[320] See Poggio’s dialogue on Hypocrisy in the _Fasciculus Rer. Expet. et fugiend. tom. ii. p. 583._ [321] _Recanati Osservazioni, p. 19._ [322] _Poggiana, tom. ii. p. 322-326._ [323] _Ton. Tr. vol. ii. p. 22._ [324] The short-sightedness of the Florentines seems to have been a subject of proverbial sarcasm to their neighbours. “Bartolomeo Soccini, of Siena,” says Mr. Roscoe, in his life of Lorenzo de’ Medici, “having observed, in allusion to the defect in Lorenzo’s sight, that the air of Florence was injurious to the eyes—_true_, said Lorenzo, _and that of Siena to the brain_.” When Leo X. was elected to the pontificate, the Roman wits thus interpreted a certain date of the year MCCCCXL, which was inscribed on a tablet in the church of the Vatican: Multi cæci cardinales creaverunt cæcum decimum Leonem. _Roscoe’s Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici, vol. ii. p. 119_—_Fabroni Vita Leonis. X._ [325] _Poggii Opera, p. 333, 339._ [326] _Philelfi Opera, p. 13._ [327] _Philelfi Epistolæ, p. 18._ [328] _Ibid._ [329] _Ibid._ [330] _Poggii Opera, p. 175._ [331] _Poggii Opera, p. 176._ [332] _Poggii Opera, p. 186, 187._ [333] _Poggii Opera, p. 64-83._ [334] _Poggii Opera, p. 225-328._ Besides Gregorio Corriario, two other Venetian scholars, Pietro Tommasi and Lauro Querini, expressed their displeasure at the manner in which Poggio had treated the Venetian patricians in his dialogue _De Nobilitate_; the former in a letter addressed to Poggio—the latter, not only by a letter, but also in an express treatise on the same subject. To the former Poggio returned a civil reply—the latter, who seems to have been an ill-tempered man, he treated with contempt. _Ton. Tr. vol. ii. p. 42._ [335] _Poggii Opera, p. 278._ [336] _Poggii Opera, p. 285._ [337] _Poggii Historia Flor. p. 339._—_Muratori Annali, tom. ix. p. 185._—Lorenzo Valla, in his _Antidotus_, charges Poggio with the infamous villany of forging the commission, by virtue of which Vitelleschi was arrested; and asserts, that he was protected from the punishment due to his crime, by the power of the statesmen who had bribed him to commit so atrocious a deed. It is not, however, very probable, that any interest could have screened from punishment a secretary who stood convicted of so heinous an offence as counterfeiting the signature of a sovereign prince, for the purpose of committing murder: still less, that a subordinate officer who had taken such a wicked liberty, should have been continued in his place.—_Laurentii Vallæ Antidotus in Poggium, p. 109._ [338] _Muratori Annali, tom. ix. p. 186._ [339] _Muratori Annali, tom. ix. p. 199._ [340] _Poggii Opera, p. 344._ [341] _Poggii Epistolæ lvii. ep. liv._ [342] _Poggii Epistolæ lvii. p. 282._ [343] _Poggii Epistolæ lvii. p. 284._ [344] According to the tables of the relative value of money at different periods, the volume above mentioned may be said to have cost Lionello £250 or £300 sterling.—_Ton. Tr. vol. ii. p. 54._