[269] This dialogue was, for upwards of three centuries, buried in the repositories of Manuscripts which are stored up in a few public libraries on the continent of Europe. In the year 1802, the author of this work was fortunate enough to find in the then _Bibliothéque Nationale_, now _Bibliothéque du Roi_, at Paris, a very legible manuscript copy of it, which he carefully transcribed; and soon after his return home he printed a very small impression of it for distribution among his literary friends. A copy of this impression having been sent by him to the late Dr. Parr, that eminent scholar urged him to reprint and publish it, with a few necessary corrections. The wish of Parr was complied with, and the Dialogue was brought out in the year 1807, with a Latin preface and a Latin dedication to the late Mr. Roscoe. In the year 1823, the Signor Pecchioli published at Florence a new edition of it, which is enriched with various readings from a MS. in the Riccardi library. [270] In the first edition of the work it was stated that Poggio, on his marriage, not only parted with his mistress, but also deprived four of his illegitimate children, who were then living, of an inheritance which he had secured to them by a Bull of legitimacy. This statement, however, rests only on the authority of Valla, the bitter personal enemy of Poggio, and it has been satisfactorily proved by the Cavaliere Tonelli (_Ton. Tr. vol. i. p. 266._) that this imputation is of the number of those calumnies in which the scholars of the fifteenth century were, in their contests with each other, so apt to indulge. [271] _Poggii Epistolæ lvii. epist. xxxvii._ [272] _Poggii Opera, p. 355._ [273] The correspondence above referred to, which was first brought into public notice by the Cavaliere Tonelli, (_Ton. Tr. vol. i. p. 276-283_) is to be found in the Riccardi and the Hafod manuscripts. [274] _Ton. Tr. vol. i. p. 284, Note._ [275] _Mehi Vita Ambrosii Traversarii, p. xxxiii._ [276] Though no literary works of Francesco Marescalco have descended to posterity, and though from the designation of “Franciscum quendam Ferrariensem,” by which he is mentioned in a letter from Poggio to Niccolo Niccoli, it should seem that he was not much known, even to his contemporaries, the circumstance of Poggio’s inscribing to him a volume of his compositions affords reasonable grounds for a supposition that he was a man of learning, and of a respectable character. This supposition is confirmed by the respectful manner in which Poggio, in the following letter, thanks him for the offer of his friendship, and the assurance of his esteem.