ABSTRACT
In the seven decades since William Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de' Medici first appeared, it had progressed from becoming the fashion, as his son Henry could write to becoming a classic, and no doubt it was given as a prize to an examinee who excelled in the humanities in Trinity College Dublin. Roscoe cannot be faulted in his strong assertions of the importance of Lorenzo for promoting his own Florentine vernacular. Italian was not 'sinking into and neglect' while 'a daily proficiency was made in classical literature', but equal respect should be given. The editor of the first four volumes of Poliziano's Latin letters comments that Roscoe's Life 'includes what remains the best general introduction to Poliziano in English' and Poliziano is second only to Lorenzo in Roscoe's Pantheon. Capitolo IV is a song of praise; Lorenzo recreates from his source a beautiful Christian hymn in terzarima which Roscoe refashions with elaborate versification.
