Poggio employed the leisure given him by the va cancy of the pontifical chair, in an expedition of the highest importance to the interests of literature. He had received information that many ancicnt manu scripts of classic authors were scattered in various monasteries, and other repositories, in the vicinity of Constance; and determined to rescue them from the hands of their ignorant possessors, who allowed them to remain buried in obscurity. In a visit to the convent of St Gallo, he had the happiness to discover a complete copy of Quintilian's works, which had hitherto appeared in a mutilated and im perfect state. lie found, at the same time, the three first books, and part of the fourth, of the Argonau tics of Valerius Flaccus, and Asconius Pcdeanus's comment on eight of Cicero's orations. "Some ideas," says Mr Roscoe, " may be formed of the cri tical state of these works, from the account that Poggio has left. Buried in the obscurity of a dark and lonely tower, covered with filth and rubbish, their destruction seemed inevitable." Of this happy discovery, Poggio gave immediate notice to his friend Leonardo Arctino, who, in a highly flatter ing letter, full of the most extravagant expressions of joy, admonishes him to proceed with fresh dili gence in his researches. In a monastery of the monks of Clugny, in the town of Langres, he found a copy of Cicero's oration for Czecina, which he transcri bed for the use of his Italian friends. In the course of subsequent journies through France and Germany, he discovered several other orations of Cicero, the loss of which had long been deplored by the learned. These orations were De Lege rigrarm contra Rul lum fiber primu•—ejusdem Tiber seeundus ; Contra legem dgrariam ad populum ; In L. Pisoncm. To a copy of these orations, preserved in the abbey of Santa Maria, at Florence, is affixed a memorandum, which records the fact of their having been discover ed by Poggio. This memorandum, indeed, makes mention of seven orations which he had found in his researches ; and, in the catalogue prefixed to the ma nuscript, besides the works already mentioned, he is allowed the credit of discovering the oration pro C. Rabirio Piscine; pro C. Rabirio perduellionis reo ; and pro Rosciu CD711XdO. At that time only eight of the comedies of Plautus were known to the classical stu dent. The first complete copy' of that author was brought to light by Nicholas of Treves, whom Pog gio employed to continue the researches in the Ger man monasteries. It was purchased from Nicholas by the cardinal Giordano Orsini, who refused to per mit Poggio, or indeed any of the literati, to tran scribe it. On the warm interference of Loronzc de Medici, the cardinal was, at length, induced to en trust the volume to Nice°lo Nice°II, who, after copy ing it, returned it to the cardinal, and thus it came into the general possession of the learned. In the ar chives of the monastery of Monte Passino, Poggio found a copy of Julius Frontinus de Aqueductis, and eight books of a treatise on the mathematics, by Fir micus. From Cologne, be procured the fifteenth book of Petronius Arbiter, a small fragment of which he had before discovered in Britain. With the assist ance of Bartolomeo de Montepulciano, he discover ed the exquisite poem of Lucretius, the poem of Si lius Italieus, Lactantius's treatise, De Ira Dei, et Wei° honanis, Vegetius De Re Militari; Nonius Marcellus, Ammianus Marcellinus, and Tertullian. To his sagacity and diligence in these important re searches, we owe likewise the entire works of Cola. mella, the preservation of Calpurnius's Bucolic, and the recovery of the works of Manilius, Lucius Sep timius, Caper, Eutychius, and Probus.
Poggio remained for some time at Constance, in expectation of preferment in the Roman chancery. It does not appear that he was employed by the new pontiff, Martin V., though he travelled in his suit to Mantua. Here he quitted the Roman court, probably in disgust, with a determination to spend some time in England, whither he had been invited by Beaufort, bishop of Winchester. The coldness of that prelate, however, and the savage manners of the inhabitants, then sunk in the grossest barbarism, rendered hint extremely dissatisfied with his situa tion, and impatient to return to his native land. While thus chagrined with disappointment, he recei ved an invitation to become secretary to the Roman pontiff, an office which the unpleasantness of his situ ation in England induced him, though somewhat reluctantly, to accept. For some time after his return to Rome, the pontifical court was agitated and alarmed by home dissensions, and foreign wars. An interval of peace at length succeeded, which Poggio employed in the assiduous prosecution of his studies.
Ilk first literary production, entitled A Dialogue on Avarice, appeared in 1429, and met with considerable approbation. The severe censures, however, which it contained against a new order of Franciscan friars, called Fratres Obscrvantix, who were as popular with the vulgar for their empty and wild harangues, as they were despised and hated by all sensible peo ple for their ignorance and their vices, provoked the keen indignation of the fraternity Poggio was not to be daunted by their menaces, or silenced by their expostulations. He retained, to his latest breath, his detestation of these knavish impostors ; and in a Dia logue on Hynocricy, published when he had declined far into the vale of years, he again attacks them with the most sarcastic wit, and with the shrewdest observa tions on the human character. The freedom with which he censures the vices, not of individuals merely, hut of whole classes of religious hypocrites, indicates a boldness of spirit, and a warmth of virtuous feel ing, in the highest degree creditable to his character. It is on account of this freedom, that the Italian edi tors of his works have suppressed the Dialogue on Hypocrisy, which Protestants have preserved and circulated with industrious zeal.
Soon after Eugenius IV. succeeded to the papal throne, a contest took place between him and the council of Basil, during the whole progress of which Poggio continued firm to the interests of the pontiff. The contest terminated in the deposition of Euge nius, and his flight to Florence ; and Poggio, in at tempting to accompany nim, fell into the hands of his enemies, who detained him for a considerable time in captivity. Finding the exertions of his friends insufficient to procure his release, he, at length, pur chased his freedom by a ransom, which the narrow ness of his circumstances rendered extremely oppres sive ; and immediately on his enlargement he con tinued his route to Florence. On his arrival in that city, he found it agitated by violent factions. Cos mu de Medicis, who was the idol and the patron of the people, had been banished by the aristocracy ; and the literati, according to their views and connections, espoused the quarrels of the different parties, and waged against each other a war of rancorous invec tive. One of the most violent of these literary com batants was Filelfo, an avowed enemy of the house of Mcdicis. Poggio, who had always been warmly patronised by Cosmu, grappled with this fierce ad versary, and the contest was long maintained, not with the refined and pointed satire which might have been expected from men of ingenuity and learning, but by the forging of atrocious falsehoods and ca lumnies, equally disgraceful to themselves and to their cause. Poggio, tired at length of the bustle and contention of public life, determined to spend the rest of his clays in retirement ; and, with this view, purchased a villa in the pleasant district of Valdarno in Tuscany. The Tuscan government, as a mark of respect to so distinguished a character, who enjoyed no opportunities of amassing much wealth, passed a pub lic act, exempting him and his family from the pay ment of all public taxes. To compensate for the want of magnificence, Poggio was anxious to dignify his humble mansion, by the taste displayed in its de corations. His library was particularly valuable ; and he had a small but exquisite collection of statues, disposed in such a manner, as to constitute a princi pal ornament of his garden, and the appropriate fur niture of an apartment, which he intended to dedicate to literary conversations. An enthusiastic admira tion of ancient sculpture had prompted him to search out its relics with no less ardour, than he displayed in rescuing from obscurity the precious remains of Greek and Roman literature. He had diligently surveyed the ruins of ancient Rome ; and has inserted, in the preface to his dialogue De Varietate Fortuna, a catalogue of the relics of Roman Architecture, which Mr Gibbon has thought worthy of being introduced into his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Nor were his researches confined to the precincts of Rome. Ferrata, 'l'usculum, Ferentinum, Alba, Ar pinum, Alatrinum, and Tiburtum, were ransacked by him for the recovery of monuments of ancient sculpture; and by means of friends, his inquiries were extended to the various countries of Greece. While engaged in these researches, he was request ed by a friend to give his opinion whether Cxsar or Scipio Africanus were the greater man. In compli ance with this request, he drew up an elaborate com parison between these two eminent men, and gave his decision in favour of Scipio.