The Italians and their schools

Abstract

Italy inherited vast cultural organization of Roman Empire, which in turn had absorbed and then transmitted vital variety of Hellenic genius. Greece exerted and continued to exert that power of intellectual curiosity and philosophical analysis, which formulated ideals of self-control, virtue, and grace of expression both verbal and physical. The springs of their and thought moved freely in every direction, mobile, subtle, living, joyous (Laurie, p. 301). Greek intelligence clothed in charm of winged words presented itself in most captivating form as Horace fully recognized (Epp. II. i. 139-167, especially 156-157). But ancient Roman culture based upon domestic morals and organization of law and order emphasized the personality of man, his selfconscious worth as an individual, his supremacy over conditions of his own life (Laurie, p. 301). As Romans conquered world of nations through force of military skill and world of nature by their vigorous and practical genius, so in realm of creative faculty and exercise of imagination Roman mind showed its universal masterfulness by its steady conquest of literature and arts. These borrowed gifts of Greeks were fitted into structure of Roman in an ordered and stately fashion quite in Roman way. All native Roman gifts along with those from Greece, thus blended and reshaped, were heritage handed down by Romans to Middle Ages, as stated with amazing justness by Vergil (Aeneid VI. 835-853). When Italian universities were founded from eleventh to six-