DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0181
Ch. III.
THROUGH ITALY.
153
The love of knowledge, the partiality to learned
ease here alluded to, was probably attributed to
the Chief, because in some degree characteristic
of the people ; so much at least we should infer
from a similar passage in Homer or in Virgil.
During the various revolutions that followed
the fall and dismemberment of the Roman em-
pire, Padua, in the intervals of repose that fol-
lowed each successive shock, endeavored to
repair the shattered temple of the Muses, and
to revive the sacred fire of knowledge. Some
success always attended these laudable exertions,
and a beam of science occasionally broke through
the gloom of war and of barbarism. At length,
the University was founded about the end of
the eleventh century, and its foundation was to
Padua the commencement of an era of glory
and of prosperity. Its fame soon spread over
Europe, and attracted to its schools prodigious
numbers of students from all, even the most
remote countries; while the reputation of its
professors was so great, and their station so
honorable, that even nobles, at a time when
nobles were considered as beings of a more
elevated nature, were ambitious to be enrolled
in their number. Eighteen thousand students
are said to have crowded the schools during
ages; and amidst the multitude were seen, not
THROUGH ITALY.
153
The love of knowledge, the partiality to learned
ease here alluded to, was probably attributed to
the Chief, because in some degree characteristic
of the people ; so much at least we should infer
from a similar passage in Homer or in Virgil.
During the various revolutions that followed
the fall and dismemberment of the Roman em-
pire, Padua, in the intervals of repose that fol-
lowed each successive shock, endeavored to
repair the shattered temple of the Muses, and
to revive the sacred fire of knowledge. Some
success always attended these laudable exertions,
and a beam of science occasionally broke through
the gloom of war and of barbarism. At length,
the University was founded about the end of
the eleventh century, and its foundation was to
Padua the commencement of an era of glory
and of prosperity. Its fame soon spread over
Europe, and attracted to its schools prodigious
numbers of students from all, even the most
remote countries; while the reputation of its
professors was so great, and their station so
honorable, that even nobles, at a time when
nobles were considered as beings of a more
elevated nature, were ambitious to be enrolled
in their number. Eighteen thousand students
are said to have crowded the schools during
ages; and amidst the multitude were seen, not