The Florentines had the good taste not to crown their famous humanists till after death.Carlo Aretino and Leonardo Aretino were thus crowned;the eulogy of the first was pronounced by Matteo Palmieri, of the latter by Giannozzo Manetti, before the members of the council and the whole people, the orator standing at the head of the bier, on which the corpse lay clad in a silken robe.Carlo Aretino was further honoured by a tomb in Santa Croce, which is among the most beautiful in the whole course of the Renaissance.
Universities and Schools The influence of antiquity on culture, of which we have now to speak, presupposes that the new learning had gained possession of the universities.This was so, but by no means to the extent and with the results which might have been expected.
Few of the Italian universities show themselves in their full vigor till the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the increase of wealth rendered a more systematic care for education possible.At first there were generally three sorts of professorships--one for civil law, another for canonical law, the third for medicine; in course of time professorships of rhetoric, of philosophy, and of astronomy were added, the last commonly, though not always, identical with astrology.The salaries varied greatly in different cases.Sometimes a capital sum was paid down.With the spread of culture, competition became so active that the different universities tried to entice away distinguished teachers from one another, under which circumstances Bologna is said to have sometimes devoted the half of its public income (20,000 ducats) to the university.The appointments were as a rule made only for a certain time, sometimes for only half a year, so that the teachers were forced to lead a wandering life, like actors.Appointments for life were, however, not unknown.Sometimes the promise was exacted not to teach elsewhere what had already been taught at one place.There were also voluntary, unpaid professors.