Italian Renaissance - Italy - Florentine Niccolo Niccoli...
Share travel photos on the Exploitz.com website, the leading travel photography site on the Internet!
exploitz.com


Italy Hotels
Italy Hostels
Italy Sights

Italy Posters
Customize your home,school or office with a Italy poster!

Florence 398526
Italy 1935 399235
Italian Aerial Lines 397466
Viobuton and Co Bologna
Palazzo Dell Accademia
Italian Poppies serigraph
Tuscany I 357561
Palazzo
Last View of Tuscany
Positano The Amalfi Coast
Portofino I
Venice 129555
American Girl in Italy 1951 151245
Italian Cypress
In Bibl Vaticana
Carnival of Venice
Summer House in Tuscany
Sguardo Su Portofino 318366
American Girl in Italy 1951
Sunflowers in Umbria Italy
View from the Palazzo
Portofino Sunlight
Venice Canal 264872
Italian Wine Landscape
Italian Travels I
Italian Travels II 362830
View to the Amalfi Coast
Pergola in Amalfi 326785
View to The Amalfi Coast 147533
Pergola in Amalfi 147535
Distesa di Girasoli
Italian Place
Italian Waves I
Italian Waves II
Portofino 264946
Venice 400879
Portovenere Italy
Italian Excursion
Portofino Valley
Images of Venice I 416352
Images of Venice II
Images of Venice III
Images of Venice IV 416355
At Portofino
Last Supper 310108
In Museo Vaticano I
In Museo Vaticano II
Eden Bologna 394863
Campionato Italiano 394612
Florence
Italy 1935
History: The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burckhardt

Index | pg. 62 |Previous Page - Next Page

Florentine Niccolo Niccoli ...

The Florentine Niccolo Niccoli, a member of that accomplished circle of friends which surrounded the elder Cosimo de' Medici, spent his whole fortune in buying books. At last, when his money was all gone, the Medici put their purse at his disposal for any sum which his purpose might require. We owe to him the later books of Ammianus Marcellinus, the 'De Oratore' of Cicero, and other works; he persuaded Cosimo to buy the best manuscript of Pliny from a monastery at Lubeck. With noble confidence he lent his books to those who asked for them, allowed all comers to study them in his own house, and was ready to converse with the students on what they had read. His collection of 800 volumes, valued at 6,000 gold florins, passed after his death, through Cosimo's intervention, to the monastery of San Marco, on the condition that it should be accessible to the public.

Of the two great book-finders, Guarino and Poggio, the latter, on the occasion of the Council of Constance and acting partly as the agent of Niccoli, searched industriously among the abbeys of South Germany. He there discovered six orations of Cicero, and the first complete Quintilian, that of St. Gallen, now at Zurich; in thirty-two days he is said to have copied the whole of it in a beautiful handwriting. He was able to make important additions to Silius Italicus, Manilius, Lucretius, Valerius Flaccus, Asconius Pedianus, Columella, Celsus, Aulus Gellius, Statius, and others; and with the help of Leonardo Aretino he unearthed the last twelve comedies of Plautus, as well as the Verrine orations.

The famous Greek, Cardinal Bessarion, in whom patriotism was mingled with a zeal for letters, collected, at a great sacrifice, 600 manuscripts of pagan and Christian authors. He then looked round for some receptacle where they could safely lie until his unhappy country, if she ever regained her freedom, could reclaim her lost literature. The Venetian government declared itself ready to erect a suitable building, and to this day the Biblioteca Marciana retains a part of these treasures.



Index | pg. 62 |Previous Page - Next Page

Italy Hotels - Italy Hostels - Italy Sights

................................................................

Other popular Italy book pages:

Mythology: Apollo and Daphne
Mythology: Prometheus and Pandora
Mythology: Callisto
Mythology: Venus and Adonis
Mythology: Apollo and Hyacinthus
Mythology: Cupid and Psyche
Mythology: Nisus, Scylla, Echo
Mythology: Sphinx
Mythology: Pegasus,Chimera
Mythology: Centaurs


Online Italy Books

Italian Renaissance
Italian Recipes
Italian Poetry
Roman Mythology






Italy Travel Guide
A good starting point for researching Italy for travel or reference.

Venice - Piazza St. Marco (St. Mark's Square)
Venice - Gondola along the Grand Canal
Venice - Walking around Venice Streets
Venice - Pictures from the Venice canals
Venice - From the Train Station to St. Mark's 1
Venice - From the Train Station to St. Mark's 2
Ceasar's European Discovery Pictures. Italy Pg.1
Breathtaking Italy and France
Ceasar's European Discovery Pictures. Italy Pg. 2
Florence and Venice
Arno River in Florence
Campania