Benedictine monks. Bracciolini had accidentally met 

 with one of the monks from this place in Rome, and 

 had managed to place this man under an obligation to 

 him ; so, finding that he was needy, ignorant, and stupid, 

 he determined to make use of him for producing his 

 MS. to the public. Speaking of this monk in one of 

 his letters to Niccoli, he says: "The good fellow, who 

 has not our attainments, thought that we were equally 

 ignorant of what he found he did not know himself." 

 To this ignorant fellow he gave a long list of books that 

 he wished him to hunt up in the Abbey library, including 

 a copy of Tacitus, telling him to send a full description 

 of each as soon as found. The object of this was to 

 find out whether the Abbey possessed a copy of Tacitus 

 in the oldest writing possible, which could be used as a 

 guide to the transcriber of the forgery ; and the reason 

 of giving such a long list was to throw the monk off the 

 scent. 



With all their precautions, however, their scheme was 

 all but discovered in the summer of 1427, for we find 

 Bracciolini, on September 25th of that year, writing to 

 Niccoli that, " when Tacitus came, he would keep it a 

 secret ; that he knew all the tittle-tattle that was going 

 on whence it came, through whom, and how it was got 

 up ; but that he need have no fear, for that not a syllable 



should escape him I hear nothing of the Tacitus 



that is in Germany. I am expecting an answer from 

 the monk." From this it would appear that the monk 

 had not yet supplied the information about the books ; 

 but, in the following October, Niccoli had forwarded to 

 Bracciolini an old copy of Tacitus that he had become 

 possessed of. Bracciolini, however, returned it at once, 

 saying that it was so badly damaged as to be illegible to 

 an ordinary transcriber, and continuing : " Take care, 

 therefore, that I have another, if it can be done ; but 



you can do it, if you will strive your utmost You 



have sent me the book without the parchment. I know 

 not the state of mind you were in when you did this, 

 except that you were as mad as a March hare. For 

 what book can be transcribed if there be not the parch- 

 ment ? Have a care to it, then, and also to a second 

 manuscript ; but, above all, keep in mind the vellum," 



