' Others start with P. Cornelius Scipio, and the like, as
though neither they nor their hearers could wait a moment for a
quotation. At the end of the fifteenth century public taste suddenly
improved, chiefly through Florentine influence, and the practice of
quotation was restricted within due limits. Many works of reference
were now in existence, in which the first comer could find as much as
he wanted of what had hitherto been the admiration of princes and
people.
As most of the speeches were written out beforehand in the study, the
manuscripts served as a means of further publicity afterwards. The
great extemporaneous speakers, on the other hand, were attended by
shorthand writers. We must further remember that not all the orations
which have come down to us were intended to be actually delivered. The
panegyric, for example, of the elder Beroaldus on Lodovico il Moro was
presented to him in manuscript. In fact, just as letters were written
addressed to all conceivable persons and parts of the world as
exercises, as formularies, or even to serve a controversial end, so
there were speeches for imaginary occasions to be used as models for
the reception of princes, bishops, and other dignitaries.
For oratory, as for the other arts, the death of Leo X (1521) and the
sack of Rome (1527) mark the epoch of decadence.
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