Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt:...His vineyard on the Quirinal was frequented by his enthusiastic pupils. Before day-break that 'insignificant little figure, with small, quick eyes, and quaint dress 'a, might be seen descending, lantern in hand, from his home on the Esquiline to the scene of his lectures, where an eager crowd awaited him3. He was the ruling spirit of the Academy. The members of that body assumed Latin names, and celebrated the foundation of Rome on the annual return of the festival of the Palilia. They also revived the performance of the plays of Plautus. Among the best-known members were Platina, the future librarian of the Vatican (1475-8i)4, and Sabellicus (1436--1506), the future praefect of the Library of San Marco in Venice5. In 1468 the Academy was suppressed for a time by Paul II, on the ground of its political aims and its pagan spirit; Pomponius was imprisoned in the Mausoleum of Hadrian, and was put to the torture with Platina8 and other men of mark. The Academy was revived under Sixtus IV, and we have a quaint account of 1 Ep. 167-8. Cp. De Nolhac, Erasme en Itatie, 144 pp., eJ. 189S; and Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, viii 309 f, E.T. Sabellicus, Epp. lib. xi; Burckhardt, 279 E.T. s Jovius, Elogia, no. 40; portrait on p. 78. Portrait in Jovius, p. 34. Platina is included in Melozzo da Foili's fresco (admirably reproduced in Alois Heiss, Les Midaillenrs de la Renaissance, i opp. p. 52), and in the interesting fresco copied in J. W. Clark's Care of Boohs, fig. 99. 5 Portrait in Jovius, p. 98 (closely resembling Politian). De Vitis Pontificum, p. 338, ed. 1568. all the ceremonies, grave and gay, attending the commemoration, in 1482, of the first anniversary of the death of Platina1. Between Pomponius' release from prison and his death, he...