124

CHAP.

LXVI.

THE DECLINE AND FALL

Italy . d Previous to his own journey, the em-peror Manuel dispatched his envoys and oratorsto implore the compassion of the western princes.Of these envoys, the most conspicuous, or themost learned, was Manual Chrysoloras,' of noblebirth, and whose Roman ancestors are supposedto have migrated with the great Constantine.After visiting the courts of France and England,where he obtained some contributions, and morepromises, the envoy was invited to assume theoffice of a professor; and Florence had again thehonour of this second invitation. By his know-ledge not only of the Greek, but of the Latin tongue, Chrysoloras deserved the stipend, andsurpassed the expectation, of the republic. Hisschool was frequented by a crowd of disciplesof every rank and age ; and one of these, in ageneral history, has described his motives andhis success. “ At that time,”says Leonard Are-tin/ “ I was a student of the civil law; but my

d Dr. Hody (p. 64) is angry with Leonard Aretin, Guarinus, PaulusJovius, &c. for affirming that the Greek letters were restored in Italy post septingenfo* awios ; as if says he, they had flourished till the endof the seve nth century. These writers most probably reckoned fromthe last period of the exarchate; aud the presence of the Greek ma»gistrales and troops at Ravenna aud Rome must have preserved, insome degree, the use of their native tongue.

e See the article of Emanuel, or Manuel Chrysoloras , in Hody (p.12-54) and Tiraboschi (tom. vii, p. 113-118). The precise date of hisarrival floats between the years 1390 and 1400, and is only confined bythe r?igu of Boniface IX .

f The name of Aretinus has been assumed by five or six natives ofArezzo in Tuscany , of whom the most famous and the most worthlesslived in the sixteenth century. Leonardus Brunus Aretinus, the dis-ciple of Chrysoloras , was a linguist, an orator, and an historian, thesecretary of four successive popes, and the chancellor of the republicof Florence, where he died, a. d. 1444, at the age of seventy-five(Fabric. Bibliot. medii JEvi, tom. i, p. 190, &c. Tiraboschi, tom*vii,p. 33-38).