SEARCH
0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Prev | Current Page 297 | Next

Savage, Ernest Albert, 1877-1966

"Old English Libraries"

[1]
[1] Gasquet 2, 37.

But Canterbury's share was greatest Selling seems
to have taught Greek at Christ Church. In the monastic
school there Thomas Linacre was instructed, and probably
got the rudiments of Greek from Selling himself. Thence
Linacre went to Oxford, where he pursued Greek under
Cornelius Vitelli, an Italian visitor acting as praelector in
New College.[1] In 1485-6 Linacre went with his old
master to Italy--his Sancta Mater Studiorum--where Selling
seems to have introduced him to Poliziano. Linacre
perfected his Greek pursuits under Chalcondylas, and
became acquainted with Aldo Manuzio the famous printer,
and Hermolaus Barbarus. A little story is told of
his meeting with Hermolaus. He was reading a copy of
Plato's Phaedo in the Vatican Library when the great
humanist came up to him and said "the youth had no
claim, as he had himself, to the title Barbarus, if it were
lawful to judge from his choice of a book"--an incident
which led to a great friendship between the two. Grocyn
and Latimer were with Linacre in Rome. The former
was the first to carry on effectively the teaching of Greek
begun at Oxford possibly by Vitelli; but he was nevertheless
a conservative scholar, well read in the medieval
schoolmen, as his library clearly proves.


Pages:
285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309