As a theologian, he was able to
compare Scotus with Aquinas, and was familiar with the writings of the
old Fathers of the Eastern and Western Churches, the former in Latin
translations. In philosophy, he seems to have left Plato altogether to
his contemporary Cosimo, but he knew thoroughly not only the Ethics and
Politics of Aristotle but the Physics and some other works. The rest of
his reading lay chiefly among the ancient historians, all of whom he
possessed; these, and not the poets, 'he was always reading and having
read to him.'
The Sforza, too, were all of them men of more or less learning and
patrons of literature; they have been already referred to in passing.
Duke Francesco probably looked on humanistic culture as a matter of
course in the education of his children, if only for political reasons.
It was felt universally to be an advantage if a prince could mix with
the most instructed men of his time on an equal footing. Lodovico il
Moro, himself an excellent Latin scholar, showed an interest in
intellectual matters which extended far beyond classical antiquity.
Even the petty rulers strove after similar distinctions, and we do them
injustice by thinking that they only supported the scholars at their
courts as a means of diffusing their own fame. A ruler like Borso of
Ferrara, with all his vanity, seems by no means to have looked for
immortality from the poets, eager as they were to propitiate him with a
'Borseid' and the like.
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