friends, also with ardent zeal, sought out written copies 

 of classical authors; and although Petrarch himself ne-ver 

 mastered Greek, ho took keen pleasure iti aiding his learned 

 friends to rna.ke Greek literature a.q:ain known in Italy. 

 The nowly-found-out art of printurg gave them timely aid, 

 and Politian and Erasm.us gave scholarly help tO' the early 

 printers. To the gi'eat printers, Aldus, Estienne, Elziver 

 and Froben. whose families for three and four generations 

 at Venice, Paris, Ijeyden and BarJe devoted their learning, 

 skill and wealth to collecting manusoripts and spreading 

 printed cheap first editions of Greek and Latin authors, 

 leai*ning owes a limitless debt of gratitude. 



In the early days of the Ee-naissance there was a 

 cioimbling away of feudalism, changes in the relationBhip 

 betwixt church and state; and higher esteem for the ver- 

 nacular languages of the people. For centuries Latin was 

 the dominant European tongue. In the days of Elizabeth, 

 Bacon put his chief books- into Latin ; and Montaigne woidd 

 have done eo with his essays, had he not deemed them 

 written only "for a few people and a few years." In the 

 time of the Commonwealtii IMilton wrote state papens- in 

 Latin; and in the Hungarian parliament Latin till 1825 

 was the language of debate. Still, by the close of the 

 fourteenth century seven vernacular languages contained 

 works that were the fii'st fruits of seven modern European 

 literatures. Of such works France is given credit for the 

 most, and Italy for the beet. After examining fourteen 

 Italian dialects, Dante made choice of that of Florence for 

 his. Bivina Commedia, which was not made public till after 

 the poet's death, and which at once took rank as the great- 

 est work up to that time written, in the speech of the 

 people. 



During the fourteenth century many stories were writ- 

 ten ill sundry veniacular tongues of European peoples. 

 The Decameron of Boccaccio and the Canterbui7 Tales of 

 Chaucer are two of the more notable colleotions. Boc- 

 caccio wrote several books, but his vivacious stories threw 



32 



