[251] The catalogue of reliques of Roman architecture, which Poggio has inserted in the interesting pröemium to his dialogue _De varietate Fortunæ_, evinces the diligence and care with which he had surveyed the ruins of ancient Rome. This catalogue did not escape the extensive researches of Gibbon, who has introduced it into the 71st chapter of his _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire._ [252] “Poggius noster sæpe mecum est; reliquias civitatis probe callens nos comitatur.”—_Ambrosii Traversarii Epistolæ, p. 407._ In a letter to Bartolomeo Facio, Poggio thus invites him to visit the ruins of Rome. “Video te cupere urbem visere, et certe nisi incoeptum opus, ut ais, impediret hortarer te ad inspiciendas reliquias ejus urbis quæ quondam orbis lumen præclarissimum fuit. Equidem quamvis in eâ jam pluribus annis ab ipsâ juventute fuerim versatus, tamen quotide tamquam novus incola tantarum rerum admiratione obstupesco, recreoque persæpe animum visu eorum ædificiorum, quæ stulti propter ingenii imbecillitatem a Dæmonibus facta dicunt.”—_Facius de viris Illustribus, p. 97._ [253] _Mehi Vita Ambrosii Traversarii, p. lii._ [254] _Mehi Vita Ambrosii Traversarii, p. lii._ _Poggii Epist. citat. a Ton. tom. i. p. 258._ [255] _Poggii Opera, p. 321._ [256] _Ibid._ [257] _Ibid, p. 329._ [258] _Mehi Vita Ambrosii Traversarii, p. lii. liii._ [259] From an expression which Poggio uses in a letter on the subject of Francesco’s conduct, addressed to Andreolo Giustiniano, it should seem, either that the busts did not answer the expectation which he had formed concerning the exquisiteness of their workmanship, or that he suspected that Francesco had substituted inferior pieces of sculpture, in the place of those destined for him by Suffretus. The following is the expression in question. “Cum Suffretus quidem Rhodius ei consignasset tria capita marmorea, et signum integrum duorum fere cubitorum, quæ Franciscus se ad me allaturum promisit, _capita quædam dedit_, signo autem me fraudavit,” &c. Perhaps, however, quædam is, by an error of the press, substituted for quidem. [260] _Poggii Opera, p. 329._ [261] _Poggii Opera, p. 329._ [262] The admirer of ancient art will find the principles, the observance of which led to the perfection to which it was carried by the Greeks, clearly and forcibly explained in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth pages of Mr. Fuseli’s _Lectures on Painting_. Of this work it may be asserted, that hardly any composition in the English language comprehends an equal quantity of thought in the same compass of expression. Almost every sentence which it contains is a theme of reflection, a text, pregnant with the most useful instruction. [263] _Poggii Epist. lvii. p. 181._ [264] _Poggii Opera, p. 357, & seq._ [265] _Poggii Opera, p. 366._ [266] _See note to Tonelli’s translation, vol. i. p. 264._ [267] _Poggii vita a Recanatio, p. xiv._ [268] _Poggii vita a Recanatio, p. xiv._