y of Lucretius, Manilius,
Silius Italicus and Ammianus Marcellinus, while the _Silvae_ of Statius
were recovered shortly afterwards. A complete MS. of Cicero, _De
Oratore_, _Brutus_ and _Orator_, was found by Bishop Landriani at Lodi
(1421). Cornelius Nepos was discovered by Traversari in Padua (1434).
The _Agricola_, _Germania_ and _Dialogue_ of Tacitus reached Italy from
Germany in 1455, and the early books of the _Annals_ in 1508. Pliny's
_Panegyric_ was discovered by Aurispa at Mainz (1433), and his
correspondence with Trajan by Fra Giocondo in Paris about 1500.

Greek MSS. were brought from the East by Aurispa, who in 1423 returned
with no less than two hundred and thirty-eight, including the celebrated
Laurentian MS. of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Apollonius Rhodius. A smaller
number was brought from Constantinople by Filelfo (1427), while Quintus
Smyrnaeus was discovered in south Italy by Bessarion, who presented his
own collection of MSS. to the republic of Venice and thus led to the
foundation of the library of St Mark's (1468). As the emissary of
Lorenzo, Janus Lascaris paid two visits to the East, returning from his
second visit in 1492 with two hundred MSS. from Mount Athos.

The Renaissance theory of a humanistic education is illustrated by
several treatises still extant. In 1392 Vergerio addressed to a prince
of Padua the first treatise which methodically maintains the claims of
Latin as an essential part of a liberal education. Eight years later, he
was learning Greek from Chrysoloras. Among the most distinguished pupils
of the latter was Leonardo Bruni, who, about 1405, wrote "the earliest
humanistic tract on education expressly addressed to a lady." He here
urges that the foundation of all true learning is a "sound and thorough
knowledge of Latin," and draws up a course of reading, in which history
is represented by Livy, Sallust, Curtius, and Caesar; oratory by Cicero;
and poetry by Virgil. The same year saw the birth of Maffeo Vegio, whose
early reverence for the muse of Virgil and whose later devotion to the
memory of Monica have left their mark on the educational treatise which
he wrote a few years before his death in 1458. The authors he recommends
include "Aesop" and Sallust, the tragedies of Seneca and the epic poets,
especially Virgil, whom he interprets in an allegorical sense. He is in
favour of an early simultaneous study of a wide variety of subjects, to
be followed later by the special study o