(John), otherwise called John de Ravenna, from the place of his birth, was born in the year 1352, of a family distinguished neither by riches nor nobility. His father, however, committed him to the care of Donatus the grammarian, an intimate friend of Petrarch, who at that time taught the Latin tongue with great applause at Venice. Donatus thought he discovered such happy dispositions in young Malphaghino, that he recommended him to Petrarch, not only as an excellent assistant to facilitate his labours, by reading or transcribing for him, but as a youth of the most promising talents, and worthy of being formed under the inspection of the greatest man of the fourteenth century.

It appears from some of Petrarch's letters, for it is from these chiefly we can obtain information relating to John de Ravenna, that he fully answered the expectations formed of him; and that he even gained the favour and affection of his patron so much, that he loved him and treated him as if he had been his own son. In a letter to Joha de Certaldo (a), Petrarch highly extols him, not only for his genius and talents, but also for his prudent and virtuous conduct. "He possesses (says he) what is very rare in our times, a great turn for poetry, and a noble desire to become acquainted with every useful and ornamental part of knowledge. He is favoured by the Muses, and already attempts versification of his own; from which one can foretell, that, if his life be spared, and if he goes on as hitherto, something great may be expected from him."

Not long, however, after this panegyric was written, young Malphaghino conceived an insuperable desire to see the world; and, notwithstanding all Petrarch's remonstrances, persisted in his resolution of quitting him. Petrarch's paternal care and regard for his pupil appear, on this occasion, in the most favourable light, as may be seen in his letters to Donatus; and his whole behaviour, though the young man insisted on leaving him, without assigning a sufficient reason for his precipitate and ungrateful conduct, does as much honour to his head as to his heart.

The precipitation with which John de Ravenna carried his plan into execution was not likely to make it answer his expectations. He departed without taking with him letters of recommendation which Petrarch offered him to his friends. He, however, pursued his journey over the Appenines, amidst continual rain, giving out that he had been dismissed by Petrarch; but, though he experienced from many a compassion to which he was not entitled by his conduct, he now began to awaken from his dream. He proceeded therefore to

(a) Better known under the name of Boccaccio or Boccace. Certaldo was the place of his birth. Pisa, in order to procure a vessel to carry him back towards Pavia; but being disappointed, while his money waited as much as his patience decreased, he suddenly resolved to travel back across the Apennines. When he descended into the Ligurian plains, he attempted to wade through a river in the district of Parma, which was much swollen by the rains; and being carried by the force of the stream into a whirlpool, he would have lost his life, had he not been saved by some people who were accidentally passing that way. After escaping this danger, he arrived, penniless and famished, at the house of his former patron, who happened then not to be at home; but he was received and kindly entertained by his servants till their master returned.

Petrarch, by his intrigues and paternal admonitions, retained the young man at his house for about a year, and prevented him from engaging in any more romantic adventures; but, at the end of that period, his desire for rambling again returned; and as Petrarch found that all attempts to check him would be fruitless, he gave him letters of recommendation to two of his friends, Hugo de St Severino and Franciscus Brunus, at Rome. To the former of these, Petrarch says, "This youth of rare talents, but still a youth, after proposing to himself various plans, has at length embraced the noblest; and as he once travelled, he is now desirous of doing so again, in order to gratify his thirst of knowledge. He has, in particular, a strong inclination for the Greek language; and entertains a wish which Cato first conceived in his old age. This wish I have endeavoured for some years to subdue; sometimes by intrigues, at other times by admonition; sometimes by representing how much he is still deficient in the Roman language; and sometimes by laying before him the difficulties which must attend him in his journey, especially as he once before left me, and by want was obliged to return. As long as that unfortunate excursion was fresh in his memory he remained quiet, and gave me hopes that his restless spirit could be overcome and restrained. But now, since the remembrance of his misfortunes is almost obliterated, he again sighs after the world; and can be retained neither by force nor persuasion. Excited by a desire which betrays more ardour than prudence, he is resolved to leave his country, friends, and relations, his aged father, and me whom he loved as a father, and whose company he preferred to a residence at home, and to hasten to you whom he knows only by name. This precipitation even has an appearance of prudence. The young man first wished to visit Constantinople; but when I told him that Greece, at present, is as poor as it was formerly rich in learning, he gave credit to my assertion, and at any rate altered his plans, which he could not carry into execution. He is now desirous of traversing Calabria, and the whole coast of Italy, distinguished formerly by the name of Magna Graecia, because I once told him that there were in that quarter several men well skilled in the Greek language, particularly a monk, Barlaam, and one Leo, or Leontius, with whom I was intimately acquainted, and of whom the first had been some time my scholar. In consequence of this proposal, he begged me to give him a recommendatory letter to you, as you have considerable influence in that part of the country. This request I granted, in hopes that the young man, by his genius and talents, will afford you satisfaction equal to the service which you may render to him." In his letter to Brunus, Petrarch expresses himself as follows: "He is a young man who wishes to see the world as I formerly did; but I never reflect on it without horror. He is desirous of seeing Rome; and this desire I cannot condemn, as I myself have so often visited that city, and could still revisit it with pleasure. I suspect, however, that he will venture on a more extensive ocean, and that he imagines to find a fortune where he will, perhaps, meet with a shipwreck. At any rate, he is desirous, he says, of putting his fortune to a trial. I wish it may be favourable; should it be adverse, he is still at liberty to return to my peaceful, though small, haven; for I hang out a light, during the day as well as the night, to guide those who quit me through youthful folly, and to enable them to find their way back. The ardour by which he is impelled must not be ascribed too much to him as to his age, and is in itself commendable. If I am not much deceived, the young man loves me and virtue in general. He is unsteady, but modest; and deserves that all good men should contribute to his prosperity as far as they can."

From the letters of Petrarch, there is reason to believe, that John de Ravenna lived with him only about three years in all; and that he had not attained to the full age of manhood when he left him. It appears also, for this circumstance is very obscure, that after he quitted him, he wandered about a considerable time before he was so fortunate as to meet with a protector and patron, at whose house, as he wrote to Petrarch, he at last found a permanent asylum. How long he remained with his patron, whom some believe to have been Cardinal Philip, and what happened to him till the death of Petrarch in 1374, and for some years after, is unknown. The literary monuments of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries say nothing farther of him till his appearance at Padua; where, according to the testimony of Sicco (a), one of the most celebrated of his scholars, he not only taught the Roman Eloquence, but also the science of moral philosophy, with such success and applause, and improved his scholars so much by his life and example, that, according to universal opinion, he far excelled all the professors of those sciences who had ever before appeared. That he was here of considerable service in reviving the study of the Latin language, and of the works of the ancient Romans, was acknowledged by all his scholars, and is confirmed by the following testimony of Blondus (c).

"About the same period, Ravenna produced that learned

(a) Adolescens tum ego poetas, et instituta Tullii audiebam. Legebat tune hac in civitate Padua, literarum nutrice, Johannes Ravennas vir et sanctimonia morum, et studio ito excellens, atque si potest fine invidia, dicit eceris, qui magistris artis hujus in terra Italia ulquam degent et doctissimi haberentur, quantum recordari vider, omnium judicio praeferebatur. Hoc namque a praepotente non eloquentia modo, quam ex ordine legerit, sed mores etiam, ac quaedam bene honesteque vivendi ratio cum doctrina tum exemplis discebat.—Sicco Polentinus, Apis Melius, l. c. p. 139.

(c) Blondi Flavi Forliviensis Italia illustrata. Bas. 1559. fol. p. 346. Malphas learned grammarian and rhetorician Johannes, of whom Leonardus Aretinus used to say, that he first introduced into Italy, after a long period of barbarism, the study of the Latin language and eloquence, now so flourishing; a circumstance which deserves to be enlarged on in the present work. Those well acquainted with Roman literature know, that after the periods of Ambrose, Jerom, and Augustine, there were none, or very few, who wrote with any elegance, unless we add to these good writers, St Gregory, the venerable Bede, and St Bernard. Francis Petrarcha was the first who, with much genius, and still greater care, recalled from the dust the true art of poetry and of eloquence. He did not attain to the flowers of Cicero's eloquence, with which many are adorned in the present century; but this was owing rather to a want of books than of talents. Though he boasted of having found at Vercelli Cicero's letters to Lentulus, he was unacquainted with the books of that great Roman De Oratore, Quintilian's Institutes, the Orator, the Brutus, and other writings of Cicero. John de Ravenna was known to Petrarch both in his youth and in his old age. He was not more conversant with the ancients than Petrarch; and, as far as I know, left no works behind him. By his excellent genius, however, and, as Leonardus Aretinus says, by the particular dispensation of God, he was the preceptor of this Leonardus, of Petrus Paulus Vergerius, of Ameboanus de Padua, of Robert Roffi, of James Angeli of Florence, of Poggius and Guarino of Verona, of Victorinus, Sicco, and other men of less note, whom he incited to the study of better knowledge, and to imitate Cicero, if he could not form them or instruct them completely.

About the same time, Manuel Chrysoforos, a man as virtuous as learned, came from Constantinople to Italy, and instructed in the Greek language, partly at Venice and partly at Florence and Rome, all the before mentioned scholars of John de Ravenna. After he had continued this instruction for some years, those unacquainted with the Greek language, and the ancient Greek writers, were considered in Italy as more ignorant than those unacquainted with the Latin. A great many young men and youths were inflamed with an enthusiastic desire for the works of the ancient Greeks and Romans. At the time of the council of Constance, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, many of my countrymen endeavoured, by searching the neighbouring cities and convents, to discover some of the Roman manuscripts which had been lost. Poggius first discovered a complete copy of Quintilian, which was soon followed by the letters of Cicero to Atticus. As our youth applied to the study of these works with the utmost diligence, that celebrated grammarian and rhetorician Catparinus de Bergamo, opened a school at Venice, superior to the former, and in which young persons were encouraged to study the ancient languages and writers. About the same time flourished Petrus Paulus Vergerius, Leonardus Aretinus, Robert Roffi, James Angeli, Poggius, and Nicolaus de Medici, whom Aretin had long instructed. Guarinus also had begun to instruct many at Venice, and Victorinus at Mantua, when Philip III. Duke of Milan, recalled Catparinus as his subject, from Venice to Padua and Milan. The increasing study of ancient literature was much promoted by Gerard Landriano bishop of Lodi, discovering under some ruins an old copy of Cicero, written in characters scarcely legible, which, among other rhetorical writings of that great Roman, contained the whole books De Oratore, with his Brutus and Orator. This saved Catparinus the trouble of supplying the books of Cicero De Oratore, as he had attempted to supply the works of Quintilian. As no one was found in all Milan who could read this old manuscript of Cicero, an ingenious young man of Verona, named Cafmus, was so fortunate as first to transcribe the books De Oratore, and to fill all Italy with copies of a work which was universally sought for with the utmost avidity. I myself, in my youth, when I went to Milan on the business of my native city, transcribed, with as much ardour as speed, the Brutus of Cicero, and sent copies of my transcription to Guarinus at Verona, and to Leonardus Justiniani at Venice; by which means this work was soon dispersed all over Italy. By these new works eloquence acquired new fire; and hence it happens, that in our age people speak and write better than in the time of Petrarch. The study of the Greek language, besides the abundance of new and useful knowledge which it disclosed, was attended with this great advantage, that many attempted to translate Greek works into Latin, and thereby improved their style much more than they could have done without that practice. After this period, schools for teaching the ancient languages increased in Italy, and flourished more and more. Most cities had schools of this kind; and it gives one pleasure to observe, that the scholars excelled their masters, not only when they left them, but even while they were under their tuition. Of the scholars of John de Ravenna, two of the oldest, Guarinus and Victorinus, the former at Venice, and the latter at Mantua, Verona, Florence, and Ferrara, instructed an immense number of pupils; and among these, the Princes of Ferrara and Mantua. George of Trebionde, when he lectured at Rome, had for his auditors, besides Italians, many French, Spaniards, and Germans, among whom sometimes there were men of rank and eminence. Franciscus Philotheus, who had been taught at Constantinople by Chrysoforos himself, instructed a great many young men and youths in the Greek and Latin languages at Venice, Florence, Siena, Bologna, and, last of all, at Milan." In the above quotation, the share which John de Ravenna had in reviving and diffusing a knowledge, not only of the Roman, but also of the Grecian literature, is clearly represented; that no farther testimony is necessary to establish his claim to celebrity.

After John de Ravenna had taught at Padua, he removed for the like purpose to Florence; where, as appears, he instructed young people for some time, without being expressly invited by the government, and without being publicly paid for his labours. In the beginning of his residence at Florence, he seems to have been recommended by Colucius to the learned Charles de Malateilla. "There lives here at present (says Colucius, in one of his letters) a teacher of great merit, John de Ravenna.—He is (continues he) of mature age; irreproachable in his manners, and so disposed in general, that if you receive him, as I hope and wish, among the number of your intimate friends, you will find him an agreeable and incomparable afflatus to you in your labours and studies. What can be more desirable to you than to possess a man who will lubricate and labour for you? and who, in a short time, can communicate to you what you could not obtain by your own..." whether you will find his like in all Italy; and I therefore wish, that, if you confide in my judgment, you will receive John de Ravenna in the room of your late learned friend James de Alegretti." It is not known whether John de Ravenna went to reside with Malatesta or not. It is, however, certain, that the former, in 1397 (the same year in which Manuel Chryfoloras came to Florence), was invited thither by the magistrates of that city, with the promise of an annual salary, to instruct young people in the Roman language and eloquence; that John de Ravenna, at the period when he entered into this honourable engagement, was 45 years of age; and that the scholars of John de Ravenna were, at the same time, scholars of Chryfoloras. Salarius Coluccius, in all probability, was the cause of this invitation, as he was acquainted with the services of John de Ravenna, and knew how to appreciate them. "We know (says he, in one of his letters to John de Ravenna), and all who respect you know also, that none of the moderns, or even ancients, approached so near to Cicero as you; and that to the most wonderful beauty and powers of speech, you join the deepest knowledge."

John de Ravenna, like Chryfoloras, and most of the teachers of the Greek and Roman languages in the beginning of the fifteenth century, was, no doubt, engaged at first only for a few years; when these were elapsed, the engagement was renewed, perhaps for the last time, in 1412, and he was bound, besides teaching the Roman eloquence, to read publicly, and explain in the cathedral, on festivals, the poems of Dante. John de Ravenna did not long survive the above renewal of his engagement; for an anonymous writer, who, in 1420, finished "A Guide to Letter-writing, according to the Principles of John de Ravenna," speaks of his preceptor as of a man not then in existence.