Poliziano was now known as the "Homeric youth." It was not long before he was hailed the king of Italian scholars and the literary genius of his time.

When he was but thirty he became professor of Greek and Latin in the University of Florence, and drew to his feet students from all parts of Europe.

John Reuchlin hastened from Germany, William Grocyn from the shades of Oxford, and from the same seat of learning the mighty Thomas Linacre, later to found the Royal College of Physicians.

Lorenzo's sons, Piero and Giovanni, were for a time his pupils, but their mother took them away.

Poliziano was as vicious as the typical men of his time and the prudent Clarice knew it.
[Footnote 13: John Argyropoulos, who was born at Constantinople in 1416, was one of the first teachers of Greek in Italy, where he was long a guest of Palla degli Strozzi at Padua.