Tacitus and Bracciolini

made by Tacitus. V. The spirit of the Renaissance shown in both parts of the Annals. VI. That both parts proceeded from the same hand shown in the writer pretending to know the feelings of the characters in the narrative. VII. The contradictions in the two parts of the Annals and in the works of Bracciolini. VIII. The Second Florence MS. a forgery. IX. Conclusion. BOOK THE FIRST.

TACITUS.

"Allusiones saepe subobscurae ... mihi conjectandi aliquando, et aliquando exploratae veritatis fundamento innitendi materiam praebuere." DE TONELLIS. Praef. ad Poggii Epist.

TACITUS AND BRACCIOLINI.

CHAPTER I

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TACITUS COULD BARELY HAVE WRITTEN THE ANNALS.

I. From the chronological point of view.--II. The silence preserved about that work by all writers till the fifteenth century.--III. The age of the MSS. containing the Annals.

I. The Annals and the History of Tacitus are like two houses in ruins: dismantled of their original proportions they perpetuate the splendour of R