In the one he bred his ducks and fowls; the other he
cultivated according to the strictest precepts of Cato, Varro, and
Columella. He spent his holidays in fishing or bird-catching in the
Campagna, or in feasting by some shady spring or on the banks of the
Tiber. Wealth and luxury he despised. Free himself from envy and
uncharitable speech, he would not suffer them in others. It was only
against the hierarchy that he gave his tongue free play, and passed,
till his latter years, for a scorner of religion altogether. He was
involved in the persecution of the humanists begun by Pope Paul II, and
surrendered to this pontiff by the Venetians; but no means could be
found to wring unworthy confessions from him. He was afterwards
befriended and supported by popes and prelates, and when his house was
plundered in the disturbances under Sixtus IV, more was collected for
him than he had lost. No teacher was more conscientious. Before
daybreak he was to be seen descending the Esquiline with his lantern,
and on reaching his lecture-room found it always filled to overflowing.
A stutter compelled him to speak with care, but his delivery was even
and effective. His few works give evidence of careful writing. No
scholar treated the text of ancient authors more soberly and
accurately. The remains of antiquity which surrounded him in Rome
touched him so deeply that he would stand before them as if entranced,
or would suddenly burst into tears at the sight of them.
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