Students left our shores to widen their studies in Italy.
Public men in England corresponded with Italians, and
fall into sympathy with their aims. Occasianally scholars
came hither from Italy. Manuel Chrysoloras, one of the
leading revivers of Greek studies in Italy, visited England
in the service of Manuel Palaeologus, and possibly stayed
at Christ Church monastery in 1408.[1] Poggio Bracciolini
came to this country in 1418-23 at the invitation of
Cardinal Beautort: what he did while here we know far
too little about, but this visit of Italy's greatest book-
collector and discoverer of Latin classical manuscripts
cannot have been without some effect upon English
students. For Poggio the visit was almost without result.
He was in search of manuscripts, but apparently failed to
get any with which he was unacquainted. He dismissed
our libraries with the sharp criticism that they were full of
trash, and described Englishmen as almost devoid of love
for letters.[2] Aeneas Sylvius also came here, and his visit
likewise must have borne some fruit (1435).
[1] Gasquet 2, 20; Sandys, ii. 220; Legrand, Bibliographie
Hellenique, i.
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