entertainments which were held there. After staying several months at Rome he went to Venice, and here made the valuable acquaintance of the great printer, Aldus Manutius Romanus, who was then engaged in bringing out the editiones principes of some of the most important Greek classics, by which he earned the gratitude of scholars, and who afterwards printed some of Linacre's own works.[1] Aldus appears to have treated the English scholar with great kindness, which is acknowledged as a personal favour by his friend Grocyn, in a letter to Aldus, which must have been written shortly after Linacre's return from Italy.[2] This letter was prefixed by Aldus to Linacre's translation of Proclus "On the Sphere," printed by him in the year 1499. The book is dedicated to Albertus Pius, Prince of Carpi, and in his dedication Aldus speaks highly of Linacre's scholarship, saying that he "has translated this work with elegance and learning." He also implies that an intimate friendship existed between Linacre and the Prince of Carpi on which account the work, he says, will be the more welcome to his patron. The Aldine editio princeps of Aristotle likewise contains an interesting allusion to Linacre, which seems to shew that he had something to do with the editing or correcting of that great work. This second volume, to which the dedication is prefixed, is dated February, 1497, while the first volume is dated in 1495, which is quite reconcileable with the time when Linacre is believed to have been in Venice.[3]
From Venice he went to Padua, then celebrated for its schools of medicine. Here he is said to have taken the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and to have greatly distinguished himself in the disputations that were held in the schools. The tradition of
- ↑ Aldus, in a dedication to M. Musurus, a learned Greek, prefixed to an edition of Statius, printed by him, speaks of the residence of many strangers in Italy at that time, and says "Habemus Grocinum Sacerdoteni and Thomam Linacrum (Medicum) Britannos; viros undecunque doctissimos, qui diu Florentiæ sub Demetrio Chalcondyla, Græcis literis incubuerunt," (Lives of Leland, Hearne and Wood, Oxford, 1772, vol. I. p. 7.)
- ↑ Payne's Introduction as before, p. 9.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 11.
