THE LIFE OF POGGIO BRACCIOLINI. THE LIFE OF POGGIO BRACCIOLINI. BY THE REV. WM. SHEPHERD, LL. D. [Illustration] LIVERPOOL. PRINTED BY HARRIS BROTHERS, FOR LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN & LONGMAN, LONDON. 1837. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The services rendered to the cause of literature by Poggio Bracciolini, have been noticed with due applause by Mr. Roscoe in his celebrated Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici. From the perusal of that elegant publication, I was led to imagine, that the history of Poggio must contain a rich fund of information respecting the revival of letters. A cursory examination of the Basil edition of his works convinced me that I was not mistaken; and I felt a wish to direct the attention of the public to the merits of an author, whose productions had afforded me no small degree of pleasure. Being apprized that Monsieur L’Enfant had given an account of the life and writings of Poggio, in two 12mo. volumes, entitled “Poggiana,” I at first bounded my views to a translation of that work. Upon perusing it, however, I found it so ill arranged, and in many particulars so erroneous, that I was persuaded it would be a much more pleasant task to compose a new Life of Poggio, than to correct the mistakes which deform the Poggiana. In this idea I was fully confirmed by the perusal of Recanati’s Osservazioni Critiche, in which Monsieur L’Enfant is convicted of no less than one hundred and twenty-nine capital errors.