OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

133

the Byzantine libraries, from the darkest monas- chap.teries of Germany and Britain , he collected the LXVI -dusty manuscripts of the writers of antiquity; 'and wherever the original could not be removed,a faithful copy was transcribed and transmittedfor his use. The Vatican , the old repository forbulls and legends, for superstition and forgery,was daily replenished with more precious furni-ture; and such was the industry of Nicholas,that in a reign of eight years he formed a li-brary of five thousand volumes. To his muni-ficence the Latin world was indebted for theversions of Xenophon, Diodorus, Polybius,Thu-cydides, Herodotus , and Appian; of Strabo’sGeography, of the Iliad, of the most valuableworks of Plato and Aristotle, of Ptolemy andTheophrastus , and of the fathers of the Greekchurch. The example of the Roman pontiff was _

1 . 1 Cosmo and

preceded or imitated by a Florentine merchant, Lorenzo ofwho governed the republic without arms and a^d'um-without a title. Cosmo of Medicis" was the fa- 1492,ther of a line of princes, whose name and age arealmost synonymous with the restoration of learn-ing: his credit was ennobled into fame; hisriches were dedicated to the service of mankind;he corresponded at once with Cairo and London ;and a cargo of Indian spices and Greek bookswas often imported in the same vessel. Thegenius and education of his grandson Lorenzorendered him not only a patron, but a judge and

u See the literary history of Cosmo and Lorenzo of Medicis, in TLrahoschi (tom. vi, p. 1. i, c. 2), who bestows a due measure of prai9c onAiphot.so of Arragon, king of Naples, the dukes of Milan, Ferrara, Ur-bino, &c The republic of Venice has deserved the least from tiicgratitude of scholars.