Among the smaller cities in which the Humanistic movement influenced literature and furthered the development of learning, may be mentioned Carpi, afterwards the home of Musurus and Aldus; Mirandola, the birthplace of the brilliant Pico; Pesaro, where Alessandro and Constanzo Sforza brought together a library rivalling that of the Medici; Rimini, where Sigismondo Malatesta gathered about his fortress a circle of scholars; and Urbino, where the good Duke Frederick brought together one of the finest collections of manuscripts which Europe had known, a collection valued at over 30,000 ducats. Vespasiano, who served for some time as librarian, says that for fourteen years the Duke kept from thirty to forty copyists employed in transcribing Greek and Latin Manuscripts. The work of these copyists went on for some years after the introduction of printing into Italy, for Frederick, in common with not a few other of the scholarly nobles who were collectors of manuscripts, distrusted and looked down upon the new art, and had no interest in books which were merely mechanical reproductions. Vespasiano da Bisticci, whose aid Frederick had secured in the preparation of his library, was noted as an author, as a scribe, and as a bookseller. Symonds speaks of the “rare merit” of the biographical work in Vespasiano’s _Lives of Illustrious Men_, the memoirs of which Symonds utilised largely in the preparation of his _Renaissance_. Vespasiano’s literary work must have been done “in the intervals of business,” for his business undertakings were important. He was the largest dealer in manuscripts of his time. His purchasing agents and correspondents were armed with instructions to secure authenticated codices wherever these were obtainable, and the monasteries not only of Italy but of Switzerland, South Germany, Hungary, Transylvania, and the East were carefully searched for possible literary treasures. He employed a large force of skilled copyists in the production of copies of famous works, which copies were distributed through correspondents and customers in the different scholarly centres of Europe. Possessing himself a wide and exact scholarship, he gave his personal attention to the selection of his texts, the training of his copyists and the supervision of their work, so that a manuscript coming from Vespasiano carried with it the prestige of accuracy and completeness.