The library which Cardinal Bessarion bequeathed
to the State (1468) narrowly escaped dispersion and destruction.
Learning could be had at the University of Padua, where, however,
physicians and jurists the latter for their opinion on points of law
received by far the highest pay. The share of Venice in the poetical
creations of the country was long insignificant, till, at the beginning
of the sixteenth century, her deficiencies were made good. Even the art
of the Renaissance was imported into the city from without, and it was
not before the end of the fifteenth century that she learned to move in
this field with independent freedom and strength. But we find more
striking instances still of intellectual backwardness. This Government,
which had the clergy so thoroughly in its control, which reserved to
itself the appointment to all important ecclesiastical offices, and
which, one time after another, dared to defy the court of Rome,
displayed an official piety of a most singular kind. The bodies of
saints and other relics imported from Greece after the Turkish conquest
were bought at the greatest sacrifices and received by the Doge in
solemn procession.12 For the coat without a seam it was decided (1455)
to offer 10,000 ducats, but it was not to be had. These measures were
not the fruit of any popular excitement, but of the tranquil
resolutions of the heads of the Government, and might have been omitted
without attracting any comment, and at Florence, under similar
circumstances, would certainly have been omitted.
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