At Careggi, Cosimo the elder passed what time he could spare from the affairs of state, surrounded by a galaxy of artists and men of letters such as the world has seldom seen. Among the former were Brunelleschi, Donatello, Michelozzo Michelozzi, Ghiberti, Verrocchio, Paolo Uccello, Luca della Robbia, Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi and Masaccio. Among the latter, Marsilio Ficino, Niccolò de’ Niccoli, Cristofano Landino, Lionardo Aretino (Bruni), Carlo Aretino (Marsuppini), Poggio Bracciolini, Ambrogio Traversari and Giannozzo Manetti. To Ficino Cosimo gave a villa (la Fontanella)[21] close to Careggi, and named him President of the Platonic Academy which he founded, having been convinced of the importance of Platonic studies by Giorgius Gemistus, a native of Byzantium, who came to Florence in 1438 in the train of the Emperor Palaelogus. Niccolò de’ Niccoli “censor of the Latin tongue,” as Lionardo Aretino called him, was one of the Academicians. He spent his whole fortune in buying MSS., and his house, stored with treasures, was open to all strangers, students and artists. Cristofano Landino, known for his commentary on Dante, and Lionardo Aretino (Bruni), Chancellor of the Republic of Florence, were also Academicians. The translations of the latter from Greek were celebrated for their sound scholarship and pure latinity, while his diplomatic letters were regarded as models, and his public speeches were compared to those of Pericles. When he walked abroad a train of scholars and foreigners attended him, and when he died the Priors of Florence decreed him a public funeral in Santa Croce, “after the manner of the ancients.” Carlo Aretino (Marsuppini), another member of the Platonic Academy, succeeded Bruni as Chancellor; an omnivorous reader and possessed of an extraordinary memory, he formed a great contrast to Niccoli, who had introduced him to Cosimo. Vespasiano describes Niccoli as “of a most fair presence, lively, with a smile ever on his lips, and very pleasant in his talk”; whereas Marsuppini was grave in manner, taciturn, and given to melancholy.