The system supervised by Vittorino included not only the acquisition of scholarship, but also training in manly sports and the cultivation of the moral character.
Many of the noblest Italians were his pupils.

Ghiberto da Correggio, Battista Pallavicini, Taddeo Manfredi of Faenza, Gabbriello da Cremona, Francesco da Castiglione, Niccolo Perrotti, together with the Count of Montefeltro, lived in Vittorino's house, associating with the poorer students whom the benevolent philosopher instructed for the love of learning.

Ambrogio Camaldolese in a letter to Niccolo Niccoli gives this animated picture of the Mantuan school: 'I went again to visit Vittorino and to see his Greek books.

He came to meet me with the children of the prince, two sons and a daughter of seven years.

The eldest boy is eleven, the younger five.