Editing Coluccio Salutati (section)

==Cultural achievements==

Coluccio's cultural achievements are perhaps even greater than his political ones. A skilled writer and orator, Coluccio drew heavily upon the classical tradition and developed a powerful prose style based on the Latin of [[Virgil]] and [[Cicero]]: "I have always believed," Salutati wrote, "I must imitate [[Classical Antiquity|antiquity]] not simply to reproduce it, but in order to produce something new".<ref>Lauro Martines, ''The Social World of the Florentine Humanists, 1390–1460'' :(Princeton) 1963:25.</ref> In this sense his own view of humanism was broader-based than the [[antiquarian]]ism of the generation of humanists he fostered.<ref>Observed in Greenblatt 2011:</ref>

An admiring correspondent of [[Petrarch]], he spent much of his salary on amassing a collection of 800 books, slightly less than his contemporary [[Niccolò de' Niccoli]].<ref name="Brydges1821">{{cite book|last=Brydges|first=Sir Egerton|title=Res Literariæ: Bibliographical and Critical, for Oct. 1820|url=https://archive.org/details/resliteraribibl01brydgoog|access-date=14 February 2018|year=1821|publisher=C. Beranger|page=[https://archive.org/details/resliteraribibl01brydgoog/page/n285 278]}}</ref> He also pursued classical manuscripts, making a number of important discoveries, the most important being [[Cicero]]'s lost ''Letters to his Friends'' (''[[Epistulae ad Familiares]]''), which showed Cicero as a defender of republican liberty.<ref name="Halvorson2014">{{cite book|last=Halvorson|first=Michael|title=The Renaissance: All That Matters|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gHtQBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT25|access-date=14 February 2018|date=29 August 2014|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|isbn=9781444192964|page=25}}</ref>  Coluccio also did important studies of history, tying Florence's origin not to the [[Roman Empire]] but to the [[Roman Republic]].

He promoted the work of younger humanists such as [[Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini]], [[Niccolò de' Niccoli]], [[Leonardo Bruni]] and [[Pier Paolo Vergerio the Elder|Pier Paolo Vergerio]].<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Coluccio di Pierio di Salutati}}</ref>

He also brought the Byzantine scholar [[Manuel Chrysoloras]] to Florence in 1397 to teach one of the first courses in Greek since the end of the Roman Empire. After [[Boethius]], few Westerners spoke or read Greek. Many ancient Greek works of science and philosophy were not available in Latin translation. By Salutati's time, a few Latin texts of Aristotle had arrived in Europe via Muslim Spain and Sicily. These texts, however, had been translated from Arabic, rather than directly from the Greek. By bringing Chrysoloras to Florence, Salutati made it possible for a select group of scholars (including Bruni and Vergerio) to read Aristotle and Plato in the original ancient Greek.<ref>Griffiths, Gordon, Hankins, James, and Thompson, David. ''The Humanism of Leonardo Bruni''. Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies. 1987. Page 23</ref>