r
under the same roof. The most distinguished foreign scholars were
invited to occupy the different professional chairs, their salaries were
raised and their numbers increased. Giasone del Maino, who was professor
of law at Pavia for fifty-two years, and whose reputation as jurist
attracted students from all parts of the world, received the large
salary of 2250 florins at this time, while Giorgio Merula of Alessandria,
the historian, who for many years was professor of rhetoric at the
University, and received only 375 florins in 1486, had his salary
raised in 1492 to 1000 florins. Next to the law schools, that of
medicine was the most noted for its excellence at Pavia, and among its
distinguished professors were Alvise Marliani, who was said to rival
Aristotle in philosophy, Hippocrates in medicine, and Ptolemy in
astronomy, and who was court-physician in turn to Lodovico Sforza, to
his son Maximilian, and to the Emperor Charles V.; and Ambrogio of
Varese, who occupied the chair of astrology, and taught the science of
Almansor, as it was termed. This favourite servant of the Moro received
the title of Count and the castle and lands of Rosate from Gian Galeazzo
in 1493, "for his services," so ran the patent, "in saving my illustrious
uncle the Duke of Bari's life." Oriental study was another branch of
learning that Lodovico especially encouraged. Count Teseo de'Albonesi of
Pavia became noted as the first Chaldaic scholar of his age, and in 1490,
the Moro established a chair of Hebrew, and appointed the Jew Benedetto
Ispano to be the first professor, with express injunctions to study the
text of the Bible. This experiment, however, proved a failure, and so few
scholars attended his lectures that at the end of a year the chair was
abolished. At the same time, new colleges were opened, and scholarships
founded for poor students; and in 1496, Lodovico being then reigning Duke
of Milan, granted the professors of law, medicine, philosophy and fine
arts, an exemption from all taxation. Under his fostering care the
University flourished as it had never flourished before. Scholars from
all parts of Europe came to attend Giasone di Maino's lectures, the
number of professors reached ninety: that of students was said to be
three thousand. As the Milanese poet Lancinus Curtius sang in his Latin
rhymes, "The fair-skinned Germans with their long hair flowing on their
necks, the English and the knights from Gaul, the Iberian from the gold