Initiation of the Renaissance period--Newly born passion for the antique--The Mæcenas and the collector--Plagiarians, imitators and fakers--Cola di Rienzi, archæologist--A collection of the fourteenth century--Artists, writers and travellers hunting for antiques--Niccoli, the Medicis, Cardinal Scarampi and others--The Medici collection dispersed by the Florentine mob. The Renaissance fakers of art have a somewhat nobler pedigree when compared with those of other epochs. The early artists from whom they sprang were not actual imitators of the Greeks and Romans, but were inspired by them to reproduce that pagan expression which had deeply affected their artistic temperament. Were these artists doing it purely for art’s sake, or had they the hope that their work might pass as antique? The answer to this is perhaps to be deduced from the character of the age not yet fully ripe for artistic deception. The sentiment for, and cult of, the antique were certainly growing during this early part of the Renaissance; they did not come in a sudden burst, but had been gradually developing in the previous years. As a matter of fact, already in the transitional period which prepared the highest artistic accomplishment of the Renaissance, collections and collectors were becoming not only eclectic in taste, but seem to have been guided by a real artistic fondness for the art of the past. It is no more a question of solid silver and jewels, but of statues and paintings. Catalogues no longer read like that of Charles VI of France: “Inventoire des joyaux, vaiselle d’or et d’argent estant au Louvre et en la Bastille à Paris appartenent à feu le roy Charles,” followed by a monotonous enumeration of jewels, _vaiselle_, etc., but are like that of the Medici collection, and include all the most varied expressions of art--sculpture, paintings, medals, carving, cameos, rare jewels, etc. In the early part of the 14th century we know that Cola di Rienzi, the Roman Tribune, collected inscriptions. One of his biographers tells us that Cola “occupied himself every day with inscriptions cut into marble, which were to be found round Rome. No one could decipher the ancient epitaphs like him. He translated all the ancient writings and gave the right interpretation to these marbles.” It was between the years 1344-47 that Cola compiled a work on Roman inscriptions, re-edited a century later by Signorili in his _Descriptio urbis Romæ_.