The Discovery And Revival In The Fifteenth Century Of
Greek Literature, Which Had Stirred Italian Society So Profoundly, Gave
To The Universities A Northward-Spreading Fame.
Northern scholars, like
Rudolf Agricola, hurried south to find congenial air at the centre of
intellectual life.
That professional humanists could not do without the
stamp of true culture which an Italian degree gave to them, Erasmus,
observer of all things, notes in the year 1500 to the Lady of Veer:
"Two things, I feel, are very necessary: one that I go to Italy, to gain
for my poor learning some authority from the celebrity of the place; the
other, that I take the degree of Doctor; both senseless, to be sure. For
people do not straightway change their minds because they cross the sea,
as Horace says, nor will the shadow of an impressive name make me a whit
more learned ... but we must put on the lion's skin to prove our ability
to those who judge a man by his title and not by his books, which in
truth they do not understand."[11]
Although Erasmus despised degree-hunting, it is well known that he felt
the power of Italy. He was tempted to remain in Rome for ever, by reason
of the company he found there. "What a sky and fields, what libraries
and pleasant walks and sweet confabulation with the learned ..."[12] he
exclaims, in afterwards recalling that paradise of scholars. There was,
for instance, the Cardinal Grimani, who begged Erasmus to share his life
... and books.[13] And there was Aldus Manutius. We get a glimpse of the
Venetian printing-house when Aldus and Erasmus worked together: Erasmus
sitting writing regardless of the noise of printers, while Aldus
breathlessly reads proof, admiring every word. "We were so busy," says
Erasmus, "we scarce had time to scratch our ears."[14]
It was this charm of intellectual companionship which started the whole
stream of travel animi causa. Whoever had keen wits, an agile mind,
imagination, yearned for Italy. There enlightened spirits struck sparks
from one another. Young and ardent minds in England and in Germany found
an escape from the dull and melancholy grimness of their uneducated
elders - purely practical fighting-men, whose ideals were fixed on a
petrified code of life.
I need not explain how Englishmen first felt this charm of urbane
civilization. The travels of Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, of Gunthorpe,
Flemming, Grey and Free, have been recently described by Mr Einstein in
The Italian Renaissance in England. As for Italian journeys of
Selling, Grocyn, Latimer, Tunstall, Colet and Lily, of that
extraordinary group of scholars who transformed Oxford by the
introduction of Greek ideals and gave to it the peculiar distinction
which is still shining, I mention them only to suggest that they are the
source of the Renaissance respect for a foreign education, and the
founders of the fashion which, in its popular spreadings, we will
attempt to trace. They all studied in Italy, and brought home nothing
but good.
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