105 



became general. Tliis was not, perhaps, the golden period 

 of the arts; but it was, at least, the time when they were 

 held in the highest honour. The study of them Avas pro- 

 secuted with the most eager assiduity; and they who ex- 

 celled in them were received, by all those whoai they 

 would naturally desire to please, with an attention nearly 

 bordering on adoration. In France, at this period, flou- 

 rished the celebrated assemblage of poets, Ronsard, Baif, 

 8ch. &c., who gave strength and elegance to their vernacu- 

 lar tongue; and, in fact, made it a language, engrafting 

 into it the beauries of the Greek and Roman speech. 

 These were known by their cotemporaries, under the ho- 

 nourable appellation of the Pleiades; an appellation here- 

 tofore applied to the poets of Alexandria. At the same 

 time, the art of painting began to be generally esteemed 

 and patronized. The famous painter, Leonarde da Vinci, 

 was honourably received at the court of France, and died 

 in the arms of the first Francis. A famous event also, the 

 discovery of the art of printing, now took place, and coa- 

 tributed, beyond all power of calculation, to the improve- 

 ment of the worid. The admirable remains of Greece and 

 Rome now became familiar to every body, by the multi- 

 ^"^- ^' o plication 



needle, which serves to shew, that its virtues, in navigation, were known 

 forty years before 1300, the year to which most modern philosophers refer 

 its discovery. Bninetto seems to speak of it rather as a matter in general 

 use, than as a new discovery. Guglielmo da Pastrengo, in the fourteenth 

 century, composed the first Bibliotheca Literaria in alphabetical order. 



