recommended to his literary friends. At the same time he did not
proclaim war upon the less orthodox of the Humanist school. Men like
Valla, Poggio, Filelfo, and Marsuppini were treated with friendliness
and even with favour. Whether such a line of conduct was dictated by
prudence and by the hope of winning over these scholars to a better
understanding, or whether his anxiety for the success of his own
literary schemes blinded him to the serious excesses of such leaders
it is difficult to say; but, at any rate, it serves to show the great
liberty enjoyed by literary men at this period even in the very city
of the Popes.

As a means of ensuring to Rome the most prominent place in the
revival, agents were dispatched to Greece, Turkey, Germany, France,
and even to Sweden and Norway, to hunt for manuscripts. No expense was
spared to secure everything that could be purchased or to have copies
made where purchase was impossible. In order to preserve these
treasures and make them available for scholars the Vatican Library was
undertaken by orders of the Pope. Though long before this time the
library of the Popes was of considerable importance, yet on account of
the immense number of volumes produced by Nicholas V. he is generally
regarded as the founder of the Vatican Library. The number of volumes
which it contained at the time of his death is variously estimated at
from one to nine thousand. The works of the Fathers of the Church, and
the Scholastics and Canonists were well represented.[9]

After the death of Nicholas V. the Pagan side of the Humanist movement
became more and more apparent. Pius II. (1458-64), who, as Aeneas
Sylvius, was well known as a clever writer of the Humanist school,
seems as Pope to have been decidedly suspicious of his former friends.
His own private library was filled with Christian authors, and care