See 
 also Sabbadini, Vita di Guarino, p. 103, where this letter is referred to. 
 
 3 L. Bruni, supra, p. 125. Vittorino's practice in regard to composition, 
 supra, p. 56. 
 
 3 Supra, p. 35; B. Guarino, supra, p. 174; Guarino Veronese 
 (Rosmini, I.e.) values Reading on this ground. 
 
 W. 14
 
 2io 3- The Liberal Studies: 
 
 this was cast in the form of question and answer, like that of 
 Ognibene da Lonigo 1 , or that of Chrysoloras, which was the 
 accepted accidence of Greek. This was accompanied by a 
 small phrase book, such as Filelfo compiled, and such as we 
 see in the large Grammar of Perotti 2 , where Latin and Italian 
 sentences are given side by side. Further, selected passages 
 either extracts from Classical writers, or model letters of 
 Barzizza or Guarino, or short narratives composed to exhibit 
 syntactical rules 3 were then introduced, and recitation, from 
 Ovid or Vergil, required. 
 
 But 'Grammatica' in its broadest sense was sometimes held 
 to include the whole range of Latin literature and composition, 
 which, otherwise, under the terms 'Literae' and 'Rhetorica,' 
 were regarded as the edifice of which grammar was but the 
 foundation. Indeed Latin and Greek grammar was still in 
 the inductive stage ; it could only be studied by the actual 
 reading of the great writers 4 ; orthography, accidence, syntax, 
 prosody and style were alike far from being crystallised in 
 authoritative rule and usage 5 . On the deductive side, as a 
 practical art, grammar was still only in the making. But we 
 trace at the same time, the growth of the conception of 
 Grammar as a body of rules to be deductively applied in read- 
 ing and in composition. So Vergerius 6 treats it thus as the 
 introduction to Letters; its function is to determine ortho- 
 graphy, inflexion, the order of words and clauses. Grammar 
 is the essential instrument of teaching, and its study lies at the 
 
 1 Supra, p. 88. 2 Supra, p. 40 (note). 3 Supra, p. 45. 
 
 4 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 148, and L. Bruni, supra, p. 124. 
 
 8 I refer, of course, to the substitution of classical for mediaeval standards 
 of Grammar and usage, a slow and laborious process tentatively begun by 
 Petrarch, continued by Barzizza and Vittorino, but hardly attained during 
 the lifetime of Guarino (ob. 1460). 
 
 6 Vergerius, Epistolae, ed. Combi, p. 5 : ' Grammatica, primordialis 
 scientia pedagoga, dirigit et administrat singulas facultates. . . . Haec funda- 
 mentum solidum cuiuslibet alterius disciplinae.' Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, 
 p. 976 : ' Grammatica doctrinae cuiusvis ostium dignoscitur.'
 
 The place of Grammar. 2 1 1 
 
 root of all intellectual progress. So, too, Vittorino 1 , treating it 
 as an introductory subject, ' diligentissime omnia in erudiendo 
 primum adolescente prosequenda arbitratur.' B. Guarino 2 , 
 who terms this function of grammar Methodice, or the ex- 
 position of the formulae of language, speaks of it as the ' foun- 
 dation of the house ' : it ' treats of everything which concerns 
 the right construction of the sentence' 3 . So Perotti 4 defines 
 it 'ars recte loquendi recteque scribendi, scriptorum et poetarum 
 lectionibus observata.' It is again 5 'ratio (method) congrui 
 sermonis'; here, with Aeneas Sylvius 6 , we pass into a wider 
 view of its function, for it embraces ' recte loquendi scientia ' 
 (conversation and oratory), 'poetica et aliorum auctorum 
 enarratio' (composition in prose and verse), ' scribendique 
 ratio ' (the epistolary style). 
 
 It is important to notice the weight attached to orthography 
 and etymology 7 , to the use of diphthongs, to transliteration of 
 Greek names 8 , and to the distinction of archaisms 9 . By care- 
 ful instruction in early years, by much repetition 10 , by practice 
 in oral and written exercises 11 , but above all by constant obser- 
 vation in reading 12 , this essential body of knowledge could be so 
 firmly acquired as to become almost a mechanical aptitude. 
 
 1 Sassuolo da Prato, p. 56. 
 
 2 De Ordine docendi, p. 7: 'Ut enim in aedificiis...ita et in studiorum 
 ratione nisi principia optime calleant quo magis progrediuntur eo magis 
 imbecillitatem suam sentiunt.' He borrows the technical terms directly 
 from Quintilian i. 9. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 10. 4 Grammatices Rudimenta, f. 3. 
 
 8 Vergerius, De Ingemds Moribus, p. 473. 6 Opera, p. 976. 
 
 7 Vergerius, Epistolae, p. 5. Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 979. Vegio, Op. 
 cit., p. 244. 8 B. Guarino, Op. tit., supra, p. 164. 
 
 9 Aen. Sylvius, supra, p. 147. Vegio, l.c. The affectation of archaism 
 is condemned by Quintilian, i. 7. 
 
 10 E.g. B. Guarino, Op. cit., p. 7: ' Saepe repetens (magister), iterum 
 iterumque memoriam in iis puerorum exerceat.' 
 
 11 B. Guarino, I.e., if boys are so trained 'expeditam consequentur et in 
 scribendo et in loquendo promptitudinem, quam illud quoque vehementer 
 augebit si Latine loqui continue assuefiant.' 
 
 12 Aen. Sylvius, supra, p. 148. Brani, supra, p. 124. 
 
 142
 
 212 3- The Liberal Studies: 
 
 There was no difficulty in deciding upon the choice of 
 Latin writers for the young scholar. After an introductory 
 book of simple narrative, Phaedrus or Valerius Maximus 1 , 
 the Aeneid, and the Letters* or the Catiline speeches 3 of 
 Cicero were at once entered upon. 'To begin with the 
 best' 4 was the uniform precept of the Humanists. The Epic 
 strain 5 was specially attractive to boys, whilst the style of 
 Cicero 6 was lucid and his subject matter generally easy of 
 comprehension. Ovid was sometimes read before Vergil, and 
 Lucan and Sallust 7 placed in close connexion. 
 
 In viewing the general estimate of Latin literature for 
 school purposes we turn first to the poets. The question was 
 fiercely debated by the opponents of the new education as to 
 the suitability of the classical poets for the training of the 
 young 8 . The Dominican Father Giovanni 9 , of Sta Maria 
 
 1 M. Vegio, Op. cit., p. 255 : the moral fable is the best introduction to 
 literature for the youthful mind. B. Guarino, supra, p. 169. 
 
 2 Porcia, De Generosa Liber. Educ., p. 112. At the period of beginning 
 school, 'Ciceronis Epistolas audiant, his studeant, has sibi familiares faciant, 
 bibant,...has et loquendo et scribendo semper imitari nitantur.' 
 
 3 The Catiline speeches are urged by Vegio, I.e. 
 
 4 Vergerius, supra, p. no. Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 152. 
 
 B Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 981: [Magister] ' et subtilitate Heroici 
 carminis animus puerilis assurget et ex magnitudine rerum spiritum ducet 
 et optimis imbuetur. ' Vegio, Op. cit., p. 255, 'ab unguiculis pueros assue- 
 facere praestat,' i.e. to heroic poetry. 
 
 6 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 984 : ' Cicero iucundus incipientibus et 
 apertus est satis.' 
 
 7 Giovanni Dominici, Regola del Governo, p. 134, speaks of Ovid as the 
 poet usually read first. Vittorino read Lucan along with Vergil. Porcia, 
 Op. cit., p. 112 urges that Sallust, ' historicorum princeps,' should be one of 
 the earliest authors studied. 
 
 8 L. Bruni, supra, p. 130, Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 149. Guarino's 
 famous controversy at Ferrara with G. da Prato turned on this subject : 
 Sabbadini, Vita di Guarino, p. 147. 
 
 9 Supra, p. 1 20. Regola del Governo, I.e.: 'Ora si crescono i moderni 
 figluoli e cosl invecchia 1' apostatrice natura nel grembo degl' infedeli, nel 
 mezzo degli atti disonesti sollicitanti la ancora impotente natura al peccato, 
 ed insegnando tutti i vituperosi mali si possono pensare, nello studio
 
 The reading of the Poets. 213 
 
 Novella, specially denounced their study on the score of the 
 mythological and licentious stories from which they drew their 
 themes. No doubt he but expressed a vein of sentiment 
 common at the time (circ. 1400). Most Humanists took an 
 opportunity of rebutting such strictures. They pointed out 
 that the great Fathers, Basil, Jerome, and Augustine, following 
 the example of Paul himself 1 , quoted the poets or advised 
 their study. May not Augustine and Lactantius 2 be said in- 
 deed to have reverenced Vergil ? No one is seriously disturbed 
 by the old mythology as a body of beliefs ; whilst there is 
 much even in them which reveals the praise of virtue, of faith- 
 fulness and self-sacrifice 3 . Poetry, moreover, is not to be taken 
 literally; many truths are conveyed by figure. Again, when 
 the poet portrays moral weakness or vice, we recognise the 
 skill of the artist who developes his characters consistently 4 ; it 
 is not his purpose to exhibit evil for its own sake. It was 
 allowed that the reading of the ancient poets needed careful 
 discrimination 5 . A woman would avoid Juvenal 8 , although 
 
 d' Ovidio maggiore, delle pistole de Arte Amandi e piu meretriciosi suoi 
 libri e carnali scritture. Cosl si passa per Vergilio, tragedia, e altri. ... 
 E che peggio e, quella teneruccia mente si riempie del modo del sacrificio 
 fatti agli falsi iddii...prima diventando pagani che Cristiani e prima chia- 
 mando dio luppiter o Saturno, Venus o Cibeles, che il sommo Padre, 
 Figliuolo, e Spirito Santo ; donde precede la vera fede essere dispregiata, 
 Dio non riverito, scognosciuto il vero, fondato il peccato Tutto precede 
 dalla velenosa malizia dell' antico serpente.' 
 
 1 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 150: B. Guarino, supra, p. 170. 
 
 2 L. Bruni, I.e. 
 
 3 Bruni quotes especially Penelope and Alcestis, supra, p. 131. 
 
 4 B. Guarino, supra, p. 175. So the elder Guarino, defending Terence, 
 affirmed in reply to G. da Prato, that if the dramatist represents his 
 characters as vicious or evil-tongued this is due to the necessities of the play 
 as a work of art, and is not a symptom of moral perversity in the writer. 
 Sabbadini, Guarino, p. 147. 
 
 5 Vegio, Op. cit., p. 250: 'Non negamus multorum qui poemata scrip- 
 serunt interdicendam esse pueris lectionem' ; this applies to the elegists, and 
 some lyric poems of Horace and Catullus. Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 983. 
 
 6 L. Bruni, supra, p. 132.
 
 214 3- TJte Liberal Studies: 
 
 there is nothing in his satires ' non laudabile, non Christiano 
 homini maxime congruum'; a boy should not be directed 
 to the Elegiac poets, or to the Comic dramatists, or to the 
 Satirists, who should be read at a later stage 1 . But who can 
 desire to be ignorant of Vergil ? 
 
 The standpoint of the Humanist teacher is intelligible. 
 Most of the practical virtues are common to Christianity and 
 to the higher type of Paganism 2 . So far as the poets celebrate 
 these, and enforce them by their art, they may serve as models 
 alike of life and of literary form 8 . The superstitions of mytho- 
 logy are at least harmless: if we can interpret them as allegories, 
 they may even be helpful, whilst the poetic gift which clothes 
 them in attractive dress is always admirable. Episodes there 
 are, as indeed in Scripture, by no means edifying 4 ; but their 
 number is insignificant in comparison with nobler themes. 
 Truths of natural philosophy 5 , lessons of practical life, are 
 scattered throughout the greater poems of antiquity. But, 
 further, there is a direct correspondence between the instincts 
 of our intellectual and emotional nature and the poetic 
 harmonies 6 . Poetry is thus indicated as the fitting instrument 
 of the finer training of the spirit. Its variety of form, and of 
 subject ; the ease with which it may be learnt, and retained as 
 an adornment of life ; its power of inspiring the mind from our 
 earliest youth, all alike compel us to give noble poetry a high 
 place in education. In a word, without a sound knowledge of 
 the poets no one can attain to 'praestantia literarum.' 7 
 
 1 Vegio, I.e.; so Vittorino: 'Satirici qui graviores fuerint tantum 
 admittentur ' (Vegio): 'Persium et Horatium non omittebat...posthabito in 
 lectione publica luvenale, quod aperte nimium et obscene loqueretur': 
 (Platina, p. 22, of Vittorino). 
 
 2 L. Bruni, supra, p. 131. 
 
 8 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 983 : ' Cum excellentium virorum dicta aut 
 facta commemorant, tune tota mente mover! et inflammari lector debet.' 
 Like bees we may extract honey even from poisonous flowers. 
 
 4 L. Bruni, supra, p. 131. 8 Ibid. p. 129. 
 
 6 Ibid. p. 130. 7 Ibid. p. 131.
 
 The sttidy of the Historians. 215 
 
 The poets to be preferred, after Vergil, whose 'ars,' 
 'eloquentia' and 'gloria" are unsurpassable, are Lucan, the 
 'rhetorical' poet, and Statins 2 : Ovid's Fasti and Metamor- 
 phoses are more suitable than his other poems : Seneca's 
 Tragedies 3 are prized for the gravity both of their style and 
 sentiments. Horace 4 is 'parum minor Vergilio'; Claudian 5 
 is the purest of the later poets. Terence and Plautus are 
 excellent for the conversational style 6 : though Vittorino and 
 Guarino differed as to the advisability of reading the comic 
 dramatists with school-boys. There is no mention of Lucretius 7 . 
 Martial 8 is rigorously forbidden. 
 
 Emphatic claims are made for a prominent place amongst 
 liberal studies on behalf of History 9 . A well known passage 
 of Cicero 10 was quoted in support of this judgment of the 
 Humanist. But for educational purposes the term covers only 
 
 1 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 984; Platina, p. 21 (quoting Vittorino). 
 
 2 B. Guarino, supra, p. 1 70. Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 603 : ' Statius 
 sententiis gravibus usque refertus.' 
 
 3 B. Guarino, I.e. 4 Aeneas Sylvius, I.e. 
 5 Aeneas Sylvius, I.e. 
 
 8 Vittorino admired them 'quod hi plurimum eloquentiae conferrent. 
 Eorum tamen lasciviam nocere ingeniis non bene substitutis affirmabat.' 
 Platina, p. 22. 
 
 7 The Italian scholars were entirely ignorant of Lucretius until the 
 discovery of a complete copy by Poggio, a transcript of which reached 
 Guarino late in 1416 or early in 1417. F. Barbara, on July 6 of this latter 
 year, writes to congratulate Poggio on the discovery of this amongst other 
 lost classics. But nothing more was heard of the original MS. until after 
 the death of Niccoli, who had jealously kept it to himself. We do not know 
 what use was made of Guarino's copy. But neither in point of style nor of 
 matter would Lucretius appeal favourably to the Humanists of this period. 
 Vid. Sabbadini, Guarino, p. 37, for the dates. 
 
 8 Aeneas Sylvius, l.c . : ' perniciosus ' is his epithet for Martial. 
 
 9 Vergerius, for instance, places it first in the category of liberal studies ; 
 supra, p. 1 06. Guarino says ' plurimum sane et ad studia et ad vitam 
 conducit ' in writing to a pupil. Museo Italiano di Ant. Class. II. ii. 415. 
 
 10 De Oratore, ii. 9, 36: 'Historia testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita 
 memoriae, magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis.'
 
 216 3. The Liberal Studies: 
 
 the literary presentation of the history of Rome and, in a less 
 degree, of Greece. When Bruni 1 speaks of the importance of 
 studying 'the origins of our own history' he is thinking of 
 Aeneas or Romulus, of Scipio or Augustus. The records of 
 the period subsequent to the decline of the old Empire 
 are hardly worthy of consideration. Vernacular histories or 
 monastic annals are to be studiously eschewed. A history *, 
 for instance, of the Bohemian or Hungarian nation may 
 possibly yield some grains of worth, but to search for them is, 
 even for a prince whose destiny it is to rule over these peoples, 
 an empty labour. Such productions, the work of uncultured 
 minds, are destitute of all merit, whether of accuracy, of style, 
 or of didactic usefulness. The great histories, which alone 
 deserve attention, are at the same time literary monuments. 
 To study these is the right educational use of history. 
 
 History, thus studied, fulfils various functions. It is of 
 much value, first of all, to those who may be called to handle 
 affairs 3 . For by it we acquire insight into the institutions 
 and customs of other countries 4 ; we learn the secret of the 
 development of our own. Again, we perceive the virtues which 
 in the past have proved beneficial, the vices which have proved 
 fatal, to the state : we are able to trace the policy which has 
 built up or undermined its power. From history we learn the 
 varying fortunes of kings and of free peoples, and thus deter- 
 mine our own state-craft to-day. For no one, whether he be 
 soldier or statesman, can from his own individual experience 
 
 1 Supra, p. 128. 
 
 2 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 984 : ' Nullo autem pacto vel Bohemorum 
 historias vel Ungarorum atque his similes... tradi puero permiserim. Sunt 
 enim ab indoctis scriptae, multas ineptias continent, multa mendacia, 
 nullas sententias, nullos ornatus.' 
 
 3 Bruni, supra, I.e. ; Vergerius, supra, p. 106. Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, 
 p. 604 : in his advice to Sigismund he dwells at length upon the value of 
 history in training the judgment : and supra, p. 141. 
 
 4 Bruni, supra, p. 128 : B. Guarino, supra, p. 169.
 
 The value of History. 217 
 
 gain that breadth of wisdom which the study of books provides 1 . 
 But there is another aspect of history, which renders it still more 
 attractive as an instrument of education. If the philosopher 
 lays down principles by which conduct should be guided, the 
 historian alone can illustrate it by concrete examples 2 . We 
 wish to know not only what ought to be done, but what has 
 been done in the past, and the manner of doing it. History, 
 written by men of notable gifts of style, affords us lessons, not 
 only impressive in themselves, but couched in a form which 
 renders them readily available whether for instruction or for 
 public utterances. We may affirm with confidence that this 
 didactic use of history determined the method by which it was 
 taught in the Humanist schools 3 . Moreover, it was urged 4 
 that history, an attractive study to every learned man, is 
 peculiarly easy as an educational subject. It is mainly a 
 matter of memory. ' There is nothing in its study subtle or 
 complex,' says Bruni ; ' it consists in the narration of the 
 simplest matters of fact, which, once grasped, are retained 
 without difficulty.' 
 
 We see that history is not regarded by the Humanists upon 
 its constructive side, as the creation, from diverse sources, of 
 a continuous picture of a nation's development. Nor is it 
 held to be a subject of critical enquiry 5 . Mediaeval or con- 
 temporary histories are scarcely contemplated, if we except 
 
 1 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 603 : ' Nunquam tarn multa experiundo 
 videbis quam multa legendo perdisces.' 
 
 2 Vergerius, supra, I.e. ; Bruni, supra, I.e. Petrarch, De viris 
 ilhtstribus, ed. Razzolini, i. 6. ' Hie enim, nisi fallor, fructuosus histori- 
 corum finis est, ilia persequi quae vel sectanda legentibus vel fugienda 
 sunt.' 
 
 3 That this was true even of Erasmus is shown by Benoist, Quid de 
 Puerorum Jsc., p. 138. 
 
 4 Bruni, supra, I.e. 
 
 5 We should, however, bear in mind the tentative critical method 
 of Valla, who was in some respects the most powerful intellect of this 
 period.
 
 21 8 3- TJie Liberal Studies: 
 
 the conspicuous instance of Biondo 1 , or the purely literary 
 effort of Poggio 2 . The sources of history, indeed, are fixed, 
 they are entirely literary, and their authority is determined by 
 attractions of style, and by their aptness for moral edifica- 
 tion. Vittorino, confronted by scepticism as to the accuracy 
 of Livy, indignantly rejects the suggestion that a sound Latinist, 
 an elegant narrator, and a Paduan, could possibly be his- 
 torically untrustworthy 3 . 
 
 Valerius Maximus* was much employed in schools, since 
 he provides a store of examples for the moralist. Justin, 
 Q. Curtius, Florus 5 , and the Latin version of Arrian by Ver- 
 gerius are recommended for beginners. Plutarch, in Latin, 
 or at a later stage, in the original Greek, was the favourite 
 historian : for the biographical method lent itself specially 
 to the inculcation of moral precepts 6 . A translation of the 
 life of Camillus or Pelopidas was an acceptable offering to 
 a patron, and to read or declaim such a version a profitable 
 exercise of the school. By Bruni 7 Caesar was regarded as 
 the chief historian. But Vegio and Porcia, following the 
 common opinion, preferred Sallust 8 ; Vittorino Livy, whom 
 indeed he first introduced into schools. Suetonius 9 was not 
 
 1 Historiarum ab inclinatione Romanorum Decades. Basil, 1559. 
 
 2 Historia Florentina, in eight Books. It was translated by his son 
 Jacopo and often printed in that form. 
 
 3 Platina, p. 22. 
 
 4 B. Guarino, supra, p. 169. For Vittorino's judgment, Platina, p. 22: 
 ' Valerii Maximi lectionem frequentabat propter varietatem historiarum et 
 copiam exemplorum.' 
 
 6 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 152. For Florus, Sabbadini mMuseo !tal. t I.e. 
 
 6 Guarino writes of Plutarch to Leonello d'Este (Rosmini, Guarino, 
 i. 1 1 8) that the Lives are the best training for the practical duties of a 
 Prince. He proposes to present him with a special selection of passages 
 throwing light upon this grave subject. 
 
 7 Supra, p. 128. 
 
 8 Porcia, Op. cit., p. 112: ' Maiori cura Sallustium historicorum prin- 
 cipem in manibus habeant, foveant, amplectantur.' 
 
 9 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 152.
 
 The Argiwients for Oratory. 219 
 
 permitted to boys ; Tacitus ', hardly known as yet to scholars, 
 and, as a stylist, always doubtfully viewed, is never mentioned. 
 Further, carefully selected narratives from the Old Testament, 
 and the Apocryphal books (especially the Second Book of 
 the Maccabees) are included 2 , Aeneas Sylvius indeed devoting 
 much space to the lessons to be drawn by a young prince 
 from the records of the Kings of Israel and Judah. 
 
 The practice of oratory is based upon the close study 
 of the masterpieces of classical eloquence and the rhetorical 
 treatises which have 1 survived from antiquity. The high value 
 attached to this art, not by scholars alone, but in public 
 affairs, in diplomacy, in social and ceremonial functions, led 
 to that elaborate study of ancient rhetoric which characterises 
 the Humanist schools. The speeches of Cicero or the rhe- 
 torical compositions inserted in the histories of Sallust and Livy 
 are the main oratorical material. Their value in education 
 consists, in the eyes of the Humanists, first, in the profound 
 moral lessons, civic and personal, therein enforced. Bruni 3 , 
 for example, looks upon eloquence as giving the emotional 
 impulse to the individual will in carrying out in practice the 
 principles suggested by philosophy and exemplified in history. 
 Nowhere are virtues so persuasively set forth or vices so 
 forcibly condemned. Next we learn from the orators the 
 practical arts of Dialectic, by which conviction is brought 
 home to differing minds 4 . The power of argument is for 
 
 1 Sabbadini, Codici Latini, p. 450. During the whole of the first half 
 of the 1 5th century Tacitus was practically unknown to the Humanists ; and 
 although Guarino, about 1444, is eager to obtain a transcript of the 
 archetype at Florence, it is perfectly safe to say that this historian was 
 entirely without influence upon the Latinity or the historical knowledge of 
 the time. 
 
 2 Vegio, Of. cit., p. 252. 
 
 3 Supra, p. 128. 
 
 4 Vergerius, De Ingenuis Moribus, p. 472 : ' per eloquentiam possumus 
 graviter ornateque dicere, qua una re maxime conciliantur multitudinis 
 animi.'
 
 22O 3- Tlie Liberal Studies: 
 
 purposes of affairs', of legal discussion, and of conversation, 
 of prime importance. Where can this be more fruitfully studied 
 than in the forensic orations of Cicero ? To enable a boy 
 to realise the force of ancient oratory, he should be taken to 
 hear some eloquent citizen, or great pleader in the Courts*. 
 There he will perceive how gesture and delivery combine with 
 logical skill to illustrate a case, and so learn to supply by 
 imagination an element which is of necessity absent from 
 recorded speeches. Lastly, the whole subject of style is ex- 
 hibited, in example or in precept, or in both, by such writers 
 as Cicero and Quintilian 8 . Vocabulary, metaphor, exposition, 
 persuasiveness, all the arts of expression, are cultivated best 
 by an intimate knowledge of the orations of Cicero. 
 
 The reading of Cicero is accompanied by constant practice 
 in the declamation 4 of his Speeches. His oratorical treatises 
 must all be studied, especially the De Oratore, which in the 
 hands of Barzizza and Vittorino formed one of the chief Latin 
 text books. The precepts therein laid down should be illustrated 
 by suitable extracts from the speeches themselves. Quintilian, 
 also, will be in perpetual use as a commentary upon Roman 
 eloquence 5 . But besides the classical examples, Lactantius", 
 the Cicero of the Church, Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome 
 provide material thoroughly sound in substance, and acceptable 
 in style. Even modern writers, themselves students of ancient 
 eloquence, Bruni, Guarino, or Ambrogio Traversari, are held to 
 be valuable models of oratorical prose, and their orations 
 deserve, therefore, attention in the schools. 
 
 1 Vergerius : eloquence he terms, ' civilis scientiae quaedam pars ' : it 
 has three forms, iudiciale, deliberativum, demonstrativum. 
 
 2 Porcia, De Generosa Lib. educ., p. 114; he is referring to boys of 
 twelve or thirteen years of age. 
 
 3 Supra, p. 125, for Bruni's opinion, which is indeed that of every 
 Humanist from Petrarch downwards. 
 
 4 B. Guarino, supra, p. 172. 
 8 Guarino, l.c. 
 
 6 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 151.
 
 Moral Philosophy. 221 
 
 It is a marked characteristic of Humanism to limit Philo- 
 sophy, as a serious study, to Ethics, to the entire exclusion of 
 Metaphysic 1 . But by Ethics was meant little more than the 
 common-places of Roman Stoic morality as expounded by 
 Cicero and Seneca. It was avowedly practical in intent, but 
 personal rather than social in its application. Reverence, 
 self-control, modesty, truthfulness, and courage, the virtues of 
 the individual, were dealt with in some detail and with copious 
 illustration from classical sources. More complex questions, 
 such as the relation of patriotic duty to personal ambition or 
 opportunity, or the opposition between Christian self-repression 
 and the self-assertion intellectual and moral of the Roman 
 ' virtus,' or the nature of the ultimate sanction of morals, and 
 the influence of Religion upon it, all these are ignored. Here, 
 as in certain other departments of practical enquiry, the fixed 
 usage of the best age of antiquity is accepted as a sound 
 working standard. It follows, therefore, that the method of 
 teaching morals was mainly literary and didactic 2 . Thus the 
 study of Cicero, of Aristotle, and of Seneca, with illustrations 
 from Livy, and above all from Plutarch, provided an im- 
 portant educational instrument 3 . 
 
 In the training for public life (to which so many of the 
 pupils of Vittorino and Guarino would look forward), or for 
 
 1 Some qualification of this statement is due in the case of Vergerius ; 
 but the entire temper of the man was opposed to any but practical and 
 objective intellectual interests so far as concerns education. See his aim 
 expressed in his own words : ' insisto multo studiosius ' (than upon Logic) 
 ' philosophiae, non solum ei quae naturam rerum ostendit, sed ei quoque 
 in qua omnis recta ratio vivendi consistit,' Epistole, LXXiv, p. too. 
 
 2 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 972 : ' philosophia absque literis haud 
 facile percipi potest.' So also Bruni, supra, p. 127. 
 
 3 Platina, p. 22, for Vittorino's opinion : ' Cum omnem honesti iustique 
 disciplinam omnemque item Academicorum, Stoicorum, Peripateticorum 
 doctrinam ad tollenda animi vitia et formandum optimum doctissuuumque 
 virum duceret pernecessariam esse. Ciceronem, egregium Platonis, Aris- 
 totelis, Zenonis aemulum, legendum continue dicebat, quia illinc omne quod 
 ad publicam ac privatam vitam facit sumeretur.'
 
 222 3- The Liberal Studies: 
 
 private station, moral philosophy ranks second to history alone. 
 It covers all life, and all conditions of men. Hence its 
 essential place in education, for boys and for girls alike. 
 In practice, no doubt, religion, example and discipline were 
 relied upon 1 , but sound training in the principles of conduct 
 is derived from the reading of ancient books 2 . These, indeed, 
 are illustrated and suggested by poet, historian and orator, but 
 the moralists must be studied for the systematic understanding 
 of this grave subject. 
 
 In the choice of moralists it is of urgent importance that 
 works recognised as sound in style and in matter alone be 
 adopted. Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, especially the De officiis 
 and the Tusculans, Seneca and Boethius cover the ground. 
 Vittorino went further afield and included Augustine and 
 other ecclesiastical writers, as did Bruni. But the necessity 
 for careful attention to style brought about in practice the 
 supremacy of the classical moralists in actual teaching 3 . Bruni 
 thus claims the fullest liberty in the choice of authors, depre- 
 cating only, as does Aeneas Sylvius, recourse to mediaeval or 
 modern Churchmen. It was the custom of Vittorino and 
 
 1 By Vittorino and Guarino, and doubtless by all practical teachers ; but 
 even by them the sanction of Cicero or Plutarch was highly valued in 
 enforcing duty. 
 
 2 Vegio, De Educ. Liberorum, p. 288 : ' Mores a nullis procul dubio 
 melius quam a philosophiae (quae vitae nostrae magistra est) studiis con- 
 sequentur.' So Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 141. Formal discussions, in 
 which the ancient authors would be mainly relied upon as material, are 
 urged by Bruni, supra, p. 127. 
 
 8 It is a remarkable fact that the Meditations of M. Aurelius are never 
 alluded to by any Humanist scholar. Petrarch's reference to their author, 
 in his Treatise De Officio et Virtutibus Imperatomm, is obviously a mere 
 platitude ; but none of the Greek scholars of the fifteenth century seem 
 aware of the survival of this important monument of ancient Ethics. In 
 the preceding century, however, certain copies seem to have been made, 
 and detached passages were introduced by Planudes into a collection of 
 extracts upon Morals. The Ed. Princeps did not appear until 1559, which 
 is in itself significant.
 
 Natural Philosophy. 223 
 
 Guarino to impress with much care the moral lessons afforded 
 by the daily classical reading, or again to distinguish, where 
 necessary, between the moral confusions of an ancient author 
 and the literary or dialectic skill with which they were expressed. 
 There is, however, amongst Humanist writers upon education 
 occasional reference to a wider conception of philosophy as the 
 'mater omnium artium,' or as equivalent to 'amor sapientiae'; 
 and this wisdom is denned as 'the knowledge of all things, 
 whether divine or human, their laws and their causes 1 .' 
 Vittorino, as we know from Platina 2 , included Natural Philo- 
 sophy in his course, and the curious intermixture of science, 
 ethics and mathematics reminds us of the conjunction of 
 moral and natural philosophy in the Chair of Philosophy at 
 Padua. But in treating philosophy in this wider sense of 
 the term, apart from mathematics which were valued for their 
 own sake, the main end in view of the Humanist teacher was 
 gradually confined to the provision of just so much information 
 as would enable a boy to understand the allusions to Astronomy, 
 Geography or Natural history contained in the ancient poets 
 and historians 3 . As classical education became more precisely 
 denned, these subjects ceased to obtain an independent place, 
 and 'Philosophy' lost all other content than that of Ethics. 
 The works of the elder Pliny, of Solinus and Pomponius 
 Mela, valued for the variety of their subject-matter by earlier 
 Humanists 4 , then dropped out of the school curriculum. 
 
 1 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 991 ; Vergerius, supra, p. 108. 
 
 2 Platina, p. 21 : ' Asserens perfectum virum de natura, de moribus, 
 de motu astrorum, de linearibus formis, de harmonia et concentu, de 
 numerandis dimetiendisque rebus disserere oportere.' 
 
 3 This is the position taken by B. Guarino, supra, p. 171. A knowledge 
 of the geography of Strabo is recommended for the same reason. Poggio, 
 however, shews a genuine feeling for geography and travel in the account 
 of the journeys of Niccolo Conti which he included in his work, De 
 Varietate Fortunae. But Vergerius and Vittorino treated natural philosophy 
 more seriously, perhaps as a result of the influence of Padua. 
 
 4 B. Guarino commends Aulus Gellius, Macrobius and Pliny, upon this
 
 224 3- The Liberal Studies: 
 
 At the outset of the period with which this survey is 
 concerned, we find Vergerius lamenting, like Petrarch before 
 him, that Greek literature was still sealed against western 
 scholars 1 . But within a very few years he is found sitting with 
 Guarino and Bruni in the lecture room of Chrysoloras at 
 Florence rejoicing in the dawn of a new age. To Guarino at 
 Venice and Vittorino at Mantua was due the introduction of 
 Greek into the school course. No one attached more im- 
 portance to the subject than Vittorino, and to him mainly was 
 due the elaboration of the order and method of study, reading, 
 and composition in the language. Neither Vergerius nor Bruni 
 refer to Greek in the treatises before us ; Aeneas Sylvius 
 mentions it only to regret the lack of opportunity for its study 
 in Hungary or Germany 2 . The elder Guarino at Ferrara laid 
 less stress upon Greek than did Vittorino at Mantua. Public 
 opinion, indeed, regarded Greek as standing on a wholly different 
 footing, educationally, from Latin. For Latin was, in a true 
 sense, the historic tongue of Italy, its use was an urgent 
 necessity in many careers in life, and a knowledge of Roman 
 literature indispensable to social distinction. Greek, on the 
 other hand, appealed to a narrower interest. Its study was 
 regarded as a valuable aid to the full understanding of 
 Latin, both as language and as literature; and it was held in 
 reverence as the key to Homer, Plato and Demosthenes. But 
 not until the middle of the fifteenth century, when the multi- 
 plication of texts and the settlement of accidence and syntax 
 rendered its acquisition a simpler matter, did the influence of 
 Vittorino and Guarino make itself generally felt, so that it was 
 possible to lay down that no one ignorant of Greek could claim 
 the title of educated 3 . 
 
 ground. The Historia Naturalis 'non minus varia est quam ipsa natura.' 
 'Possedere un Gellio era per un umanista una necessita, essendo esso uno 
 del piii ricchi prontuari antichi,' says Sabbadini. 
 
 1 Supra, p. 1 06. 
 
 2 Supra, p. 149. 
 
 3 B. Guarino, supra, p. 166.
 
 The place of Greek. 225 
 
 The Gonzaga children under Vittorino began the subject 
 early. Cecilia knew the declensions and conjugations at the 
 age of seven : and this was not exceptional. Greek and Latin 
 were taught side by side so soon as the necessary grounding in 
 Latin grammar had been secured 1 . A higher knowledge of 
 this subject, as presented by Priscian, was not considered 
 possible until a beginning had been made with Greek. Much 
 attention was paid at this stage to the light thrown by Greek 
 etymologies upon Latin orthography. The Erotemata of 
 Chrysoloras was the one available manual. It was specially 
 edited and abridged, with a parallel Latin version, by Guarino. 
 A reading book of easy prose was provided, and the Gospels 2 , 
 with or without the Latin version written side by side, served 
 as the first continuous work read. Reading aloud in Greek was 
 from the first practised as an aid to the more ready grasp 
 of the sense of the author ; whilst translation into Latin, with 
 composition in Greek, formed the usual exercises. 
 
 Homer, both as the father of Epic poetry 3 , and therefore 
 attractive to boys, and as helpful to the better appreciation of 
 Vergil, was the poet first studied. The Attic tradition was not as 
 yet formulated by the Humanists; for Apollonius Rhodius, Hero- 
 dotus, and Xenophon were the books next studied. We may 
 recall the estimation in which Vittorino 4 held the chief writers 
 of Greece, determined by their value for instruction. Isocrates 
 was specially prized by Battista Guarino. The Dramatists 
 seem to have been read before Thucydides or Demosthenes 5 . 
 But our information as to the order or choice of the authors 
 adopted in school is very limited. We know, however, that 
 Plutarch occupied an important place, and that the Greek 
 Fathers, Basil and Chrysostom, were frequently read. 
 
 1 Platina, p. 20 : ' quod utraque alterius cognitione facilior videretur.' 
 
 2 Cecilia Gonzaga was reading the Gospels in Greek before she was 
 eight. Luzio, in Arch. Venet.^ 1888, p. 320, seqq. 
 
 3 B. Guarino, supra, p. 168. 4 Supra, p. 49. 
 
 5 Under Vittorino, however, boys began early to read Demosthenes. 
 
 w. 15
 
 226 3- TJie Liberal Sttidies : 
 
 Guarino was able to turn out pupils who after twelve 
 months' instruction could translate competently from the 
 authors just mentioned 1 . He encouraged rapid reading by 
 aid of a Latin translation. He, however, deprecated the advice 
 of Quintilian to begin with Greek in preference to Latin. It 
 is possible that Vittorino did, with some few clever pupils, try 
 this experiment 2 . 
 
 The Scriptures and the Fathers are constantly recommended 
 for school purposes. Vegio is anxious that selections only 
 from the Old Testament, especially in the case of the book of 
 Genesis or Ezekiel, should be placed in the hands of the 
 young. The Psalms, to be learnt by heart, will be followed 
 by the Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus, and the Maccabees; the 
 second Book of the latter ' approaches in dignity of style the 
 finest examples of Roman literature 8 .' Elsewhere we meet 
 with advice to use Genesis, the Books of the Kings, Esther, 
 and Esdras; and from the New Testament, the Acts of the 
 Apostles 4 . The choice is limited for most part to the simpler 
 historical narrative, read both as moral teaching and as 
 history 5 . 
 
 Amongst the Fathers Lactantius stands first for grace of 
 
 1 Supra, p. 167. 
 
 2 Prendilacqua, speaking of Alessandro Gonzaga, says, p. 45 : ' Fu 
 nella puerizia eccellentemente nutrito di greche lettere, nell' adolescenza di 
 latine, e nell' eta piu matura di studi sacri.' Alessandro was the scholar- 
 poet of the family, much beloved by Vittorino. 
 
 Our information upon the school teaching of Greek and the authors 
 read is limited to the practice of Vittorino and the Tract of B. Guarino. 
 
 8 Vegio, De Educat. Liber., p. 252 : the Book of Genesis, Ezekiel, 
 and Song of Songs should not be taught until the 2Oth year. 
 
 * Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 603. ' Scripturam sacram semper domi 
 habebis, et nunc Vetus nunc Novum intueberis Testamentum.' 
 
 8 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 605, lays great stress upon the lessons to be 
 derived from the Old Testament histories. He assumes that a knowledge of 
 the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and other simple formularies will be acquired 
 early, supra, p. 141.
 
 The Fathers of the Church, 227 
 
 style, in which he is often compared to Cicero 1 . Augustine 
 holds the second place, and in subject-matter he has perhaps 
 the higher claim. Vegio 2 , indeed, takes the account which 
 Augustine gives of his own early training as the text of his 
 Treatise. The Humanists, at least during this earlier period of 
 the New Learning, were eager to appeal to the authority of this 
 Father in support of their educational ideals 3 . The other 
 ecclesiastical writers included in the school courses of the 
 humanist teacher were Jerome, Ambrose, Cyprian, Chrysostom, 
 Gregory Nazianzen, and Leo 4 . Later writers, especially the 
 Scholastic theologians, were under a severe ban. We suspect 
 that inferior Latinity was, in their case, an objection at least as 
 weighty as the nature of their writings 5 . We notice the con- 
 fident appeal to the judgment of learned society, whether 
 clerical or lay, in Italy, in support of this position. 
 
 As regards methods of exposition of a classical author, some 
 light may be derived from the occasional references to the 
 
 1 Supra, p. 124. 
 
 2 Vegio, Op. cil., p. 140. 
 
 3 E.g. upon the use of the ancient Poets, supra, pp. 165 and 170 
 (Guarino) ; p. 149 (Aeneas Sylvius). 
 
 4 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 603. Guarino ' sacras literas non negligebat, 
 sed maxime Cipriani, Lactantii, Hieronymi et acutissimi Augustini studiosus 
 erat...quapropter non seculares modo, verum etiam religiosi et monachi et 
 Christo amici homines Guarinianum auditorium frequentabant.' Lud. 
 Carbo, a pupil of Guarino, quoted by Rosmini, Guarino, i. 115. 
 
 5 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 604: (to Sigismund) ' Haec quae nunc 
 scribo, si quis doctus extra Italiam legeret, me maxime argueret quod inter 
 auctores legendos non numeraverim Hugonem de Sancto Victore, aut 
 Alexandrum de Ales, vel Magnum Albertum, vel Petrum Blesensem, vel 
 Nicolaum de Lira, et Alanum, et hanc novorum turbam. Sed tu cave ne 
 istos audias. Nam etsi docti sunt, docere tamen alios nequeunt. Ego tibi 
 id suadeo quod per me rectum puto, nee somnio. Sed vivos totius Italiae 
 peritissimos in hanc sententiam habeo concurrentes...Illis in auctoribus te 
 exerce qui sunt probatiores. Suscipere namque semper optima debemus ad 
 imitandum.' With this compare Bruni's protest against the reading of 
 contemporary religious writings, supra, p. 127.
 
 228 3- The Liberal Sttidies : 
 
 subject met with in the records of the two great school-masters'. 
 The conditions under which class-work was necessarily carried 
 on have been alluded to. The scarcity and inaccuracy of 
 texts, the absence of dictionaries and of commentaries, the 
 undeveloped state of syntax, especially in the case of Greek, 
 made preparation by the class difficult, and compelled the 
 master to rely largely upon the method of lecture and dictation. 
 There was, however, scope for variety in the form of the lesson 
 even under these limitations. A section of the text of the 
 author having been dictated Guarino called for it to be read 
 aloud 2 . If the passage did not yield, on a first reading, from 
 the rhythm and structure of the sentence, an intelligible 
 meaning, the process was repeated. When a bald construe 
 had been attained, the art of the master came into play in 
 arriving at an exact and elegant version. In the case of a 
 Greek classic this version would be in Latin. Here there was 
 an opening for skilful questioning. We know that Guarino 
 denounced the method of learning syntax by acquiring rules by 
 heart 3 . Grammar was taught by him through the medium of 
 speaking and reading Latin 4 ; and only when examples in 
 illustration of syntactical principles could be framed by the 
 pupil, was he expected to commit a formula to memory. 
 
 The construing secured, and oral practice in accidence and 
 syntax with it, the lesson tended to take the form of a lecture. 
 Parallel passages were quoted and recorded : e.g. in reading 
 Homer, Vergil would be constantly referred to 5 . Mythological, 
 geographical and other allusions were explained, and a body of 
 knowledge accumulated in note-books for future use. More 
 especially ' sententiae', reflections upon characters whether 
 
 1 For Vittorino's practice see p. 46 above. 
 
 2 Rosmini, Guarino, i. p. 113, Guarino's letter to Leonello. 
 
 3 Id. Op. tit., i. 85. 
 
 4 Gian Pannonio, Silva Panegyrica, 11. 520 seqq., gives a poetical 
 description of Guarino's grammatical expositions. 
 
 5 B. Guarino, supra, pp. 168, 173. Platina, p. 11.
 
 The method of Exposition. 229 
 
 historical or other, would occupy a large part of the lesson. It is 
 obvious that there was here no little temptation to mere display 
 of heterogeneous learning ; but the masters of whose practice 
 we know most were conspicuous for the simplicity of their method 
 and their perseverance in appealing to the intelligence of their 
 least advanced pupils'. Special portions of the author thus 
 treated, which contained, perhaps, a smart anecdote, clever 
 repartee, striking simile or metaphor, were committed to 
 memory, and once a month such passages were revised and 
 classified. The notes taken were copied, and their substance 
 incorporated into carefully arranged volumes 2 . 
 
 In reading an Oration of Cicero the master would devote 
 special attention to questions of style : and the work would be 
 treated not only as literature but as a model for composition. 
 The same method was pursued in handling Vergil and Ovid, 
 in which case paraphrase in prose and in verse was required 
 from the class. In teaching older pupils the whole field of 
 rhetoric was open to the master, but during the period before 
 us the higher elaboration of the art was not practised in schools 
 and was, indeed, discouraged. 
 
 Great stress was laid by scholars of the first rank upon the 
 use of the best available texts 3 . In private reading of Greek, 
 the use of a sound literary translation side by side with the 
 original, as advocated by Guarino, was regarded as a remarkable 
 
 1 Platina notes this as the special characteristic of Vittorino : ' varius 
 erat, distinctus...ex ingeniis auditorum ac lectionum qualitate,' p. 19. 
 ' Adeo humaniter, adeo benigne, adeo patienter interrogantibus respondebat 
 Guarinus, ut facile animadverteretur eum vehementissime cupere, ut 
 quicquid ipse sciebat in auditores transfunderet. ' L. Carbo, quoted by 
 Rosmini, Guarino, i. p. 115. But the evidence of the simplicity and 
 thoroughness of the teaching of these two great masters does not depend 
 on isolated opinion. The selection of books whose subject-matter is 
 intelligible and interesting is noted as a necessary point of good teaching by 
 B. Guarino, supra, p. 168. 
 
 3 B. Guarino, supra, p. 173. 
 
 3 B. Guarino, supra, p. 164; Vergerius, supra, p. 106.
 
 230 3- The Liberal Studies: 
 
 discovery in method, and the rapidity with which his pupils 
 learned to construe at sight was certainly noteworthy : we 
 must remember however that Guarino, like Filelfo, could speak 
 Greek. But the strongest point in the teaching of the early 
 Humanists consisted in their persistent individual work 1 . They 
 were careful of the first steps in grammar and composition, and 
 took great pains to adapt themselves to the needs of each 
 individual pupil. The working hours both of master and 
 scholars were inordinately long 2 . 
 
 The importance of Composition in the eyes of the 
 Humanists is manifest in all that they said and wrote. Style 
 is the indispensable condition of permanence 3 , almost indeed 
 of credibility, in a literary work ; in Society it is accepted as 
 the obvious mark of an educated man. The functions of 
 eloquence by which is meant style, whether in conversation, 
 in composition or in oratory, are of supreme dignity. For 
 whilst it is the end of philosophy to exhibit canons of excellence 
 in thought and character, and the use of history to illustrate 
 them, it belongs to eloquence alone, by fitting stimulus, to 
 enforce their application. It has often been said that the 
 Humanists (at least those of the later age) provide with 
 difficulty a place for the spiritual forces of a personal religious 
 faith in their ideal of life ; and so far as this is true, the ex- 
 planation lies in the fact that scholars persuaded themselves 
 
 1 Sabbadini, Vita di Guarino, p. 139. Guarino 'facceva doppia 
 scuola ; alia pubblica dedicava il giorno, alia privata la sera. La lezione 
 pubblica era doppia, nella mattina spiegava un poeta e un prosatore 
 Latino, nel pomeriggio leggeva ordinariamente Greco. La sera e la notte 
 erano dedicate ai convittori ; essi lavoravano sotto i suoi occhi e 1' avevano 
 sempre li presente e pronto a rispondere a tutte le difficolta che incon- 
 trassero.' 
 
 2 Five hours' sleep was considered ample for a scholar really in 
 earnest. 
 
 3 Vergerius, De Ingen. Moribus, p. 469 : ' Si quid pluribus exem- 
 plaribus vulgatum est, non facile potest interire, si modo et dignitas accedat 
 orationi. Nam quae sine dignitate scribuntur, ea nee sortiuntur fidem, nee 
 subsistere diu possunt. '
 
 Composition and its importance. 231 
 
 that Style could fulfil the function of a religious impulse, that 
 argument and illustration drawn from an authoritative past, 
 and driven home by exhortation couched in classical literary 
 form, could serve as a spiritual force to the individual life 1 . 
 
 Next, we must remember the high practical value of a good 
 prose style. Its possession was a prime qualification for a 
 public or professional career apart from its element of personal 
 distinction. We are thus prepared to find that, once the canons 
 of purity defined, the reading of ancient authors is largely 
 guided by the wish to acquire a habit of sound writing. In 
 the period with which we are now concerned, the schoolmaster 
 had not learned to regard ' epideictic ' or artificial rhetorical 
 display as the highest aim of composition. With Vittorino, as 
 we have already seen, the striving after oratorical effect found 
 no favour. To write perspicuous prose, free from ostentation 
 and ornament, was the purpose of his teaching 2 . So we find it 
 laid down that boys are to be taught to strive after ' oratio plana, 
 perspicua, dilucida, nulliusque interpretis indigens auxilio ' 3 ; 
 words should be chosen from no affectation of archaism 4 , but 
 be such as are generally accepted. Though Cicero is the 
 natural model for the philosophical and oratorical style, it is not 
 necessary to erect him into a tyrant : we may employ words 
 ' domestica et usitata,' if we keep before us the general 
 
 1 Bruni, supra, p. 128. 
 
 2 So Guarino required, first, clearness, secondly, 'proprietas verborum,' 
 or the right choice and use of words, and only when these were secured 
 would he pay regard to the third point of good composition, style. See 
 Rosmini, Guarino, i. 84. 
 
 3 Dialectic so far as it formed part of a humanist curriculum was 
 chiefly treated as an aid to composition, and as a department of Rhetoric. 
 Vittorino and Vergerius broke entirely away from the scholastic methods 
 and regarded Logic merely as a means to clear and precise expression. 
 Supra, p. 60. 
 
 4 The unsettled orthography of Latin was a matter of grave concern to 
 scholars, and pedantic efforts at archaistic spelling were common. The 
 true bases of orthography, literary and philological, were obviously beyond 
 the reach of the Humanists.
 
 232 3- The Liberal Studies: 
 
 principles of his sentence-structure. There is a third function 
 of composition which is indeed less important than the others 
 but which was gradually felt to be educationally valuable. 
 This is the place of Latin and Greek composition in com- 
 pelling rigorous study of the literature upon which it is 
 modelled 1 . Both subject-matter and expression are reduced 
 to their simplest elements before a version or an original 
 theme can be produced. Paraphrase of poetry into prose 2 , 
 the translation of Greek into Latin, and the reverse exercise, 
 and direct imitation of a proposed model passage, were all 
 inculcated as means to rigid analysis of classical style. On 
 the other hand no one can hope to write well who does not 
 carefully observe the literary methods of the best authors 3 . 
 Hence the importance of the right choice in classical reading. 
 Only in this way can we imbibe, unconsciously as it were, the 
 indefinable charm of style, which consists in ' sonus, elegantia, 
 concinnitas et venustas 4 .' 
 
 This training should begin early 5 . Verse composition, in 
 which Ovid and Vergil are the natural models, will prove a 
 useful aid to facility in prose 6 . Speech in Latin provides an 
 easy introduction to continuous composition, and care must be 
 taken in insisting on sound literary examples to grammatical 
 rules, whether provided by the master or sought out by the 
 class 7 . An exercise frequently employed was the declamation 
 of the Letters of Cicero 8 , and their imitation, whilst the practice 
 of reading aloud and committing to memory large portions of 
 
 1 B. Guarino, supra, p. 168. 
 
 2 Vegio, Op. tit., pp. 235, 6. 
 
 3 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 148. 
 
 4 Bruni, De Siudiis et Literis, p. 5. 
 
 5 B. Guarino, supra, p. 168, speaks of the importance of Greek compo- 
 sition, so soon as a boy begins the language. 
 
 6 Vegio, Op. fit., p. 235. Prosody was taught early ; but lyrical metres 
 received little attention. 
 
 7 Supra, p. 164. 
 
 8 B. Guarino, supra, p. 169.
 
 Composition and its importance. 233 
 
 the best prose writers in Greek and Latin bore directly upon 
 the acquisition of vocabulary and cultivation of style. Bruni 
 especially would have the student note and prize the rhythmical 
 element present in the best prose with a view to its imitation l . 
 Vittorino 2 and Guarino gave much individual attention to the 
 exercises in composition. In later stages when the more 
 complex arts of Rhetoric were introduced, with the elaborate 
 study of metaphor, simile, figure, and elegance, arts which had 
 scarcely reached their full importance in our period 3 , original 
 production both in prose and verse 4 were required. Vittorino 5 
 devised special practice in forensic oratory, in public addresses, 
 and, though more sparingly, in complimentary speeches. His 
 aim, we are told, was to cultivate readiness and self-confidence 
 in view of the future career of his pupils 6 . But here as always, 
 in judging the scholarship of the Humanists, we must remember 
 that the school of which Vittorino is the most characteristic 
 representative cultivated the study of antiquity, and reproduced 
 it, with the definite purpose of reconciling it with the culture 
 and the activities of the time. Hence, in composition the 
 
 1 Bruni, supra, p. 125. 
 
 2 Platina, p. 24 : ' Emendabat ipse diligentissime quae a discipulis 
 scribebantur, quaedam adiciens, plurima detrahens.' Upon Vittorino's 
 method in teaching composition, see supra, p. 56. 
 
 3 Vittorino himself wrote ' omni pompa ac fastu verborum amoto ' ; 
 ' nullo fuco aut ambitu orationis utens.' 
 
 4 The Hexameter was the metre mainly used in composition exercises : 
 but the other metres were used by older pupils. Guarino, supra, p. 165. 
 There is little or no reference to methods of teaching verse composition 
 in Greek. 
 
 6 Sassuolo da Prato, p. 64: 'Cuius (i.e. rhetoricae) cum contrita ilia 
 praecepta perceperint, exercitationibus declamatoriis assidue illos exerceri 
 iubet, fictis scilicet causis propositis forensibus, popularibus, senatoriis ' : 
 ' ut ad dicendum paratiores ac promptiores in forum in curiam in contionem 
 prodirent.' 
 
 6 L. Carbo, a pupil of Guarino, acknowledged, even as a young man, 
 the authorship and circulation of more than 10,000 hexameters and over 
 700 orations in the grand style. As a consequence, he had, says Rosmini, 
 ' soverchia buona opinion di se stesso.'
 
 234 Matfiematics : Science: Music. 
 
 stamp of personality was not rejected in obedience to the 
 necessity of exact imitation of Cicero and Livy : so that 
 criticism which may fairly be levelled against the stylistic 
 methods of the following century is beside the point when 
 applied to the more sincere and direct Latinity of Vergerius 
 and his immediate successors 1 . It may, however, be admitted 
 that no doubt was felt that by diligent study and imitation of 
 Cicero and Vergil 2 , combined with due observance of the 
 precepts of Rhetoric, and the Art of Poetry, a persevering 
 student might count upon becoming not only a scholar but 
 a poet or orator as well. In practice, however, verse com- 
 position was regarded as an accomplishment 3 , whilst a good 
 prose style was a definitely practical aptitude. 
 
 4. MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, Music. 
 
 The position of Mathematical studies in Italy during the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries needs further research. 
 There is no doubt that after the close of the period with 
 which this review is concerned, Italians held the foremost 
 place in the pursuit of this as of the other sciences. No 
 doubt, the absorbing interest of Letters in the fifteenth century 
 tended to hinder the appreciation of Mathematics as a subject 
 
 1 The following quotation from an address by Dr. Sabbadini to the 
 University of Catania, 1893, confirms the position taken up in the text. 
 ' Scuole umanistiche 1' Italia ne ebbe due : una grande e una piccola, 
 quella degli eroi del Quattrocento e quella degli epigoni del Cinque- 
 cento. I latinisti del Quattrocento riproducevano tutte le forme 
 letterarie della cultura romana per il bisogno di riprodurre, ma vi 
 imprimevano la propria personalita potente e viva, riuscendo nell' 
 imitazione originali, doveche i cinquecentisti non facevano che bamboleg- 
 giare ciceroneggiando.' Prolusions al Corso di Letteratura I^tina, 1893-4, 
 p. 1 8. 
 
 2 B. Guarino, supra, p. 171 ; for Vittorino's close study of the De 
 Oratore, see supra, p. 48. 
 
 8 Vergerius, supra, p. 107. We must remember that the art of poetry 
 came within the general scope of Rhetoric.
 
 The place of Mathematics. 235 
 
 of school instruction. The study remained always one of 
 professional importance to the architect and the navigator, 
 just as Drawing 1 to the artist and the builder, but only by 
 exceptional teachers was either admitted to a leading place 
 amongst liberal studies. 
 
 About the year 1400 Padua was more closely identified 
 with Mathematics than any other University. But Pelacani 2 , 
 whose industry is shewn by the immense body of MS. work, 
 even now mostly unexamined, which survives, had no public 
 Chair in the subject. Vergerius and Vittorino 3 , both deriving 
 their educational ideals from Padua, attached great weight to 
 the inclusion of Geometry and Astronomy, and what we should 
 now call elementary Mechanics, in a complete course of 
 training. Bruni 4 and Aeneas Sylvius 5 , however, allow only a 
 subordinate place to these subjects, whilst Guarino and his son 
 ignore them altogether. 
 
 Geometry was evidently the department of pure Mathematics 
 commonly taught, presumably through Euclid 6 , for Algebra is 
 barely alluded to. Euclid was definitely regarded as a better 
 substitute for the scholastic Logic, which was decried by every 
 
 1 Drawing is not admitted to the circle of the Liberal Studies (supra, 
 p. 107). It is a technical aptitude of the Painter. It may however be 
 regarded as a preparatory training in writing, and so deserves attention. 
 Vegio is clearly inclined to modify the usual humanist judgment, on 
 reflecting that Aemilius expressly wished his sons to learn to draw and 
 paint. De Educ. Lib. p. 281. To Writing importance was attached, 
 both by Guarino and by Aeneas Sylvius. The autograph of Guarino 
 himself (Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 12,008) is a beautiful example of clear and 
 elegant script. 
 
 2 Gloria, Man. della Univ. di Padova, ii. 415 6. 
 
 3 Vergerius, supra, p. 108. For Vittorino, supra, p. 43, and Sassuolo 
 da Prato, p. 64. 
 
 4 Supra, p. 126. 
 
 5 Supra, p. 156. Mathematics fall within those subjects of natural or 
 external interest which are inferior in rank to ' the weightier things which 
 concern character and action.' 
 
 6 Supra, p. 43 (note).
 
 236 Geometry and Astronomy. 
 
 Humanist. The training in rigid deductive reasoning supplied 
 by Geometry is held of great value to the young mind 1 ; the 
 subject may therefore be introduced early. It is a corrective 
 of hasty inference, and encourages a habit of requiring demon- 
 stration. It developes also quickness of observation. Vittorino, 
 grouping together arithmetic, geometry and astronomy, prized 
 them as the only exact knowledge we possess, and as the 
 finest possible stimulus to precise thought. Slow or wandering 
 intellects could best gain power of quickness and concentration 
 from arithmetic which, moreover, in a strong native intelligence 
 developes as nothing else can the higher practical gifts*. 
 Geometry, too, has its utilities, for Archimedes prolonged the 
 defence of Syracuse by his science 3 . Although a certain type 
 of mind finds much attraction in it 4 , too much devotion to the 
 abstract side of the subject is a form of trifling 5 ; so that a 
 passable knowledge of general principles is all that is necessary 
 to the educated man. 
 
 As regards Astronomy we must bear in mind the larger 
 place which this subject filled in the general knowledge of 
 earlier centuries. La Divina Commedia indicates a wide popular 
 acquaintance with the map of the heavens and the laws of the 
 constellations. Calendars, clocks, the compass, and maps 
 have displaced much of this traditional lore. Humanist 
 masters, however, retained the subject in their courses, the 
 more readily that certain late Roman writers were available 
 as authorities. An acquaintance with Astronomy was neces- 
 sary, also, to the explanation of frequent allusions in classical 
 
 1 Sassuolo says that without this training there is risk lest a boy ' in 
 ceteris [studiis] perpetuo vagari et errare cogatur': p. 65. Aeneas Sylvius, 
 supra, p. 156. 
 
 2 Sassuolo (who was assistant in Mathematics to Vittorino) argues that 
 the Florentines derived their business capacity from their training in 
 arithmetic, p. 65. 
 
 3 Supra, p. 156. 
 
 4 Vergerius, supra, p. 109. 
 
 5 Aeneas Sylvius, quoting Cicero, supra, p. 155.
 
 Astrology and Natural History. 237 
 
 literature 1 . Vergerius 2 recommends a knowledge of the con- 
 stellations, planets, the sun and moon, so far as relates to the 
 laws of their revolutions or conjunctions, as a delightful 
 (iucundum) study. No particular educational motive is as- 
 signed, but apart from its practical utility, the main value 
 of this knowledge lies apparently in its cultivation of a certain 
 spirit of awe which lifts the mind above mundane cares. Vit- 
 torino followed Vergerius, although we hear nothing of his 
 method of treating the subject ; Aeneas Sylvius approves of a 
 moderate acquaintance with it, and quotes from classical 
 history incidents in which ignorance of the laws of eclipses 
 proved a crucial factor in war. 
 
 The position of the Humanists respecting Astrology is 
 easier to define, and it is of great significance. Vergerius has 
 not a word to say upon it ; Vittorino discarded it ; Bruni is 
 contemptuous of it ; Aeneas Sylvius, a man of the world, does 
 not believe in it, but he is aware that in actual life it is still 
 held in superstitious respect. Hence a prince must know 
 something of it, and make what use of it he can 3 . The first 
 great onslaught against the whole body of astrological lore was 
 due to Petrarch 4 : no Humanist believed in it ; and not a few, 
 like Pico, openly denounced it. The contribution to scientific 
 truth made by Humanism in ridiculing this powerful strong- 
 hold of superstition needs recognition. 
 
 The period of the Renaissance in Italy was marked by 
 much curiosity about strange animals and plants, and beauty 
 of colour in marbles or precious stones was highly prized. To 
 collect such rarities was a mark of distinction in a city or a 
 personage. This interest in natural objects was associated 
 with the delight in the tales of distant travel which was felt 
 
 1 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 156. 
 
 2 Supra, p. 108. 
 
 3 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 156. He commends Alfonso for being 
 contemptuous of astrologers : Opera, p. 493. 
 
 4 Epist. Sen. iii. i : (Ed. Fracassetti, Lettere Senili, i. p. 143).
 
 238 Natural History. 
 
 even by ardent Humanists 1 , and to some extent with the study 
 of medicine. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the study 
 of Natural History commended 2 for purposes of education 
 as ' intellectui humano consona atque conformis,' or that 
 Vittorino regarded a knowledge of it as indispensable to the 
 ' vir perfectus.' It is, however, difficult to realise the extent to 
 which this teaching of Nature was pursued. If we enlarge 
 our view so as to include the practice advised by Erasmus, we 
 should have to admit that instruction ' de meteoris, de plantis, 
 de animalibus,' was regarded as fit only for young children not 
 yet able to grasp more serious matters. His exposition of the 
 use to be made of pictures in such cases is interesting, and 
 indicates that the school method of the Humanists in the 
 subject of science had made little or no progress during the 
 preceding century. 'The picture 3 of an elephant attacked by 
 a dragon is presented. The master states the Greek name, 
 which is identical with the Latin ; he gives the nominative and 
 the genitive, ' elephantus, -i ' ; then the name of the trunk 
 both in Greek and Latin. He then describes the tusks, giving 
 the product, ivory; and the process of breathing. Next the 
 Indian dragon is referred to in detail; the name in both 
 languages, with its feminine, is noted. The teacher proceeds to 
 an account of the combat between the two beasts, and gives 
 any other particulars which may be suggested by the questions 
 of the class. A hunting scene, again, will provide opportunity 
 for teaching the names of trees, plants, birds, animals in a 
 most attractive way.' 
 
 Now there is every reason to believe that this is a typical 
 illustration of the Humanist method of handling Natural 
 Science. Two things are thus obvious : that the knowledge 
 
 1 Supra, p. 223, note. 
 
 2 By Vergerius, De Ingen. Moribus, p. 476. Vittorino's opinion is 
 given by Platina, p. 21. 
 
 3 Erasmus, Opera, i. 510.
 
 Music and Singing. 239 
 
 imparted was uncritical 1 and trivial, and that it was regarded 
 mainly as an aid to vocabulary, or as helpful in understanding 
 classical allusions. We may feel confident that Bruni and 
 Guarino regarded natural history in this light ; whilst Aeneas 
 Sylvius thinks it wise to warn a boy of ten against absorption 
 in 'naturalibus studiis et contemplationibus.' As the tyranny 
 of style crept over classical education, towards the close of 
 our period, the interest in external nature encouraged by 
 Vergerius and Vittorino sank into indifference. 
 
 Upon the propriety of including Music and Singing amongst 
 the subjects of instruction humanist feeling was somewhat 
 divided. It was recognised, on the one hand 2 , that the Greeks 
 honoured skill in music and song, reckoning the bard amongst 
 the messengers of the gods, and refusing the dignity of ' the 
 complete man ' to one who could neither play nor sing. On the 
 other hand, Italian self-respect hardly admitted of emotional 
 display in public, and Christian sentiment was averse to self- 
 surrender to the sensuous charm of sound. The Romans, 
 it was also remembered, were not unanimous upon the wisdom 
 of permitting music to the young. 
 
 As life is mainly concerned with action, should education, 
 it was asked, take account of a subject which developes neither 
 wisdom, judgment nor conduct 3 ? Yet the Spartans, under 
 rigid limitations, indeed, encouraged song ; David, Gracchus, 
 Cicero, all of them men of affairs, practised the art. So, too, 
 Pythagoras and Socrates sanctioned it : it was regarded as a 
 means of inciting to noble deeds, and of soothing the dis- 
 orders of the mind. 
 
 But yet in actual life music was felt by the Humanist to be 
 
 1 Bruni, supra, p. 129, clearly implies that the literary authority of 
 ancient writers extends to their views on Nature. 
 
 2 Vegio, Op. cit., p. 280: 'Apud antiques merito musici inter vatum et 
 sapientum numerum...' and one ignorant of the art was held 'minime 
 ingenue doctus.' 
 
 3 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 155.
 
 240 Music and its Dangers. 
 
 a dangerous indulgence, unless safeguarded with peculiar care 1 . 
 ' The greatest watchfulness is needed,' says Vegio, ' in teaching 
 Music, for we see so many promising youths lose all vigour of 
 mind and character in their absorption in unworthy harmonies ' ; 
 ' the popular music of our time,' says Sassuolo 2 , who taught 
 the art at Mantua under Vittorino, is 'inquinata, impudens, 
 corrupta atque corruptrix,' although in its intention music was 
 given to man to be the guardian and inspirer of all that is 
 best and noblest in human thought and emotion. Singing- 
 masters 3 had ordinarily a bad name ; they were men of inferior 
 stamp, unfit to be trusted with impressionable natures. A 
 facile skill in the Canzone or with the lute led to dubious 
 company, or generated a self-conceit which was ruinous to 
 all serious habits of study. 
 
 Yet with scarcely an exception the educators of the period 
 admitted music, with reserves. They seem to lay special stress 
 upon its value as a recreation 4 , and a diversion from the cares 
 of life. Extreme skill is not desirable*; that is the part of 
 the professional musician. Yet the subject should be taught 
 well within the required limits 6 . Stringed instruments were 
 preferred : to play with the finger is more dignified than to 
 
 1 Vegio, l.c., ' maxima adhibenda est cura' : ' nam et nequitia et ignavia 
 ex musica praesertim hoc tempore exoriri solent,' says Porcia, De Generosa 
 Liber. Educ., p. 113. 
 
 2 Sassuolo, p. 69. 
 
 3 Aeneas Sylvius, Opera, p. 989 : ' si praeceptores non vitiosi reperi- 
 rentur.' 
 
 4 Vegio, /.<., 'ad degendam recte in otio vitam'; Vergerius, supra, 
 p. 117. 
 
 6 Aeneas Sylvius, I.e. : 'non...huius disciplinae mediocris fugienda 
 cognitio.' Vegio, Op. cit., p. 302, considers it unworthy that a girl, 'literis 
 Graecis et Latinis doctam, psallere et saltare elegantius quam necesse sit.' 
 He would prefer that she should not sing or dance at all. 
 
 6 Platina, of Vittorino, p. 19: ' Magistros conduxit qui cantibus et lyra 
 eos erudirent quos maxime idoneos cernebat ; hac quoque in re, ut in 
 ceteris, Atticos doctores imitatus, quod his etiam excitari animos concentu 
 et harmonia ad laudem et pulchritudinem virtutis diceret.'
 
 5- Moral and Religious Training. 241 
 
 distort the face by blowing. Hence the violin in various 
 forms, and the larger and more elaborate ' clavicembalo ' were 
 the accepted instruments 1 . In singing the solo was preferred 
 to the chorus; and in song and instrumental music alike only 
 severer melodies were allowed, such as philosophers would 
 commend as carrying definitely elevating suggestion 2 . Dancing 
 to music was apparently approved by Vittorino, though in 
 tHs he differs from Vergerius and also from Porcia, who, 
 writing at the very close of our period, finds it unworthy of a 
 gentleman. This judgment, however, was not in accord with 
 the social opinion of the age. For, as tending to cultivate 
 grace and courtliness of bearing, dignified and graceful dancing 
 was an accomplishment of no slight importance. 
 
 5. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 
 
 A few remarks may be added upon moral and religious 
 training, mainly by way of supplement to what has been said 
 above respecting discipline and the study of moral philosophy 3 . 
 The virtues upon which most stress was laid by the Humanist 
 teachers under review were reverence, self-restraint, modesty 
 and truthfulness. Special qualities were inculcated, in the case, 
 for instance, of a Prince, who is exhorted to clemency and to 
 humility, or of a court official who is warned against intrigue 4 . 
 
 We find that both Vittorino and Guarino insisted upon 
 daily attendance at Worship ; Vittorino further urged upon 
 his elder scholars regular Confession and reception of the 
 
 1 Burckhardt, Renaissance in Italy, p. 392. 
 
 2 The Socratic distinction of harmonies, and of their influence on 
 character is, it need not be said, present to the minds of all Humanists. 
 
 3 Supra, p. 204, and p. 221. 
 
 4 By Guarino : Sabbadini, Vita di Guarino, p. 103. Guarino translated 
 for Leonello a work of Isocrates on the duty of the Sovereign as a guide to 
 princely duty. The letter of Guarino to his son Jerome upon his conduct 
 at the court of Naples is printed by Rosmini, Guarino, i. 119. 
 
 w. 16
 
 242 5- Moral and Religious Training. 
 
 Eucharist. All writers on Education without exception dwell 
 urgently on the duty of religious observance and of respect 
 for the doctrines and ordinances of the Church. Regulation, 
 however, was with the great school-masters the least important 
 element in their religious training. 
 
 It cannot be too strongly affirmed that a close acquaintance 
 with the actual work of Vittorino and Guarino, and with the 
 aims of Vergerius 1 and Vegio, reveals a thorough sincerity 
 of religious conviction which permeates all their educational 
 practice. Vittorino's great achievement was to effect a recon- 
 ciliation between the Christian life and Humanist ideals : in 
 this he was followed by other masters, though rarely with 
 the same unfaltering consistency 2 . It is a fair description 
 of the motive underlying Vittorino's method that he regarded 
 Humanist education as the training for Christian citizenship. 
 He himself took a leading part in the religious teaching of 
 the school ; and by addresses, by private conversations, and 
 above all by his own example, he brought the full force of 
 his personal character to bear upon his pupils in the critical 
 years of their life. He expressly encouraged a sense of 
 responsibility towards the poor and suffering, and never forgot 
 his civic obligation, and its religious sanction. Upon the 
 princes of the House he specially impressed the duties of 
 their station, using Scripture and ancient moralists to enforce 
 conviction. His share in the resolution of Cecilia to take the 
 Veil has been already alluded to. Reverence towards parents 
 and elders, towards learning and goodness, regard for the 
 higher courtesies of daily life were regularly inculcated from 
 the Bible and from antiquity : and any lapse into impiety 
 or profane language was severely punished. 
 
 Vittorino, no doubt, was an exceptional man, and his 
 
 1 On Vergerius, supra, p. 15; on Vittorino, p. 27. 
 
 2 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 141, supports Humanist studies on a some- 
 what different ground, namely, that pagan literature has itself an underlying 
 religious spirit.
 
 5- Moral and Religions Training. 243 
 
 loveable character and personal sacrifices in maintaining poor 
 scholars at his own charge gave him a peculiar influence. 
 But after all his method represents the ideal which we find 
 set forth in all the treatises of the time : though we can well 
 believe that few masters attained to so high a level in actual 
 practice. Francesco Barbaro, the young Venetian patrician, 
 strikes the same keynote, when he urges that the inculcation 
 of reverence towards God and home, is the foundation of all 
 education ; and to secure this the example of parents and 
 of teachers is of prime necessity. 
 
 Next to reverence, capacity for self-restraint appeals most 
 strongly to the teacher of this age. In all that concerns the 
 body temperance is held up as the true norm of conduct, 
 in the interests of the physical nature itself. There is no 
 suggestion of ascetic contempt for the physical frame. On 
 the contrary, its health, its suppleness, and its dignity are 
 perpetually before the mind of the true Humanist educator, 
 who whilst impressing the antique ideal of the discipline of 
 the flesh has no sympathy with the mediaeval churchman's 
 concept of the worthlessness of the body. 
 
 It was indeed easy enough to treat of the right principles 
 of living by didactic methods, and by literary illustration ; and 
 in the case of Aeneas Sylvius we are conscious not un- 
 reasonably rather of platitudes of Roman morality than of 
 deep personal sincerity. But in the actual practice of the 
 best schools, close intercourse with masters of the type of 
 Vittorino and Guarino, coupled with the constant discipline 
 of games, sports, and martial exercises, formed the surest safe- 
 guard of a healthy moral standard. 
 
 It may seem more difficult to reconcile the Humanist ideal 
 of conscious personal distinction with the stress laid upon the 
 virtue of modesty and self-effacement in educational treatises 1 . 
 But we must remember that nowhere was the penalty of 
 
 1 E.g. by Barbaro, De Re Uxoria, p. xxxii. 
 
 1 6 2
 
 244 6. Physical Training. 
 
 premature or unwarranted self-assertion so swift and so over- 
 whelming as in the Italy of the Quattrocento. Hence in the 
 training of the young it is the duty of parent and teacher to in- 
 culcate as a mark of highest excellence that children be silent in 
 the presence of elders, that they refrain from asking questions 
 in company 1 , that they be unobtrusive in dress and bearing. 
 The obligation of truthfulness forbids, also, boasting or exag- 
 geration, and all forms of ostentation in speech and writing ; 
 the use of metaphors and flights of fancy are unbecoming. 
 Pertinacity, malice, or impropriety in conversation are con- 
 demned as indicating a froward temper 2 . To be convinced 
 of ignorance and yet determined to excel, to be conscious of 
 power but reserved in exhibiting it, were the signs of a 
 disposition which promised well for a personal distinction 
 which would have no need to conceal itself in after years. 
 
 6. PHYSICAL TRAINING. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the education of the earlier 
 Humanists was, in one aspect of it, a development of the 
 courtly and military training of youth characteristic of the 
 preceding century. The ideal of humanist education was not 
 the product of the free City, or of the University, but of the 
 Court. Venice, Florence, Padua all had schools which in the 
 early decades of the fifteenth century were imbued with the 
 humanist spirit. But such schools were, as we know, tentative, 
 and did but partially realise the aims of the men who initiated 
 them. Only at a Court like that of Mantua or Ferrara could 
 humanism exhibit its complete educational ideals. One reason 
 
 1 This did not in any way imply that eager curiosity in school was 
 regarded as other than a mark of intelligence, and by the wiser masters 
 encouraged. Vittorino prized the quality above memory, then usually 
 accepted as the token of excellence. 
 
 2 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 144.
 
 6. Physical Training. 245 
 
 for this lay in the fact that there only did they find free scope 
 and encouragement upon the side of physical training. 
 
 From the treatise of Vergerius we see that the distinction 
 between the training of Letters and of Arms is definitely 
 recognised. Either is commendable ; the combination of the 
 two forms for a man of position the ideal education. But, 
 even at the Court schools, there is a much larger class that 
 of town-dwellers and youths of private station for whom a 
 military career offers no attraction. For them, Vittorino, 
 applying the full antique conception of training for the first 
 time 1 , devised systematic methods of physical instruction. 
 At the outset habits of hardy nurture laid the foundation of 
 health and inured the boy to regular exertion. Care was taken 
 to increase the strain upon physical endurance by slow degrees 2 , 
 a responsibility which involves careful observation of individual 
 children. Lessons were broken by regular and liberal intervals 
 for spontaneous play 3 , which it was urged should not be of 
 less than two hours' duration in all. A tendency to moroseness, 
 unsociable habits and reluctance to join in games was checked 
 with firmness. Amongst outdoor games for young children 
 ball-play 4 in its various forms was most prized, next to that 
 running and jumping, as compelling active movement. Dancing, 
 however, is often condemned in spite of its many advantages : 
 partly, it would seem, because it familiarised a boy with softer 
 and less stimulating influences. After the age of ten, sports 
 and exercises requiring regular training in skill are introduced, 
 
 1 Burckhardt, Renaissance in Italy, p. 389, and Sabbadini, Giwrino, 
 p. 102 ; both agree that to Vittorino was due the special place given to 
 physical culture generally, and to carefully devised gymnastics in particular. 
 
 2 Vergerius, supra, p. 114. M. Vegio, De Educ. Liber., p. 281. 
 
 3 Porcia, De Generosa Lib. Educ., p. in. 
 
 4 Vegio, Op. cit., p. 286: ' Pilae ludus et honestus et liberalis videtur.' 
 Ball games included foot-ball, throwing and catching: the ' trigonalis pila' 
 is still obscure. Porcia, I.e., objects to allowing well-born youths to play 
 with ' rustici aut plebeii.' Guarino appeals to the precedent of Alexander 
 and Scaevola, who keenly enjoyed games with the ball.
 
 246 6. Physical Training. 
 
 such as archery, fencing, the use of the sling and the first steps 
 in military training 1 . Emulation should be encouraged by 
 prizes for exceptional quickness and endurance. Skill in arms 
 is cultivated as a necessary training for civic duty, that each 
 citizen may be capable of taking his part in the defence of 
 public liberty and independence 2 . 
 
 In order to develope habits of manly yet graceful bearing, 
 to which as the outward mark of distinction 3 much importance 
 attached, special training was devised. No Humanist dis- 
 regarded the advantages to a boy of dignified carriage in 
 society, exhibited in walking, sitting or standing with ease and 
 grace. Vittorino was probably the first to teach, with this end 
 in view, gymnastics as an art, deserving of perseverance for 
 its own sake, apart from military training or mere recreation 4 ; 
 and after his time it became incorporated into Italian education 
 of the higher type. Guarino imitated his practice at Ferrara, 
 though perhaps with less insistence. Riding and swimming 
 were encouraged as indispensable to the soldier and useful 
 attainments in everyone. Guarino's argument for swimming is 
 characteristic. 'As an art, swimming gives elasticity to the 
 muscles ; it adds another aptitude to the physical powers, 
 since by it a man ceases to be merely a denizen of dry land. 
 It is more important to remember how many illustrious persons 
 have been good swimmers. Let it be enough to mention 
 Horatius Codes, Alexander and Caesar : and the story of the 
 imprudence of the Macedonian will warn Leonello to be 
 cautious in bathing.' Hunting, as developing endurance and 
 courage, is advised where opportunity offers. 
 
 For older students quieter recreations may be desirable : 
 as walks 5 , especially on bright days, amid fine scenery or by 
 
 1 Porcia, Op. tit., p. 113. 
 
 2 Vegio, Op. cit., p. 282 : ' summe necessaria studia.' 
 
 3 Aeneas Sylvius, supra, p. 137 sq. 
 
 4 Sabbadini, l.c. 
 
 B Vegio, Op. cit,, p. 287. So Guarino and Porcia.
 
 7- TJie Education of Women. 247 
 
 the sea, riding, with a pleasant companion, fishing, hawking 
 and snaring birds. The latter, however, are pastimes for 
 adults, rather than exercise for the young and vigorous. 
 
 The ends which the Humanist master had in view probably 
 varied somewhat with individuals. To preserve health 1 and 
 to secure that the mental activities should be as free and 
 vigorous as possible was, no doubt, always foremost amongst 
 them. Next, the actual acquirement of bodily aptitudes was, 
 in the earlier stage of Humanist education, an integral factor 
 of individual excellence. Not, however, that these were to be 
 sought 'in morem athletarum ' ; a professional skill would 
 imply an unworthy stress upon what is, after all, the least 
 important side of human faculty. But the value of games as 
 a healthy moral stimulus 2 , and as a security against indulgence, 
 meanness, and selfish unconcern for the interests and happiness 
 of others was probably the argument which with the practical 
 school-master weighed most strongly in the fifteenth century as 
 it does to-day. 
 
 7. HUMANISM AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 
 
 It is often said that in the education of Girls the Humanist 
 contemplated a standard of attainment and a range of subjects 
 identical with those proposed for boys. This, however, so far 
 as it applies to our period, needs some qualification. 
 
 The distinction seems to be, not so much in a difference of 
 educational subject-matter, as in the altered stress which is laid 
 upon certain elements in it. The Humanist has not attempted 
 any revolution in the position of women. Home, social life, 
 the rearing of children, the practice of charity and religious 
 obligation are still their first duties. There is. undoubtedly, a 
 
 1 Vegio, De Liber. Educ., p. 281, ' roboris et bonae valetudinis gratia.' 
 The ' gravior tristiorque frons,' is not desirable in a boy, and is best banished 
 by out-door sports, p. 283. 
 
 2 Vegio, I.e.
 
 248 7- Tlie Education of Women. 
 
 new element present, that, namely, of intellectual distinction ; 
 and the ideal wife of Bruni or Vegio was a more interesting 
 figure than the house-mother of Alberti's well-known book 1 . 
 And, as with a boy so with a girl, this ' praestantia ' can only 
 be attained by a training in Letters 2 . 
 
 The practice of religion, and the example of a well-ordered 
 life will be a woman's first care 3 . Both Bruni and Vegio lay 
 the greatest stress on this aspect of her training. But in her 
 studies, also, she will keep the same ends constantly before 
 her. For Bruni, enthusiastic scholar though he is, regards 
 literature from a special point of view when treating of the 
 reading suitable for a woman. In studying Latin literature 
 she will turn first to the Fathers, notably to Augustine and 
 Lactantius 4 . And here the characteristic feeling of the 
 Humanist reveals itself. For both these writers are com- 
 mended as stylists as well as theologians. There are possibly 
 edifying doctors 5 , who may be helpful to a woman's inner life, 
 amongst contemporary churchmen, but on no account should 
 their productions be read lest her literary taste be corrupted. 
 Further, there is no warrant for limiting the study of moral 
 precepts to the ecclesiastical authors; such writers as Cicero 
 and Seneca are capable of affording profound lessons in the 
 virtues : and discussions on the principles of morals may 
 suitably follow. The standpoint, however, is never lost sight 
 of. The true motive for the study of ancient literature is the 
 cultivation of the higher faculties of our nature 6 , although it 
 will, at the same time, grace social position and give dignity to 
 leisure. Certain elements of classical training will be omitted, 
 such as the subtleties of rhetoric : and the choice of authors 
 read will need judgment. History is a peculiarly suitable 
 
 1 // Gowemo delta Famtglia, which represents the older type of Tuscan 
 life. 
 
 2 Bruni, supra, p. 123 and passim. 
 
 3 Vegio, Op. cit., p. 302. 4 Supra, p. 124, 127. 
 
 5 Supra, p. 127. 6 Bruni, s.f., supra, p. 133.
 
 / TJie Education of Women. 249 
 
 subject for a woman ; who, however, will not shew too much 
 interest in such meaner studies as Arithmetic or Geometry : 
 and she will be superior to Astrology 1 . 
 
 The education of a girl is, in reality, a matter which needs 
 the careful supervision of the mother, for practical morals and 
 religious temper are of chief importance. Letters must be 
 held subordinate to manners and character. Still, as she may 
 not be encouraged to excellence in singing, playing or dancing, 
 she will find intellectual interests in the study of Greek and 
 Latin. Such is the advice of M. Vegio 2 , who approaches 
 education avowedly from the point of view of a Humanist 
 churchman, and whose highest admiration is reserved for 
 Augustine and Monica his mother. Vittorino does not appear 
 to have received the daughters of other Houses than the 
 Gonzaga ; but Cecilia's scholarship was certainly not inferior 
 to that of her brothers ; her early progress in Greek, which 
 astounded Ambrogio, has been already mentioned 3 . 
 
 Guarino, whilst teaching at Verona, had in Isotta and 
 Ginevra Nogarola two of his most enthusiastic pupils 4 . Isotta 
 attained much celebrity for her learning ; and like Battista 
 di Montefeltro she was a woman of sincere Humanist sym- 
 pathies. She wrote excellent Latin both in prose and verse ; 
 in her correspondence with Guarino she quotes Greek authors, 
 and classical and modern Latinists, and handles anecdotes and 
 illustrations in strict Humanist fashion. But the case of Isotta 
 shews us that Society did not approve of a tendency to eman- 
 cipation from the accepted rules which governed the conduct 
 of a lady. It was considered an impropriety that she should 
 write to Guarino, so that she came under the ban of the 
 social opinion of Verona. Thus, although a lady might be, 
 should be indeed, deeply versed in the literature of the 
 Fathers, the moralists, and the chief poets of antiquity ; should 
 
 1 Supra, pp. 126, 128. 2 Vegio, Op. cii., p. 302. 
 
 3 Supra, p. 50. 4 Sabbadini, Guarino, p. 125.
 
 250 7- The Education of Women. 
 
 write elegant Latin and, if possible, Greek; should read 
 History ; and should have a wide field of knowledge available 
 for discussion and conversation 1 in Society, yet she must not 
 presume to pass beyond the conventions which regulated the 
 moral and social duty of a woman of position. It is possible 
 that a sense of irksomeness was, as a consequence, engendered 
 in some more vigorous minds, just as we know that others 
 amongst scholarly ladies became conscious of an opposition 
 between their religious instincts and the attractions of pagan 
 literature. Both of these causes, combined with the need 
 of sanctuary in troubled times, may serve to explain why, 
 in not a few cases, the Humanist impulse gave way before 
 an ascetic motive, and learned women, like Isotta, Cecilia, 
 Paola her mother, and Battista di Montefeltro, took the veil. 
 
 It is evident, lastly, that Humanist culture was sought and 
 attained by a limited proportion only of the wives and 
 daughters of leading families. It was more common amongst 
 them in Florence and Venice than in the smaller cities. 
 But those whose fame has come down to us, and they 
 must be but representatives of a large number, strike us as 
 thoroughly womanly in temperament, not seldom of strong 
 practical gifts, and respected in their own day not less for 
 their domestic virtues than for their refinement and cultivation. 
 
 1 Bruni, supra, p. 132 ; and infra, p. 190.
 
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