[62]. Lapo di Castiglionchio gave Petrarch a copy of the _Institutes_
in 1350. (For further details see n. [72].)
[63]. How very much like a prophecy this reads! But it was a most
natural exclamation for the “first modern scholar,” who stood at the
threshold of the Renaissance, when so many of the classics had as yet
to be discovered.
In a footnote of the Latin edition (Vol. III, p. 278), Fracassetti
informs us that in one of the codices the following remark is added:
“This turned out to be true, for the complete Quintilian was found
at Constance.” This refers to the discovery of a complete manuscript
of Quintilian in 1416. The Florentine scholar Poggio Bracciolini,
while attending the Council of Constance in the capacity of apostolic
secretary, found this copy in an old tower of the monastery of
St. Gall. It is, perhaps, the same as the one now preserved at
Florence--the Codex Laurentianus.
The story of the discovery is well told in a letter by Poggio. This
letter gives such a faithful picture of the enthusiasm of the
humanists, and is of such great interest that, although rather a long
letter, it has been thought best to give a translation of it here in
full (from the Latin text of Jacques Lefant, _Poggiana_, Part IV, pp.
309-13):