and especially the payment : " If Lamberteschi would 

 only place something certain before us, which we could 

 adopt or approve," he wrote ; and " How heartily I hope 

 that Lamberteschi will do what would be agreeable to 

 us both." 



Arrived in Rome, Bracciolini was offered and accepted 

 the post of Principal Secretary to the Pope, and, con- 

 sequently, did not go, as previously arranged, to Hungary, 

 but set himself to work instead, examining the old MSS. 

 in the Vatican Library, for which he had ample time, as 

 his new post was almost a sinecure. He also wrote to 

 his friend Niccoli on May i5th, 1423, asking him to 

 forward to him without the least delay all his notes and 

 extracts from the various books which he had read ; after 

 receiving which he commenced in earnest his labour, He 

 had not worked long, however, before he discovered what 

 an arduous task he had undertaken, and again fear over- 

 came him lest he should find himself unequal to the 

 effort ; but, pulling himself together again, he determined 

 once more to keep up his courage and persevere to the 

 end, the gold sequins probably acting as a stimulus to 

 him. 



Writing to his friend Niccoli on October 8th, 1423, 

 he says that " beginnings of any kind are arduous and 

 difficult ;" and continues : " What the ancients did 

 pleasantly, quickly, and easily, is to me troublesome, 

 tedious, and burdensome." In another letter to Niccoli, 

 dated Rome, November 6th, 1423, he begs his friend 

 to make every effort to procure for him some map of 

 Ptolemy's " Geography," and not to forget Suetonius and 

 the other historians, above all Plutarch's " Lives of 

 Illustrious Men." 



For upwards of three years after this period Bracciolini 

 shut himself up with his papers, extracts, maps, etc., and 

 worked steadily and laboriously at his task, and, at the 

 end of that time, had completed the first instalment of 

 his forgery. The next part of the process was to find 

 a suitable place in which the forged MS. could be dis- 

 covered ; consequently, Bracciolini and Niccoli put their 

 heads together in consultation, finally settling upon 

 Hirschfeldt, a small Saxon town on the borders of 

 Bohemia, which was celebrated for an old abbey of the 



