CHAPTER III.

THE COUNCIL OF UNION AND PLATONISM. COSIMO DE’ MEDICI’S LATER YEARS.

Pope Eugene IV. and the Papal Court in Florence—The Greeks in Florence—Gemisto’s Plethon—Origin of the Platonic Academy—Youth of Marsilio Ficino—John Argyropulos—Philosophical Studies—Cristoforo Landino Saint Antoninus Archbishop of Florence—Orlando Bonarli as Archbishop—Epistolaries and Dedications—Hermaphroditus—Literature and Life—Agnolo Pandolfini—Villa Life—Franco Sachetti—Poggio Bracciolini’s Country Life—Learned Connections of Florence with Foreign Countries—William Grey, Earl of Worcester, and others—The Humanists during the Last Years of Cosimo de’ Medici—Erudition and the Vernacular 457