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trust and general ability, but it also gave him the opportunity of acquiring the most coveted of all possessions at that moment for a scholar—a knowledge of the Greek language. Immediately after his arrival in Constantinople, Filelfo placed himself under the tuition of See also:

John Chrysoloras, whose name was already well known in Italy as relative of See also:

Manuel, the first Greek to profess the literature of his ancestors in Florence. At the recommendation of Chrysoloras he was employed in several See also:

DIPLOMATIC

diplomatic See also:

MISSIONS (Lat. missio, a sending)

missions by the See also:

EMPEROR (Fr. empereur, from the Lat. imperator)

emperor John See also:

PALAEOLOGUS

Palaeologus. Before very See also:

long the friendship between Filelfo and his See also:

TUTOR (Lat. tutor, guardian, tueri, to watch over, protect)

tutor was cemented by the See also:

MARRIAGE

marriage of the former to See also:

Theodora, the daughter of John Chrysoloras.

He had now acquired a thorough knowledge of the Greek language, and had formed a large collection of Greek See also:

MANUSCRIPTS

manuscripts. There was no See also:

REASON (Lat. ratio, through French raison)

reason why he should not return to his native See also:

COUNTRY (from the Mid. Eng. contre or contrie, and O. Fr. cuntree; Late Lat. contrata, showing the derivation from contra, opposite, over against, thus the tract of land which fronts the sight, cf. Ger. Gegend, neighbourhood)

country. Accordingly, in 1427 he accepted an invitation from the See also:

REPUBLIC (Lat. respublica, a commonweal or common-wealth)

republic of Venice, and set See also:

SAIL

sail for 'Italy, intending to resume his professorial career. From thistime forward until the date of his See also:

DEATH

death, Filelfo's See also:

HISTORY

history consists of a See also:

RECORD (Lat. recordari, to recall to mind, from cor, heart or mind)

record of the various towns in which he lectured, the masters whom he served, the books he wrote, the authors he illustrated, the friendships he contracted, and the See also:

WARS

wars he waged with See also:

RIVAL

rival scholars. He was a man of vast See also:

PHYSICAL

physical See also:

ENERGY (from the Gr. ivipyela; iv, in, ipyov, work)

energy, of inexhaustible See also:

MENTAL

mental activity, of See also:

QUICK

quick passions and violent appetites; vain, restless, greedy of See also:

gold and See also:

PLEASURE (through Fr. plaisir from Lat. placere, to please; Gr. rlbovii)

pleasure and fame; unable to stay quiet in one See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place, and perpetually engaged in quarrels with his compeers. When Filelfo arrived at Venice with his See also:

FAMILY

family in 1427, he found that the city had almost been emptied by the See also:

PLAGUE (in Gr. Xotµos; in Lat. pestis, pestilentia)

plague, and that his scholars would be few. He therefore removed to See also:

Bologna; but here also he was met with drawbacks. The city was too much disturbed with See also:

POLITICAL

political dissensions to attend to him; so Filelfo crossed the See also:

APENNINES (Gr. 'A1T- vvLvos, Lat. Appenninus—in both cases used in the singular)

Apennines and settled in Florence. At Florence began one of the most brilliant and eventful periods of his life. During the See also:

WEEK (from A.S. wicu, Germanic *wikon, probably=change, turn)

week he lectured to large audiences of See also:

young and old on the principal Greek and Latin authors, and on Sundays he explained See also:

DANTE

Dante to the See also:

PEOPLE

people in the Duomo. In addition to these labours of the See also:

CHAIR (in. Mid. Eng. chcere, through O. Fr. chaire or chaiere, from Lat. cathedra, later caledra, Gr. xaOi3pa, seat, cf. "cathedral"; the modern Fr. form chaise, a chair, has been adopted in English with a particular meaning as a form of carriage; chaire

chair, he found See also:

time to translate portions of See also:

Aristotle, See also:

Plutarch, See also:

XENOPHON

Xenophon and See also:

LYSIAS

Lysias from the Greek. Nor was he dead to the claims of society.

At first he seems to have lived with the Florentine scholars on tolerably See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good terms; but his See also:

TEMPER (from Lat. temperare, to mingle or compound in due proportion, to qualify, rule, regulate, to be moderate, formed from tempos, time, fit or due season)

temper was so arrogant that Cosimo de' See also:

Medici's See also:

friends were not long able to put up with him. Filelfo hereupon See also:

broke out into open and violent animosity; and when Cosimo was exiled by the Albizzi party in 1433, he urged the signoria of Florence to pronounce upon him the See also:

SENTENCE (Lat. sententia, a way of thinking, opinion, judgment; vote, sentire, to feel, think)

sentence of death. On the return of Cosimo to Florence, Filelfo's position in that city was no longer tenable. His life, he asserted, had been already once attempted by a cut-See also:

THROAT (O. Eng. protu, prote or }Prota, possibly from preotan, to press, whence threat, or, with loss of initial s, connected with strut, to swell)

throat in the pay of the Medici; and now he readily accepted an invitation from the state of See also:

SIENA

Siena. In Siena, however, he was not destined to remain more than four years. His fame as a See also:

PROFESSOR (the Latin noun formed from the verb profiteri, to declare publicly, to acknowledge, profess)

professor had grown great in Italy, and he daily received tempting offers from princes and republics. The most alluring of these, made him by the See also:

DUKE (corresponding to Fr. duc, Ital. duca, Ger. Herzog)

duke of See also:

Milan, Filippo Maria See also:

VISCONTI

Visconti, he decided on accepting; and in 1440 he was received with See also:

HONOUR (Lat. honos or lwnor, honoris; in English the word was spelled with or without the u indifferently until the 17th century, but during the 18th century it became fashion-able to spell the word " honor "; Johnson's and Webster's Dictionaries stereoty

honour by his new See also:

MASTER (Lat. magister, related to tnagis, more, as the corresponding minister is to minus, less; the English form is due partly to the O. Eng. maegister, and partly to O. Fr. maistre, mod. maitre; cf. Du. meester, Ger. Meister, Ital. maestro)

master in the See also:

capital of See also:

LOMBARDY

Lombardy. Filelfo's life at Milan curiously illustrates the multifarious importance of the scholars of that age in Italy. It was his duty to celebrate his princely patrons in panegyrics and epics, to abuse their enemies in libels and invectives, to salute them with encomiastic odes on their birthdays, and to compose poems on their favourite themes. For their courtiers he wrote epithalamial and funeral orations; ambassadors and visitors from See also:

FOREIGN

foreign states he greeted with the rhetorical lucubrations then so much in See also:

VOGUE, EUGENE MELCHIOR, COMTE DE (1848- )

vogue. The students of the university he taught in daily lectures, passing in See also:

REVIEW (Fr. revue, from revoir, to see again, Lat. re and videre)

review the weightiest and lightest authors of antiquity, and pouring forth a See also:

flood of See also:

MISCELLANEOUS

miscellaneous erudition. No satisfied with these outlets for his mental energy, Filelfo went on translating from the Greek, and prosecuted a See also:

paper warfare with his enemies in Florence.

He wrote, moreover, political See also:

PAMPHLETS

pamphlets on the great events of Italian history; and when Constantinople was taken by the See also:

TURKS

Turks, he procured the liberation of his wife's See also:

MOTHER

mother by a See also:

MESSAGE (a word occurring in slightly different forms in several languages, e.g. Fr. message, Span. mensaje, Ital. messagio; adapted from the Low Lat. missaticum, from mittere)

message addressed in his own name to the See also:

SULTAN (an Arabic word meaning " victorious " or " a ruler," sultat, dominion)

sultan. In addition to a fixed See also:

STIPEND

stipend of some 700 See also:

GOLDEN

golden florins yearly, he was continually in See also:

RECEIPT (M.E. receite, derived through Fr. from Lat. recepta, participle of recipere, to receive)

receipt of See also:

SPECIAL

special payments for the orations and poems he produced; so that, had he been a man of frugal habits or of moderate See also:

ECONOMY

economy, he might have amassed a considerable See also:

FORTUNE, ROBERT (1813-188o)

fortune. As it was, he spent his See also:

MONEY

money as fast as he received it, living in a See also:

style of splendour See also:

ill befitting a See also:

SIMPLE

simple See also:

SCHOLAR, SCHOLARSHIP

scholar, and indulging his See also:

TASTE (from Lat. taxare, to touch sharply; tangere, to touch)

taste for pleasure in more than questionable amusements. In See also:

con-sequence of this prodigality, he was always poor. His letters and his poems abound in impudent demands for money from patrons, some of them couched in language of the lowest adulation, and others savouring of See also:

LITERARY

literary See also:

BRIGANDAGE

brigandage. During the second See also:

YEAR

year of his Milanese See also:

RESIDENCE (Latin residere, to remain behind, to dwell, reside)

residence Filelfo lost his first wife, Theodora. He soon married again; and this time he See also:

CHOSE (Fr. for " thing ")

chose for his See also:

BRIDE (a common Teutonic word, e.g..Goth. bruths, O. Eng. bryd, O. H. Ger. prs2t, Mod. Ger. Bract, Dut. bruid, possibly derived from the root bru-, cook, brew; from the med. latinized form bruta, in the sense of daughter-in-law, is derived the Fr. bru)

bride a young See also:

LADY (0. Eng. hlaefdige, Mid. Eng. ldfdi, lavedi; the first part of the word is hldf, loaf, bread, as in the corresponding hldford, lord; the second part is usually taken to be from the root dig-, to knead, seen also in " dough "; the sense development fr

lady of good Lombard family, called Orsina Osnaga. When she died he took in wedlock for the third time a woman of Lombard See also:

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

birth, Laura Magiolini. To all his three wives, in spite of numerous infidelities, he seems to have been warmly attached; and this is perhaps the best trait in a See also:

CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character otherwise more remarkable for arrogance and See also:

HEAT (0. E. haktu, which like " hot," Old Eng. hat, is from the Teutonic type haita, hit, to be hot; cf. Ger. hitze, heiss; Dutch, hitte, heet, &c.)

heat than for any amiable qualities. On the death of Filippo Maria Visconti, Filelfo, after a See also:

SHORT, FRANCIS JOB (1857– )

short hesitation, transferred his See also:

ALLEGIANCE (Mid. Eng. ligeaunce; med. Lat. ligeantia, &c.; the al- was probably added through confusion with another legal term, allegeance, an allegation; the Fr. allegeance comes from the English; the word is formed from " liege," of which the derivatio

allegiance to Francesco See also:

Sforza, the new duke of Milan; and in See also:

order to See also:

CURRY

curry favour with this parvenu, he began his ponderous epic, the Sforziad, of which 12,800 lines'were written, but which was never published. When Francesco Sforza died, Filelfo turned his thoughts towards See also:

Rome. He was now an old man of seventy-seven years, honoured with the friendship of princes, recognized as the most distinguished of Italian humanists, courted by pontiffs, and decorated with the See also:

LAUREL

laurel See also:

WREATH (O. Eng. wry, from wriian, to twist)

wreath and the order of See also:

KNIGHTHOOD

knighthood by See also:

KINGS, FIRST AND SECOND BOOKS OF

kings.

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