[Footnote 125: This little work, whose title will be found in the second Index, is now published, and has been well received by scholars on account of its learning and bibliographical research. The author approves the supposition that we ought to read 1472. We wish him leisure to produce more such works as this, which, like those of Manuzi, at once combine the character of the elegant typographer and the erudite scholar.] [Footnote 126: Maffei, Verona Illustrata, p. ii. col. 118.] [Footnote 127: That is, in Rome, where he also taught the art of printing books, as we are informed in the same preface. This last is wholly devoted to Roman matters, and it would be vain to look in it for the general history of typography and engraving in Italy. It appears then, that Sweyneym instructed the artists of Rome in the best manner of printing from copper plates with the press; though others may have taught the art of printing them more rudely and in softer metal at Bologna.] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. EPOCH II. _Vinci, Bonarruoti, and other celebrated artists, form the most flourishing era of this School._ Nations have their virtues and their vices; and it is the duty of the historian to give them credit for the one, and to confess the other. Thus it is with the Schools of Painting; no one of which is so perfect as to leave us nothing more to desire; no one so faulty that it has not much in it to commend. The Florentine school (I do not speak of its greatest masters, but of the general practice of the others) had no great merit in colouring, from which Mengs was induced to denominate it a melancholy school; nor did it excel in its drapery, from which arose the saying, that the drapery of figures appeared to be fashioned with economy in Florence. It did not shine in power of relief, a study not generally cultivated till the last century, nor did it exhibit much beauty, because, long destitute of fine Grecian statues, Florence was late in possessing the Venus: and only through the attention of the Grand Duke Leopold, has been enriched by the Apollo, the group of Niobe, and other choice specimens. From these circumstances this school aimed only at a fidelity of representation that resembles the works of those who copied exactly from nature, and in general made a judicious selection of its objects. It could not boast of superior grouping in the composition of a picture, and it was more inclined to erase a superfluous figure, than to add one unnecessarily to the rest. In grace, in design, and in historic accuracy, it excels most other schools; chiefly resulting from the great learning that always adorned this city, and invariably gave a bias to the erudition of her artists.