THE BOOK HUNTERS. 489 



otherwise be procured, travelled into Arab Spain, 

 settled at Cordova, and translated the Greeks from 

 tbe Arabic version, together with the works of Aver- 

 roes and Avicenna. The Greeks, frequently visiting 

 Italy, were invited to give lectures on their literature, 

 and lessons in their language. The revival of Greek 

 was commenced by Boccacio, who copied out Homer 

 with his own hand ; and a Greek academy was estab- 

 lished at Florence. Petrarch revived the literature of 

 Rome ; he devoted his life to Cicero and Virgil; he 

 wrote the epitaph of Laura on the margin of the 

 Eneid ; he died with his head pillowed on a book. 

 The Roman law was also revived ; as Greeks lectured 

 on literature in Italy, so Italians lectured on law be- 

 yond the Alps. And now began the search for the 

 lost. Pilgrims of the antique wandered through 

 Europe, ransacking convents for the treasures of the 

 past. At this time whatever taste for learning had 

 once existed among the monks appears to have died 

 away. The pilgrims were directed to look in lofts, 

 where rats burrowed under heaps of parchment ; or to 

 sift heaps of rubbish lying in the cellar. In such 

 receptacles were found many of those works which are 

 yet read by thousands with delight, and wdiich are 

 endeared to us all by the associations of our boyhood. 

 It was thus that Quintilian was discovered, and, to 

 use the language of the time, was delivered from his 

 long imprisonment in the dungeons of the barbarians. 

 Lucretius was disinterred in Germany ; a fragment of 

 Petronius in Britain. Cosmo de' Medici imported 

 books in all languages from all parts of the world. 

 A copyist became Pope, founded the Library of the 

 Vatican, and ordered the translation of the Greek his- 

 torians and philosophers into Latin. A great reading 



