THE DECLINE AND FALL

134

CHAP.

LXVI.

candidate, in the literary race. In his palace,distress was entitled to relief, and merit to re-ward : his leisure hours were delightfully spentin the Platonic academy: he encouraged theemulation of Demetrius Chalcocondyles andAngelo Politian ; and his active missionary Ja-nus Lascaris returned from the East with a trea-sure of two hundred manuscripts, fourscore ofwhich were as yet unknown in the libraries ofEurope . 1 The rest of Italy was animated by asimilar spirit, and the progress of the nation re-paid the liberality of her princes. The Latinsheld the exclusive property of their own litera-ture; and these disciples of Greece were sooncapable of trrnsmitting and improving the les-sons which they had imbibed. After a shortsuccession of foreign teachers, the tide of emi-gration subsided; but the language of Constan-tinople was spread beyond the Alps; and thenatives of France, Germany , and England/ im-parted to their country the sacred fire which theyhad kindled in the schools of Florence andRome . 1 In the productions of the mind, as in

* Tiraboschi (tom. vi, p. i, p. 104), from the preface of Janus Las-caris to the Greek Anthology, printed at Florence 1494. Latebant(says Aldus in his preface to the Greek orators, apud Hodiuru, p.249)

in Atho Thracif monte* Eas Lascaris.in Italiam reportavit.

Miserat enim ipsum Laurentius ille Medicos in Grseciam ad inquiren-dos simul, et quantovis emendos pretio botios libros. It is remarkableenough that the research was facilitated by sultan Rajazet II.

y The Greek language was introduced into the university of Oxfordin the last years of the fifteenth century, by Grocyn , Linacer, andLatimer, who had all studied at Florence under Demetrius Chalcocon-dyles . Sec Dr. Knight's curious Life of Erasmus. Although a stoutacademical patriot, he is forced to acknowledge that Erasmus learnedGreek at Oxford, and taught it at Cambridge.

* The jealous Italians were desirous of keeping a monopoly of Greek

learning.