and was tutor to aeneas Sylvius (afterwards pope,
under the name of Pius the Second) and was an
eye-witness to what passed at that time. This
tutor says, that the persons of quality, especially
the women, still preserved the Greek language
uncorrupted. He observes, that though the city
had been taken before, it never suffered so much
as at that time; and adds, that, till that period,
the remembrance of ancient wisdom remained at
Constantinople, and that no one among the Latins
was deemed sufficiently learned, who had riot
studied for some time at that place; he expressed
his fear that all the works of the ancients would
be destroyed.

"Still, however, there are the remains of three
libraries at Constantinople: the first is called that
of Constantine the Great; the second is for all
ranks of people without distinction; the third is in
the palace, and is called the Ottoman library; but
a fire consumed a great part of the palace, and
almost the whole library, when as is supposed,
Livy and a great many valuable works of the ancients
perished. Father Possevius has given an
account of the libraries at Constantinople, and in
other parts of the Turkish dominions, in his excellent
work entitled, Apparatus Sacer. (He calls
attention to no less than six thousand authors.)

Many other losses of the writings of the ancients