Poggio Bracciolini was another of the great scholars attracted to Florence by the fame of Cosimo’s liberality. He was a friend of Ambrogio Traversari, whose cell in the convent of the Angeli was the meeting-place of learned men. Giannozzo Manetti, the Hebrew scholar, had studied Greek under Traversari, and his Latin was so perfect that Bruni is said to have been jealous of him. The Republic sent him as her ambassador to various Italian courts, and there is a good story in the Commentario, that “when he was speaking at Naples the King was so entranced he did not even brush the flies from his face.” At last Manetti roused the jealousy of the Medicean party and ended his life in exile. “These men,” writes Symonds, “formed the literary oligarchy who surrounded Cosimo de’ Medici, and through their industry and influence restored the studies of antiquity at Florence.” Cosimo was a Mæcenas worth serving. For his own family he built the great palace in Via Larga (afterwards Riccardi, now the Prefecture), he restored or rebuilt the villas of Cafaggiuolo, Trebbio and Careggi, while he expended 500,000 golden florins on public buildings. During the last years of his life he seldom moved from Careggi, and the following letter, written by his son Piero to Lorenzo and Giuliano about their grandfather four days before his death, gives a pleasant picture of the private life of the Medici family:— “I wrote to you the day before yesterday how much worse Cosimo was; it appears to me that he is gradually sinking, and he thinks the same himself. On Tuesday evening he would have no one in his room save only Mona Contessina [Cosimo’s wife] and myself. He began by recounting all his past life, then he touched upon the government of the city, and then on its commerce, and at last spoke of the management of the private possessions of our family and of what concerns you two; taking comfort that you had good wits, and bidding me educate you well so that you might be of help to me. Two things he deplored. Firstly, that he had not done as much as he had wished or could have done; secondly, that he left me in such poor health and with much irksome business. Then he said he would make no will, not having made one whilst Giovanni[22] was alive seeing us always united in true love, amity and esteem; and that when it pleased God to so order it he desired to be buried without pomp or show, and reminded me of his often expressed wish to be interred in San Lorenzo. All this he said with much method and prudence, and with a courage that was marvellous to behold; adding that his life had been a long one and that he was ready and content to depart whensoever it pleased God. Yestermorn he left his bed, and caused himself to be carefully dressed. The Priors of San Marco, of San Lorenzo and of the Badia were present, and he spoke the responses as though in perfect health. Then being asked the articles of faith, he repeated them word by word, made his confession, and took the Holy