The arts and sciences flourished at the court of the brilliant and enlightened young despot. In 1224 Frederick established the University of Naples, and provided it with every faculty, ‘in order that those who have hunger for knowledge may find within the kingdom the food for which they are yearning, and may not be forced to go into exile and beg the bread of learning in strange lands.’ It was the first university in Europe established by royal charter, and, all through its history, the rigid dependence of its teachers and students on the State deprived it of that freedom which was necessary to play a real part in the history of thought, though the fostering care of its master, which prohibited his subjects from studying elsewhere, made it an efficient educational instrument, and it had the honour of numbering among its earliest disciples Thomas of Aquino. The more ancient school of medicine at Salerno was revived through Frederick’s bounty, and no one was allowed to practise the physician’s art within the realm without the licence of the Salerno doctors. At Frederick’s accession, we are told, there were few men of letters in Sicily. His largesse soon attracted to his court doctors from every part of the world. The palace itself became a centre of intellectual activity. Michael Scot translated for Frederick many of the works of Aristotle. The famous mathematician, Leonard of Pisa, who introduced Arabic numerals and Arabic algebra into the West, enjoyed the sovereign’s patronage. Learned Jews and Arabs were as sure of Frederick’s favour as the best of Catholics. Nor were the lighter and more elegant arts forgotten. It is possible that Frederick himself wrote Latin poetry. It is certain that his compositions in the vulgar tongue mark the starting-point of the vernacular literature of Italy, and for the first time gave a currency among the great and learned to the songs of the Sicilian dialect that had hitherto only enjoyed the favour of the poor and humble. Dante regarded Frederick as the father of Italian poetry, and the example of the king and his court gave such vogue to the Sicilian idiom that it was nearly a century before the vernacular poets forsook it for the Tuscan. Frederick also loved the poets of Provence, even if he did not also write verses in the tongue of the Troubadours. He also favoured the speech of Northern France, and recognised its general prevalence as the common language of knights and soldiers. His ministers, headed by the famous Peter della Vigna, emulated his activity, and his children, especially the bastard Manfred, strove, amidst great difficulties, to continue his work. Frederick loved art so well that he rifled Ravenna to adorn his palace at Palermo, and collected jewels, plate, and costly furniture as well as manuscripts. He was a great builder, and his summer palace at Foggia, where he loved to dwell by reason of its proximity to the great forest of the Incoronata,