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P O G 
all his heft years. The death of Carlo Aretino, in 1453,left 
a vacancy in the pod of chancellor to theFlorentine repub¬ 
lic) and, through the intereft of the houfe of Medici, Poggio 
was chofen to fill it. He thereupon quitted Rome, and,with 
his family removing to Florence, immediately entered 
upon the duties of bis employment. Soon after his arri¬ 
val, his fellow-citizens conferred upon him an additional 
mark of their efteem, in elefting him one of the Priori 
degli Arti, or matters of the trading companies. His 
civil occupations, however, did not prevent him from 
profecuting his iiabitual literary ftudies; and it was 
about this time that he was engaged in a prolix conteft 
with the eminent fcholar Lorenzo Valla, maintained on 
both fides with the utmoil licence of calumnious abufe. 
It is happy for the reputation of both, that their refpec- 
tive charges betray too much anger to obtain full credit. 
More honourable efforts fucceeded ; and the work with 
which he concluded his literary life was one which places 
him in a rank perhaps fuperior to that which he had 
merited by any of his former productions. This was his 
“ Hiffory of Florence,” derived from fources to which 
his office gave him peeuliar accefs. It had not received 
its laft polifh when death put a period to his labours in 
1459, at the mature age of 79. He was interred with great 
folemnitvin the church of Santa Croce 5 and his grateful 
fellow-citizens eredied a ftatue to his memory. 
Little can be faid in praife of the moral charadfer of 
this author. Befides the licentioufnefs in which he in¬ 
dulged, he was quarrelfome and intemperate in his lan¬ 
guage; and there were few eminent fcholars of his time 
whom he did not occafionally treat with the grofleft in- 
vedtives. No imputation, however, feerns to lie againft 
his integrity, and his fentiments are generally liberal and 
manly. As a writer, he may be reckoned the rnoft ele¬ 
gant compofer in Latin (the language ufed in all his 
works) of that period; for, although he did not attain 
the purity of the fucceeding race of fcholars, yet, by a 
fedulous imitation of the beft models, efpecially Cicero, 
he greatly furpaffed the Latinity of the early Italians. 
In the Greek he was a confiderable proficient, if not a 
matter. His writings are numerous, and upon a variety 
of topics. Many are difcuffions of moral arguments, 
which he treats with learning and copioufnefs, but too 
much in the rhetorical manner. Some are philological, 
fome controverfial, and the reft are chiefly tranflations, 
orations, and letters. His Hiftoria Florentina, however, 
deferves a feparate mention. It comprifes the period 
from 1350 to 1455 ; and is not a mere chronicle, but aims 
at the ftyle of compofition of which the ancient liiftorians 
have left examples. It has been charged with partiality 
towards his countrymen ; a reproach which Sannazarius 
has perpetuated in an epigram, the fenfe of which is, that 
Poggius (hows himfelf a better citizen than hiftorian. It 
■was completed and tranflated into Italian by his fon Ja¬ 
copo, and the original remained in MS. till 1715, when 
it was publifhed with notes by Recanati, a noble Vene¬ 
tian ; and it has fince been admitted into the collediions 
of Grasvius Muratori. 
Poggio Bracciolini is confidered to be the firft eminent 
perfon of modern times, whofe remarks and bon-mots 
have been collected under the name of Am, though the 
Poggiana was not publijhed till after the Scaligerana. We 
are told, that, during the pontificate of Martin V. Poggio 
and other members of the Roman chancery were in the 
habit of afiembling in a common hall adjoining the Vati¬ 
can, in order to converfe freely on all fubjedts. Being 
more ftudious of wit than of truth, they termed this 
apartment Buggiale ; a word fignifying a place of recre¬ 
ation where tales are related, and which Poggio himfelf 
interprets Mendaciorum Officina. At thefe meetings 
Poggio and his friends difcuffed the news and fcandal of 
the day, and communicated to each other entertaining 
anecdotes; they attacked what they did not approve, and 
they approved of little : they alfo indulged in the utmoft 
latitude of fatiric remark; dealing out their farcafms 
P O G 
with fuch impartiality, that they did not fpare even the 
pope and cardinals. The pointed jefts and humorous 
ftories which occurred in thefe unreftrained conversions 
■were collected by Poggio, and formed the chief.mate¬ 
rials of his Faectice, mentioned before. This celebrated 
collediion, which forms a principal part of the Pnggiana, 
is chiefly valuable, as recording interefting anecdotes of 
eminent men of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It 
alfo contains a number of quibbles or jcux-de-mots, and 
a ft ill greater number of idle and licentious ftories. 
Many of thefe, however, are not original; fome of them 
being taken from ancient authors, and a ftill greater num¬ 
ber from the Fabliaux of the Trouveurs. On the other 
hand, Poggio has fuggefted much to fucceeding writers. 
The Facetiae forms, upon the whole, the moft amufing 
and interefting part of the Poggiava, which was printed 
at Amfterdam in 1720; but this coliedlion alfo compre¬ 
hends fome farther anecdotes of his life, and a few fcat- 
tered maxims exlradfed from his graver compofitions. 
POG'GY or Nassau Islands, a chain of iflands on 
the weft coaft of Sumatra, at the diftance of twenty or 
thirty leagues, which run along the whole length of the 
coaft. They extend from lat. 2. 18. to 3. 16. S. and the 
northern and fouthernmoft of thefe iflands are feparated 
from each other by a very narrow paffage, called See 
Cockup, in lat. 2. 40. S. and Ion. 100. 38. E. which 
affords a fafe anchorage for fhips. The face of the coun¬ 
try is rough and irregular, confiding of high and preci¬ 
pitous mountains, covered with trees to their fummits, 
among which is the fpecies called puhn, fit for the lurgeft 
malls. The woods in their prefent ttate are quite imper¬ 
vious. The fago-tree grows here in plenty, and is the 
chief food of the inhabitants, who do r.ot cultivate rice. 
The cocoa-nut tree, and the bamboo, and alfo a great 
variety of fruits, fuch as mangofteens, pine-apples, plan¬ 
tains, &c. are found here. The wild animals are the 
large red deer, hogs, and feveral kinds of monkeys; but 
there are neither buffaloes, goats, nor tigers. Fifh is pro¬ 
cured in great plenty, and, with pork, conftitute the fa¬ 
vourite food of the natives. The ftiell of the nautilus is 
often driven on-flrore empty; but the natives fay they 
have never yet caught the nautilus-filh alive in the .(hell. 
On the northernmoft of thefe iflands there are feven 
villages, and on the fouthern five, which contain about 
1400 inhabitants. Pulo Mego, as well as fome other of 
the fmaller iflands, is uninhabited, except by rats and 
fquirrels, that fubfift on the cocoa-nuts which they pro¬ 
duce, and which are occafionally carried off in veffeis 
from Sumatra to that ifland. All thefe final! iflands are 
fkirted near the fea-beach with cocoa-nut trees, which 
grow fo thick together, that they almoft choak each other, 
whilft the interior parts are entirely free from them ; this 
is occafioned by the accidental floating of the nuts 
to the fhore, where being planted, as it were, by the hand 
of nature, they (hoot forth and bear fruit, and thus fup ply 
materials for re prod uclion. Mr. Marfden fuppofes that 
this chain of iflands may probably have once formed a 
part of the Main, and have been feparated from it, either 
by feme violent effort of nature, or by the gradual attri¬ 
tion of the fea. Various appearances confirm this fuppo- 
fition. The food of thefe iflanders confift of yams, crabs, 
plantains, and cocoa-nuts. The drefs cf the women is 
only a piece of cloth wrapped round the middle, and 
reaching within two or three inches of the knee. See 
Pulo Nias. 
From the proximity of the iflands to Sumatra, which, 
in refpedt to them, may be confidered as a continent, we 
fhould naturally expedt to find their inhabitants to be a 
fet of people originally derived from the Sumatra ftock, 
and look for fome affinity in their language and manners'; 
but, to our no fmall furprife, we find a race of men wiiofe 
language is totally different, and whofe cuftoms and 
habits of life indicate a very diftindl origin, and bear a 
ftriking refemblance to thole of the inhabitants oi the 
lately-difcovered iflands in the great Pacific Ocean. The 
many 
