Landinus, Christopher

, an Italian scholar, philosopher, and poet, was born at Florence in 1424. After having pursued his elementary studies at Volterra, he was constrained, in obedience to his father, to apply to jurisprudence; but by the favour of Cosmo and Peter de Medici, which he had the happiness to obtain, he was enabled to devote his time to philosophy and polite literature. He became particularly partial to the Platonic philosophy, and was one of the principal ornaments of the academy which Cosmo de Medici had founded. In 1457, he was appointed professor of the belles lettres at Florence, and considerably enlarged the reputation of that seminary. About the same time he was chosen by Peter de Medici to instruct his two sons, Julius, and the afterwards celebrated Lorenzo. Between Landinus and Lorenzo a reciprocal attachment took place; and such was the opinion that the master entertained of the judgment of his pupil, that he is said frequently to have submitted his works to his perusal and correction. Landinus became, in his old age, secretary to the seignory of Florence; but in his sixty-third year, he was relieved from the laborious part of this office, and allowed to retain his title and emoluments. He then retired to a residence at Prato Vecchio, from which his ancestors sprung. There he employed the remainder of his days in study, and died in 1504. He left several Latin poems, some of which have been printed, and some remain in manuscript. His notes on Virgil, Horace, and Dante, are much esteemed. He translated into Italian Pliny’s “-Natural History,” and published some learned dissertations both in Latin and Italian. It is said that he was rewarded for his critical labours on Dante by the donation of a villa, on the hill of Casentino, in the vicinity of Florence, which he enjoyed under the. sanction of a public decree. His edition of Horace was published in 1482. His philosophical opinions appear in his “Disputatipnes | Cfuaaldulenses,” a work of which Mr. Roscoe has given an ample account. It was first published without a date; but, according to De Bure, in 1480, folio, and reprinted at Strasburgh in 1508. Landinus’s fame, however, rests chiefly on the advances he made in classical criticism. ¹