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OpenCV: Computer Vision
Projects with Python

Get savvy with OpenCV and actualize

cool computer vision applications

A course in three modules

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
OpenCV: Computer Vision Projects with Python

Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this course may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in
critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this course to ensure the accuracy
of the information presented. However, the information contained in this course
is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt
Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages
caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this course.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the
companies and products mentioned in this course by the appropriate use of capitals.
However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Published on: October 2016

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78712-549-0
www.packtpub.com
 Credits

Authors Content Development Editor

Joseph Howse Mayur Pawanikar
Prateek Joshi
Michael Beyeler Production Coordinator
Nilesh Mohite

Reviewers
David Millán Escrivá
Abid K.
Will Brennan
Gabriel Garrido Calvo
Pavan Kumar Pavagada Nagaraja
Marvin Smith
Jia-Shen Boon
Florian LE BOURDAIS
Steve Goldsmith
Rahul Kavi
Scott Lobdell
Vipul Sharma
 Preface
OpenCV is an open-source, cross-platform library that provides building blocks
for computer vision experiments and applications. It provides high-level interfaces
for capturing, processing, and presenting image data. For example, it abstracts
details about camera hardware and array allocation. OpenCV is widely used in
both academia and industry. Today, computer vision can reach consumers in many
contexts via webcams, camera phones, and gaming sensors such as the Kinect.
For better or worse, people love to be on camera, and as developers, we face a
demand for applications that capture images, change their appearance, and extract
information from them. OpenCV's Python bindings can help us explore solutions to
these requirements in a high-level language and in a standardized data format that is
interoperable with scientific libraries such as NumPy and SciPy.

Computer vision is found everywhere in modern technology. OpenCV for Python

enables us to run computer vision algorithms in real time. With the advent of
powerful machines, we are getting more processing power to work with. Using this
technology, we can seamlessly integrate our computer vision applications into the
cloud. Web developers can develop complex applications without having to reinvent
the wheel.

This course is specifically designed to teach the following topics. First, we will
learn how to get started with OpenCV and OpenCV 3's Python API, and develop
a computer vision application that tracks body parts. Then, we will build amazing
intermediate-level computer vision applications such as making an object disappear
from an image, identifying different shapes, reconstructing a 3D map from images,
and building an augmented reality application. Finally, we'll move to more advanced
projects such as hand gesture recognition, tracking visually salient objects, as well as
recognizing traffic signs and emotions on faces using support vector machines and
multi-layer perceptron respectively.

[i]
Preface

What this learning path covers

Module 1, OpenCV Computer Vision with Python, in this module you can have a
development environment that links Python, OpenCV, depth camera libraries
(OpenNI, SensorKinect), and general-purpose scientific libraries (NumPy, SciPy).

Module 2, OpenCV with Python By Example, this module covers various examples at
different levels, teaching you about the different functions of OpenCV, and their
actual implementations.

Module 3, OpenCV with Python Blueprints, this module intends to give the tools,
knowledge, and skills you need to be OpenCV experts and this newly gained
experience will allow you to develop your own advanced computer vision
applications.

What you need for this learning path

This course provides setup instructions for all the relevant software, including package
managers, build tools, Python, NumPy, SciPy, OpenCV, OpenNI, and SensorKinect.
The setup instructions are tailored for Windows XP or later versions, Mac OS 10.6
(Snow Leopard) or later versions, and Ubuntu 12.04 or later versions. Other Unix-like
operating systems should work too if you are willing to do your own tailoring of the
setup steps. You need a webcam for the projects described in the course. For additional
features, some variants of the project use a second webcam or even an OpenNI-
compatible depth camera such as Microsoft Kinect or Asus Xtion PRO.

The hardware requirement being a webcam (or camera device), except for Chapter
2, Hand Gesture Recognition Using a Kinect Depth Sensor , of the 3rd Module which
instead requires access to a Microsoft Kinect 3D Sensor or an Asus Xtion.

The course contains projects with the following requirements.

All projects can run on any of Windows, Mac, or Linux, and they require the
following software packages:

• OpenCV 2.4.9 or later: Recent 32-bit and 64-bit versions as well as

installation instructions are available at http://opencv.org/downloads.
html. Platform-specific installation instructions can be found at http://
docs.opencv.org/doc/tutorials/introduction/table_of_content_
introduction/table_of_content_introduction.html.
• Python 2.7 or later: Recent 32-bit and 64-bit installers are available at
https://www.python.org/downloads. The installation instructions can be
found at https://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/Download.

[ ii ]
 Preface

• NumPy 1.9.2 or later: This package for scientific computing officially comes
in 32-bit format only, and can be obtained from http://www.scipy.org/
scipylib/download.html. The installation instructions can be found at
http://www.scipy.org/scipylib/building/index.html#building.

wxPython 2.8 or later: This GUI programming toolkit can be obtained from
http://www.wxpython.org/download.php. Its installation instructions are given
at http://wxpython.org/builddoc.php.

In addition, some chapters require the following free Python modules:

• SciPy 0.16.0 or later: This scientific Python library officially comes in 32-
bit only, and can be obtained from http://www.scipy.org/scipylib/
download.html. The installation instructions can be found at http://www.
scipy.org/scipylib/building/index.html#building.
• matplotlib 1.4.3 or later: This 2D plotting library can be obtained from
http://matplotlib.org/downloads.html. Its installation instructions
can be found by going http://matplotlib.org/faq/installing_faq.
html#how-to-install.
• libfreenect 0.5.2 or later: The libfreenect module by the OpenKinect project
(http://www.openkinect.org) provides drivers and libraries for the
Microsoft Kinect hardware, and can be obtained from https://github.
com/OpenKinect/libfreenect. Its installation instructions can be found at
http://openkinect.org/wiki/Getting_Started.

Furthermore, the use of iPython (http://ipython.org/install.html) is highly

recommended as it provides a flexible, interactive console interface.

Finally, if you are looking for help or get stuck along the way, you can go for several
websites that provide excellent help, documentation, and tutorials:

• The official OpenCV API reference, user guide, and tutorials:

http://docs.opencv.org

The official OpenCV forum: http://www.answers.opencv.org/questions

OpenCV-Python tutorials by Alexander Mordvintsev and Abid Rahman K:

http://opencv-python-tutroals.readthedocs.org/en/latest

[ iii ]
Preface

Who this learning path is for

This Learning Path is for someone who has a working knowledge of Python and
wants to try out OpenCV. This Learning Path will take you from a beginner to an
expert in computer vision applications using OpenCV.

OpenCV's applications are humongous and this Learning Path is the best resource to
get yourself acquainted thoroughly with OpenCV.

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[ iv ]
 Preface

6. Choose from the drop-down menu where you purchased this course from.
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[v]
Preface

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[ vi ]
Module 1: OpenCV Computer Vision with Python 1
Chapter 1: Setting up OpenCV 3
Choosing and using the right setup tools 4
Running samples 16
Finding documentation, help, and updates 17
Summary 18
Chapter 2: Handling Files, Cameras, and GUIs 19
Basic I/O scripts 19
Project concept 26
An object-oriented design 27
Summary 36
Chapter 3: Filtering Images 37
Creating modules 37
Channel mixing – seeing in Technicolor 38
Curves – bending color space 42
Highlighting edges 51
Custom kernels – getting convoluted 52
Modifying the application 55
Summary 56
Chapter 4: Tracking Faces with Haar Cascades 57
Conceptualizing Haar cascades 58
Getting Haar cascade data 59
Creating modules 60
Defining a face as a hierarchy of rectangles 60
Tracing, cutting, and pasting rectangles 61
Adding more utility functions 63
Tracking faces 64

[i]
Table of Contents

Modifying the application 69

Summary 74
Chapter 5: Detecting Foreground/Background Regions
and Depth 75
Creating modules 75
Capturing frames from a depth camera 76
Creating a mask from a disparity map 79
Masking a copy operation 80
Modifying the application 82
Summary 84
Appendix A: Integrating with Pygame 85
Installing Pygame 85
Documentation and tutorials 86
Subclassing managers.WindowManager 86
Modifying the application 88
Further uses of Pygame 88
Summary 89
Appendix B: Generating Haar Cascades for Custom Targets 91
Gathering positive and negative training images 91
Finding the training executables 92
Creating the training sets and cascade 93
Testing and improving <cascade> 96
Summary 97

Module 2: OpenCV with Python By Example 99

Chapter 1: Detecting Edges and Applying Image Filters 101
2D convolution 102
Blurring 103
Edge detection 106
Motion blur 109
Sharpening 111
Embossing 113
Erosion and dilation 115
Creating a vignette filter 116
Enhancing the contrast in an image 119
Summary 122
Chapter 2: Cartoonizing an Image 123
Accessing the webcam 123
Keyboard inputs 124
[ ii ]
 Table of Contents

Mouse inputs 126

Interacting with a live video stream 128
Cartoonizing an image 130
Summary 138
Chapter 3: Detecting and Tracking Different Body Parts 139
Using Haar cascades to detect things 139
What are integral images? 141
Detecting and tracking faces 142
Fun with faces 144
Detecting eyes 147
Fun with eyes 150
Detecting ears 152
Detecting a mouth 153
It's time for a moustache 155
Detecting a nose 156
Detecting pupils 158
Summary 160
Chapter 4: Extracting Features from an Image 161
Why do we care about keypoints? 161
What are keypoints? 164
Detecting the corners 166
Good Features To Track 168
Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) 169
Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) 172
Features from Accelerated Segment Test (FAST) 174
Binary Robust Independent Elementary Features (BRIEF) 176
Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF (ORB) 178
Summary 179
Chapter 5: Creating a Panoramic Image 181
Matching keypoint descriptors 181
Creating the panoramic image 186
What if the images are at an angle to each other? 192
Summary 194
Chapter 6: Seam Carving 195
Why do we care about seam carving? 196
How does it work? 197
How do we define "interesting"? 198
How do we compute the seams? 199
Can we expand an image? 203
Can we remove an object completely? 207
[ iii ]
Table of Contents

Summary 213
Chapter 7: Detecting Shapes and Segmenting an Image 215
Contour analysis and shape matching 215
Approximating a contour 219
Identifying the pizza with the slice taken out 221
How to censor a shape? 225
What is image segmentation? 229
Watershed algorithm 233
Summary 235
Chapter 8: Object Tracking 237
Frame differencing 237
Colorspace based tracking 240
Building an interactive object tracker 242
Feature based tracking 248
Background subtraction 253
Summary 257
Chapter 9: Object Recognition 259
Object detection versus object recognition 259
What is a dense feature detector? 263
What is a visual dictionary? 267
What is supervised and unsupervised learning? 271
What are Support Vector Machines? 271
How do we actually implement this? 273
Summary 285
Chapter 10: Stereo Vision and 3D Reconstruction 287
What is stereo correspondence? 287
What is epipolar geometry? 292
Building the 3D map 300
Summary 307
Chapter 11: Augmented Reality 309
What is the premise of augmented reality? 309
What does an augmented reality system look like? 310
Geometric transformations for augmented reality 311
What is pose estimation? 313
How to track planar objects? 314
How to augment our reality? 324
Let's add some movements 330
Summary 336

[ iv ]
 Table of Contents

Module 3: OpenCV with Python Blueprints 337

Chapter 1: Fun with Filters 339
Planning the app 341
Creating a black-and-white pencil sketch 341
Generating a warming/cooling filter 346
Cartoonizing an image 351
Putting it all together 355
Summary 362
Chapter 2: Hand Gesture Recognition Using a Kinect
Depth Sensor 363
Planning the app 365
Setting up the app 365
Tracking hand gestures in real time 369
Hand region segmentation 370
Hand shape analysis 376
Hand gesture recognition 378
Summary 383
Chapter 3: Finding Objects via Feature Matching and
Perspective Transforms 385
Tasks performed by the app 386
Planning the app 388
Setting up the app 389
The process flow 391
Feature extraction 393
Feature matching 395
Feature tracking 403
Seeing the algorithm in action 406
Summary 408
Chapter 4: 3D Scene Reconstruction Using Structure from Motion 409
Planning the app 411
Camera calibration 412
Setting up the app 420
Estimating the camera motion from a pair of images 423
Reconstructing the scene 433
3D point cloud visualization 435
Summary 438
Chapter 5: Tracking Visually Salient Objects 439
Planning the app 442
Setting up the app 442

[v]
Table of Contents

Visual saliency 445

Mean-shift tracking 458
Putting it all together 465
Summary 466
Chapter 6: Learning to Recognize Traffic Signs 467
Planning the app 469
Supervised learning 469
The GTSRB dataset 474
Feature extraction 478
Support Vector Machine 483
Putting it all together 495
Summary 499
Chapter 7: Learning to Recognize Emotions on Faces 501
Planning the app 503
Face detection 505
Facial expression recognition 512
Putting it all together 535
Bibliography 539

[ vi ]
 Module 1

OpenCV Computer Vision with Python

Learn to capture videos, manipulate images, and track objects with

Python using the OpenCV Library

[1]
 Setting up OpenCV
This chapter is a quick guide to setting up Python 2.7, OpenCV, and related libraries.
After setup, we also look at OpenCV's Python sample scripts and documentation.

The following related libraries are covered:

• NumPy: This is a dependency of OpenCV's Python bindings. It provides

numeric computing functionality, including efficient arrays.
• SciPy: This is a scientific computing library that is closely related to NumPy.
It is not required by OpenCV but it is useful for manipulating the data in
OpenCV images.
• OpenNI: This is an optional dependency of OpenCV. It adds support for
certain depth cameras, such as Asus XtionPRO.
• SensorKinect: This is an OpenNI plugin and optional dependency of
OpenCV. It adds support for the Microsoft Kinect depth camera.

For this book's purposes, OpenNI and SensorKinect can be considered optional. They
are used throughout Chapter 5, Separating Foreground/Background Regions Depth, but
are not used in the other chapters or appendices.

At the time of writing, OpenCV 2.4.3 is the latest version. On some operating
systems, it is easier to set up an earlier version (2.3.1). The differences between these
versions should not affect the project that we are going to build in this book.

Some additional information, particularly about OpenCV's build options and their
dependencies, is available in the OpenCV wiki at http://opencv.willowgarage.
com/wiki/InstallGuide. However, at the time of writing, the wiki is not up-to-date
with OpenCV 2.4.3.
Setting up OpenCV

Choosing and using the right setup tools

We are free to choose among various setup tools, depending on our operating system
and how much configuration we want to do. Let's take an overview of the tools for
Windows, Mac, Ubuntu, and other Unix-like systems.

Making the choice on Windows XP, Windows

Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8
Windows does not come with Python preinstalled. However, installation wizards
are available for precompiled Python, NumPy, SciPy, and OpenCV. Alternatively,
we can build from source. OpenCV's build system uses CMake for configuration
and either Visual Studio or MinGW for compilation.

If we want support for depth cameras including Kinect, we should first install
OpenNI and SensorKinect, which are available as precompiled binaries with
installation wizards. Then, we must build OpenCV from source.

The precompiled version of OpenCV does not offer support

for depth cameras.

On Windows, OpenCV offers better support for 32-bit Python than 64-bit Python.
Even if we are building from source, I recommend using 32-bit Python. Fortunately,
32-bit Python works fine on either 32-bit or 64-bit editions of Windows.

Some of the following steps refer to editing the system's Path variable.
This task can be done in the Environment Variables window of Control
Panel.
On Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8, open the Start menu and
launch Control Panel. Now, go to System and Security | System |
Advanced system settings. Click on the Environment Variables button.
On Windows XP, open the Start menu and go to Control Panel | System.
Select the Advanced tab. Click on the Environment Variables button.
Now, under System variables, select Path and click on the Edit button.
Make changes as directed. To apply the changes, click on all the OK
buttons (until we are back in the main window of Control Panel). Then,
log out and log back in (alternatively, reboot).

[4]
 Chapter 1

Using binary installers (no support for depth

cameras)
Here are the steps to set up 32-bit Python 2.7, NumPy, and OpenCV:

1. Download and install 32-bit Python 2.7.3 from http://www.python.org/

ftp/python/2.7.3/python-2.7.3.msi.
2. Download and install NumPy 1.6.2 from http://sourceforge.net/
projects/numpy/files/NumPy/1.6.2/numpy-1.6.2-win32-superpack-
python2.7.exe/download.
3. Download and install SciPy 11.0 from http://sourceforge.net/
projects/scipy/files/scipy/0.11.0/scipy-0.11.0-win32-superpack-
python2.7.exe/download.
4. Download the self-extracting ZIP of OpenCV 2.4.3 from http://
sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/files/opencv-win/2.4.3/
OpenCV-2.4.3.exe/download. Run the self-extracting ZIP and, when
prompted, enter any destination folder, which we will refer to as <unzip_
destination>. A subfolder, <unzip_destination>\opencv, is created.
5. Copy <unzip_destination>\opencv\build\python\2.7\cv2.pyd to
C:\Python2.7\Lib\site-packages (assuming we installed Python 2.7 to
the default location). Now, the new Python installation can find OpenCV.
6. A final step is necessary if we want Python scripts to run using the new
Python installation by default. Edit the system's Path variable and append
;C:\Python2.7 (assuming we installed Python 2.7 to the default location).
Remove any previous Python paths, such as ;C:\Python2.6. Log out and
log back in (alternatively, reboot).

Using CMake and compilers

Windows does not come with any compilers or CMake. We need to install them.
If we want support for depth cameras, including Kinect, we also need to install
OpenNI and SensorKinect.

Let's assume that we have already installed 32-bit Python 2.7, NumPy, and SciPy
either from binaries (as described previously) or from source. Now, we can
proceed with installing compilers and CMake, optionally installing OpenNI and
SensorKinect, and then building OpenCV from source:

1. Download and install CMake 2.8.9 from http://www.cmake.org/files/

v2.8/cmake-2.8.9-win32-x86.exe. When running the installer, select
either Add CMake to the system PATH for all users or Add CMake to the
system PATH for current user.

[5]
Setting up OpenCV

2. Download and install Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft Visual C++
Express 2010, or MinGW. Note that OpenCV 2.4.3 cannot be compiled with
the more recent versions (Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 and Microsoft Visual
Studio Express 2012).
For Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, use any installation media you purchased.
During installation, include any optional C++ components. Reboot after
installation is complete.
For Microsoft Visual C++ Express 2010, get the installer from
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads.
Reboot after installation is complete.
For MinGW get the installer from http://sourceforge.net/projects/
mingw/files/Installer/mingw-get-inst/mingw-get-inst-20120426/
mingw-get-inst-20120426.exe/download. When running the installer,
make sure that the destination path does not contain spaces and that the
optional C++ compiler is included. Edit the system's Path variable and
append ;C:\MinGW\bin (assuming MinGW is installed to the default
location.) Reboot the system.

3. Optionally, download and install OpenNI 1.5.4.0 from http://www.openni.

org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/OpenNI-Win32-1.5.4.0-Dev1.zip
(32 bit). Alternatively, for 64-bit Python, use http://www.openni.org/wp-
content/uploads/2012/12/OpenNI-Win64-1.5.4.0-Dev.zip (64 bit).
4. Optionally, download and install SensorKinect 0.93 from https://github.
com/avin2/SensorKinect/blob/unstable/Bin/SensorKinect093-Bin-
Win32-v5.1.2.1.msi?raw=true (32 bit). Alternatively, for 64-bit Python,
use https://github.com/avin2/SensorKinect/blob/unstable/Bin/
SensorKinect093-Bin-Win64-v5.1.2.1.msi?raw=true (64 bit).
5. Download the self-extracting ZIP of OpenCV 2.4.3 from http://
sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/files/opencv-win/2.4.3/
OpenCV-2.4.3.exe/download. Run the self-extracting ZIP and, when
prompted, enter any destination folder, which we will refer to as <unzip_
destination>. A subfolder, <unzip_destination>\opencv, is created.
6. Open Command Prompt and make another folder where our build will go:
> mkdir<build_folder>

Change directory to the build folder:

> cd <build_folder>

[6]
 Chapter 1

7. Now, we are ready to configure our build. To understand all the options, we
could read the code in <unzip_destination>\opencv\CMakeLists.txt.
However, for this book's purposes, we only need to use the options that will
give us a release build with Python bindings and, optionally, depth camera
support via OpenNI and SensorKinect.
For Visual Studio 2010 or Visual C++ Express 2010, run:
> cmake -D:CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE -D:WITH_OPENNI=ON -G "Visual
Studio 10" <unzip_destination>\opencv

Alternatively, for MinGW, run:

> cmake -D:CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE -D:WITH_OPENNI=ON -G
"MinGWMakefiles" <unzip_destination>\opencv

If OpenNI is not installed, omit -D:WITH_OPENNI=ON. (In this case, depth

cameras will not be supported.) If OpenNI and SensorKinect are installed
to non-default locations, modify the command to include -D:OPENNI_
LIB_DIR=<openni_install_destination>\Lib -D:OPENNI_INCLUDE_
DIR=<openni_install_destination>\Include -D:OPENNI_PRIME_SENSOR_
MODULE_BIN_DIR=<sensorkinect_install_destination>\Sensor\Bin.
CMake might report that it has failed to find some dependencies. Many of
OpenCV's dependencies are optional; so, do not be too concerned yet. If the
build fails to complete or you run into problems later, try installing missing
dependencies (often available as prebuilt binaries) and then rebuild OpenCV
from this step.

8. Having configured our build system, we are ready to compile.

For Visual Studio or Visual C++ Express, open <build_folder>/OpenCV.
sln. Select Release configuration and build. If you get build errors, double-
check that Release configuration is selected.
Alternatively, for MinGW, run:
> mingw32-make.

9. Copy <build_folder>\lib\Release\cv2.pyd (from a Visual Studio build)

or <build_folder>\lib\cv2.pyd (from a MinGW build) to C:\Python2.7\
Lib\site-packages (assuming Python 2.7 is installed to the default
location). Now, the Python installation can find part of OpenCV.
10. Finally, we need to make sure that Python and other processes can find
the rest of OpenCV. Edit the system's Path variable and append ;<build_
folder>/bin/Release (for a Visual Studio build) or ;<build_folder>/bin
(for a MinGW build). Reboot your system.

[7]
Setting up OpenCV

Making the choice on Mac OS X Snow

Leopard, Mac OS X Lion, or Mac OS X
Mountain Lion
Some versions of Mac come with Python 2.7 preinstalled. However, the preinstalled
Python is customized by Apple for the system's internal needs. Normally, we should
not install any libraries atop Apple's Python. If we do, our libraries might break
during system updates or, worse, might conflict with preinstalled libraries that the
system requires. Instead, we should install standard Python 2.7 and then install our
libraries atop it.

For Mac, there are several possible approaches to obtaining standard Python 2.7,
NumPy, SciPy, and OpenCV. All approaches ultimately require OpenCV to be
compiled from source using Xcode Developer Tools. However, depending on the
approach, this task is automated for us by third-party tools in various ways. We will
look at approaches using MacPorts or Homebrew. These tools can potentially do
everything that CMake can do, plus they help us resolve dependencies and separate
our development libraries from the system libraries.

I recommend MacPorts, especially if you want to compile

OpenCV with depth camera support via OpenNI and
SensorKinect. Relevant patches and build scripts, including
some that I maintain, are ready-made for MacPorts. By contrast,
Homebrew does not currently provide a ready-made solution for
compiling OpenCV with depth camera support.

Before proceeding, let's make sure that the Xcode Developer Tools are properly
set up:

1. Download and install Xcode from the Mac App Store or http://connect.
apple.com/. During installation, if there is an option to install Command
Line Tools, select it.
2. Open Xcode and accept the license agreement.
3. A final step is necessary if the installer did not give us the option to install
Command Line Tools. Go to Xcode | Preferences | Downloads and click on
the Install button next to Command Line Tools. Wait for the installation to
finish and quit Xcode.

Now we have the required compilers for any approach.

[8]
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
century. Naples criticises; Rome translates; Mantua and Ferrara form
a system of education; Venice commits the literature of the classics
to the press. By the combined and successive activity of the chief
Italian centres, not only is the culture of antiquity regained; it is also
appropriated in all its various branches, discussed and illustrated,
placed beyond the reach of accident, and delivered over in its
integrity to Europe. The work thus performed by the Italians was
begun in peace; but it had to be continued under the pressure of
wars and national disasters unparalleled in the history of any other
modern people. Not for a single moment did the students relax their
energy. In the midst of foreign armies, deafened by the roar of
cannon and the tumult of sacked towns, exiled from their homes,
robbed of their books, deprived of their subsistence, they advanced
to their end with the irresistible obstinacy of insects. The drums and
tramplings of successive conquests and invasions by four warlike
nations—Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, Swiss—could not disturb
them. Drop by drop, Italy was being drained of blood; from the first
the only question was which of her assailants should possess the
beauty of her corpse. Yet the student, intent upon his manuscripts,
paid but little heed. So non-existent was the sense of nationality in
Italy that the Italians did not know they were being slowly
murdered. When the agony was over, and the ruin was
accomplished, they congratulated themselves on being still the
depositaries of polite literature. Nations that are nations, seek to
inspire fear, or at least respect. The Italians were contented with
admiration, and looked confidently to the world for gratitude. The
task of two toilsome, glorious centuries had been accomplished. The
chasm between Rome and the Renaissance was bridged over, and a
plain way was built for the progressive human spirit. Italy,
downtrodden in the mire of blood and ruins, should still lead the van
and teach the peoples. It was a sublime delusion, the last phase of
an impulse so powerful in its origin that to prophesy an ending was
impossible. Yet how delusive was the expectation is proved by the
immediate history of Italy, enslaved and decadent, outstripped by
the nations she had taught, and scorned by the world that owed her
veneration.
The humanists, who were the organ of this intellectual movement,
formed, as we have seen, a literary commonwealth, diffused through
all the Courts and cities of Italy. As the secretaries of Popes and
princes, as the chancellors of republics, as orators on all occasions of
public and private ceremony, they occupied important posts of
influence, and had the opportunity of leavening society with their
opinions. Furthermore, we have learned to know them in their
capacity of professors at the universities, of house-tutors in the
service of noblemen, and of authors. Closely connected among
themselves by their feuds no less than by their friendships, and
working to one common end of scholarship, it was inevitable that
these men, after the enthusiasm for antiquity had once become the
fashion, should take the lead and mould the genius of the nation.
Their epistles, invectives, treatises, and panegyrics, formed the
study of an audience that embraced all cultivated minds in Italy.
Thus the current literature of humanism played the same part in the
fifteenth century as journalism in the nineteenth, and the humanists
had the same kind of coherence in relation to the public as the
quatrième état of modern times. The respect they inspired as the
arbiters of praise and blame, was only equalled by their vast
pretensions. Eugenius IV., living at the period of their highest
influence, is reported to have said that they were as much to be
feared for their malice as to be loved for their learning. While they
claimed the power of conferring an immortality of honour or
dishonour, no one dared to call their credit with posterity in question.
Nothing seemed more dreadful than the fate reserved for Paul II. in
the pages of Platina; and even so robust a ruler as Francesco Sforza
sought to buy the praises of Filelfo. Flattery in all its branches,
fulsome and delicate, wholesale and allusive, was developed by
them as an art whereby to gain their living. The official history of
this period is rendered almost worthless by its sustained note of
panegyrical laudation. Our ears are deafened with the eulogies of
petty patrons transformed into Mæcenases, of carpet knights
compared to Leonidas, of tyrants equalled with Augustus, and of
generals who never looked on bloodshed tricked out as Hannibals or
Scipios. As a pendant to panegyric, the art of abuse reached its
climax in the invectives whereby the scholars sought to hand their
comrades down to all time 'immortally immerded,' or to vilify the
public enemies of their employers. As in the case of praise, so also in
the case of blame, it is impossible to attach importance to the
writings of the humanists. Their vaulting ambition to depreciate each
other overleaped itself. All their literature of defamation serves now
only to throw light on the general impurity of an age in which such
monstrous charges carried weight. Unluckily, this double vice of
humanism struck deep roots into Italian literature. Without the
scholars of the fifteenth century, it is hardly possible that such a
brigand as Pietro Aretino, who levied black mail from princes at the
point of his venomous quill, or such an unprincipled biographer as
Paolo Giovio, who boasted that he wrote with a golden or a silver
pen, as pleased him best, could have existed. Bullying and fawning
tainted the very source of history, and a false ideal of the writer's
function was established by the practice of men like Poggio.
It is obvious and easy to compare the humanists of the Renaissance
with the sophists of antiquity. Whether we think of the rivals of
Socrates at Athens, or of the Greek rhetoricians of the Roman
period,[508] the parallel is tolerably close. From certain points of view
the Italian scholars remind us of the former class; from others,
again, they recall the latter. The essence of sophism is the
substitution of semblance for reality, indifference to truth provided a
fair show be made, combined with verbal ingenuity and practice in
the art of exposition. The sophist feels no need of forming opinions
on a sound basis, or of adhering to principles. Regarding thought as
the subject-matter of literary treatment, he is chiefly concerned with
giving it a fair and plausible investiture in language. Instead of
recognising that he must live up to the standard he professes, he
takes delight in expressing with force the contrary of what he acts.
The discord between his philosophy and his conduct awakes no
shame in him, because it is the highest triumph of his art to
persuade by eloquence and to dazzle by rhetoric. Phrases and
sentences supply the place of feelings and convictions. Sonorous
cadences and harmonies of language are always ready to conceal
the want of substance in his matter or the flimsiness of his
argument. At the same time the sophist's enthusiasm for a certain
form of culture, and his belief in the sophistic method, may be
genuine.
The literature of the Revival is full of such sophism. Men who lived
loose lives, were never tired of repeating the commonplaces of the
Ciceronian ethics, praising simplicity and self-control with the pen
they used for reproducing the scandals of Martial, mingling impudent
demands for money and flatteries of debauched despots with
panegyrics of Pætus Thrasea and eulogies of Cincinnatus.
Conversely, students of eminent sobriety, like Guarino da Verona,
thought it no harm to welcome Beccadelli's 'Hermaphroditus' with
admiration; while the excellent Nicholas V. spent nine days in
perusing the filthy satires of Filelfo. It was enough that the form was
elegant, according to their standards of taste, the Latinity copious
and sound:—the subject-matter raised no scruples.
This vice of regarding only the exterior of literature produced a fatal
weakness in the dissertations of the age. If a humanist wanted to
moralise the mutability of fortune or the disadvantages of
matrimony, he did not take the trouble to think, or the pains to
borrow illustrations from his own experience. He strung together
quotations and classical instances, expending his labour on the
polish of the style, and fancying he had proved something by
piquancy displayed in handling old material. When he undertook
history, the same fault was apparent. Instead of seeking to set forth
the real conditions of his native city, to describe its political
vicissitudes and constitutional development, or to paint the
characters of its great men, he prepared imaginary speeches and
avoided topics incapable of expression in pure Latin. The result was
that whole libraries of ethical disquisitions and historical treatises,
bequeathed with proud confidence by their authors to the
admiration of posterity, are now reposing in unhonoured dust,
ransacked at rare intervals by weary students with restless fingers in
search of such meagre scraps of information as even a humanist
could not succeed in excluding.
The humanists resembled the sophists again in their profession to
teach wisdom for pay. What philosophy was for the early Greeks,
classic culture was for Italy in the Renaissance; and this the scholars
sold. Antiquity lay before them like an open book. From their seat
among the learned they doled out the new lore of life to eager
pupils. And as the more sober-minded of the Athenians regarded the
educational practice of the sophists with suspicion, so the humanists
came to be dreaded as the corrupters of youth. The peculiar turn
they gave to mental training, by diverting attention from patriotic
duties to literary pleasures, by denationalising the interests of
students, and by distracting serious thought from affairs of the
present to interests of the past, tended to confirm the political
debility of the Italians; nor can it be doubted that the substitution of
Pagan for Christian ideals intensified the demoralisation of the age.
Many arguments used by Aristophanes and Xenophon might be
repeated against these sophists of the Renaissance.[509]
On this point it is worth observing that, though humanism took the
Papal Court by storm and installed itself in pomp and pride within
the Vatican, the lower clergy and the leaders of religious revivals, in
no mere spirit of blind prejudice, but with solid force of argument,
denounced it. S. Bernardino and Savonarola were only two among
many who preached against the humanists from the pulpit. And yet,
while we admit that the influences of the Revival injured morality,
and gave a cosmopolitan direction to energies that ought to have
been concentrated on the preservation of national existence, we are
unable to join with these ecclesiastical antagonists in their crusade.
Humanism was a necessary moment in the evolution of the modern
world; and whatever were its errors, however weakening it may
have been to Italy, this phase had to be passed through, this nation
had to suffer for the general good.
The intrusion of the humanists into the Papal Curia was a victory of
the purely secular spirit. It is remarkable how very few scholars took
orders except with a view of holding minor benefices. They remained
virtual laymen, drawing the emoluments of their cures at a distance.
If Filelfo, after the death of his second wife, proposed to enter the
Church, he did so because in his enormous vanity he hoped to gain
the scarlet hat, and thought this worth the sacrifice of
independence. The only great monastic litteratus was Ambrogio,
General of the Camaldolese Order. Maffeo Vegio is the single
instance I can remember of a poet-philologer who assumed the
cowl. These statements, it will be understood, refer chiefly to the
second or aggressive period of the Revival. Classic erudition was so
common in the fourth that to be without a humanistic tincture was,
even among churchmen, the exception rather than the rule. In the
age of Leo, moreover, the humanists as a class had ceased to exist,
merged in the general culture of the nation. Their successors were
for the most part cardinals and bishops, elevated to high rank for
literary merit. This change, however, really indicated the complete
triumph of an ideal that for a moment had succeeded in paganising
the Papacy, and substituting its own standard of excellence for
ecclesiastical tradition.
This external separation between the humanists and the Church
corresponded to their deep internal irreligiousness. If contemporary
testimony be needed to support this assertion, I may quote freely
from Lilius Gyraldus, Battista Mantovano, and Ariosto, not to mention
the invectives that record so vast a mass of almost incredible
licentiousness. A rhetorical treatise, addressed to Gian Francesco
Pico by Lilius Gyraldus, himself an eminent professor at Ferrara,
acquaints us with the opinion formed in Italy, after a century's
experience, of the vices and discordant lives of scholars.[510] 'I call
God and men to witness,' he writes, 'whether it be possible to find
men more affected by immoderate disturbances of soul, by such
emotions as the Greeks called πάθη, or by such desires as they
named ὁρμαὶ, more easily influenced, driven about, and drawn in all
directions. No class of human beings are more subject to anger,
more puffed up with vanity, more arrogant, more insolent, more
proud, conceited, idle-minded, inconsequent, opinionated,
changeable, obstinate; some of them ready to believe the most
incredible nonsense, others sceptical about notorious truths, some
full of doubt and suspicion, others void of reasonable
circumspection. None are of a less free spirit, and that for the very
reason I have touched before, because they think themselves so far
more powerful. They all of them, indeed, pretend to omniscience,
fancy themselves superior to everything, and rate themselves as
gods, while we unlearned little men are made of clay and mud, as
they maintain.' Having for some space discoursed concerning their
mad ways of life, Gyraldus proceeds to arraign the humanists in
detail for vicious passions, want of economy, impiety, gluttony,
intemperance, sloth, and incontinence.[511] This invective reads like
a paradoxical thesis supported for the sake of novelty by a clever
rhetorician; and, indeed, it might pass for such were it not for the
confirmation it receives in Ariosto's seventh satire addressed to
Pietro Bembo.[512] The poet, anxious to find a tutor for his son,
dares not commit the young man to the care of a humanist. His
picture of their personal immorality, impiety, pride, and gluttony
acquires weight from the well-known tolerance of the satirist, and
from his genial parsimony of expression. To cite further testimony
from the personal confessions of Pacificus Maximus would hardly
strengthen the argument, though students may be referred to his
poems for details.[513]
The alternations of fortune to which the humanists were exposed—
living at one time in the lap of luxury, caressed and petted; then cast
forth to wander in almost total indigence, neglected and derided—
encouraged a Bohemian recklessness injurious to good manners.
Their frequent change of place told upon their character in the same
way, by exposing them to fresh temptations and withdrawing them
from censure. They had no country but the dreamland of antiquity,
no laws beyond the law of taste and inclination. They acknowledged
no authority superior to their own exalted judgment; they bowed to
no tribunal but that of posterity and the past. Thus they lived within
their own conceits, outside of custom and opinion; nor was the
world, at any rate before the period of their downfall, scrupulous to
count their errors or correct their vices.
Far more important, however, than these circumstances was their
passion for a Pagan ideal. The study of the classics and the effort to
assimilate the spirit of the ancients, undermined their Christianity
without substituting the religion or the ethics of the old world. They
ceased to fear God; but they did not acquire either the self-restraint
of the Greek or the patriotic virtues of the Roman. Thus exposed
without defence or safeguard, they adopted the perilous attitude of
men whose regulative principle was literary taste, who had left the
ground of faith and popular convention for the shoals and shallows
of an irrecoverable past. On this sea they wandered, with no
guidance but the promptings of undisciplined self. It is not,
therefore, a marvel that, while professing Stoicism, they wallowed in
sensuality, openly affected the worst habits of Pagan society, and
devoted their ingenuity to the explanation of foulness that might
have been passed by in silence. Licentiousness became a special
branch of humanistic literature. Under the thin mask of humane
refinement leered the untamed savage; and an age that boasted not
unreasonably of its mental progress, was at the same time notorious
for the vices that disgrace mankind. These disorders of the scholars,
hidden for a time beneath a learned language, ended by
contaminating the genius of the nation. The vernacular Capitoli of
Florence say plainly what Beccadelli, Poggio, and Bembo piqued
themselves on veiling.
Another notable defect of the humanists, equally inseparable from
the position they assumed in Italy, was their personal and
professional vanity. Battista Mantovano, writing on the calamities of
the age in which he lived, reckons them among the most eminent
examples of pride in his catalogue of the deadly sins. Regarding
themselves as resuscitators of a glorious past and founders of a new
civility, they were not satisfied with asserting their real merits in the
sphere of scholarship. They went further, and claimed to rank as
sages, political philosophers, writers of deathless histories, and
singers of immortal verse. The most miserable poetasters got
crowned with laurels. The most trivial thinkers passed verdict upon
statecraft. Mistaking mere cultivation for genius, they believed that,
because they had perused the authors of antiquity and could imitate
Ovid at a respectful distance, their fame would endure for all ages.
On the strength of this confidence they gave themselves
inconceivable airs, looking down from the height of their attainment
on the profane crowd. To understand that, after all, antiquity was a
school wherein to train the modern intellect for genuine production,
was not given to this epoch of discovery. Posterity has sadly belied
their expectations. Of all their treatises and commentaries, poems
and translations, how few are now remembered; how rarely are their
names upon the lips of even professed students! The debt of
gratitude we owe them is indeed great, and should be amply paid by
our respectful memory of all they wrought for us with labour in the
field of learning. Yet Filelfo would turn with passionate
disappointment in his grave, if he could know that men of wider
scope and sounder erudition appreciate his writings solely as shed
leaves that fertilised the soil of literature.
Before turning, as is natural at this point, to form an estimate of the
humanists in their capacity of authors, it will be right briefly to
qualify the condemnation passed upon their characters. Taken as a
class, they deserve the hardest words that have been said of them.
Yet it must not be forgotten that they numbered in their ranks such
men as Ambrogio Traversari, Tommaso da Sarzana, Guarino, Jacopo
Antiquari, Vittorino da Feltre, Pomponius Lætus, Ficino, Pico, Fabio
Calvi, and Aldus Manutius. The bare enumeration of these names
will suffice for those who have read the preceding chapters. Piety,
sobriety of morals, self-devotion to public interests, the purest
literary enthusiasm, the most lofty aspirations, fairness of judgment,
and generosity of feeling distinguish these men, and some others
who might be mentioned, from the majority of their fellows. Nor,
again, is it fair to charge the humanists alone with vices common to
their age. The picture I ventured to draw of Papal and despotic
manners in a previous volume, shows that a too strict standard
cannot be applied to scholars, holding less responsible positions than
their patrons, and professing a far looser code of conduct. Much,
too, of their inordinate vanity may be ascribed to the infatuation of
the people. Such scenes as the reception of the supposed author of
'Hermaphroditus' in Vicenza were enough to turn the heads of even
stronger men.[514]
It is difficult to appraise humanistic literature at a just value, seeing
that by far the larger mass of it, after serving a purpose of
temporary utility, is now forgotten. Not itself, but its effect, is what
we have to estimate; and the ultimate product of the whole
movement was the creation of a new capacity for cultivation. To
have restored to Europe the knowledge of the classics, and to have
recovered the style of the ancients, so as to use Latin prose and
verse with freedom at a time when Latin formed an universal
medium of culture, is the first real merit of the humanists. Nothing
can rob them of this glory; however much we may be forced to feel
that their critical labours have been superseded, that their
dissertations are dull, that their poems at the worst fall far below the
level of an Oxford prize exercise, and at the best supply a decent
appendix to the 'Corpus Poetarum.' Nor can we defraud them of the
fame of having striven to realise Petrarch's ideal.[515] That ideal,
only partially attained at any single point, developed in one direction
by Milton, in another by Goethe, still guides, and will long guide, the
efforts of the modern intellect.
The most salient characteristic of this literature was study of style.
The beginners of the humanistic movement were conscious that
what separated them more than anything else from their Roman
ancestors, was want of elegance in diction. They used the same
language; but they used it clumsily. They could think the same
thoughts, but they had lost the art of expressing them with
propriety. To restore style was therefore a prime object.
Exaggerating its importance, they neglected the matter for the form,
and ended by producing a literature of imitation. The ideal they
proposed in composition included limpidity of language, simplicity in
the structure of sentences however lengthy, choiceness of phrase,
and a copious vocabulary. To be intelligible was the first requisite; to
be attractive the second. Having mastered elementary difficulties,
they proceeded to fix the rules for decorative writing. Cicero had
said that nothing was so ugly or so common but that rhetoric could
lend it charm. This unfortunate dictum, implying that style, as
separate from matter, is valuable in and for itself, led the Italians
astray. To form commonplace books of phrases culled from the
'Tusculans' and the 'Orations,' to choose some trivial theme for
treatment, and to make it the occasion for verbal display, became
their business. In the coteries of Rome and Florence scholars
measured one another by their ingenuity—in other words, by their
aptness for producing Ciceronian and Virgilian centos. Few indeed,
like Pico, raised their voices against such trifling, or protested that
what a man thought and felt was at least as important as his power
of clothing it in rhetoric.
The appearance of Valla's 'Elegantiæ' marked an epoch in the
evolution of this stylistic art. It reached its climax in the work of
Bembo. What the humanists intended, they achieved. Purity and
perspicuity of language were made conditions of all literature that
claimed attention; nor is it, perhaps, too much to say that Racine,
Pascal, and Voltaire owe something of their magic to the training of
these worn-out pedagogues. Yet the immediate effect in Italy, when
Machiavelli's vigour had passed out of the nation, and the stylistic
tradition survived, was deplorable. Nothing strikes a northern
student of the post-Renaissance authors more than the empty
smoothness of their writing, their faculty of saying nothing with a
vast expenditure of phrase, their dread of homely details, and the
triviality of the subjects they chose for illustration. When a man of
wit like Annibale Caro could rise to praise the nose of the president
before a learned academy in periods of this ineptitude—'Naso
perfetto, naso principale, naso divino, naso che benedetto sia fra
tutti i nasi; e benedetta sia quella mamma che vi fece così nasuto, e
benedette tutte quelle cose che voi annusate!'[516]—we trace no
more than a burlesque of humanistic seeking after style. It must,
however, be admitted that it is not easy for a less artistic nation to
do the Italians justice in this respect. They derived an æsthetic
pleasure from refinements of speech and subtle flavours of
expression, while they remained no less conscious than we are that
the workmanship surpassed the matter. The proper analogue to their
rhetoric may be found in the exquisite but too unmeaning
arabesques in marble and in wood, which belong to Cinque Cento
architecture. Viewed as the playthings of skilled artists, these are not
without their value; and we are apt, perhaps, unduly to depreciate
them, because we lack the sense for their particular form of beauty.
If the most marked feature of humanistic literature was the creation
of a Latin style, the supreme dictators were Cicero in prose and Virgil
in verse. That Cicero should have fascinated the Italians in an age
when art was dominant, when richness of decoration, rhetorical
fluency, and pomp of phrase appealed to the liveliest instincts of a
splendour-loving, sensitive, declamatory race, is natural. The
Renaissance found exactly what it wanted in the manner of the most
obviously eloquent of Latin authors, himself a rhetorician among
philosophers, an orator among statesmen, the weakness of whose
character was akin to that which lay at the root of fifteenth-century
society. To be the 'apes of Cicero,' in all the branches of literature he
had cultivated, was regarded by the humanists as a religious duty.
[517] Though they had no place in the senate, the pulpit, or the law
court, they were fain to imitate his oratory. Therefore public
addresses to ambassadors, to magistrates on assuming office, and
to Popes on their election; epithalamial and funeral discourses;
panegyrics and congratulations—sounded far and wide through Italy.
The fifteenth century was the golden age of speechification. A man
was measured by the amount of fluent Latinity he could pour forth;
copiousness of quotations secured applause; and readiness to
answer on the spur of the moment in smooth Ciceronian phrases,
was reckoned among the qualities that led to posts of trust in
Church and State. On the other hand, a failure of words on any
ceremonial occasion passed for one of the great calamities of life.
The common name for an envoy, oratore, sufficiently indicates the
public importance attached to rhetoric. It formed a necessary part of
the parade which the Renaissance loved, and, more than that, a part
of its diplomatic machinery. To compose orations that could never be
recited was a fashionable exercise; and since the 'Verrines' and the
'Philippics' existed, no occasion was lost for reproducing something
of their spirit in the invectives whereof so much has been already
said. The emptiness of all this oratory, separated from the solid
concerns of life, and void of actual value, tended to increase the
sophistic character of literature. Eloquence, which ought to owe its
force to passionate emotion or to gravity of meaning, degenerated
into a mere play of words; and to such an extent was verbal
cleverness over-estimated, that a scholar could ascribe the fame of
Julius Cæsar to his 'Commentaries' rather than his victories.[518] It
does not seem to have occurred to him that Pompey would have
been glad if Cæsar had always wielded his pen, and that Brutus
would hardly have stabbed a friendly man of letters. When we read
a genuine humanistic speech, we find that it is principally composed
of trite tales and citations. To play upon the texts of antiquity, as a
pianist upon the keys of his instrument, was no small part of
eloquence; and the music sounded pleasant in ears greedy of the
very titles of old writings. Vespasiano mentions that Carlo Aretino
owed his early fame at Florence to one lecture, introducing
references to all the classic authors.
The style affected for moral dissertation was in like manner
Ciceronian. The dialogue in particular became fashionable; and since
it was dangerous to introduce matter unsuited to Tully's phrases,
these disquisitions are usually devoid of local colouring and
contemporary interest. Few have such value as attaches to the
opening of Poggio's essay on Fortune, to Valeriano's treatise on the
misfortunes of the learned, or to Gyraldi's attack upon the
humanists.
Another important branch of literature, modelled upon Ciceronian
masterpieces, was letter-writing. The epistolography of the
humanists might form a separate branch of study, if we cared to
trace its history through several stages, and to sift the stores at our
disposal. Petrarch, after discovering the familiar letters of the Roman
orator, first gave an impulse to this kind of composition. In his old
age he tells how he was laughed at in his youth for assuming the
Latin style of thou together with the Roman form of superscription.
[519] I have already touched upon the currency it gained through the
practice of Coluccio Salutato and the teaching of Gasparino da
Barzizza.[520] In course of time books of formulæ and polite letter-
writers were compiled, enabling novices to adopt the Ciceronian
mannerism with safety.[521] The Papal Curia sanctioned a set of
precedents for the guidance of its secretaries, while the epistles of
eminent chancellors served as models for the despatches of
republican governments.
The private letters of scholars were useful in keeping up
communication between the several centres of culture in Italy. From
these sources too we now derive much interesting information
respecting the social life of the humanists. They seem to have
avoided political, theological, and practical topics, cultivating a style
of urbane compliment, exchanging opinions about books, asking
small favours, acknowledging obligations, recommending friends to
favourable notice, occasionally describing their mode of life,
discussing the qualities of their patrons with cautious reserve, but
seeking above all things to display grace of diction and elegant
humour rather than erudition. The fact that these Latin epistles were
invariably intended for circulation and ultimate publication, renders it
useless to seek for insight from them into strictly private matters.
[522] For the historian the most valuable collections of Renaissance
letters are composed in Italian, and are not usually the work of
scholars, but of agents, spies, and envoys. Compared with the
reports of the Venetian ambassadors, the correspondence of the
humanists is unimportant. In addition to familiar letters, it not
unfrequently happened, however, that epistles upon topics of public
interest were indited by students. Intended by their diffusion to
affect opinion, and addressed to influential friends or patrons, these
compositions assumed the form of pamphlets. Of this kind were the
letters on the Eastern question sent by Filelfo to Charles VII. of
France, to the Emperor, to Matthias Corvinus, to the Dukes of
Burgundy and Urbino, and to the Doge of Venice. The immortality
expected by the humanists from their epistles, has hardly fallen to
their lot; though much of Poliziano's, Pico's, Antiquari's, and
Piccolomini's correspondence is still delightful and instructive
reading. The masses extant in MS. exceed what has been printed;
while the printed volumes, with some rare exceptions, among which
may be mentioned Poliziano's letter to Antiquari on the death of
Lorenzo, are only used by students.[523]
Since Cicero had left no specimen of history, the humanists were
driven to follow other masters in this branch of literature. Livy was
the author of their predilection. Cæsar supplied them with a model
for the composition of commentaries, and Sallust for concise
monographs. Suetonius was followed in such minute studies of
character as Decembrio's 'Life of Filippo Maria Visconti.' I do not find
that Tacitus had any thoroughgoing imitators; the magniloquence of
rhetoric, rather than the pungency of sarcasm, suited the taste of
the age. The faults of the humanistic histories have been already
pointed out.[524]
The services of the humanists, as commentators, translators, critics
of texts, compilers of grammars and dictionaries of all kinds,
collectors of miscellaneous information, and writers on antiquities,
still remain to be remembered. Their industry in this field was quite
different from the labour they devoted to the perfecting of style.
Whatever we may think of them as men of letters, we are bound to
give their erudition almost unqualified praise. Not, indeed, that their
learning any more than their literature was final. It too has been
superseded; but it formed the basis of a sounder method, and
rendered the attainment of more certain knowledge possible. It is
not too much to say that modern culture, so far as it is derived from
antiquity, owes everything to the indefatigable energy of the
humanists. Before the age of printing, scholars had to store their
memories with encyclopædic information, while the very want of a
critical method, by preventing them from exactly discerning the good
and the bad, enabled them to take a broader and more
comprehensive view of classical literature than is now at any rate
common. Antiquity as a whole—not the authors merely of the Attic
age or the Augustan—claimed their admiration; and though they
devoted special study to Cicero and Virgil for the purposes of style,
they eagerly accepted every Greek or Latin composition from the
earliest to the latest. To this omnivorous appetite of the elder
scholars we are perhaps indebted for the preservation of many
fragments which a more delicate taste would have rejected.
Certainly we owe to them the conception of the classics in their
totality, as forming the proper source of culture for the human race.
The purism of Vida and Bembo, though it sprang from more refined
perceptions, was in some respects a retrogression from the wide and
liberal erudition of their predecessors. Discipleship under Virgil may
make a versifier; but he who would fain comprehend the Latin
genius must know the poets of Rome from Ennius to Claudian.
Finally we have to render the tribute due to the humanists for their
diffusion of a liberal spirit. Sustained by the enthusiasm of antiquity,
they first ventured to take a standpoint outside catholicity; and
though they made but bad use of this spiritual freedom, inclining to
levity and godlessness instead of fighting the battle of the reason,
yet their large and human survey of the world was in itself
invigorating. Poggio at the Council of Constance regarded Jerome of
Prague not as a heretic, not as a fanatic, but as a Stoic. In other
words, he was capable of divesting his mind of temporary
associations and conventional prejudices, and of discerning the true
character of the man who suffered heroically for his opinions. This
instance illustrates the general tone and temper of the humanists.
Their study of antiquity freed them from the scholastic pedantries of
theologians, and from the professional conceits of jurists and
physicians. There is nothing great and noble in human nature that
might not, we fancy, have grown and thriven under their direction, if
the circumstances of Italy had been more favourable to high
aspirations. As it was, the light was early quenched and clouded by
base vapours of a sensual, enslaved, and priest-corrupted society.
The vital force of the Revival passed into the Reformation; the
humanists, degraded and demoralised, were superseded. Still it was
they who created the new atmosphere of culture, wherein whatever
is luminous in art, literature, science, criticism, and religion has since
flourished. Though we may perceive that they obeyed a false
authority—that of the classics, and worshipped a false idol—style,
yet modern liberty must render them the meed of thanks for this.
When we consider that before the sixteenth century had closed, they
had imbued the whole Italian nation with their views, forming a new
literature, directing every kind of mental activity, and producing a
new social tone, and furthermore that Italy in the sixteenth century
impressed her spirit on the rest of Europe, we have a right to hail
the humanists as the schoolmasters of modern civilisation.
As schoolmasters in a stricter sense of the term, it is not easy to
exaggerate the influence exercised by Italian students. They first
conceived and framed the education that has now prevailed through
Europe for four centuries, moulding the youth of divers nations by
one common discipline, and establishing an intellectual concord for
all peoples. In spite of changes in government and creed, in spite of
differences caused by race and language, we have maintained an
uniformity of culture through the simultaneous prosecution of classic
studies on the lines laid down for teachers by the scholars of the
fifteenth century. The system of our universities and public schools is
in truth no other than that devised by Vittorino and Guarino. Thus
humanism in modern Europe has continued the work performed
during the Middle Ages by the Church, uniting in one confederation
of spiritual activity nations widely separated by all that tends to keep
the human families apart.
Until quite recently in England, the litteræ humaniores were
accepted as the soundest training for careers in Church and State,
for the learned professions, and for the private duties of gentlemen.
If the old ideal is yielding at last to theories of a wider education
based on science and on modern languages, that is due partly to the
extension of useful knowledge, and partly to the absorption of
classic literature into the modern consciousness. The sum of what a
cultivated man should know, in order to maintain a place among the
pioneers of progress, is so vast, that learners, distracted by a variety
of subjects, resent the expenditure of precious time on Greek and
Latin. Teachers, on the other hand, through long familiarity with
humane studies, have fallen into the languor of routine. Besides, as
knowledge in each new department increases, the necessity of
specialising with a view to adopting a professional career, makes
itself continually felt with greater urgency. It may therefore be
plausibly argued that we have outgrown the conditions of
humanism, and that a new stage in the history of education has
been reached. Have not the ancients done as much for us as they
can do? Are not our minds permeated with their thoughts? Do not
the masterpieces of modern literature hold in solution the best that
can be got from them for future uses?
These questions can perhaps be met by the counter-question
whether the arts and letters of the Greeks and Romans will not
always hold their own, not only in the formation of pure taste, but
also in the discipline of character and the training of the intelligence.
Just as well might we cease to study the sacred books of the Jews,
because we have incorporated their ethics into our conscience, and
possess their religion in our liturgy. No transmission of a spirit at
second or third hand can be the same as its immediate contact; nor
can we afford, however full our mental life may be, to lose the vivid
sense of what men were and what they wrought in ages far
removed from us, especially when those men were our superiors in
certain spheres. Again, it may be doubted whether we should
understand the masterpieces of modern literature, when we came to
be separated from the sources of their inspiration. If Olympus
connoted less than Asgard, or Hercules were no more familiar to our
minds than Rustem, or the horses of the Sun stood at the same
distance from us as the cows of Indra—if, in fact, we abandoned
Greek as much as we have abandoned Scandinavian, Persian, and
Sanskrit mythology, would not some of the most brilliant images of
our own poets fade into leaden greyness, like clouds that have lost
the flush of living light upon them?
It is therefore not improbable that for many years to come the
higher culture of the race will still be grounded upon humanism: true
though it be that the first enthusiasm for antiquity shall never be
restored, nor the classics yield that vital nourishment they offered in
the spring-time of the modern era. For average students, who have
no special vocation for literature and no æesthetic tastes, it may well
happen that new methods of teaching the classics will have to be
invented. Why should they not be read in English versions, and the
time expended upon Greek and Latin grammar be thus saved? The
practice of Greek and Latin versification has been virtually doomed
already; nor is there any reason why Latin prose should form a
necessary part of education in an age that has ceased to publish its
thoughts in a now completely dead language. Our actual relation to
the ancients, again, justifies some change. We know far more about
them now than in the period of the Renaissance; but they are no
longer all in all for civilised humanity, eager to reconstitute the realm
of thought, and find its nobler self anew in the image of a glorious
past, reconquered and inalienable. The very culture created by the
study of antiquity through the last four centuries stands between
them and our apprehension, so that they seem at the same moment
more distinct from us and more a part of our familiar selves.
When we seek the causes which produced the decay of learning in
Italy about the middle of the sixteenth century, we are first led to
observe that the type of scholarship inaugurated by Petrarch had
been fully developed. Nothing new remained to be worked out upon
the lines laid down by him. Meanwhile the forces of the nation, both
creative and receptive, were exhausted in the old fields of
humanism. The reading public had been glutted with epistles,
invectives, poems, orations, histories of antiquities, and disquisitions
of all kinds. The matter of the ancient literatures had been absorbed,
if superficially, at least entirely, and their forms had been reproduced
with wearisome reiteration. The Paganism that had so long ruled as
a fashion, was now passing out of vogue, because of its inadequacy
to meet the deeper wants and satisfy the aspirations of the modern
world. The humanists, moreover, as a class, had fallen into disrepute
through faults and vices whereof enough has been already said.
Nothing short of the new impulse which a new genius, equal at least
in power to Petrarch, might have communicated, could have given a
fresh direction to the declining enthusiasm for antiquity. But for this
display of energy the Italians were not prepared. As in the ascent of
some high peak, the traveller, after surmounting pine woods and
Alpine pastures, comes upon bare grassy slopes that form an
intermediate region between the basements of the mountain and the
snowfields overhead, so the humanists had accomplished the first
stage of learning. But it requires a fresh start and the employment of
other faculties to scale the final heights; and for this the force was
wanting. Erasmus, at the opening of the century, had, indeed,
initiated a second age of scholarship. The more exact methods of
criticism and comparison were already about to be instituted by the
French, the Germans, and the Dutch. It was too much, however, to
expect that the Italians, who had expended their vigour in
recovering the classics and reviving a passion for knowledge, should
compete upon the ground of modern erudition with these fresh and
untried races.
What they might have done, if circumstances had been less
unfavourable, and if the way of progress had been free before them,
cannot be conjectured. As it was, all things contributed to the
decline of intellectual energy in Italy. The distracting wars of half a
century told more heavily upon the literati, who depended for their
very existence upon the liberality of patrons, than on any other
section of the people. What miseries they endured in Lombardy may
be gathered from the prefaces and epistles of Aldus Manutius; while
the blow inflicted on them by the sack of Rome is vividly described
by Valeriano.[525] When comparative peace was restored, liberty had
been extinguished. Florence, the stronghold of liberal learning, was
enslaved. Scholarship no less than art suffered from the loss of
political independence. Rome, terror-stricken by the Reformation,
turned with rage against the very studies she had helped to
stimulate. The engines of the Inquisition, wielded with all the
mercilessness of panic by men who had the sombre cruelty of Spain
to back them up, destroyed the germs of life in science and
philosophy.
To some extent, again, the Italian scholars had prepared their own
suicide by tending more and more to subtleties of taste and
affectations of refinement. The purism of the sixteenth century was
itself a sort of etiolation, and the puerilities of the academies
distracted even able men from serious studies. It was one of the
inevitable drawbacks of humanism that the new culture separated
men of letters from the nation. Dante and the wool-carders of the
fourteenth century understood each other; there was then no thick
veil of erudition between the teacher and the taught. But neither
Bembo nor Pomponazzi had anything to say that could be
comprehended by the common folk. Therefore scholarship was left
in mournful isolation; suspected, when it passed from trifles to grave
speculations, by the Church; viewed with indifference by the people;
unsustained by any sympathy, and, what was worse, without a
programme or a watchword. The thinkers, whose biography belongs
to the history of the Counter-Reformation in Italy, were all solitary
men, voices crying in the wilderness with none to listen, bound
together by no common bond, unnoticed by the nation, extinguished
singly on the scaffold by an ever-watchful league of tyrants spiritual
and political.
Before the end of the sixteenth century Greek had almost ceased to
be studied in Italy. This was the sign of intellectual death. All that
was virile in humanism fled beyond the Alps. This transference of
intellectual supremacy from Italy to Germany was speedily
accomplished. 'When I was a boy,' said Erasmus,[526] 'sound letters
had begun to revive among the Italians; but by reason of the
printer's art being as yet undiscovered or known to few, no books
had reached us, and in the deep tranquillity of dulness there reigned
a set of men who taught in all our towns the most illiterate learning.
Rodolph Agricola was the first to bring to us from Italy some breath
of a superior culture.' Again, he says of Italy, 'In that land, where
even the very walls are both more learned and more eloquent than
men with us; so that what here seems beautifully said, and elegant
and full of charm, cannot be held for aught but clumsy, stupid, and
uncultivated there.' Less than half a century after Erasmus had
gained the right to hold the balance thus between the nations of the
North and South—that is, in 1540 or thereabouts—Paolo Giovio, at
the close of his 'Elogia Literaria,' while speaking of the Germans, felt
obliged to confess that 'not only Latin letters, to our disgrace, but
Greek and Hebrew also have passed into their territory by a fatal
simultaneous migration.'
Thus Italy, after receiving the lamp of learning from the dying hands
of Hellas, in the days of her own freedom, now, in the time of her
adversity and ruin, gave it to the nations of the North. Her work was
ended. Three centuries of increasing decrepitude, within our recent
memory at length most happily surmounted, were before her. Can
history, we wonder, furnish a spectacle more pathetic than that of
the protagonist of spiritual liberty falling uneasily asleep beneath the
footstool of the Spaniard and the churchman, while the races who
had trampled her to death went on rejoicing in the light and culture
she had won by centuries of toil? This is the tragic aspect of the
subject which has occupied us through the present volume. At the
conclusion of the whole matter it is, however, more profitable to
remember, not the intellectual death of Italy, but what she wrought
in that bright period of her vigour. She was the divinely appointed
birthplace of the modern spirit, the workshop of knowledge for all
Europe, our mistress in the arts and sciences, the Alma Mater of our
student years, the well-spring of mental freedom and activity after
ages of stagnation. If greater philosophers have since been
produced by Germany and France and England, greater scholars,
greater men of science, greater poets even, and greater pioneers of
progress in the lands divined by Christopher Columbus beyond the
seas—this must not blind us to the truth that at the very outset of
the era in which we live and play our parts, Italy embraced all
philosophy, all scholarship, all science, all art, all discovery, alone.
Such is the Lampadephoria, or torch-race, of the nations. Greece
stretches forth her hand to Italy; Italy consigns the sacred fire to
Northern Europe; the people of the North pass on the flame to
America, to India, and the Australasian isles.
 FOOTNOTES
[1] To the original edition of this volume.
[2] The analogy of the individual might be quoted. We are aware
within ourselves of times when thought is fertile and insight clear,
times of conception and projection, followed by seasons of slow
digestion, assimilation, and formation, when the creative faculty
stagnates, and the whole force of the intellect is absorbed in
mastering through years what it took minutes to divine.
[3]See Vol. I., Age of Despots, pp. 239, 350-356, 415-420, where I
have endeavoured to treat these topics more at length.
[4]It would be easy to multiply these contrasts, comprising, for
example, the Cardinals Inghirami and Bibbiena and the Leo of
Raphael with the Farnesi portraits at Modena or the grave faces of
Moroni's patrons at Bergamo.
[5]Portrait in the Uffizzi, ascribed to Giorgione, but more probably by
some pupil of Mantegna.
[6] Paradiso, vi. 112.
[7] Notably Purg. xi. 100-117.
[8] A curious echo of this Italian conviction may be traced in
Fletcher's Elder Brother.
[9]Vespasiano, Vita di Piero de' Pazzi. Compare the beautiful letter of
Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini to his nephew (Ep. Lib. i. 4). He reminds
the young man that fair as youth is, and delightful as are the
pleasures of the May of life, learning is more fair and knowledge
more delightful. 'Non enim Lucifer aut Hesperus tam pulcher est
quam sapientia quæ studiis acquiritur litterarum.'
 It is enough to refer to Luther's Table Talk upon the state of
[10]
Rome in Leo's reign.
[11]Poliziano, Pontano, Sannazzaro, and Bembo divided their powers
between scholarship and poetry, to the injury of the latter.
[12] For the low state of criticism, even in a good age, see Aulus
Gellius, lib. xiv. cap. vi. He describes the lecture of a rhetor, quispiam
linguæ Latinæ literator, on a passage in the seventh Æneid. The
man's explanation of the word bidentes proves an almost more than
mediæval puerility and ignorance.
[13] Most of the following quotations will be found in Comparetti,
Virgilio nel Medio Evo, vol. i., a work of sound scholarship and
refined taste upon the place of Virgil in the Middle Ages.
[14] Hoc est quod pueri tangar amore minus, for example, was
altered into Hoc est quod pueri tangar amore nihil; for lusisset
amores was substituted dampnasset amores, and so forth.
[15]The hymn quoted above in the text refers to a legend of S. Paul
having visited the tomb of Virgil at Naples:—

'When to Maro's tomb they brought him

Tender grief and pity wrought him
To bedew the stone with tears;
What a saint I might have crowned thee,
Had I only living found thee,
Poet first and without peers!'

[16]The common use of the word grammarie for occult science in

our ballads illustrates this phase of popular opinion. So does the
legend of Friar Bacon. See Thoms, Early English Prose Romances.
[17]Didot, in his Life of Aldus, tries to make out that Greek learning
survived in Ireland longer than elsewhere.
[18]The word Humanism has a German sound, and is in fact
modern. Yet the generic phrase umanità for humanistic culture, and
the name umanista for a professor of humane studies, are both pure
Italian. Ariosto, in his seventh satire, line 25, writes—
'Senza quel vizio son pochi umanisti.'
[19] See the interesting letter to Luca di Penna, De Libris Ciceronis,
p. 946, and compare De Ignorantiâ sui ipsius, &c. p. 1044. These
references, as well as those which follow under the general sign
Ibid., are made to the edition of Petrarch's collected works, Basle,
1581.
[20] Ibid. p. 948. Cf. the fine letter on the duty of collecting and
preserving codices (Fam. Epist. lib. iii. 18, p. 619). 'Aurum,
argentum, gemmæ, purpurea vestis, marmorea domus, cultus ager,
pictæ tabulæ, phaleratus sonipes, cæteraque id genus mutam
habent et superficiariam voluptatem: libri medullitus delectant,
colloquuntur, consulunt, et vivâ quâdam nobis atque argutâ
familiaritate junguntur.'
[21] De Libris Ciceronis, p. 949. Cf. his Epistle to Varro for an account
of a lost MS. of that author. Ibid. p. 708.
[22] Ibid. p. 948. Cf. De Ignorantiâ, pp. 1053, 1054. See, too, the
letter to Nicolaus Syocerus of Constantinople, Epist. Var. xx. p. 998,
thanking him for the Homer and the Plato, in which Petrarch gives
an account of his slender Greek studies. 'Homerus tuus apud me
mutus, immo vero ego apud illum surdus sum. Gaudeo tamen vel
aspectu solo, et sæpe illum amplexus et suspirans dico.... Plato
philosophorum princeps ... nunc tandem tuo munere Philosophorum
principi Poetarum princeps asserit. Quis tantis non gaudeat et
glorietur hospitibus?... Græcos spectare, et si nihil aliud, certe juvat.'
The letter urging Boccaccio to translate Homer—'an tuo studio, meâ
impensâ fieri possit, ut Homerus integer bibliothecæ huic, ubi
pridem Græcus habitat, tandem Latinus accedat'—will be found Ep.
Rer. Sen. lib. iii. 5, p. 775. In another letter, Ep. Rer. Sen. lib. vi. 2, p.
807, he thanks Boccaccio for the Latin version.
[23] De Remediis utriusque Fortunæ, p. 43. A plea for public as
against private collections of useful books. 'Multos in vinculis tenes,'
&c.
[24] See the four books of Invectives, Contra Medicum quendam, and
the treatise De sui ipsius et aliorum Ignorantiâ. Page 1038 of the last
dissertation contains a curious list of frivolous questions discussed by
the Averrhoists. Cf. the letter on the decadence of true learning, Ep.
Var. 31, p. 1020; the letter to a friend exhorting him to combat
Averrhoism, Epist. sine titulo, 18, p. 731; two letters on physicians,
Epist. Rerum Senilium, lib. xii. 1 and 2, pp. 897-914; a letter to
Francesco Bruno on the lies of the astrologers, Epist. Rer. Sen. lib. i.
6, p. 747; a letter to Boccaccio on the same theme, Epist. Rer. Sen.
lib. iii. 1, p. 765; another on physicians to Boccaccio, Epist. Rer. Sen.
lib. v. 4, p. 796. Cf. the Critique of Alchemy, De Remediis utriusque
Fortunæ, p. 93.
[25]In comparing the orator and the poet, Petrarch gives the palm
to the former. He thought the perfect rhetorician, capable of
expressing sound philosophy with clearness, was rarer than the
poet. See De Remediis utriusque Fortunæ, lib. ii. dial. 102, p. 192.
[26] See, among other passages, Inv. contra Medicum, lib. i. p. 1092.
'Poetæ studium est veritatem veram pulchris velaminibus adornare.'
Cf. p. 905, the paragraph beginning 'Officium est ejus fingere,' &c.
[27]See the preface to the Epistolæ Familiares, p. 570. 'Scribendi
enim mihi vivendique unus (ut auguror) finis erit.'
[28] For his lofty conception of poetry see the two letters to
Boccaccio and Benvenuto da Imola, pp. 740, 941. Epist. Rerum
Senilium, lib. i. 4, lib. xiv. 11.
[29] The references to Augustine as a 'divine genius,' equal to Cicero
in eloquence, superior to the classics in his knowledge of Christ, are
too frequent for citation. See, however, Fam. Epist. lib. ii. 9, p. 601;
the letter to Boccaccio, Variarum, 22, p. 1001; and Fam. Epist. lib. iv.
9, p. 635. The phrase describing the Confessions, quoted in my text,
is from Petrarch's letter to his brother Gerard, Epist. Var. 27, p. 1012,
'Scatentes lachrymis Confessionum libros.'
[30]'Sum sectarum negligens, veri appetens.' Epist. Rer. Sen. lib. i.
5, p. 745. 'Nam apud Horatium Flaccum, nullius jurare in verba
magistri, puer valde didiceram.' Epist. Fam. lib. iv. 10, p. 637.
[31] See the letters addressed to Cicero and Seneca, pp. 705, 706.
[32] 'Ægritudo' is a phrase that constantly recurs in his epistles to
indicate a restless, craving habit of the soul. See, too, the whole
second book of the De Contemptu Mundi.
[33] See the treatise De Vitâ Solitariâ, pp. 223-292, and the letters
on 'Vaucluse,' pp. 691-697.
[34]See the discussion of this point in Baldelli's Vita del Boccaccio,
pp. 130-135.
[35] Compare the chapter in the dissertation De Remediis on
troublesome notoriety, p. 177, with the letter on his reception at
Arezzo, p. 918, the letter to Nerius Morandus on the false news of
his death, p. 776, and the letter to Boccaccio on his detractors, p.
749.
[36] See the Epistles to Rienzi, pp. 677, 535.
[37]Epistle to the Roman people, beginning 'Apud te invictissime
domitorque terrarum popule meus,' p. 712.
[38] Epistle to Charles IV., De Pacificandâ Italiâ, p. 531. This
contradiction struck even his most ardent admirers with painful
surprise. See Boccaccio quoted in Baldelli's Life, p. 115.
[39] Rerum memorandarum, lib. ii. p. 415.
[40]This is particularly noticeable in the miscellaneous collection of
essays called De Remediis utriusque Fortunæ, where opposite views
on a wide variety of topics are expressed with great dexterity.
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