ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Without grants and encouragement from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, The American Council of Learned Societies, The American Philosophical Society, the Fulbright Commission, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (I Tatti), and the University of Rochester, it would not have been possible to spend the years in Florence and its wondrous archives. A single book hardly justifies such kind support, but I hope the next volume will help to right the balance between my effort and their generosity.

Also, I want to express my debt to the late Professor John LaMonte of the History Department, University of Pennsylvania, who instructed me in the joys of medieval history, and to Professor William McDermott, Department of Classics of the same university, whose rigor of inquiry was bracing, inspiring, and not a little intimidating. His style of quest was always a model. Finally, I wish to thank Professor Hans Baron of The Newberry Library because he was the first to listen.

Marvin B. Becker

University of Rochester