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the civilization of the renaissance in italy-第44章

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e city; and therefore died uncrowned。 From the  same source we learn that the usage was till then uncommon; and was  held to be inherited by the ancient Romans from the Greeks。 The most  recent source to which the practices could be referred is to be found  in the Capitoline contests of musicians; poets; and other artists;  founded by Domitian in imitation of the Greeks and celebrated every  five years; which may possibly have survived for a time the fall of the  Roman Empire; but as few other men would venture to crown themselves;  as Dante desired to do; the question arises; to whom did this office  belong? Albertino Mussato was crowned at Padua in 1310 by the bishop  and the rector of the University。 The University of Paris; the rector  of which was then a Florentine (1341); and the municipal authorities of  Rome; competed for the honour of crowning Petrarch。 His self…elected  examiner; King Robert of Anjou; would have liked to perform the  ceremony at Naples; but Petrarch preferred to be crowned on the Capitol  by the senator of Rome。 This honour was long the highest object of  ambition; and so it seemed to Jacobus Pizinga; an illustrious Sicilian  magistrate。 Then came the Italian journey of Charles IV; whom it amused  to flatter the vanity of ambitious men; and impress the ignorant  multitude by means of gorgeous ceremonies。 Start… ing from the fiction  that the coronation of poets was a prerogative of the old Roman  emperors; and consequently was no less his own; he crowned (May 15;  1355) the Florentine scholar; Zanobi della Strada; at Pisa; to the  great disgust of Boccaccio; who declined to recognize this 'laurea  Pisana' as legitimate。 Indeed; it might be fairly asked with what right  this stranger; half Slavonic by birth; came to sit in judgement on the  merits of Italian poets。 But from henceforth the emperors crowned poets  wherever they went on their travels; and in the fifteenth century the  popes and other princes assumed the same right; till at last no regard  whatever was paid to place or circumstances。 In Rome; under Sixtus IV;  the academy of Pomponius L'tus gave the wreath on its own authority。  The Florentines had the good taste not to crown their famous humanists  till after death。 Carlo Aretino and Leonardo Aretino were thus crowned;  the eulogy of the first was pronounced by Matteo Palmieri; of the  latter by Giannozzo Manetti; before the members of the council and the  whole people; the orator standing at the head of the bier; on which the  corpse lay clad in a silken robe。 Carlo Aretino was further honoured by  a tomb in Santa Croce; which is among the most beautiful in the whole  course of the Renaissance。 

Universities and Schools

The influence of antiquity on culture; of which we have now to speak;  presupposes that the new learning had gained possession of the  universities。 This was so; but by no means to the extent and with the  results which might have been expected。

Few of the Italian universities show themselves in their full vigor  till the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; when the increase of  wealth rendered a more systematic care for education possible。 At first  there were generally three sorts of professorshipsone for civil law;  another for canonical law; the third for medicine; in course of time  professorships of rhetoric; of philosophy; and of astronomy were added;  the last commonly; though not always; identical with astrology。 The  salaries varied greatly in different cases。 Sometimes a capital sum was  paid down。 With the spread of culture; competition became so active  that the different universities tried to entice away distinguished  teachers from one another; under which circumstances Bologna is said to  have sometimes devoted the half of its public income (20;000 ducats) to  the university。 The appointments were as a rule made only for a certain  time; sometimes for only half a year; so that the teachers were forced  to lead a wandering life; like actors。 Appointments for life were;  however; not unknown。 Sometimes the promise was exacted not to teach  elsewhere what had already been taught at one place。 There were also  voluntary; unpaid professors。

Of the chairs which have been mentioned; that of rhetoric was  especially sought by the humanist; yet it depended only on his  familiarity with the matter of ancient learning whether or no be could  aspire to those of law; medicine; philosophy; or astronomy。 The inward  conditions of the science of the day were as variable as the outward  conditions of the teacher。 Certain jurists and physicians received by  far the largest salaries of all; the former chiefly as consulting  lawyers for the suits and claims of the State which employed them。 In  Padua a lawyer of the fifteenth century received a salary of 1;000  ducats; and it was proposed to appoint a celebrated physician with a  yearly payment of 2;000 ducats; and the right of private practice; the  same man having previously received 700 gold florins at Pisa。 When the  jurist Bartolommeo Socini; professor at Pisa; accepted a Venetian  appointment at Padua; and was on the point of starting on his journey;  he was arrested by the Florentine government and only released on  payment of bail to the amount of 18;000 gold florins。 The high  estimation in which these branches of science were held makes it  intelligible why distinguished philologists turned their attention to  law and medicine; while on the other hand specialists were more and  more compelled to acquire something of a wide literary culture。 We  shall presently have occasion to speak of the work of the humanists in  other departments of practical life。

Nevertheless; the position of the philologists; as such; even where the  salary was large; and did not exclude other sources of income; was on  the whole uncertain and temporary; so that one and the same teacher  could be connected with a great variety of institutions。 It is evident  that change was desired for its own sake; and something fresh expected  from each newcomer; as was natural at a time when science was in the  making; and consequently depended to no small degree on the personal  influence of the teacher。 Nor was it always the case that a lecturer on  classical authors really belonged to the university of the town where  he taught。 Communication was so easy; and the supply of suitable  accommodation; in monasteries and elsewhere; was so abundant; that a  private appointment was often practicable。 In the first decades of the  fifteenth century; when the University of Florence was at its greatest  brilliance; when the courtiers of Eugenius IV; and perhaps even of  Martin V thronged the lecture…room; when Carlo Aretino and Filelfo were  competing for the largest audience; there existed; not only an almost  complete university among the Augustinians of Santo Spirito; not only  an association of scholars among the Camaldolesi of the Angeli; but  individuals of mark; either singly or in common; arranged to provide  philosophical and philological teaching for themselves and others。  Linguistic and antiquarian studies in Rome had next to no connection  with the university (Sapienza); and depended almost exclusively either  on the favour of individual p
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