Note 83 — CHAP. III.
Reading edition
Guarino Veronese, as his surname imports, was a native of Verona, in which city he was born A. D. 1370. Dedicating himself to study from his early years, he became a pupil of John of Ravenna. Not contented with acquiring, under the instructions of this able tutor, a knowledge of the Latin language, he undertook a voyage to Constantinople for the express purpose of reading the Greek classics in the school of Manuel Crysoloras. Ponticio Virunio, who flourished in the beginning of the 16th century, affirms, that when Guarino had finished his Greek studies, he returned to Italy with two large chests full of books, which he had collected during his residence in Constantinople; and that he was so much affected by the loss of one of these valuable packages, which perished in a shipwreck, that his hair became grey in the space of a single night. But this story is generally considered as fabulous. On his return to his native country, he adopted the profession of a public lecturer on Rhetoric, in which capacity he visited various cities of Italy. The names of these cities are thus enumerated by Janus Pannonius, who testified his gratitude for the benefit which he had derived from Guarino’s instructions, by composing a poem to his praise.
“Tu mare frænantes Venetōs, tu Antenoris alti Instituis cives, tua te Verona legentem, Finis et Italiæ stupuit sublime Tridentum; Nec jam flumineum referens Florentia nomen, Ac Phæbo quondam, nunc sacra Bononia Marti; Tandem mansurum placidâ statione recepit Pacis et aligeri Ferraria mater amoris.”
Ferrara was the last abode of Guarino. After having resided many years in that city under the protection of the Marquis d’Este, he there terminated a life of literary labour, in the year 1460, at the advanced age of ninety. Bartolomeo Facio, who had been of the number of his pupils, made mention of him during his lifetime in the following flattering terms.
“Artem Rhetoricam profitetur, quâ in re supra quinque et triginta annos se exercuit. Ab hoc uno plures docti et eloquentes viri facti sunt quam a ceteris omnibus hujus ordinis, ut non immerito quidam de eo dixerit quod de Isocrate dictum ferunt, plures ex ejus scholâ viros eruditos, quam ex equo Trojano milites prodiisse—Ejus quoque præstantiæ singulare testimonium est Epigramma hoc nobile Antonii Panormitæ editum ab illo quum vitâ functum audivisset.”
“Quantum Romulidæ sanctum videre Catonem, Quantum Cepheni volitantem Persea cœlo, Alciden Thebe pacantem viribus orbem, Tantum læta suum vidit Verona Guarinum.”
Tiraboschi Storia della Letter. Ital., tom. vi. p. 255 & seq.—Facius de Viris Illustr., p. 18.