Note 500 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
Perhaps Ficino was the first to give him this title. In a letter of his to Lorenzo de' Medici we read: "Nutris domi Homericum ilium adolescentem Angelum Politianum qui Græcam Homeri personam Latinis coloribus exprimat. Exprimit jam; atque, id quod mirum est ita tenerâ ætate, ita exprimit ut nisi quivis Græcum fuisse Homerum noverit dubitaturus sit e duobus uter naturalis sit et uter pictus Homerus" (Ep. ed. Flor. 1494, lib. i. p. 6). Ficino always addressed Poliziano as "Poeta Homericus."