But his name has passed
into the kingdom of the immortals, for Raphael loved the old man like a
father, and honoured him as a teacher, and came to him for advice in
all things. Perhaps they discoursed chiefly of the projected
restoration of ancient Rome, perhaps of still higher matters. Who can
tell what a share Fabio may have had in the conception of the School of
Athens, and in other great works of the master?
We would gladly close this part of our essay with the picture of some
pleasing and winning character. Pomponius Laetus, of whom we shall
briefly speak, is known to us principally through the letter of his
pupil Sabellicus, in which an antique coloring is purposely given to
his character. Yet many of its features are clearly recognizable. He
was a bastard of the House of the Neapolitan Sanseverini, princes of
Salerno, whom he nevertheless refused to recognize, writing, in reply
to an invitation to live with them, the famous letter: 'Pomponius
Laetus cognatis et propinquis suis salutem. Quod petitis fieri non
potest. Valete.' t An insignificant little figure, with small, quick
eyes, and quaint dress, he lived, during the last decades of the
fifteenth century, as professor in the University of Rome, either in
his cottage in a garden on the Esquiline hill, or in his vineyard on
the Quirinal.
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