INTRODUCTION.

to his friend Linacre, Grocyn goes on to thank Aldus, in the name of English scholars especially for his editions of the Greek classics, and commends his preference for Aristotle to Plato. The rest of this letter, the style of which is praised by Erasmus, is interesting, especially as the only extant composition, except two trifling epigrams, of this once celebrated scholar, but has no further reference to our subject. Aldus prefixed it to Linacre’s translation of Proclus On the Sphere, printed by him in the year 1499², in order (as he says in his dedication of this work to Albertus Pius, prince of Carpi) to make the Italian philosophers ashamed of their bad Latin, and lead them to rival the Englishmen. In the dedication just named Aldus pays a high compliment to Linacre’s scholarship, which may be quoted here, though written later. “Linacre,” he says, “has translated this work with elegance and learning.

“I wish he had also given me his translations of Simplicius on the Physics of Aristotle, and Alexander on the same author’s Meteorology, which he is now bringing into Latin with the greatest care, so that I might send them to you along with Proclus. Although (as I hope) he will eventually provide these and other books most useful in philosophy and medicine; so that from that same Britain, from whence barbarian and unlearned letters once went forth and occupied Italy, and still hold their fortresses, we may receive the liberal arts speaking in learned Latin, and with British helpers putting barbarism to flight, we may recapture our own fortresses, so that the wound may be healed by the same spear that inflicted it.” original: "Qui utinam et Simplicium in Aristotelis Physica, et in ejusdem meteora Alexandrum quos nunc summâ curâ Latinos facit, ad me dedisset, ut et illos unâ cum Proclo ad te mitterem. Quanquam (ut spero) eosque et alios in Philosophiâ, medicinâque perutiles libros aliquando dabit. ut ex eâdem Britanniâ unde olim barbaræ et indoctæ literæ ad nos profectæ Italiam occuparunt, et adhuc arces tenent, latine et docte loquentes bonas artes accipiamus, ac britannicis adjutoribus fugatâ barbarie, arces nostras recipiamus, ut eâdem hastâ sanetur a quâ illatum est vulnus."

He also implies that an intimate friendship existed between Linacre and the prince of Carpi, on which account the work will be more welcome to his patron.

The Aldine editio princeps first printed edition of Aristotle contains also an interesting allusion to Linacre, which seems to shew that he had something to do with the editing or correcting of that great