From
that time forward, the Tuscans never ceased to consider the description
of man as lying within their special competence, and to them we owe the
most valuable portraits of the Italians of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. Giovanni Cavalcanti, in the appendices to his Florentine
history, written before the year 1450, collects instances of civil
virtue and abnegation, of political discernment and of military valor,
all shown by Florentines. Pius II gives in his 'Commentaries' valuable
portraits of famous contemporaries; and not long ago a separate work of
his earlier years, which seems preparatory to these portraits, but
which has colors and features that are very singular, was reprinted. To
Jacopo of Volterra we owe piquant sketches of members of the Curia in
the time of Sixtus IV. Vespasiano Fiorentino has often been referred to
already, and as a historical authority a high place must be assigned to
him; but his gift as a painter of character is not to be compared with
that of Machiavelli, Niccolo Valori, Guicciardini, Varchi, Francesco
Vettori, and others, by whom European historical literature has
probably been as much influenced in this direction as by the ancients.
It must not be forgotten that some of these authors soon found their
way into northern countries by means of Latin translations.
Pages:
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385