FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312  
313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   >>   >|  
ssical studies and by a renewed interest in Plato. The classical learning of the middle ages was largely second-hand. It was often derived from glossaries, from books of elegant extracts, or from comprehensive encyclopaedias. Among the compilers of these last were Isidore and Hrabanus, William of Conches and Honorius of Autun, Bartholomaeus Anglicus (fl. 1250), Vincent of Beauvais (d. 1264), and, lastly, Brunetto Latini (d. 1290), the earlier contemporary of Dante. For Aristotle, as interpreted by Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, Dante has the highest regard. To the Latin translations of Aristotle and to his interpreters he refers in more than three hundred passages, while the number of his references to the Latin translation of the _Timaeus_ of Plato is less than ten. His five great pagan poets are Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Lucan; Statius he regards as a "Christian" converted by Virgil's _Fourth Eclogue_. His standard authors in Latin prose are Cicero, Livy, Pliny, Frontinus and Orosius. His knowledge of Greek was practically nil. Latin was the language of his political treatise, _De Monarchia_, and even that of his defence of the vulgar tongue, _De Vulgari Eloquio_. He is, in a limited sense, a precursor of the Renaissance, but he is far more truly to be regarded as the crowning representative of the spirit of the middle ages. Italy. (iv.) _The Modern Age._--(a) Our fourth period is ushered in by the age of the Revival of Learning in Italy (c. 1350-1527). Petrarch (1304-1374) has been well described as "the first of modern men." In contrast with the Schoolmen of the middle ages, he has no partiality for Aristotle. He was interested in Greek, and, a full century before the fall of Constantinople, he was in possession of MSS. of Homer and Plato, though his knowledge of the language was limited to the barest rudiments. For that knowledge, scanty as it was, he was indebted to Leontius Pilatus, with whose aid Boccaccio (1313-1375) became "the first of modern men" to study Greek to some purpose during the three years that Leontius spent as his guest in Florence (1360-1363). It was also at Florence that Greek was taught in the next generation by Chrysoloras (in 1396-1400). Another generation passed, and the scholars of the East and West met at the council of Florence (1439). One of the envoys of the Greeks, Gemistus Pletho, then inspired Cosimo dei Medici with the thought of founding an academy for the study
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312  
313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Aristotle

 

middle

 
knowledge
 

Florence

 

modern

 
Virgil
 

Leontius

 

generation

 

language

 

limited


spirit

 

representative

 
century
 

Modern

 
crowning
 
regarded
 
interested
 

Schoolmen

 

partiality

 

contrast


Constantinople

 

Learning

 
Petrarch
 

Revival

 

fourth

 

period

 
ushered
 

council

 

scholars

 

Another


passed

 

envoys

 

Greeks

 

thought

 

Medici

 

founding

 

academy

 
Cosimo
 

Gemistus

 

Pletho


inspired

 

Chrysoloras

 
Pilatus
 
indebted
 

Boccaccio

 

scanty

 

barest

 
rudiments
 

taught

 

purpose