cole, although in his early youth he had proved himself a
valiant soldier, had in reality far greater taste for the arts of peace
than for those of war, and now devoted himself to the more congenial
task of adorning Ferrara and cultivating letters. His father Niccolo
III. had been the first prince in Northern Italy to take part in the
revival of Greek learning that had been set on foot in Naples and
Florence. He it was who, in 1402, revived the ancient University of
Ferrara, and invited the best scholars of the day to give lectures to
its students. At his prayer, the Sicilian Hellenist Aurispa, who had
travelled to Greece and Constantinople in search of Greek manuscripts,
fixed his residence at Ferrara; while Battista Guarino of Verona became
the tutor of Niccolo's own son Leonello, and inspired the young prince
with that ardour for learning which made him the most accomplished ruler
of his time. It was Niccolo, again, who invited the celebrated Paduan
doctor, Michele Savonarola, to fill the chair of medicine at the
University of Ferrara. Michele's son became court physician to Ercole,
and his grandson, the famous Dominican friar, Fra Girolamo Savonarola,
who had forsaken the study of medicine to take the vows of a preaching
brother, delivered his first course of Lent sermons in Ferrara during
that troubled year 1482.

The General Council held at Ferrara in 1438 brought some of the first
Greek Oriental scholars together in that city, and Niccolo d'Este
himself assisted at many of the discussions held by these learned
professors. His son Leonello, besides encouraging students by his own
example, devoted great pains and expense to the University library which
he founded, while his successor, Duke Borso, pensioned poor students,
who were clothed and fed at his cost. Ercole now followed in his
father's and brother's steps with so much success that under his reign
the University of Ferrara became the foremost in Italy, and boasted no
less than forty-five professors, while the number of students reached
four hundred and seventy-four. In those days the most renowned scholars
of the age flocked from all parts of Italy to hear Guarino lecture; and
Aldo Manuzio, the great printer, and his illustrious friend Pico della
Mirandola, the phoenix of the Renaissance, came to Ferrara to sit at the
feet of this revered teacher. Here Aldo acquired the passion for Greek
literature which made him inscribe the word Philhellene after his name