The beginning of the fifteenth century witnessed great ardor for antiquity. A prouder sense of nationality had seized upon the popular heart, and there was a growing ambition to emulate the past and improve the future. Petrarch fired the general enthusiasm for antique monuments, and Rienzi eloquently revived patriotic associations connected therewith. Each leading city became a new Athens, and the revived age could boast its historians, poets, and orators. Naples, Rome, Venice, Bologna, and Florence, vied with each other, not in arms, but in the splendid triumphs of genius. Books were multiplied by numerous expert copyists at Bologna and Milan; while Florence, under the auspices of the Medici, became the great metropolis of original productions. The middle of this century formed the culminating point of classical enthusiasm, and marked an age of great mental enlargement in every department of literature. Hallam, referring to the intellectual pope Nicholas V., in contrast with his famous predecessor Gregory I., who denounced ancient learning, says: "These eminent men, like Michael Angelo's figures of Night and Morning, seem to stand at the two gates of the middle ages, emblems and heralds of the mind's long sleep, and of its awakening." But the greatest glory of this period was the invention of printing, which will be more particularly noticed under another head. The influence given to the restoration of letters was not suspended by the death of Cosmo de Medici, which occurred in 1464. His wealth and influence over Florence then devolved on his grandson Lorenzo, who employed his great resources in the most distinguished patronage of literature and art. His intimate personal friend, Luigi Pulci, was a leading poet of the modern school, and published the first edition of his Morgante Maggiore at Venice, in 1481. None of the honor attached to the invention of printing belongs to Italy, but it is to be noted how the practical use of that sublime art began on the eastern edge of the peninsula it was destined to revolutionize. The famous Florentine ecclesiastic Poggio, devoted himself particularly to the collection of choice manuscripts, and his exertions were crowned with great success. Fifty years so employed attested the value of his perseverance and sagacity. Politian also contributed much to the glory of this epoch.