public teacher of Grecian literature.[919] His school was afterwards
removed successively to Pavia, Venice, and Rome; and during nearly
twenty years that he taught in Italy, most of those eminent scholars
whom I have already named, and who distinguish the first half of that
century, derived from his instruction their knowledge of the Greek
tongue. Some, not content with being the disciples of Chrysoloras,
betook themselves to the source of that literature at Constantinople;
and returned to Italy, not only with a more accurate insight into the
Greek idiom than they could have attained at home, but with copious
treasures of manuscripts, few, if any, of which probably existed
previously in Italy, where none had ability to read or value them; so
that the principal authors of Grecian antiquity may be considered as
brought to light by these inquirers, the most celebrated of whom are
Guarino of Verona, Aurispa, and Filelfo. The second of these brought
home to Venice in 1423 not less than two hundred and thirty-eight
volumes.[920]

[Sidenote: State of learning in Greece.]

The fall of that eastern empire, which had so long outlived all other
pretensions to respect that it scarcely retained that founded upon its
antiquity, seems to have been providentially delayed till Italy was ripe
to nourish the scattered seeds of literature that would have perished a
few ages earlier in the common catastrophe. From the commencement of the
fifteenth century even the national pride of Greece could not blind her
to the signs of approaching ruin. It was no longer possible to inspire
the European republic, distracted by wars and restrained by calculating
policy, with the generous fanaticism of the crusades; and at the council
of Florence, in 1439, the court and church of Constantinople had the
mortification of sacrificing their long-cherished faith, without
experiencing any sensible return of protection or security. The learned
Greeks were perhaps the first to anticipate, and certainly not the last
to avoid, their country's destruction. The council of Florence brought
many of them into Italian connexions, and held out at least a temporary
accommodation of their conflicting opinions. Though the Roman pontiffs
did nothing, and probably could have done nothing effectual, for the
empire of Constantinople, they were very ready to protect and reward the
learning of individuals. To Eugenius IV., to Nicolas V., to Pius II.,
and some other popes of thi