21., remarks, 1. That it appears strange the Florentines should
have {36} chose a _Jew_ as an ambassador; 2. That his surname was
Bartolomeo, which could not have been borne by a Jew; 3. That the
Florentine historian Poggio speaks of Valori as having been one of the
principal members of the Council of Florence. The Abbe thence justly
concludes, that the ambassador could not have been a Jew; and it is
extraordinary that Daru, after such a conclusive argument, should have
admitted the term _Jew_ into his text. But the truth is, that this
writer (like many others of great reputation) preferred blindly
following the text of Sanuto, as printed by Muratori[2], to the
trouble of consulting any early manuscripts. It happens, however, that
in a manuscript copy of these Orations of Mocenigo, written certainly
earlier than the period of Sanuto, and preserved in the British
Museum, MS. _Add._ 12, 121., the true reading of the passage may be
found thus:--"Fo mandato Bartolomio Valori, _homo richo_, el qual
viveva de cambij.
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