of his ease and elegance of diction; confessing, however, at the same time, that we cannot trace that extreme analogy between the Italian and English tongues which he conceives to existand being persuaded that the latter possesses, among the dead languages, a much greater resemblance to the Greek (if even in the present day the Greek can be said to be a dead language), and, among the living, to the German and Persian; to the latter of which it perhaps makes a nearer approach than to any other, at least so far as relates to grammar and construction; and would offer a still closer similitude, if the Persian were divested of its uncouth connexion with Arabic, and once more suffered to appear in all the original purity and simplicity of the genuine Pehlavi. ་ Ecco la Gallomania: torniamo alla luce dell' Inghilterra e dell' Italia. Non v'è lingua certamente ch' io stimi coltivi e veneri più della mia propria; ma questo appunto mi rende più studioso ed ammira. tore della Italiana, sembrandomi trovare tra le due lingue una somma analogia per la facilità e corrispondenza delle frasi, e spezialmente un' aria di franchezza e libertà nella sublime poesia che eccita in me piacere insieme e meraviglia. • Indi mi volgo all' Arno, E, corsa già l'immensa strada Argiva, Lo spirto ergendo a non tentate imprese, Nuovi fregi aggiungendo aurei immortali; Tosche gemme scoprendo o ignote o rare, Ma se alcuno mi domandasse, da quai motivi incitato, con tanto ardente e fervoroso zelo verso le amene e fiorite lettere, m' inchino sì affettuosamente all' Italia; risponderei altamente: E a chi dunque dovrei inchinarmi se non all' augusto e dominante seggio di Febo, alla madre e nudrice delle scienze e dell' arti, alla risvegliatrice del buon gusto, alla fonte di vaghissime fantasie, e all' inesausta miniera de' tesori dell' antichità e delle dotte memorie d' ingegni Greci e Latini? A voi dunque, eruditi e studiosi miei compatrioti, raccommando di nuovo la Patria, le Muse, l'Italia, e tutti i suoi più degni eccelsi leggiadri ed eloquenti scrittori, storici, critici, e poeti, di cui și sente la fama in un movimento continuo co i secoli.' Vol. i. r. 29. We are next presented with a detailed life of Tiraboschi, in a letter, written shortly after his decease, to the abate Francescantonio Zaccaria, by the abate Carlo Ciocchi, librarian to the duke of Modena, from which we shall extract a few particulars. Girolamo Tiraboschi was born at Bergamo, Dec. 28, 1731, of a highly-esteemed and honourable family. Of the earlier years. of his education M. Ciocchi professes a total ignorance. About the age of fifteen he entered into the society of Jesus, in which he continued till its abolition, and for which, till the day of his death, he preserved a tenderness and affection which often induced him to succour and console such members of the fraternity as stood in want of assistance. Having completed his noviciate, and the studies connected with it, he successively opened schools in several of the most considerable cities of his native country; and afterwards, but in what precise year is uncertain, was elected professor of eloquence in the university of Brera, at Milan-a post which he still held when he was appointed by Francesco III. to the office of chief librarian in the ducal library at Modena, upon the death of M. Granelli, in May 1770, having, at this time, acquired no vulgar fame by a new and highly-improved edition of the Italian and Latin vocabulary of Mandosio, and several Latin and Italian orations which he had publicly recited at Milan. Thus fortunately situated, both for his own benefit and that of the library in which he presided, he applied so closely to the precious mine of literature which was now open to him, that, in the course of the first year alone of his appointment, he compiled the first of the thirteen bulky quarto volumes of his History of Italian Literature,' and compiled it, as he himself freely acknowledges in his dedication, almost entirely from monuments which the library afforded him. Immense as is this entire work, he finished it in eleven yearsa work which, as his biographer fairly observes, on account of the extent of its erudition, of its critical discussions, of its judicious and modest opinions in every species of literature, and of its philosophic spirit, chastised, nevertheless, by reasonings the most correct, and religion the most pure, of which indeed it is full, has obtained the admiration and applause of the whole republic of letters.' It was almost instantly re-printed, and with abundant success, at Florence, Naples, Rome, and again at Modena itself; while two abstracts of it, in French and German, were circulated through these respective countries, and the Italian and foreign journals were filled with panegyrics upon the laborious author. Yet the History of Italian Literature' was not the only work that he compiled within this period of time: during the same space he composed and published the Life of St. Olympia -a Letter upon the historico-apologetic Essay of Lampillasthe Life of Fulvio Testi'-the two first volumes of the Modena library'-and all the articles which, as the contribution of his pen, are inserted in the first twenty-three volumes of the Modena Journal. Nothing, therefore, could exceed the indefatigable perseverance of this able and excellent scholar: but it is not always that an equal degree of merit meets with an equal recompense; for honours, dignities, and privileges seem to have rushed into the lap of Tiraboschi in an over-flowing tide. Hercules III., who had now succeeded to the principality, as an open proof of his esteem and friendship for him, granted him the title of cavalier; made him a councillor of state; declared him president of the ducal library, as well as of the ducal gallery of medals; and, to enable him with greater ease to persevere in his hiterary undertakings, enlarged his salary, and exempted him from all personal attendance upon the library. In the mean while, the Modenese state itself, following the glorious and munificent example of its sovereign, presented him with a diploma of nobility (a copy of which is annexed to the Life before us); added his name to the body of its conservators; admitted him to the enjoyment of all the distinctions, honours, favours, privileges, and immunities possessed by the other nobles of Modena; and accompanied the diploma with a splendid present. In this respect, his native city of Bergamo was not, indeed, less negligent of his merits; a similar diploma testified its sense of his numerous talents and virtues, and in like manner admitted him into the body of its nobles and illustrious councillors. Not rendered indolent by these extraordinary marks of public approbation and estcem, and the exalted rank which he hereby acquired, Tiraboschi still continued to cultivate the boundless. province of letters with indefatigable perseverance. His study seems, indeed, to have constituted almost the whole scene of his existence; for, excepting in the receipt or return of formal visits, to which he was compelled by the very dignities that were heaped upon him and his numerous connexions with foreign literati, and excepting also in the punctilious discharge of the public duties of the Catholic religion, from which he never swerved, he seldom deserted it on any account. In mere indolence he never indulged for a moment, and not often resigned himself to pastimes or relaxations of any kind. His correspondence was immense, and he was not deficient in maintaining it; and the various publications in which he successively engaged, filled up the rest of his hours. Through the earlier part of the evening, alone, he allowed himself to unbend from the severities of profound study, and partook of the conversation of a few select and noble friends. Simplicity of manners, and regularity of life, did not, however, enable him to reach the period of old age. He was attacked in his sixty-second year by a dreadful hæmorrhoidal flux, which was succeeded by a most obstinate retention of urine, while, from a rigid spasm upon the sphincter of the bladder, no catheter could be introduced to afford him relief. In this unhappy state, he submitted to the operation of having the bladder opened; which, nevertheless, afforded him but temporary ease. After lingering, with the utmost degree of patience, and in the full exercise of Christian hope and consolation, for about five days, he died, in the begin ning of June, 1794. His body was deposited in the suburban parochial church of Saints Faustino and Giovita, and the following simple inscription placed over it HIERONYMUS. TIRABOSCHIUS. BERGOMAS. SACERDOS. PIENTISSIMUS. ATESTIÆ. BIBLIOTHECÆ. PRÆFECTUS DE MONIMENTIS. ITALICE LITTERATURÆ OPTIME. MERITUS OBIIT. III. NON. JUN. AN. MDCCXCIV. Without suffering the original preface to delay us, we proceed to notice the substance of the work itself, as presented in the edition before us. It is divided into seven chapters, chronologically arranged. Of these, the first commences with the cleventh century, and treats of the origin of Provençal and Italian poetry; -the second extends from the latter part of the twelfth to the close of the thirteenth century, and is exclusively devoted to the subject of Provençal poetry;-the third exhibits the progress of Italian poetry within the same period;-the fourth continues the history of the latter through the whole of the fourteenth century; the fifth carries it through the fifteenth, but is chiefly confined to the Italian drama;-the sixth extends it generally through the sixteenth;-and the seventh concludes it with the beginning of the eighteenth century. With a taste equally correct as that of Crescembini, because formed upon his model, and a range of learning considerably more extensive, Tiraboschi, in the work before us, has offered a publication of far superior entertainment as well as instruction. The plan of the former did not indeed allow him the latitude to which the latter is peculiarly entitled: and hence, while the Commentaries are confined almost exclusively to the mere mechanism of Italian poetry, to its origin, and the various tastes of those who cultivated it in different æras-the history before us admits an account of their lives, and is animated with a multiplity of anecdotes equally curious and amusing.. The aboriginal question, in the consideration of Italian poetry--to whom we are indebted for the introduction and first use of rhyme the abate deems incapable of solution, and consequently suffers to remain as he found it. Su questo argumento (says he) 'si è scritto molto da molti ed io non potrei rescirne giammai, se tutte volessi esaminare le opinioni diverse di diversi scrittori, e scoprir tutti i falli in cui molti di essi sono caduti.' We think with our author, and altogether approve of his silence; for, while some derive it from the Troubadours; others, from the Germans; others, among whom is Petrarc, from the Sicilians; others, and especially Don Juan Andres, a learned Spanish abbé, whose opinions were warmly controverted by another learned abbé of the same nation, Don Stefano Arteaga, from the Persians; while others again maintain that there is no language in which it has not been occasionally employed, and even pretend to find traces of its casual adoption among the Hebrews; it would be a total waste of words and of time to enter into so unsettled and unprofitable a dispute. From whom the Italians themselves derived the use of what our author denominates harmonic verse, to distinguish it from the metrical or measured verse of the ancient Romans; and at what period they first began to drop the use of Latin, and attempt to poetise in their own vulgar tongue; are questions, however, in which, as more easily capable of solution, our author indulges without reluctance. And here, with a liberality which does credit to his heart, he admits, in opposition to both Muratori and Petrarc, that the art of vernacular rhymes did not originate with the Italians or Sicilians: he asserts that he can find no monument of Italian poetry anterior to the close of the tenth century, while it is incontestable that the Provençals were accustomed to national rhyme considerably before that period, and soon acquired such a degree of progress and dexterity in the poetic art, that, towards the termination of the eleventh century, William IX. count of Poitiers, composed a variety of Provençal poems, which were actually published at the same period in Alsace. Of the Italians, he thinks, with Petrarc, that the Sicilians first acquired the practice; not, however, as before observed, that the latter invented it, but that they were first taught it by resident Provençals or Normans (and he rather inclines to the former) who introduced it from their own country. From the proximity of Catalonia to Provence, it is not surprising that vernacular poetry should have made its appearance as early, or nearly as early, in the former as in the latter territory, or that the Spaniards should hence be as anxious to lay in their claim for the inven tion of this elegant art-elegant at least when refined by succeeding generations-as the Provençals or the Sicilians: but it is truly astonishing that the Normans, a people separated by the whole intervention of France from these more southern provinces, possessing manners, customs, and even a language totally different, should nevertheless have an opportunity of asserting an equal claim with any of them to the merit of the invention; having records of vernacular poetry of a date nearly, if not altogether, as early as the most ancient examples of the Provençals, and rendering it still questionable to which of the two nations the prior introduction or discovery is to be attributed. Incapable of following the author, or the editor, through the whole extent of the history before us, we shall select the ensuing passage as a specimen of the entertainment they have respectively provided. In the sketch of the life of Petrarc, the abate |