ABSTRACT
Gianfrancesco Pico .to Pietro Bembo, greeting:-I was in doubt, Bembo, whether I ought to agree or disagree with you not only in your imitation of ancient writers but also in your opinions on imitation, for I find that the ancients themselves who are proposed as worthy of imitation not only differ from one another in regard to this but also have changed their minds from time to time, and the arguments were so nearly equal on both sides that it was difficult to decide which had the advantage. Indeed, such was my state until I thought it over more carefully, and then I decided that there should be some imitation but not continual, and that all good writers should be imitated, not some one exclusively nor wholly but just as each one thinks safe. And so many things seem to support this judgment that I think it will be easy to oppose you. Therefore I shall try by what argument I can if not to get judgment against you (for who would do this against a friend and such a friend as Bembo ?) , at least to make you feel perchance that the case is not all in your favor.
