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See also:POGGIO (1380-1459) . Gian See also:Francesco Poggio See also:Bracciolini, See also:Italian See also:scholar of the See also:Renaissance, was See also:born in 138o at Terranuova, a See also:village in the territory of See also:Florence. He studied Latin under See also:John of See also:Ravenna, and See also:Greek under See also:Manuel Chrysoloras. His distinguished abilities and his dexterity as a copyist of See also:MSS. brought him into See also:early See also:notice with the See also:chief scholars of Florence. Coluccio Salutati and Niccolo de' See also:Niccoli befriended him, and in the See also:year 1402 or 1403 he was received into the service of the See also:Roman See also:curia. His functions were those of a secretary; and, though he profited by benefices conferred on him in lieu of See also:salary, he remained a layman to the end of his See also:life. It is noticeable
that, while he held his See also:- OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")
office in the curia through that momentous See also:period of fifty years which witnessed the See also:Councils of See also:Constance and of See also:Basel, and the final restoration of the papacy under See also:Nicholas V., his sympathies were never attracted to ecclesiastical affairs. Nothing marks the See also:secular attitude of the Italians at an See also:epoch which decided the future course of both Renaissance and See also:Reformation more strongly than the mundane proclivities of. this apostolic secretary, See also:heart and soul devoted to the resuscitation of classical studies amid conflicts of popes and antipopes, cardinals and councils, in all of which he See also:bore an See also:official See also:part. Thus, when his duties called him to Constance in 1414, he employed his leisure in exploring the See also:libraries of Swiss and Swabian convents. The treasures he brought to See also:light at See also:Reichenau, Weingarten, and above all St See also:Gall, restored many lost masterpieces of Latin literature, and supplied students with the texts of authors whose See also:works had hitherto been accessible only in mutilated copies. In one of his epistles he describes how he recovered See also:Quintilian, part of See also:Valerius See also:Flaccus, and the commentaries of Asconius Pedianus at St Gall. MSS. of See also:Lucretius, See also:Columella, Silius Italicus, See also:Manilius and See also:Vitruvius were unearthed, copied by his See also:hand, and communicated to the learned. Wherever Poggio went he carried on the same See also:industry of See also:research. At See also:Langres he discovered See also:Cicero's Oration for See also:Caecina, at See also:Monte Cassino a MS. of See also:Frontinus. He also could boast of having recovered See also:Ammianus See also:Marcellinus, Nonius See also:Marcellus, See also:Probus, Flavius See also:Caper and See also:Eutyches. If a codex could not be obtained by See also:fair means, he was ready to use See also:fraud, as when he bribed a See also:- MONK (O.Eng. munuc; this with the Teutonic forms, e.g. Du. monnik, Ger. Witch, and the Romanic, e.g. Fr. moine, Ital. monacho and Span. monje, are from the Lat. monachus, adaptedfrom Gr. µovaXos, one living alone, a solitary; Own, alone)
- MONK (or MONCK), GEORGE
- MONK, JAMES HENRY (1784-1856)
- MONK, MARIA (c. 1817—1850)
monk to abstract a See also:Livy and an Ammianus from the See also:convent library of Hersfield. Resolute in recognizing erudition as the chief concern of See also:man, he sighed over the folly of popes and princes, who spent their See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time in See also:wars and ecclesiastical disputes when they might have been more profitably employed in reviving the lost learning of antiquity. This point of view is eminently characteristic of the earlier Italian Renaissance. The men of that nation and of that epoch were See also:bent on creating a new intellectual See also:atmosphere for See also:Europe by means of vital contact with antiquity. Poggio, like See also:Aeneas Sylvius See also:Piccolomini (See also:Pius II.), was a See also:great traveller, and wherever he went he brought enlightened See also:powers of observation trained in liberal studies to See also:bear upon the See also:manners of the countries he visited. We owe to his See also:pen curious remarks on See also:English and Swiss customs, valuable notes on the remains of See also:antique See also:art in See also:Rome, and a singularly striking portrait of See also:Jerome of See also:Prague as he appeared before the See also:judges who condemned him to the stake. It is necessary to dwell at length upon Poggio's devotion to the task of recovering the See also:classics, and upon his disengagement from all but humanistic interests, because these were the most marked feature of his See also:character and career. In literature he embraced the whole See also:sphere of contemporary studies, and distinguished himself as an orator, a writer of rhetorical See also:treatises, a panegyrist of the dead, a violent impugner of the living, a translator from the Greek, an epistolographer and See also:grave historian and a facetious compiler of fabliaux in Latin. On his moral essays it may suffice to notice the See also:dissertations On See also:Nobility, On Vicissitudes of See also:Fortune, On the Misery of Human Life, On the Infelicity of Princes and On See also:Marriage in Old See also:Age. These compositions belonged to a See also:species which, since See also:Petrarch set the See also:fashion, were very popular among Italian scholars. They have lost their value, except for the few matters of fact embedded in a See also:mass of See also:commonplace meditation, and for some occasionally brilliant illustrations. Poggio's See also:History of Florence, written in avowed See also:imitation of Livy's manner, requires See also:separate mention, since it exemplifies by its defects the weakness of that merely stylistic treatment which deprived so much of See also:Bruni's, Carlo See also:Aretino's and See also:Bembo's See also:work of See also:historical See also:weight. A somewhat different See also:criticism must be passed on the Facetiae, a collection of humorous and indecent tales expressed in such Latinity as Poggio could command. This See also:book is chiefly remarkable for its unsparing satires on the monastic orders and the secular See also:clergy. It is also noticeable as illustrating the latinizing tendency of an age which gave classic See also:form to the lightest essays of the See also:fancy. Poggio, it may be observed, was a fluent and
copious writer in the Latin See also:tongue, but not an elegant scholar. His knowledge of the See also:ancient authors was wide, but his See also:taste was not select, and his erudition was superficial. His See also:translation of See also:Xenophon's Cyropaedia into Latin cannot be praised for accuracy. Among contemporaries he passed for one of the most formidable polemical or gladiatorial rhetoricians; and a considerable See also:section of his extant works are invectives, One of these, the Dialague against Hypocrites, was aimed in a spirit of vindictive hatred at the vices of ecclesiastics; another, written at the See also:request of Nicholas V., covered the See also:anti-See also:pope See also:Felix with scurrilous abuse. But his most famous compositions in this See also:kind are the See also:personal invectives which he discharged against See also:Filelfo and See also:Valla. All the resources of a copious and. unclean Latin vocabulary were employed to degrade the See also:objects of his See also:satire; and every See also:crime of which humanity is capable was ascribed to them without discrimination. In Filelfo and Valla Poggio found his match; and See also:Italy was amused for years with the spectacle of their indecent combats. To dwell upon such See also:literary infamies would be below the dignity of the historian, were it not that these habits of the early Italian humanists imposed a fashion upon Europe which extended to the later age of See also:Scaliger's contentions with Scioppius and See also:Milton's with See also:Salmasius. The greater part of Poggio's See also:long life was spent in attendance to his duties in the papal curia at Roane and else-where. But about the year 1452 he finally retired to Florence, where he was admitted to the burghership, and on the See also:death of Carlo Aretino in 1453 was appointed See also:chancellor and historiographer to the See also:republic. He had already built himself a See also:villa in Valdarno, which he adorned with a collection of antique See also:sculpture, coins and See also:inscriptions. In 1435 he had married a girl of eighteen named Vaggia, of the famous Buondelmonte See also:blood. His declining days were spent in the See also:discharge of his See also:honourable Florentine office and in the See also:composition of his history. He died in 1459, and was buried in the See also:- CHURCH
- CHURCH (according to most authorities derived from the Gr. Kvpcaxov [&wµa], " the Lord's [house]," and common to many Teutonic, Slavonic and other languages under various forms—Scottish kirk, Ger. Kirche, Swed. kirka, Dan. kirke, Russ. tserkov, Buig. cerk
- CHURCH, FREDERICK EDWIN (1826-1900)
- CHURCH, GEORGE EARL (1835–1910)
- CHURCH, RICHARD WILLIAM (1815–189o)
- CHURCH, SIR RICHARD (1784–1873)
church of See also:Santa Croce. A statue by See also:Donatello and a picture by See also:Antonio del Pollajuolo remained to commemorate a See also:citizen who chiefly for his services to humanistic literature deserved the notice of posterity.
Poggio's works were printed at Basel in 1538, " ex aedibus Henrici Petri.' Dr Shepherd's Life of Poggio Bracciolini (1802) is a See also:good authority on his See also:biography. For his position in the history of the revival, see Voigt's Wiederbelebung See also:des classischen Alterthums, and See also:Symonds's Renaissance in Italy. (J. A.
End of Article: POGGIO (1380-1459)
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