opportunity, we would sit down with more delight than a
fastidious physician among his stores of gums and spices, and
there we found the object and the stimulus of our affections.
Thus the sacred vessels of learning came into our control and
stewardship; some by gift, others by purchase, and some lent to
us for a season.

No wonder that when people saw that we were contented with gifts
of this kind, they were anxious of their own accord to minister
to our needs with those things that they were more willing to
dispense with than the things they secured by ministering to our
service. And in good will we strove so to forward their affairs
that gain accrued to them, while justice suffered no
disparagement. Indeed, if we had loved gold and silver goblets,
high-bred horses, or no small sums of money, we might in those
days have furnished forth a rich treasury. But in truth we
wanted manuscripts not moneyscripts; we loved codices more than
florins, and preferred slender pamphlets to pampered palfreys.

Besides all this, we were frequently made ambassador of this most
illustrious Prince of everlasting memory, and were sent on the
most various affairs of state, now to the Holy See, now to the
Court of France, and again to various powers of the world, on
tedious embassies and in times of danger, always carrying with
us, however, that love of books which many waters could not
quench. For this like a delicious draught sweetened the
bitterness of our journeyings and after the perplexing
intricacies and troublesome difficulties of causes, and the all
but inextricable labyrinths of public affairs afforded us a
little breathing space to enjoy a balmier atmosphere.