Angelo Poliziano and his Humanist Fans

Abstract

The following source contains the concluding passages of the fourth book of Angelo Poliziano’s Letters (Epistulae 4, 9–13), all of them from his pen, written for lesserknown 15th-century humanists. Two of them sent him their poems, the third one was an enthusiastic supporter of the cause of humanism, and the fourth was one of the first publishers of Poliziano’s works. The lesson to be drawn from these letters is that a true orator cannot do without eloquence and elegance in the face of an almost unknown correspondent, and that even Poliziano’s writings, which are ’trifles’, could be the model for a textbook on epistolary writing.