odes he often 'transcribed. He hated Martial so perfectly, that he was accustomed annually to burn a copy of his works, accompanied with solemnities and speeches, explaining the reason of the act. Some blunderer in the art of compliment, thought to please Navagero by comparing his poems with those of Statius. Navagero immediately cast his own verses into the fire. He was not, however, a presumptuous man. Shortly before his death, he desired that his fragment of the history of Venice might be burnt, and also his other works; for not having had leisure to give them his last corrections, he apprehended that they would not correspond with the expectations of the public. (70)

The parting between Lascaris and myself was solemn and affectionate, because each of us felt that it would be final. My venerable friend died at Rome, about the year 1535, more than ninety years old; and with him expired the last of that colony of expatriated Greeks, which had developed and enriched the intellectual powers of the Italians. Lascaris' editorial labours have been mentioned by me elsewhere. Some Greek and Latin epigrams are the only original works that he published.

EGNAZIO.

I FOLLOWED One day a crowd of young men into a lecture-room of the University. Battista Egnazio, the professor of eloquence and belles lettres, discoursed upon the qualifications of an historian. He was remarkably laudatory on Sabellico. I thought his commendations excessive, and I was glad afterwards to find that they proceeded rather from the liberality of his spirit, than the judgment of his understanding. Egnazio was a man whose genius had triumphed over the difficulties of poverty. At the age of eighteen he had opened a school of eloquence; and such was his merit, that he excited the envy of Sabellico, who was at that time at the height of his reputation as professor of belles lettres. Venice was amused, though not much edified, at witnessing the efforts, both serious and satirical, of a veteran in literature, to humiliate a young votary of the muses. Egnazio gained importance by this notice that was taken of him. He boldly removed his school to an house very near to the lecture room of Sabellico; he wrote bitter criticisms on some classical commentaries of his rival, and then published new editions of the works themselves. Sabellico resigned the contest. He

died in the year 1506; and, in the course of his final illness, he sent for Egnazio, requested his forgiveness, and, in proof of the sincerity of his declaration, that his former envy was founded in esteem, he delivered into his hands a book to which he attached much importance, and whose publication he desired. Egnazio did more, for he pronounced his funeral oration, and lost no public occasion of speaking of him with respect. Egnazio was one of the most popular lecturers in Italy. His school generally consisted of five hundred persons, who came from various distances to Venice. The office of lecturer on eloquence lasts only for a few years. Egnazio enjoyed the singular honor of a re-election. He was an ecclesiastic, and was presented with several sinecures. He often wished to retire from. public life, and each expression of his wish the senate silenced by compliments and presents, till about the year 1549, when they consented to his retirement, and gave him a pension equivalent to the whole of his salary. Some historical pieces on the origin of the Turks, and the History of the Emperors, from Julius Cæsar to Maximilian I., are his chief printed works. They possess but little merit. His popularity must have arisen more from his manner than his language; for his published Latin orations give us no great ideas of

his eloquence. When not engaged in his school he laboured hard at the Aldine press. He had great skill in judging of the value of manuscripts, and he has appended many learned notes to several of the Aldine classics. Egnazio died in the year 1553, aged 75.

THE ALDINE PRESS.

I WAS introduced to Paolo Manuzio, or Aldus, at the printing press, whence so many beautiful editions of the classics have issued. I seldom found a more learned man than this printer. His conversation was as elegant as the prefaces and commentaries to the books which he published. Indeed, the greatness and precocity of his abilities had been observed by Sadoleto and Bembo, and his early studies had been directed by that excellent guide, Benedetto Ramberti, librarian of San Marco. Paolo's taste led him to a deep admiration of Cicero. In all his compositions he has imitated the style of the Roman orator. He edited his works with enthusiastic affection as well as critical taste, and his commentaries are full of knowledge and judgment. Paolo is well skilled in most branches of elegant literature; but his particular talent lays in decyphering and explaining ancient marble inscrip

tions. His acquaintance with contractions has been of great use to him when printing a book from a manuscript partially obliterated and defaced.

Paolo mentioned with gratitude Pico of Mirandola, and his nephew Alberto Pio, Prince of Carpi, for they were, in some respects, the founders of the Aldine press, and the history of that press I shall proceed to state. The father of Paolo was born at Bassiano, near Velletri, in the Roman territories, in the year 1447. Agreeably to the custom of the day his common designations were Aldo or Aldus, the Italian or Latin contraction of his baptismal name. He received the most useful part of his education, particularly his knowledge of the Greek language, from Baptista Guarino, of Ferrara, a son of the Guarino who first discovered the works of Catullus. He then went to Carpi, as tutor to its young prince. The literary world was busy with the conjectures and hopes respecting the progress of knowledge, which the invention of the art of printing from metal types naturally had given rise to. The art was not the single effort of a mind of genius, but was the perfection of gradual improvements. The germ of letter-press printing may, according to a prevalent opinion, be found in the old practice of