comparandis libris fructuosissima ac pulcherrima omnium
negotiatione," Or. in Fun. Nic. Nic.); we can, consequently,
conceive what immense sums he must have received for manuscripts
of the best ancient Greek and Roman classics, when properly spelt,
correctly punctuated, and freed from errors.

His qualities, as enumerated by his friend, Bracciolini, in a most
enthusiastic Funeral Oration over his remains (Pog. Op. 273-4),
were such as to show, if there be no exaggeration in the
description of him, that he was as much a wonder as any of the
great Oracles of his age. His attainments were varied; his
information extensive; his judgment sound, and to be relied upon,
being given not for the mere sake of assent nor for flattery, but
for what he believed to be true; "he got into a considerable
sweat," says Bracciolini, "when he read Greek," ("in Graecis
literis plurimum insudavit"), but was enabled to range over every
department of literature in Latin, of which his knowledge was
critical and most masterly, for the same authority assures us "not
a word could be mentioned, the force and etymology of which he did
not know"--"nullum proferebatur verbum cujus vim et originem
ignoraret" in geography he stood without a rival; for, his memory,
being like a vice, retaining everything he read, even to names, he
knew the minutiae, of every country better than those who had been
residents in them; though he rarely practised the art, he was a
master of rhetoric; as a conversationist he held his company in
entranced silence from the wisdom of his remarks, the dulcet flow
of his words, and his transcendent memory bringing together from
all quarters, with appropriateness to every subject under
discussion, the valuable stock of his miscellaneous reading.
Nothing could be more natural than that such a wonderful instance