ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
Ramusio informed Bembo that he had been proposed 
as his successor in the important office of historio¬ 
grapher to the Republic. At first - he shrank from 
undertaking so arduous a task, and pleaded his advanc¬ 
ing years and ignorance of history in support of his 
reluctance. But his objections were overruled, and in 
June 1530 he was appointed to succeed Messer Andrea, 
both as historian to the State and Keeper of the Nicene 
Library, for which latter office his vast knowledge of 
manuscripts fitted him especially. “ God forgive you, 
my son, Gian Matteo, and my brother, Messer 
Giovanni Battista, for interrupting the sweet repose of 
this delicious life and the studies that are dearer to me 
than any dignities and grandeur. It is your doing I 
am persuaded, and I know that your motive has been 
an excellent one. But once I put out to sea again and 
take up this burden, I shall never live as peacefully as 
of old. . . . And believe me, it is no light task to 
write history—with any credit to oneself.” 1 
During the next eight years Bembo discharged the 
duties of his double office with conscientious assiduity. 
His house in Venice became the meeting-place of the 
most famous scholars, and his writings attained a 
world-wide celebrity. Erasmus celebrated his praises 
as the brightest ornament of the age, and in his dreams 
Aretino saw him throned on the heights of Parnassus 
1 Lettere, ii. 214. 
156 
