After a while the parchment arrived, together with an 

 old copy of Tacitus that could be easily read by a tran- 

 scriber ; and then all was silence again for about a year. 

 During this period the old monk was busily engaged 

 transcribing the forged writings into very ancient 

 characters, using the old copy of Tacitus supplied by 

 Niccoli as an example of style, the forgery being intended 

 as an introduction to the " History." 



On September nth, 1428, Bracciolini was evidently 

 becoming impatient with the work, for he wrote to Niccoli 

 as follows : " Not a word of Cornelius Tacitus from 

 Germany ; nor have I heard thence any further news of 

 his work." Then, again, he writes February 26th, 1429 : 

 " The Hirschfeldt monk has come without the book, and 

 I gave him a sound rnting for it. He has given me his 

 assurance that he will be back again soon, for he is carry- 

 ing on a suit about his abbey in the law courts, and will 

 bring the book. He made heavy demands upon me ; 

 but I told him I would do nothing for him until I have 

 the book ; I am, therefore, in hopes that I shall have it, 

 as he is in need of my good offices." The book at length 

 arrived, and Bracciolini wrote to Niccoli that, so far as 

 he was himself concerned, everything was " now complete 

 with respect to the Little Work^ concerning which he 

 would, on some future opportunity, write to him ; and, 

 at the same time, send it to him to read, in order to get 

 his opinion of it." 



So the forgery was complete, and there can be no 

 doubt that Bracciolini from this date was a rich man, 

 living in his own villa at Valdarno in Tuscany. The 

 forged writings were handed over to Cosmo de Medici 

 in return for 500 gold sequins, according to arrangement^ 

 and remained in the Library at Florence ever after. It 

 was not, however, published before 1468, when Johannes 

 de Spire produced what are now known as the last six 

 books of the " Annals '* of Tacitus, which he declared 

 had been copied from an (imaginary) original in St. 

 Mark's, Venice, but which we now know were really 

 copied from the forgery of Bracciolini, in possession of 

 the Medicis at Florence. 



What are now known as the first six books of the 

 "Annals" did not make their appearance until 



