ABSTRACT
In 1796 interest in William Roscoe's biography of Lorenzo was lively. It brought praise from a satirist's anonymous publication, Pursuits of Literature, where in 'Dialogue the Third' he inserted a passage drawing attention to Roscoe's work. Florence's culture in the Renaissance, as Roscoe understood it, was based on Lorenzo de' Medici, who became his personal model. Seemingly in 1819 Washington Irving, who had been living in Liverpool for several years, was impressed on seeing Roscoe in the Athenaeum, and perceptively made the parallel. Roscoe appears to have modelled himself consciously on Lorenzo: as a collector, patron of the arts, friend of artists and scholars. His ambition was to make Liverpool Great Britain's second city; he was aware of the competition from thrusting Manchester and Birmingham. On retirement Roscoe took residence in Gray's Inn, London, with the intention of becoming a barrister, but this he abandoned at the end of Hilary Term because he so greatly missed his family and Liverpool.
