' He describes the finding of several other rare MSS.,
and says: 'I have copied them all out in great haste, and have sent them
to Florence.'
In 1418 he visited England in the train of Cardinal Beaufort. He said
that he was unable to procure any transcripts, though he visited some of
the principal libraries, and must have seen that the collection at the
Grey Friars at least was 'well stocked with books.' He was more
successful on the Continent, where he brought the _History_ of Ammianus
out of a German prison into the free air of the republic of letters. He
gave the original to Cardinal Colonna, and wrote to Aretino about
transcripts: 'Niccolo has copied it on paper for Cosmo de' Medici: you
must write to Carlo Aretino for another copy, or he might lend you the
original, because if the scribe should be an ignoramus you might get a
fable instead of a history.'
Among the pupils of Chrysoloras, Guarini of Verona was esteemed the
keenest philologist, and John Aurispa as having the most extended
knowledge of the classics. Aurispa, says Hallam, came rather late from
Sicily, but his labours were not less profitable than those of his
predecessors; in the year 1423 he brought back from Greece considerably
more than two hundred MSS. of authors hardly known in Italy; and the list
includes books of Plato, of Pindar, and of Strabo, of which all knowledge
had been lost in the West. Aurispa lectured for many years at Bologna and
Florence, and ended his days at the literary Court of Ferrara.
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