A BOOK OF THE MOMENT

SOME MEDIAEVAL MEMOIRS

COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE

New York. Times.] The Vespasiano Methoirs. Lives of Illustrioug Men of the Fifteenth Century. By Vespaeiano da Bisticci, Bookseller. Now first Translated. into English by W. G. and E. Waters. London. (Routledge and Sons. 21s. net.) HERE is a book which will be welcome to all true lovers of good literature and especially of biography. The translators Mr. and Mrs. Waters, have done their part admirably, and

so have the publishers, Messrs. Routledge and Sons. For their enterprise they deserve the gratitude of the English- reading public.

Though the discerning will like the Memoirs and the wonder- ful picture it gives us incidentally of the garrulous_ old book- seller, Vespasiano da Bisticci, those who have not the true book-instinct may turn up their noses and say that the book is mediaeval twaddle, not worth translating or publishing.

Those who take that line will, superficially, have a good deal to say'in defence of their position. If they assert that the learned bookseller in *question has no great distirietion of style or mind, no sense of proportion, and will maunder on as long about some old Florentine friend or customer as he will about a Pope or an Emperor, they cannot be directly contradicted.

Unquestionably a " quick lunch " study of the book makes the excellent Vespasiano appear a prize bore. Dogberry said A himself with fatuous self-complacency, " I can be as tedious as a king." So too Vespasiano. His is essentially a chronicle of mediaeval small beer. His aneedotes often appear quite pointless,•and his mind is habitually set on little• matters and trifling occurrences. Yet one reads on, and in the end finds that the Italian's book is a real contribution to Literature • and History. No one who wants to envisage the most attractive portion of the fifteenth century can afford to neglect it. The admirably selected and repro-

duced pictupes, many of them well known to lovers of Italian art, get a fresh significance and interest from the chattering little biographies to which they are attached, and from " the foolish 'face -of praise " with which he sets down

anecdotes of " Kings and Cardinals I have known." Let me take a quotation to prove my contention—one chosen, not for its brilliancy, but for its garrulous ineptitude. Here is an account under the heading of " Archbishops and Bishops," of Saint Bernardino :—

" After much communing he decided to enter the Order o S. Francis, and began at once to perfect himself in the spiritua life and took the cowl. He saw that the life of the preaching friar was tho 'greatest help to salvation, and this ho adopted, and after practice in the same he became a marvellous preacher on account of his voice, his methods, his detestation of vice and his exhortations to virtue. In no other man was there to be found such a wonderful concourse of talents ; it would appear that these gifts did not all come by the way of nature, but that Almighty God had specially conferred them. He was skilled in everything, but more particu- larly in preaching, by which he spread light through the whole world, which was at this time blinded and darkened, especially Italy, where all rules of righteous life had been abandoned and where men no longer recognised God. So completely were they submerged and buried in abominable and accursed vices, to which they had become so inured that they feared neither God nor tho honour of the world. Accursed blindness Everything had come to such a pass that no one censured these wicked and unbounded vices on account of their universal prevalence."

Opposite the page from which I have torn the pious com- mendation of the great preacher is a reproduction of a panel in his monument. It shows us the preacher in a decorative setting—apparently flowering artichokes—out of which beam two fascinating girl angels, who are listening with a modified rapture to the saint's eloquence.

It must not be supposed that all the twaddle is as twaddly as the foregoing extract. Sometimes we get him in a distinctly better vein. For example, he gives a wonderful account of the magnificent vestments worn when Pope Bugenius IV entertained the visiting " Emperor of the Greeks " In the Church of -Santa Maria del Fiore—the Cathe- dral of Florence

Opposite to the Pope's seat, on the other side, was a chair covered with a silken cloth on which sat-the Emperor, clad in a ric.■, robe_ f damask brocade and a cap in the Greek fashion, on the tor,of which was a magnificent jewel. He was a very handsome mail with a beard of the Greek cut. Round about his chair were posti the many gentlemen of his retinue, chid in the richest silken robe. made in Greek fashion ; their attire being most stately, as was that of the prelates and of the laymen also. It was a very wonderful thing to behold this goodly ceremony : the reading of the-Gospel in both the Greek and Latin tongues as is done on Easter eve in Rome. I will not pass on without a word of special praise of the Greeks. For the last fifteen hundred years and more they have not altered the style of their dress ; their Clothes are of the same fashion now as they were in the time indicated. This may be seen in Greece in a place called the Fields of Philippi, where were found many records in marble in which may be seen men clothed in the manlier still used by the Greeks."

From clothes-the anecdotal bookseller wanders off into an enticingly quaint story of -the Pope's casual habits in regard to money. He (the Pope) " never kept store of money in his house ; as he got it he spent it quickly."- One day " someone" brought him four or five thousand florins. The Pope bade a certain chamber attendant, Bartolomeo Rovarello, to put the money aside. •" Being busy at the time, Rovarello put the money under the mattress of the Pope's bed, where it re- mained several days." Soon after this receipt of good gold another man came and asked the Pope for financial help. The Pope remembered the bag of money brought by " someone and asked for it._ Bartolomeo, knowing that the Pope would give it all to the newcomer, tried to avoid producing it ; but the Pope insisted, and out .it came from under, the mattress. TIIte_Pope " reproached him " that he had concealed this thing in the bed, as if it were something of great value, and bade him for the future make no more such mistakes, " by way of showing him that too much store should not be set oumoney." What the Pope said to the Papal housemaid or valet de chambre for not having noticed it when she or he made the bed is not recorded !

In the life of the same Pope we find another amusing passage Of domestic interest. " He slept in a shirt of coarse serge and made a rule that two attendants should always watch in his chamber, changing duty every threehours."_ Whenever he woke he could find quite close to his bed a selection of books. All he had to do was to call to his watchers to bring him in a pillow, a volume and two lighted candles. He would then read for an hour or two, according to his fancy. When he had had enough literature he summoned the attendants again to take away the book and the lights. And then comes the irrelevant but significant comment " He had such dignity of presence that those who had to do with hit-6 were often reluctant- to address him." The biography ends with a futile, and yet rather

touching, account of the Pope's death. His last words, addressed to himself, were :—

" 0 Gabriello (for this was his name) how much better it would have been fdr the health of thy soul if thou had'st never been Pope nor Cardinal, but had'st died a friar ! Wretched are we all, that we only know ourselves when we are come to our end." - I have no space to notice some of the short biographies at the end of the book, where Vespasiano writes not only-about his personal acquaintances, but his equals and his cronies. Here he also deals with a number of women. They are rather " preachy " performances, as might have been expected from the old pedant ; but occasionally there are touches of realism. For example, we hear of Alessandra de' Bardi that " She was so tall that she rarely wore street shoes." .-His ideals for ladies are almost exactly those noted by Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu, when she put Lyttelton's advice to a

daughter into a couplet :— ' . .

" Be chaste in dress and frugal in your diet.

In short, my dearie, kiss me and-be quiet"-

Vespasiano's British customers seem to have bought books from him by the shipload. For instance Tiptoft (Duct di Worcestri) was a great patron. It was of Tiptoft that Fuller used the noble phrase when recording his execution : " Then did the axe at one blow cut 'Off more learning in England than was' left in the heads of all the surviving nobility."

• 'J..Sif.'LOE STRACHEY.