earn that Poggio had discovered Asconius and Flaccus
in the monastery of St. Gall, whose inhabitants regarded them without
much esteem. In the monastery of Langres, his researches were rewarded by
a copy of Cicero's Oration for Caecina. With the assistance of Bartolomeo
di Montepulciano, he discovered Silius Italicus, Lactantius, Vegetius,
Nonius Marcellus, Ammianus Marcellus, Lucretius, and Columella, and he
found in a monastery at Rome a complete copy of Turtullian.[84] In the
fine old monastery of Casino, so renowned for its classical library in
former days, he met with Julius Frontinus and Firmicus, and transcribed
them with his own hand. At Cologne he obtained a copy of Petronius
Arbiter. But to these we may add Calpurnius's Bucolic,[85] Manilius,
Lucius Septimus, Coper, Eutychius, and Probus. He had anxious hopes of
adding a perfect Livy to the list, which he had been told then existed in
a Cistercian Monastery in Hungary, but, unfortunately, he did not
prosecute his researches in this instance with his usual energy. The
scholar has equally to regret the loss of a perfect Tacitus, which Poggio
had expectations of from the hands of a German monk. We may still more
deplore this, as there is every probability that the monks actually
possessed the precious volume.[86] Nicolas of Treves, a contemporary and
friend of Poggio's, and who was infected, though in a slight degree, with
the same passionate ardor for collecting ancient manuscripts, discovered,
whilst exploring the German monasteries, twelve comedies of Plautus, and
a fragment of Aulus Gellius.[87] Had it not been for the timely aid of
these great men, many would have been irretrievably lost in the many
revolutions and contentions that followed; and, had such been the case,
the monks, of course, would have received the odium, and on their heads
the spleen of the disappointed student would have been prodigally
showered.

FOOTNOTES:

[40] Martene Thesaurus novus Anecdot. tom. iv. col. 1462.

[41] See Du Cange in Voc., vol. vi. p. 264.

[42] Anglia Sacra, ii. 635. Fosbrooke Brit. Monach., p. 15.

[43] Martene Thes. Nov. Anec. tom. iv. col. 1462. Stat. Ord.
Cistere, anni 1278, they were allowed for "_Studendum vel
recreandum_."

[44] Hildesh. episc apud Leibuit., tom. i. Script. Brunsvic, p. 444.
I am indebted to Du Cange for this reference.

[45] King's Munimenta Antiqua. Stevenson's Suppl. to Bentham, p. 64.

[46] Matt Paris, p. 51.

[47]