BOOK THE SECOND.

BRACCIOLINI.


Si per se virtus sine fortuna ponderanda sit, dubito an hunc
primum omnium ponam.
CORNELIUS NEPOS. _Thrasybulus._




CHAPTER I.

BRACCIOLINI IN ROME.


I. His genius and the greatness of his age.--II. His qualifications.
--III. His early career.--IV. The character of Niccolo Niccoli, who
abetted him in the forgery.--V. Bracciolini's descriptive writing
of the Burning of Jerome of Prague compared with the descriptive
writing of the Sham Sea Fight in the Twelfth Book of the Annals.

Though I have dwelt on the harshness of style and manner, and the
occasional inaccuracies in grammar and language of the author of
the Annals, it must not be supposed that I fail to appreciate his