MEMOIRS,

&c.

POLITIAN.

ANGELUS POLITIANUS (a) was born July 14th. 1454, at Monte Pulciano in Tuscany; and from the name of this town, in Latin Mons Politianus, he derived the surname of Politiano. His father was a Doctor of the civil law. His name, according to M. Baillet,

was

(a) This eminent scholar has lately been introduced to the notice of the public with great advantage, in an elegant and judicious work, entitled, "The Life of Lorenzo de' Medici," by W. Roscoe, Esq. Many interesting particulars concerning Politian, and his exertions in the cause of literature, are interspersed in that work; a great part of which I have for that reason omitted. Others have been slightly touched upon, with a view to preserve something like connection in my own narrative.

was Benedictus de Cinis or de Ambroginis; for he considers the former as a corruption of the latter.

Politian, who gave early proofs of an extraordinary genius, (b) had the advantage of Christoforo Landino's instructions in the Latin language. His preceptors in the Greek, were Andronicus of Thessalonica, and Joannes Argyropylus. Fortunate in the endowments of nature, and not less so in the exterior circumstances which brought to light the rich resources of his intellectual powers, and exhibited them to the greatest advantage, his abilities, at a very early period of his life, attracted the notice of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici. An Italian poem, (c) the production of hist juvenile

(b) Politian is enumerated by Baillet among his "Enfans célébres par leurs études." Jugemens des savans tom 5. première partie. p. 87. 12mo. Amst. 1725.

(c) "Lucas autem Pulcius nobilis poeta novo et illustri poemate equestres Laurentii ludos celebravit. Cæterum Politiani ludicrum equestris pugnæ spectaculum quod in gratiam Juliani Medicis scripsit, omnium sententiâ præstantius judicatum est, quod e Græcis atque Latinis delectos flores contineret." P. Massonus in vitâ Laur. Medicis.

juvenile pen, in which he celebrated an equestrian spectacle or Giostra, wherein the latter bore away the prize, greatly contributed to establish his reputation. - He was thenceforward honoured with the ресиliar patronage of the Medicean family; and among the persons remarkable for genius and learning, whom the munificence of Lorenzo attracted to Florence, Politian was seen to shine as a star of the first magnitude.

Having undertaken to teach publicly the Greek and Latin languages at Florence, the celebrity of his name occasioned pupils of the first distinction to resort to him from all parts of Europe. Lorenzo de' Medici confided to him the education of his own children: and in this honourable employment he passed a great part of his life, favoured with the peculiar friendship of his patron, and the society and correspondence of men of letters,

Among the more intimate associates of Politian, was Joannes Picus of Mirandula, (d) to whom

(d)This nobleman, termed the Phoenix of his age, youngest son of Joannes Franciscus Picus, prince of Mirandula and Concordia, was born Feb. 24, 1463. Even in his childhood he is said to have evinced an astonishing quick

whom are ascribed the literary qualifications & premature attainments of another Crichton. Between

A

ness of apprehension and retentiveness of memory. At the age of fourteen, by desire of his mother Julia, who wished him to embrace an ecclesiastical life, he was sent to Bologna to study the Canon Law. After he had continued here two years, during which time he drew up a complete epitome of the Decretals, disgusted with so jejune a study, and anxious to gratify his ardent thirst for knowledge, he employed seven years in travelling through the universities of France and Italy, and in hearing and conversing with the most celebrated professors in every branch of science. An impulse of youthful vanity prompted him afterwards to visit Rome, where he proposed nine hundred questions which had respect not only to theology, philosophy, humanity, and every other branch of the more general learning of the times, but also to the abstruse systems of the earliest Grecian and Oriental philosophers, - the mysteries of the Cabala,—magic, the absurdity and impiety of which he asserted, -judiciary astrology, and the rest of the occult sciences, causing them to be published through the different universities of Europe, with offers to defray the expence of the journeys of such as chose to repair to Rome, to dispute publicly with him on these subjects. Such an astonishing display of youthful erudition did not fail to excite the envy of many, who first attempted to wound the reputation of Picus by the shafts of ridicule; but finding these ineffectual, selected thirteen of his theses, which they declared to be of an heretical tendency. This charge gave a new occasion to the display of the prodigious intellectual powers of the accused; who completed in twenty days an elaborate apology, abounding with multi

Between these eminent scholars there was a strict attachment, and a friendly communication

farious and profound erudition, in which he completely refuted the accusations of his adversaries. But though Picus remained at Rome a whole year, the proposed disputations never took place. INNOCENT VIII. persuaded that the agitation of such questions might be attended with danger, interdicted the discussion, and ordered them to be suppressed. Picus himself, we are assured, on mature reflection concurred in this opinion; and afterwards condemned the vanity which had prompted him to such unprofitable speculations: acknowledging that the calumnies of malevolence had happily led him to the discovery of his real errors. The oration he had composed, and intended to have recited on this occasion, is still preserved. We are told that Picus actually combined, in his own talents for disputation, all the subtilty, vigour, dexterity, and profundity, which had signalized any of the schoolmen in particular; and that an instance of his amazing powers in this exercise was once displayed, on a public occasion, at Ferrara, at the pressing instance of Ercole d'Este, the duke, his friend and relation. But Picus had by this time formed a settled distaste for these public disputations; which, he affirmed, being no farther useful than to display the skill of the mere logician, were unworthy of the Philosopher. He was profoundly versed in the writings of the schoolmen; but among these Aquinas was his favourite: whom he termed "Splendor theologiæ;" and an ingenious vindication of these authors may be found in a letter of his to Hermolaus Barbarus, inter ep. Politiani lib. ix. ep. 4.

To an accurate knowledge of the Greek and Latin, Picus