Chapter V: General Disintegration of Belief (5)

[589] Comp. Petrarch’s letter from the earth to illustrious shades below. _Opera_, p. 704 sqq. See also p. 372 in the work _De rep. optime administranda_: ‘Sic esse doleo, sed sic est.’

[590] A burlesque picture of the fanatical purism prevalent in Rome is given by Jovian. Pontanus in his _Antonius_.

[591] _Hadriani (Cornetani) Card. S. Chrysogoni de sermone latino liber_, especially the introduction. He finds in Cicero and his contemporaries Latinity in its absolute form (_an sich_). The same Codrus Urceus, who found in Homer the sum of all science (see above, p. 249, note 1) says (_Opp._ ed. 1506, fol. lxv.): ‘Quidquid temporibus meis aut vidi aut studui libens omne illud Cicero mihi felici dedit omine,’ and goes so far as to say in another poem (_ibid._): ‘Non habet huic similem doctrinae Graecia mater.’

[592] Paul. Jov. _Elogia doct. vir._ p. 187 sqq., speaking of Bapt. Pius.

[593] Paul Jov. _Elogia_, on Naugerius. Their ideal, he says, was: ‘Aliquid in stylo proprium, quod peculiarem ex certâ notâ mentis effigiem referret, ex naturae genio effinxisse.’ Politian, when in a hurry, objected to write his letters in Latin. Comp. Raph. Volat. _Comment. urban._ l. xxi. Politian to Cortesius (_Epist._ lib. viii. ep. 16): ‘Mihi vero longe honestior tauri facies, aut item leonis, quam simiae videtur;’ to which Cortesius replied: ‘Ego malo esse assecla et simia Ciceronis quam alumnus.’ For Pico’s opinion on the Latin language, see the letter quoted above, p. 202.

[594] Paul. Jov. _Dialogus de viris literis illustribus_, in Tiraboschi, ed. Venez. 1766, tom. vii. p. iv. It is well known that Giovio was long anxious to undertake the great work which Vasari accomplished. In the dialogue mentioned above it is foreseen and deplored that Latin would now altogether lose its supremacy.

[595] In the ‘Breve’ of 1517 to Franc. de’ Rosi, composed by Sadoleto, in Roscoe, _Leone X._ ed. Bossi, vi. p. 172.

[596] Gasp. Veronens. _Vita Pauli II._ in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1031. The plays of Seneca and Latin translations of Greek dramas were also performed.

[597] At Ferrara, Plautus was played chiefly in the Italian adaptations of Collenuccio, the younger Guarino, and others, and principally for the sake of the plots. Isabella Gonzaga took the liberty of finding him dull. For Latin comedy in general, see R. Peiper in Fleckeisen and Masius, _Neue Jahrb. für Phil. u. Pädag._, Lpzg. 1874, xx. 131-138, and _Archiv für Literaturgesch_. v. 541 sqq. On Pomp. Laetus, see _Sabellici Opera_, Epist. l. xi. fol. 56 sqq., and below, at the close of Part III.

[598] Comp. Burckhardt. _Gesch. der Renaissance in Italien_, 38-41.

[599] For what follows see _Deliciae poetarum Italorum_; Paul. Jov. _Elogia_; Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, _De poetis nostri temporis_; and the Appendices to Roscoe, _Leone X._ ed. Bossi.

[600] There are two new editions of the poem, that of Pingaud (Paris, 1872), and that of Corradini (Padua, 1874). In 1874 two Italian translations also appeared by G. B. Gaudo and A. Palesa. On the _Africa_, compare L. Geiger: _Petrarca_, pp. 122 sqq., and p. 270, note 7.

[601] Filippo Villani, _Vite_, ed. Galetti, p. 16.

[602] _Franc. Aleardi Oratio in laudem Franc. Sfortiae_, in Marat. xxv. col. 384. In comparing Scipio with Caesar, Guarino and Cyriacus Anconitanus held the latter, Poggio (_Opera_, epp. fol. 125, 134 sqq.) the former, to be the greater. For Scipio and Hannibal in the miniatures of Attavante, see Vasari, iv. 41. _Vita di Fiesole_. The names of both used for Picinino and Sforza. See p. 99. There were great disputes as to the relative greatness of the two. Shepherd-Tonelli, i. 262 sqq. and Rosmini: Guarino, ii. 97-111.

[603] The brilliant exceptions, where rural life is treated realistically, will also be mentioned below.

[604] Printed in Mai, _Spicilegium Romanum_, vol. viii. pp. 488-504; about 500 hexameter verses. Pierio Valeriano followed out the myth in his poetry. See his _Carpio_, in the _Deliciae poetarum Italorum_. The frescoes of Brusasorci in the Pal. Murari at Verona represent the subject of the _Sarca_.

[605] Newly edited and translated by Th. A. Fassnacht in _Drei Perlen der neulateinischen Poesie_. Leutkirch and Leipzig, 1875. See further, Goethe’s _Werke_ (Hempel’sche Ausgabe), vol. xxxii. pp. 157 and 411.

[606] _De sacris diebus._

[607] E.g. in his eighth eclogue.

[608] There are two unfinished and unprinted Sforziads, one by the elder, the other by the younger Filelfo. On the latter, see Favre, _Mélanges d’Hist. Lit._ i. 156; on the former, see Rosmini, _Filelfo_, ii. 157-175. It is said to be 12,800 lines long, and contains the passage: ‘The sun falls in love with Bianca.’

[609] Roscoe, _Leone X._ ed. Bossi, viii. 184. A poem in a similar style, xii. 130. The poem of Angilbert on the Court of Charles the Great curiously reminds us of the Renaissance. Comp. Pertz. _Monum._ ii.

[610] Strozzi, _Poetae_, p. 31 sqq. ‘Caesaris Borgiae ducis epicedium.’

[611]

‘Pontificem addiderat, flammis lustralibus omneis
Corporis ablutum labes, Dis Juppiter ipsis,’ etc.

[612] This was Ercole II. of Ferrara, b. April 4, 1508, probably either shortly before or shortly after the composition of this poem. ‘Nascere, magne puer, matri expectate patrique,’ is said near the end.

[613] Comp. the collections of the _Scriptores_ by Schardius, Freher, &c., and see above p. 126, note 1.

[614] Uzzano, see _Archiv._ iv. i. 296. Macchiavelli, _i Decennali_. The life of Savonarola, under the title _Cedrus Libani_, by Fra Benedetto. _Assedio di Piombino_, Murat. xxv. We may quote as a parallel the _Teuerdank_ and other northern works in rhyme (new ed. of that by Haltaus, Quedlinb. and Leipzig, 1836). The popular historical songs of the Germans, which were produced in great abundance in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, may be compared with these Italian poems.

[615] We may remark of the _Coltivazione_ of L. Alamanni, written in Italian ‘versi sciolti,’ that all the really poetical and enjoyable passages are directly or indirectly borrowed from the ancients (an old ed., Paris, 1540; new ed. of the works of A., 2 vols., Florence, 1867).

[616] E.g. by C. G. Weise, Leipzig, 1832. The work, divided into twelve books, named after the twelve constellations, is dedicated to Hercules II. of Ferrara. In the dedication occur the remarkable words: ‘Nam quem alium patronum in totâ Italiâ invenire possum, cui musae cordisunt, qui carmen sibi oblatum aut intelligat, aut examine recto expendere sciat?’ Palingenius uses ‘Juppiter’ and ‘Deus’ indiscriminately.

[617] L. B. Alberti’s first comic poem, which purported to be by an author Lepidus, was long considered as a work of antiquity.

[618] In this case (see below, p. 266, note 2) of the introduction to Lucretius, and of Horace, _Od._ iv. 1.

[619] The invocation of a patron saint is an essentially pagan undertaking, as has been noticed at p. 57. On a more serious occasion, comp. Sannazaro’s Elegy: ‘In festo die divi Nazarii martyris.’ Sann. _Elegiae_, 1535, fol. 166 sqq.

[620]

Si satis ventos tolerasse et imbres
Ac minas fatorum hominumque fraudes
Da Pater tecto salientem avito
Cernere fumum!

[621] _Andr. Naugerii, Orationes duae carminaque aliquot_, Venet. 1530, 4^o. The few ‘Carmina’ are to be found partly or wholly in the _Deliciae_. On N. and his death, see Pier. Val. _De inf. lit._ ed. Menken, 326 sqq.

[622] Compare Petrarch’s greeting to Italy, written more than a century earlier (1353) in _Petr. Carmina Minora_, ed. Rossetti, ii. pp. 266 sqq.

[623] To form a notion of what Leo X. could swallow, see the prayer of Guido Postumo Silvestri to Christ, the Virgin, and all the Saints, that they would long spare this ‘numen’ to earth, since heaven had enough of such already. Printed in Roscoe, _Leone X._ ed. Bossi, v. 337.

[624] Molza’s _Poesie volgari e Latine_, ed. by Pierantonio Serassi, Bergamo 1747.

[625] Boccaccio, _Vita di Dante_, p. 36.

[626] Sannazaro ridicules a man who importuned him with such forgeries: ‘Sint vetera haec aliis, mî nova semper erunt.’ (Ad Rufum, _Opera_, 1535, fol. 41 _a_.)

[627] ‘De mirabili urbe Venetiis’ (_Opera_, fol. 38 b):

Viderat Adriacis Venetam Neptunus in undis
Stare urbem et toto ponere jura mari:
Nunc mihi Tarpejas quantum vis Juppiter arceis
Objice et illa tui mœnia Martis ait,
Si pelago Tybrim praefers, urbem aspice utramque
Illam homines dices, hanc posuisse deos.

[628] _Lettere de’principi_, i. 88, 98.

[629] Malipiero, _Ann. Veneti, Arch. Stor._ vii. i. p. 508. At the end we read, in reference to the bull as the arms of the Borgia:

‘Merge, Tyber, vitulos animosas ultor in undas;
Bos cadat inferno victima magna Jovi!’

[630] On the whole affair, see Roscoe, _Leone X._, ed. Bossi, vii. 211, viii. 214 sqq. The printed collection, now rare, of these _Coryciana_ of the year 1524 contains only the Latin poems; Vasari saw another book in the possession of the Augustinians in which were sonnets. So contagious was the habit of affixing poems, that the group had to be protected by a railing, and even hidden altogether. The change of Goritz into ‘Corycius senex’ is suggested by Virgil, _Georg._ iv. 127. For the miserable end of the man at the sack of Rome, see Pierio Valeriano, _De infelic. literat._ ed. Menken, p. 369.

[631] The work appeared first in the _Coryciana_, with introductions by Silvanus and Corycius himself; also reprinted in the Appendices to Roscoe, _Leone X._ ed. Bossi, and in the _Deliciae_. Comp. Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, speaking of Arsillus. Further, for the great number of the epigrammatists, see Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, l. c. One of the most biting pens was Marcantonio Casanova. Among the less known, Jo. Thomas Muscanius (see _Deliciae_) deserves mention. On Casanova, see Pier. Valer. _De infel. lit._ ed. Menken, p. 376 sqq.; and Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, p. 142 sqq., who says of him: ‘Nemo autem eo simplicitate ac innocentiâ vitae melior;’ Arsillus (l. c.) speaks of his ‘placidos sales.’ Some few of his poems in the _Coryciana_, J. 3 _a_ sqq. L. 1 _a_, L. 4 _b_.

[632] Marin Sanudo, in the _Vite de’duchi di Venezia_, Murat. xii. quotes them regularly.

[633] Scardeonius, _De urb. Patav. antiq._ (Graev. thes. vi. 11, col. 270), names as the inventor a certain Odaxius of Padua, living about the middle of the fifteenth century. Mixed verses of Latin and the language of the country are found much earlier in many parts of Europe.

[634] It must not be forgotten that they were very soon printed with both the old Scholia and modern commentaries.

[635] Ariosto, _Satira_, vii. Date 1531.

[636] Of such children we meet with several, yet I cannot give an instance in which they were demonstrably so treated. The youthful prodigy Giulio Campagnola was not one of those who were forced with an ambitious object. Comp. Scardeonius, _De urb. Patav. antiq._ in Graev. thes. vi. 3, col. 276. For the similar case of Cecchino Bracci, d. 1445 in his fifteenth year, comp. Trucchi, _Poesie Ital. inedite_, iii. p. 229. The father of Cardano tried ‘memoriam artificialem instillare,’ and taught him, when still a child, the astrology of the Arabians. See Cardanus, _De propria vita_ cap. 34. Manoello may be added to the list, unless we are to take his expression, ‘At the age of six years I am as good as at eighty,’ as a meaningless phrase. Comp. _Litbl. des Orients_, 1843, p. 21.

[637] Bapt. Mantuan. _De calamitatibus temporum_, l. i.

[638] Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, _Progymnasma adversus literas et literatos_. _Opp._ ed. Basil. 1580, ii. 422-445. Dedications 1540-1541; the work itself addressed to Giov. Franc. Pico, and therefore finished before 1533.

[639] Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, _Hercules_. The dedication is a striking evidence of the first threatening movements of the Inquisition.

[640] He passed, as we have seen, for the last protector of the scholars.

[641] _De infelicitate literatorum._ On the editions, see above, p. 86, note 4. Pier. Val., after leaving Rome, lived long in a good position as professor at Padua. At the end of his work he expresses the hope that Charles V. and Clement VII. would bring about a better time for the scholars.

[642] Comp. Dante, _Inferno_, xiii. 58 sqq., especially 93 sqq., where Petrus de Vineis speaks of his own suicide.

[643] Pier. Valer. pp. 397 sqq., 402. He was the uncle of the writer.

[644] Cœlii Calcagnini, _Opera_, ed. Basil. 1544, p. 101, in the Seventh Book of the Epistles, No. 27, letter to Jacob Ziegler. Comp. Pierio Val. _De inf. lit._ ed. Menken, p. 369 sqq.

[645] _M. Ant. Sabellici Opera_, Epist. l. xi. fol. 56. See, too, the biography in the _Elogia_ of Paolo Giovio, p. 76 sqq. The former appeared separately at Strasburg in 1510, under the title Sabellicus: _Vita Pomponii Laeti_.

[646] Jac. Volaterran. _Diar. Rom._ in Muratori. xxiii. col. 161, 171, 185. _Anecdota literaria_, ii. pp. 168 sqq.

[647] Paul. Jov. _De Romanis piscibus_, cap. 17 and 34.

[648] Sadoleti, Epist. 106, of the year 1529.

[649] Anton. Galatei, Epist. 10 and 12, in Mai, _Spicileg. Rom._ vol. viii.

[650] This was the case even before the middle of the century. Comp. Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, _De poetis nostri temp._ ii.

[651] Luigi Bossi, _Vita di Cristoforo Colombo_, in which there is a sketch of earlier Italian journeys and discoveries, p. 91 sqq.

[652] See on this subject a treatise by Pertz. An inadequate account is to be found in Æneas Sylvius, _Europae status sub Frederico III. Imp._ cap. 44 (in Freher’s _Scriptores_, ed. 1624, vol. ii. p. 87). On Æn. S. see Peschel o.c. 217 sqq.

[653] Comp. O. Peschel, _Geschichte der Erdkunde_, 2nd edit., by Sophus Ruge, Munich, 1877, p. 209 sqq. _et passim_.

[654] _Pii II. Comment._ l. i. p. 14. That he did not always observe correctly, and sometimes filled up the picture from his fancy, is clearly shown, e.g., by his description of Basel. Yet his merit on the whole is nevertheless great. On the description of Basel see G. Voigt; Enea Silvio, i. 228; on E. S. as Geographer, ii. 302-309. Comp. i. 91 sqq.

[655] In the sixteenth century, Italy continued to be the home of geographical literature, at a time when the discoverers themselves belonged almost exclusively to the countries on the shores of the Atlantic. Native geography produced in the middle of the century the great and remarkable work of Leandro Alberti, _Descrizione di tutta l’Italia_, 1582. In the first half of the sixteenth century, the maps in Italy were in advance of those of other countries. See Wieser: _Der Portulan des Infanten Philipp II. von Spanien_ in _Sitzungsberichte der Wien. Acad. Phil. Hist. Kl._ Bd. 82 (1876), pp. 541 sqq. For the different Italian maps and voyages of discovery, see the excellent work of Oscar Peschel: _Abhandl. zur Erd-und Völkerkunde_ (Leipzig, 1878). Comp. also, _inter alia_: Berchet, _Il planisfero di Giovanni Leandro del’anno 1452 fa-simil nella grandezza del’ original Nota illustrativa_, 16 S. 4^o. Venezia, 1879. Comp. Voigt, ii. 516; and G. B. de Rossi, _Piante iconogrofiche di Roma anteriori al secolo XVI._ Rome, 1879. For Petrarch’s attempt to draw out a map of Italy, comp. Flavio Biondo: _Italia illustrata_ (ed. Basil.), p. 352 sqq.; also _Petr. Epist. var. LXI._ ed. Fracass. iii. 476. A remarkable attempt at a map of Europe, Asia and Africa is to be found on the obverse of a medal of Charles IV. of Anjou, executed by Francesco da Laurana in 1462.

[656] Libri, _Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques en Italie_. 4 vols. Paris, 1838.

[657] To pronounce a conclusive judgment on this point, the growth of the habit of collecting observations, in other than the mathematical sciences, would need to be illustrated in detail. But this lies outside the limits of our task.

[658] Libri, op. cit. ii. p. 174 sqq. See also Dante’s treatise, _De aqua et terra_; and W. Schmidt, _Dante’s Stellung in der Geschichte der Cosmographie_, Graz, 1876. The passages bearing on geography and natural science from the _Tesoro_ of Brunetto Latini are published separately: _Il trattato della Sfera di S. Br. L._, by Bart. Sorio (Milan, 1858), who has added B. L.’s system of historical chronology.

[659] Scardeonius, _De urb. Patav. antiq._ in _Graevii Thesaur. ant. Ital._ tom. vi. pars iii. col. 227. A. died in 1312 during the investigation; his statue was burnt. On Giov. Sang. see op. cit. col. 228 sqq. Comp. on him, Fabricius, _Bibl. Lat._ s. v. Petrus de Apono. Sprenger in _Esch. u. Gruber_, i. 33. He translated (a. 1292-1293) astrological works of Abraham ibn Esra, printed 1506.

[660] See below, part vi. chapter 2.

[661] See the exaggerated complaints of Libri, op. cit. ii. p. 258 sqq. Regrettable as it may be that a people so highly gifted did not devote more of its strength to the natural sciences, we nevertheless believe that it pursued, and in part attained, still more important ends.

[662] On the studies of the latter in Italy, comp. the thorough investigation by C. Malagola in his work on Codro Urceo (Bologna, 1878, cap. vii. 360-366).

[663] Italians also laid out botanical gardens in foreign countries, e.g. Angelo, of Florence, a contemporary of Petrarch, in Prag. Friedjung: _Carl IV._ p. 311, note 4.

[664] _Alexandri Braccii descriptio horti Laurentii Med._, printed as Appendix No. 58 to Roscoe’s _Life of Lorenzo_. Also to be found in the Appendices to Fabroni’s _Laurentius_.

[665] _Mondanarii Villa_, printed in the _Poemata aliquot insignia illustr. poetar. recent._

[666] On the zoological garden at Palermo under Henry VI., see Otto de S. Blasio ad a. 1194. That of Henry I. of England in the park of Woodstock (Guliel. Malmes. p. 638) contained lions, leopards, camels, and a porcupine, all gifts of foreign princes.

[667] As such he was called, whether painted or carved in stone, ‘Marzocco.’ At Pisa eagles were kept. See the commentators on Dante, _Inf._ xxxiii. 22. The falcon in Boccaccio, _Decam._ v. 9. See for the whole subject: _Due trattati del governo e delle infermità degli uccelli, testi di lingua inediti_. Rome, 1864. They are works of the fourteenth century, possibly translated from the Persian.

[668] See the extract from Ægid. Viterb. in Papencordt, _Gesch. der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter_, p. 367, note, with an incident of the year 1328. Combats of wild animals among themselves and with dogs served to amuse the people on great occasions. At the reception of Pius II. and of Galeazzo Maria Sforza at Florence, in 1459, in an enclosed space on the Piazza della Signoria, bulls, horses, boars, dogs, lions, and a giraffe were turned out together, but the lions lay down and refused to attack the other animals. Comp. _Ricordi di Firenze, Rer. Ital. script. ex Florent. codd._ tom. ii. col. 741. A different account in _Vita Pii II._ Murat. iii. ii. col. 976. A second giraffe was presented to Lorenzo the Magnificent by the Mameluke Sultan Kaytbey. Comp. Paul. Jov. _Vita Leonis X._ l. i. In Lorenzo’s menagerie one magnificent lion was especially famous, and his destruction by the other lions was reckoned a presage of the death of his owner.

[669] Gio. Villani, x. 185, xi. 66. Matteo Villani, iii. 90, v. 68. It was a bad omen if the lions fought, and worse still if they killed one another. Com. Varchi, _Stor. fiorent._ iii. p. 143. Matt. V. devotes the first of the two chapters quoted to prove (1) that lions were born in Italy, and (2) that they came into the world alive.

[670] _Cron. di Perugia, Arch. Stor._ xvi. ii. p. 77, year 1497. A pair of lions once escaped from Perugia; _ibid._ xvi. i. p. 382, year 1434. Florence, for example, sent to King Wladislaw of Poland (May, 1406), a pair of lions _ut utriusque sexus animalia ad procreandos catulos haberetis_. The accompanying statement is amusing in a diplomatic document: ‘Sunt equidem hi leones Florentini, et satis quantum natura promittere potuit mansueti, depositâ feritate, quam insitam habent, hique in Gætulorum regionibus nascuntur et Indorum, in quibus multitudo dictorum animalium evalescit, sicuti prohibent naturales. Et cum leonum complexio sit frigoribus inimica, quod natura sagax ostendit, natura in regionibus aestu ferventibus generantur, necessarium est, quod vostra serenitas, si dictorum animalium vitam et sobolis propagationem, ut remur, desiderat, faciat provideri, quod in locis calidis educentur et maneant. Conveniunt nempe cum regia majestate leones quoniam leo græce latine rex dicitur. Sicut enim rex dignitate potentia, magnanimitate ceteros homines antecellit, sic leonis generositas et vigor imperterritus animalia cuncta praesit. Et sicut rex, sic leo adversus imbecilles et timidos clementissimum se ostendit, et adversus inquietos et tumidos terribilem se offert animadversione justissima.’ (_Cod. epistolaris sæculi. Mon. med. ævi hist. res gestas Poloniæ illustr._ Krakau, 1876, p. 25.)

[671] Gage, _Carteggio_, i. p. 422, year 1291. The Visconti used trained leopards for hunting hares, which were started by little dogs. See v. Kobel, _Wildanger_, p. 247, where later instances of hunting with leopards are mentioned.

[672] _Strozzii poetae_, p. 146: _De leone Borsii Ducis_. The lion spares the hare and the small dog, imitating (so says the poet) his master. Comp. the words fol. 188, ‘et inclusis condita septa feris,’ and fol. 193, an epigram of fourteen lines, ‘in leporarii ingressu quam maximi;’ see _ibid._ for the hunting-park.

[673] _Cron. di Perugia_, l. c. xvi. ii. p. 199. Something of the same kind is to be found in Petrarch, _De remed. utriusque fortunae_, but less clearly expressed. Here Gaudium, in the conversation with Ratio, boasts of owning monkeys and ‘ludicra animalia.’

[674] Jovian. Pontan. _De magnificentia._ In the zoological garden of the Cardinal of Aquileja, at Albano, there were, in 1463, peacocks and Indian fowls and Syrian goats with long ears. _Pii II. Comment._ l. xi. p. 562 sqq.

[675] _Decembrio_, ap. Muratori, xx. col. 1012.

[676] Brunetti Latini, _Tesor._ (ed. Chabaille, Paris, 1863), lib. i. In Petrarch’s time there were no elephants in Italy. ‘Itaque et in Italia avorum memoria unum Frederico Romanorum principi fuisse et nunc Egyptio tyranno nonnisi unicum esse fama est.’ _De rem. utr. fort._ i. 60.

[677] The details which are most amusing, in Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, on Tristanus Acunius. On the porcupines and ostriches in the Pal. Strozzi, see Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, iv. chap. 11. Lorenzo the Magnificent received a giraffe from Egypt through some merchants, Baluz. _Miscell._ iv. 416. The elephant sent to Leo was greatly bewailed by the people when it died, its portrait was painted, and verses on it were written by the younger Beroaldus.

[678] Comp. Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, p. 234, speaking of Francesco Gonzaga. For the luxury at Milan in this respect, see Bandello, Parte II. Nov. 3 and 8. In the narrative poems we also sometimes hear the opinion of a judge of horses. Comp. Pulci, _Morgante_, xv. 105 sqq.

[679] Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, speaking of Hipp. Medices.

[680] At this point a few notices on slavery in Italy at the time of the Renaissance will not be out of place. A short, but important, passage in Jovian. Pontan. _De obedientia_, l. iii. cap. i.: ‘An homo, cum liber natura sit, domino parere debeat?’ In North Italy there were no slaves. Elsewhere, even Christians, as well as Circassians and Bulgarians, were bought from the Turks, and made to serve till they had earned their ransom. The negroes, on the contrary, remained slaves; but it was not permitted, at least in the kingdom of Naples, to emasculate them. The word ‘moro’ signifies any dark-skinned man; the negro was called ‘moro nero.’--Fabroni, _Cosmos_, Adn. 110: Document on the sale of a female Circassian slave (1427); Adn. 141: List of the female slaves of Cosimo.--Nantiporto, Murat. iii. ii. col. 1106: Innocent VIII. received 100 Moors as a present from Ferdinand the Catholic, and gave them to cardinals and other great men (1488).--Marsuccio, _Novelle_, 14: sale of slaves; do. 24 and 25: negro slaves who also (for the benefit of their owner?) work as ‘facchini,’ and gain the love of the women; do. 48 Moors from Tunis caught by Catalans and sold at Pisa.--Gaye, _Carteggio_, i. 360: manumission and reward of a negro slave in a Florentine will (1490).--Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, sub Franc. Sfortia; Porzio, _Congiura_, iii. 195; and Comines, _Charles VIII._ chap. 18: negroes as gaolers and executioners of the House of Aragon in Naples.--Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, sub Galeatio: negroes as followers of the prince on his excursions.--Æneæ Sylvii, _Opera_, p. 456: a negro slave as a musician.--Paul. Jov. _De piscibus_, cap 3: a (free?) negro as diver and swimming-master at Genoa.--Alex. Benedictus, _De Carolo VIII._ in Eccard, _Scriptores_, ii. col. 1608: a negro (Æthiops) as superior officer at Venice, according to which we are justified in thinking of Othello as a negro.--Bandello, Parte III. Nov. 21: when a slave at Genoa deserved punishment he was sold away to Iviza, one of the Balearic isles, to carry salt.

The foregoing remarks, although they make no claim to completeness, may be allowed to stand as they are in the new edition, on account of the excellent selection of instances they contain, and because they have not met with sufficient notice in the works upon the subject. Latterly a good deal has been written on the slave-trade in Italy. The very curious book of Filippo Zamboni: _Gli Ezzelini, Dante e gli Schiavi, ossia Roma e la Schiavitù personale domestica. Con documenti inediti. Seconda edizione aumentata_ (Vienna, 1870), does not contain what the title promises, but gives, p. 241 sqq., valuable information on the slave-trade; p. 270, a remarkable document on the buying and selling of a female slave; p. 282, a list of various slaves (with the place were they were bought and sold, their home, age, and price) in the thirteenth and three following centuries. A treatise by Wattenbach: _Sklavenhandel im Mittelalter_ (_Anzeiger für Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit_, 1874, pp. 37-40) refers only in part to Italy: Clement V. decides in 1309 that the Venetian prisoners should be made slaves of; in 1501, after the capture of Capua, many Capuan women were sold at Rome for a low price. In the _Monum. historica Slavorum meridionalium_, ed. Vinc. Macusceo, tom. i. Warsaw, 1874, we read at p. 199 a decision (Ancona, 1458) that the ‘Greci, Turci, Tartari, Sarraceni, Bossinenses, Burgari vel Albanenses,’ should be and always remain slaves, unless their masters freed them by a legal document. Egnatius, _Exempl. ill. vir._ Ven. fol. 246 _a_, praises Venice on the ground that ‘servorum Venetis ipsis nullum unquam usum extitisse;’ but, on the other hand, comp. Zamboni, p. 223, and especially Vincenzo Lazari: ‘Del traffico e delle condizioni degli schiavi, in Venezia nel tempo di mezzo,’ in _Miscellanea di Stor. Ital._ Torino, 1862, vol. i. 463-501.

[681] It is hardly necessary to refer the reader to the famous chapters on this subject in Humboldt’s _Kosmos_.

[682] See on this subject the observations of Wilhelm Grimm, quoted by Humboldt in the work referred to.

[683] Carmina Burana, p. 162, _De Phyllide et Flora_, str. 66.

[684] It would be hard to say what else he had to do at the top of the Bismantova in the province of Reggio, _Purgat._ iv. 26. The precision with which he brings before us all the parts of his supernatural world shows a remarkable sense of form and space. That there was a belief in the existence of hidden treasures on the tops of mountains, and that such spots were regarded with superstitious terror, may be clearly inferred from the _Chron. Novaliciense_, ii. 5, in Pertz, _Script._ vii., and _Monum. hist. patriae, Script._ iii.

[685] Besides the description of Baiæ in the _Fiammetta_, of the grove in the Ameto, etc., a passage in the _De genealogia deorum_, xiv. 11, is of importance, where he enumerates a number of rural beauties--trees, meadows, brooks, flocks and herds, cottages, etc.--and adds that these things ‘animum mulcent;’ their effect is ‘mentem in se colligere.’

[686] Flavio Biondo, _Italia Illustrata_ (ed. Basil), p. 352 sqq. Comp. _Epist. Var._ ed. Fracass. (lat.) iii. 476. On Petrarch’s plan of writing a great geographical work, see the proofs given by Attilio Hortis, _Accenni alle Scienze Naturali nelle Opere di G. Boccacci_, Trieste, 1877, p. 45 sqq.

[687] Although he is fond of referring to them: e.g. _De vita solitaria_ (_Opera_, ed. Basil, 1581), esp. p. 241, where he quotes the description of a vine-arbour from St. Augustine.

[688] _Epist. famil._ vii. 4. ‘Interea utinam scire posses, quanta, cum voluptate solivagus et liber, inter montes et nemora, inter fontes et flumina, inter libros et maximorum hominum ingenia respiro, quamque me in ea, quae ante sunt, cum Apostolo extendens et praeterita oblivisci nitor et praesentia non videre.’ Comp. vi. 3, o. c. 316 sqq. esp. 334 sqq. Comp. L. Geiger: _Petrarca_, p. 75, note 5, and p. 269.

[689] ‘Jacuit sine carmine sacro.’ Comp. _Itinerar. Syriacum, Opp._ p. 558.

[690] He distinguishes in the _Itinerar. Syr._ p. 357, on the Riviera di Levante: ‘colles asperitate gratissima et mira fertilitate conspicuos.’ On the port of Gaeta, see his _De remediis utriusque fortunae_, i. 54.

[691] _Letter to Posterity_: ‘Subito loco specie percussus.’ Descriptions of great natural events: A Storm at Naples, 1343: _Epp. fam._ i. 263 sqq.; An Earthquake at Basel, 1355, _Epp. seniles_, lib. x. 2, and _De rem. utr. fort._ ii. 91.

[692] _Epist. fam._ ed. Fracassetti, i. 193 sqq.

[693] _Il Dittamondo_, iii. cap. 9.

[694] _Dittamondo_, iii. cap. 21, iv. cap. 4. Papencordt, _Gesch. der Stadt Rom_, says that the Emperor Charles IV. had a strong taste for beautiful scenery, and quotes on this point Pelzel, _Carl IV._ p. 456. (The two other passages, which he quotes, do not say the same.) It is possible that the Emperor took this fancy from intercourse with the humanists (see above, pp. 141-2). For the interest taken by Charles in natural science see H. Friedjung, op. cit. p. 224, note 1.

[695] We may also compare Platina, _Vitae Pontiff._ p. 310: ‘Homo fuit (Pius II.) verus, integer, apertus; nil habuit ficti, nil simulati’--an enemy of hypocrisy and superstition, courageous and consistent. See Voigt, ii. 261 sqq. and iii. 724. He does not, however, give an analysis of the character of Pius.

[696] The most important passages are the following: _Pii II. P. M. Commentarii_, l. iv. p. 183; spring in his native country; l. v. p. 251; summer residence at Tivoli; l. vi. p. 306: the meal at the spring of Vicovaro; l. viii. p. 378: the neighbourhood of Viterbo; p. 387: the mountain monastery of St. Martin; p. 388: the Lake of Bolsena; l. ix. p. 396: a splendid description of Monte Amiata; l. x. p. 483: the situation of Monte Oliveto; p. 497: the view from Todi; l. xi. p. 554: Ostia and Porto; p. 562: description of the Alban Hills; l. xii. p. 609: Frascati and Grottaferrata; comp. 568-571.

[697] So we must suppose it to have been written, not Sicily.

[698] He calls himself, with an allusion to his name: ‘Silvarum amator et varia videndi cupidus.’

[699] On Leonbattista Alberti’s feeling for landscapes see above, p. 136 sqq. Alberti, a younger contemporary of Æneas Silvius (_Trattato del Governo della Famiglia_, p. 90; see above, p. 132, note 1), is delighted when in the country with ‘the bushy hills,’ ‘the fair plains and rushing waters.’ Mention may here be made of a little work _Ætna_, by P. Bembus, first published at Venice, 1495, and often printed since, in which, among much that is rambling and prolix, there are remarkable geographical descriptions and notices of landscapes.

[700] A most elaborate picture of this kind in Ariosto; his sixth canto is all foreground.

[701] He deals differently with his architectural framework, and in this modern decorative art can learn something from him even now.

[702] _Lettere Pittoriche_, iii. 36, to Titian, May, 1544.

[703] _Strozzii Poetae_, in the _Erotica_, l. vi. fol. 183; in the poem: ‘Hortatur se ipse, ut ad amicam properet.’

[704] Comp. Thausing: _Dürer_, Leipzig, 1876, p. 166.

[705] These striking expressions are taken from the seventh volume of Michelet’s _Histoire de France_ (Introd.).

[706] Tomm. Gar, _Relaz. della Corte di Roma_, i. pp. 278 and 279. In the Rel. of Soriano, year 1533.

[707] Prato, _Arch. Stor._ iii. p. 295 sqq. The word ‘saturnico’ means ‘unhappy’ as well as ‘bringing misfortune.’ For the influence of the planets on human character in general, see Corn. Agrippa, _De occulta philosophia_, c. 52.

[708] See Trucchi, _Poesie Italiane inedite_, i. p 165 sqq.

[709] Blank verse became at a later time the usual form for dramatic compositions. Trissino, in the dedication of his _Sofonisba_ to Leo X., expressed the hope that the Pope would recognise this style for what it was--as better, nobler, and _less easy_ than it looked. Roscoe, _Leone_ X., ed. Bossi, viii. 174.

[710] Comp. e.g. the striking forms adopted by Dante, _Vita Nuova_, ed. Witte, p. 13 sqq., 16 sqq. Each has twenty irregular lines; in the first, one rhyme occurs eight times.

[711] Trucchi, op. cit. i. 181 sqq.

[712] These were the ‘Canzoni’ and Sonnets which every blacksmith and donkey-driver sang and parodied--which made Dante not a little angry. (Comp. Franco Sachetti, Nov. 114, 115.) So quickly did these poems find their way among the people.

[713] _Vita Nuova_, ed. Witte, pp. 81, 82 sqq. ‘Deh peregrini,’ _ibid._ 116.

[714] For Dante’s psychology, the beginning of _Purg._ iv. is one of the most important passages. See also the parts of the _Convito_ bearing on the subject.

[715] The portraits of the school of Van Eyck would prove the contrary for the North. They remained for a long period far in advance of all descriptions in words.

[716] Printed in the sixteenth volume of his _Opere Volgari_. See M. Landau, _Giov. Boccaccio_ (Stuttg. 1877), pp. 36-40; he lays special stress on B.’s dependence on Dante and Petrarch.

[717] In the song of the shepherd Teogape, after the feast of Venus, _Opp._ ed. Montier, vol. xv. 2. p. 67 sqq. Comp. Landau, 58-64; on the _Fiammetta_, see Landau, 96-105.

[718] The famous Lionardo Aretino, the leader of the humanists at the beginning of the fifteenth century, admits, ‘Che gli antichi Greci d’umanita e di gentilezza di cuore abbino avanzanto di gran lunga i nostri Italiani;’ but he says it at the beginning of a novel which contains the sentimental story of the invalid Prince Antiochus and his step-mother Stratonice--a document of an ambiguous and half-Asiatic character. (Printed as an Appendix to the _Cento Novelle Antiche_.)

[719] No doubt the court and prince received flattery enough from their occasional poets and dramatists.

[720] Comp. the contrary view taken by Gregorovius, _Gesch. Roms_, vii. 619.

[721] Paul. Jovius, _Dialog. de viris lit. illustr._, in Tiraboschi, tom. vii. iv. Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, _De poetis nostri temp._

[722] Isabella Gonzaga to her husband, Feb. 3, 1502, _Arch. Stor._ Append. ii. p. 306 sqq. Comp. Gregorovius, _Lucrezia Borgia_, i. 256-266, ed. 3. In the French _Mystères_ the actors themselves first marched before the audience in procession, which was called the ‘montre.’

[723] _Diario Ferrarese_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 404. Other passages referring to the stage in that city, cols. 278, 279, 282 to 285, 361, 380, 381, 393, 397, from which it appears that Plautus was the dramatist most popular on these occasions, that the performances sometimes lasted till three o’clock in the morning, and were even given in the open air. The ballets were without any meaning or reference to the persons present and the occasion solemnized. Isabella Gonzaga, who was certainly at the time longing for her husband and child, and was dissatisfied with the union of her brother with Lucrezia, spoke of the ‘coldness and frostiness’ of the marriage and the festivities which attended it.

[724] _Strozzii Poetæ_, fol. 232, in the fourth book of the _Æolosticha_ of Tito Strozza. The lines run:

‘Ecce superveniens rerum argumenta retexit
Mimus, et ad populum verba diserta refert.
Tum similes habitu formaque et voce Menæchmi
Dulcibus oblectant lumina nostra modis.’

The _Menæchmi_ was also given at Ferrara in 1486, at the cost of more than 1,000 ducats. Murat. xxiv. 278.

[725] Franc. Sansovino, _Venezia_, fol. 169. The passage in the original is as follows: ‘Si sono anco spesso recitate delle tragedie con grandi apparecchi, comporte da poeti antichi o da moderni. Alle quali per la fama degli apparati concorrevano le genti estere e circonvicine per vederle e udirle. Ma hoggi le feste da particolari si fanno fra i parenti et essendosi la città regolata per se medesima da certi anni in quà, si passano i tempi del Carnovale in comedie e in altri più lieti e honorati diletti.’ The passage is not thoroughly clear.

[726] This must be the meaning of Sansovino, _Venezia_, fol. 168, when he complains that the ‘recitanti’ ruined the comedies ‘con invenzioni o personaggi troppo ridicoli.’

[727] Sansovino, l. c.

[728] Scardeonius, _De urb. Patav. antiq._, in Graevius, Thes. vi. iii. col. 288 sqq. An important passage for the literature of the dialects generally. One of the passages is as follows: ‘Hinc ad recitandas comœdias socii scenici et gregales et æmuli fuere nobiles juvenes Patavini, Marcus Aurelius Alvarotus quem in comœdiis suis Menatum appellitabat, et Hieronymus Zanetus quem Vezzam, et Castegnola quem Billoram vocitabat, et alii quidam qui sermonem agrestium imitando præ ceteris callebant.’

[729] That the latter existed as early as the fifteenth century may be inferred from the _Diario Ferrerese_, Feb. 2nd, 1501: ‘Il duca Hercole fece una festa di Menechino secondo il suo uso.’ Murat. xxiv. col. 393. There cannot be a confusion with the Menæchmi of Plautus, which is correctly written, l. c. col. 278. See above, p. 318, note 2.

[730] Pulci mischievously invents a solemn old-world legend for his story of the giant Margutte (_Morgante_, canto xix. str. 153 sqq.). The critical introduction of Limerno Pitocco is still droller (_Orlandino_, cap. i. str. 12-22).

[731] The _Morgante_ was written in 1460 and the following years, and first printed at Venice in 1481. Last ed. by P. Sermolli, Florence, 1872. For the tournaments, see part v. chap. i. See, for what follows, Ranke: _Zur Geschichte der italienischen Poesie_, Berlin, 1837.

[732] The _Orlando inamorato_ was first printed in 1496.

[733] _L’Italia liberata da Goti_, Rome, 1547.

[734] See above, p. 319, and Landau’s _Boccaccio_, 64-69. It must, nevertheless, be observed that the work of Boccaccio here mentioned was written before 1344, while that of Petrarch was written after Laura’s death, that is, after 1348.

[735] Vasari, viii. 71, in the Commentary to the _Vita di Rafaelle_.

[736] Much of this kind our present taste could dispense with in the _Iliad_.

[737] First edition, 1516.

[738] The speeches inserted are themselves narratives.

[739] As was the case with Pulci, _Morgante_, canto xix. str. 20 sqq.

[740] The _Orlandino_, first edition, 1526.

[741] Radevicus, _De gestis Friderici imp._, especially ii. 76. The admirable _Vita Henrici IV._ contains very little personal description, as is also the case with the _Vita Chuonradi imp._ by Wipo.

[742] The librarian Anastasius (middle of ninth century) is here meant. The whole collection of the lives of the Popes (_Liber Pontificalis_) was formerly ascribed to him, but erroneously. Comp. Wattenbach, _Deutschland’s Geschichtsquellen_, i. 223 sqq. 3rd ed.

[743] Lived about the same time as Anastasius; author of a history of the bishopric of Ravenna. Wattenbach, l. c. 227.

[744] How early Philostratus was used in the same way, I am unable to say. Suetonius was no doubt taken as a model in times still earlier. Besides the life of Charles the Great, written by Eginhard, examples from the twelfth century are offered by William of Malmesbury in his descriptions of William the Conqueror (p. 446 sqq., 452 sqq.), of William II. (pp. 494, 504), and of Henry I. (p. 640).

[745] See the admirable criticism in Landau, _Boccaccio_, 180-182.

[746] See above, p. 131. The original (Latin) was first published in 1847 at Florence, by Galletti, with the title, _Philippi Villani Liber de civitatis Florentiae famosis civibus_; an old Italian translation has been often printed since 1747, last at Trieste, 1858. The first book, which treats of the earliest history of Florence and Rome, has never been printed. The chapter in Villani, _De semipoetis_, i.e. those who wrote in prose as well as in verse, or those who wrote poems besides following some other profession, is specially interesting.

[747] Here we refer the reader to the biography of L. B. Alberti, from which extracts are given above (p. 136), and to the numerous Florentine biographies in Muratori, in the _Archivio Storico_, and elsewhere. The life of Alberti is probably an autobiography, l. c. note 2.

[748] _Storia Fiorentina_, ed. F. L. Polidori, Florence, 1838.

[749] _De viris illustribus_, in the publications of the _Stuttgarter liter. Vereins_, No. i. Stuttg. 1839. Comp. C. Voigt, ii. 324. Of the sixty-five biographies, twenty-one are lost.

[750] His _Diarium Romanum_ from 1472 to 1484, in Murat. xiii. 81-202.

[751] _Ugolini Verini poetae Florentini_ (a contemporary of Lorenzo, a pupil of Landinus, fol. 13, and teacher of Petrus Crinitus, fol. 14), _De illustratione urbis Florentinae libri tres_, Paris, 1583, deserves mention, esp. lib. 2. Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio are spoken of and characterised without a word of blame. For several women, see fol. 11.

[752] _Petri Candidi Decembrii Vita Philippi Mariae Vicecomitis_, in Murat. xx. Comp above, p. 38.

[753] See above, p. 225.

[754] On Comines, see above, p. 96, note 1. While Comines, as is there indicated, partly owes his power of objective criticism to intercourse with Italians, the German humanists and statesmen, notwithstanding the prolonged residence of some of them in Italy, and their diligent and often most successful study of the classical world, acquired little or nothing of the gift of biographical representation or of the analysis of character. The travels, biographies, and historical sketches of the German humanists in the fifteenth, and often in the early part of the sixteenth centuries, are mostly either dry catalogues or empty, rhetorical declamations.

[755] See above, p. 96.

[756] Here and there we find exceptions. Letters of Hutten, containing autobiographical notices, bits of the chronicle of Barth. Sastrow, and the _Sabbata_ of Joh. Kessler, introduce us to the inward conflicts of the writers, mostly, however, bearing the specifically religious character of the Reformation.

[757] Among northern autobiographies we might, perhaps, select for comparison that of Agrippa d’Aubigné (though belonging to a later period) as a living and speaking picture of human individuality.

[758] Written in his old age, about 1576. On Cardano as an investigator and discoverer, see Libri, _Hist. des Sciences Mathém._ iii. p. 167 sqq.

[759] E.g. the execution of his eldest son, who had taken vengeance for his wife’s infidelity by poisoning her (cap. 27, 50).

[760] _Discorsi della Vita Sobria_, consisting of the ‘trattato,’ of a ‘compendio,’ of an ‘esortazione,’ and of a ‘lettera’ to Daniel Barbaro. The book has been often reprinted.

[761] Was this the villa of Codevico mentioned above, p. 321?

[762] In some cases very early; in the Lombard cities as early as the twelfth century. Comp. Landulfus senior, _Ricobaldus_, and (in Murat. x.) the remarkable anonymous work, _De laudibus Papiae_, of the fourteenth century. Also (in Murat. i.) _Liber de Situ urbis Mediol._ Some notices on Italian local history in O. Lorenzo, _Deutschland’s Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter seit dem 13ten Jahr_. Berlin, 1877; but the author expressly refrains from an original treatment of the subject.

[763] _Li Tresors_, ed. Chabaille, Paris, 1863, pp. 179-180. Comp. _ibid._ p. 577 (lib. iii. p. ii. c. 1).

[764] On Paris, which was a much more important place to the mediæval Italian than to his successor a hundred years later, see _Dittamondo_, iv. cap. 18. The contrast between France and Italy is accentuated by Petrarch in his _Invectivae contra Gallum_.

[765] Savonarola, in Murat. xxiv. col. 1186 (above, p. 145). On Venice, see above, p. 62 sqq. The oldest description of Rome, by Signorili (MS.), was written in the pontificate of Martin V. (1417); see Gregorovius, vii. 569; the oldest by a German is that of H. Muffel (middle of fifteenth century), ed. by Voigt, Tübingen, 1876.

[766] The character of the restless and energetic Bergamasque, full of curiosity and suspicion, is charmingly described in Bandello, parte i. nov. 34.

[767] E.g. Varchi, in the ninth book of the _Storie Fiorentine_ (vol. iii. p. 56 sqq.).

[768] Vasari, xii. p. 158. _V. di Michelangelo_, at the beginning. At other times mother nature is praised loudly enough, as in the sonnet of Alfons de’ Pazzi to the non-Tuscan Annibal Caro (in Trucchi, l. c. iii. p. 187):

‘Misero il Varchi! e più infelici noi,
Se a vostri virtudi accidentali
Aggiunto fosse ‘l natural, ch’è in noi!’

[769] _Forcianae Quaestiones, in quibus varia Italorum ingenia explicantur multaque alia scitu non indigna._ Autore Philalette Polytopiensi cive. Among them, _Mauritii Scaevae Carmen_.

‘Quos hominum mores varios quas denique mentes
Diverso profert Itala terra solo,
Quisve vinis animus, mulierum et strenua virtus
Pulchre hoc exili codice lector habes.’

Neapoli excudebat Martinus de Ragusia, Anno MDXXXVI. This little work, made use of by Ranke, _Päpste_, i. 385, passes as being from the hand of Ortensio Landi (comp. Tiraboschi, vii. 800 to 812), although in the work itself no hint is given of the author. The title is explained by the circumstance that conversations are reported which were held at Forcium, a bath near Lucca, by a large company of men and women, on the question whence it comes that there are such great differences among mankind. The question receives no answer, but many of the differences among the Italians of that day are noticed--in studies, trade, warlike skill (the point quoted by Ranke), the manufacture of warlike implements, modes of life, distinctions in costume, in language, in intellect, in loving and hating, in the way of winning affection, in the manner of receiving guests, and in eating. At the close, come some reflections on the differences among philosophical systems. A large part of the work is devoted to women--their differences in general, the power of their beauty, and especially the question whether women are equal or inferior to men. The work has been made use of in various passages below. The following extract may serve as an example (fol. 7 _b_ sqq.):--‘Aperiam nunc quæ sint in consilio aut dando aut accipiendo dissimilitudo. Præstant consilio Mediolanenses, sed aliorum gratia potius quam sua. Sunt nullo consilio Genuenses. Rumor est Venetos abundare. Sunt perutili consilio Lucenses, idque aperte indicarunt, cum in tanto totius Italiæ ardore, tot hostibus circumsepti suam libertatem, ad quam nati videntur semper tutati sint, nulla, quidem, aut capitis aut fortunarum ratione habita. Quis porro non vehementer admiretur? Quis callida consilia non stupeat? Equidem quotiescunque cogito, quanta prudentia ingruentes procellas evitarint, quanta solertia impendentia pericula effugerint, adducor in stuporem. Lucanis vero summum est studium, eos deludere qui consilii captandi gratia adeunt, ipsi vero omnia inconsulte ac temere faciunt. Brutii optimo sunt consilio, sed ut incommodent, aut perniciem afferant, in rebus quæ magnæ deliberationis dictu mirum quam stupidi sint, eisdem plane dotibus instructi sunt Volsci quod ad cædes et furta paulo propensiores sint. Pisani bono quidem sunt consilio, sed parum constanti, si quis diversum ab eis senserit, mox acquiescunt, rursus si aliter suadeas, mutabunt consilium, illud in caussa fuit quod tam duram ac diutinam obsidionem ad extremum usque non pertulerint. Placentini utrisque abundant consiliis, scilicet salutaribus ac pernitiosis, non facile tamen ab iis impetres pestilens consilium, apud Regienses neque consilii copiam invenies. Si sequare Mutinensium consilia, raro cedet infeliciter, sunt enim peracutissimo consilio, et voluntate plane bona. Providi sunt Florentini (si unumquemque seorsum accipias) si vero simul conjuncti sint, non admodum mihi consilia eorum probabuntur; feliciter cedunt Senensium consilia, subita sunt Perusinorum; salutaria Ferrariensium, fideli sunt consilio Veronenses, semper ambigui sunt in consiliis aut dandis aut accipiendis Patavini. Sunt pertinaces in eo quod cœperint consilio Bergomates, respuunt omnium consilia Neapolitani, sunt consultissimi Bononienses.’

[770] _Commentario delle più notabili e mostruose cose d’Italia et altri luoghi, di Lingua Aramea in Italiana tradotta. Con un breve Catalogo degli inventori delle cose che si mangiano et beveno, novamente ritrovato._ In Venetia 1553 (first printed 1548, based on a journey taken by Ortensio Landi through Italy in 1543 and 1544). That Landi was really the author of this _Commentario_ is clear from the concluding remarks of Nicolo Morra (fol. 46 _a_): ‘Il presente commentario nato del constantissimo cervello di M. O. L.;’ and from the signature of the whole (fol. 70 _a_): SVISNETROH SVDNAL, ROTUA TSE, ‘Hortensius Landus autor est.’ After a declaration as to Italy from the mouth of a mysterious grey-haired sage, a journey is described from Sicily through Italy to the East. All the cities of Italy are more or less fully discussed: that Lucca should receive special praise is intelligible from the writer’s way of thinking. Venice, where he claims to have been much with Pietro Aretino (p. 166), and Milan are described in detail, and in connexion with the latter the maddest stories are told (fol. 25 sqq.). There is no want of such elsewhere--of roses which flower all the year round, stars which shine at midday, birds which are changed into men, and men with bulls’ heads on their shoulders, mermen, and men who spit fire from their mouths. Among all these there are often authentic bits of information, some of which will be used in the proper place; short mention is made of the Lutherans (fol. 32 _a_, 38 _a_), and frequent complaints are heard of the wretched times and unhappy state of Italy. We there read (fol. 22 _a_): ‘Son questi quelli Italiani li quali in un fatto d’armi uccisero ducento mila Francesi? sono finalmente quelli che di tutto il mondo s’impadronirono? Hai quanto (per quel che io vego) degenerati sono. Hai quanto dissimili mi paiono dalli antichi padri loro, liquali et singolar virtu di cuore e disciplina militare ugualmente monstrarno havere.’ On the catalogue of eatables which is added, see below.

[771] _Descrizione di tutta l’Italia._

[772] Satirical lists of cities are frequently met with later, e.g. Macaroneide, _Phantas._ ii. For France, Rabelais, who knew the Macaroneide, is the chief source of all the jests and malicious allusions of this local sort.

[773] It is true that many decaying literatures are full of painfully minute descriptions. See e.g. in Sidonius Apollinaris the descriptions of a Visigoth king (_Epist._ i. 2), of a personal enemy (_Epist._ iii. 13), and in his poems the types of the different German tribes.

[774] On Filippo Villani, see p. 330.

[775] _Parnasso teatrale_, Lipsia, 1829. Introd. p. vii.

[776] The reading is here evidently corrupt. The passage is as follows (_Ameto_, Venezia, 1856, p. 54): ‘Del mezo de’ quali non camuso naso in linea diretta discende, quanto ad aquilineo non essere dimanda il dovere.’

[777] ‘Due occhi ladri nel loro movimento.’ The whole work is rich in such descriptions.

[778] The charming book of songs by Giusto dei Conti, _La bella Mano_ (best ed. Florence, 1715), does not tell us as many details of this famous hand of his beloved as Boccaccio in a dozen passages of the _Ameto_ of the hands of his nymphs.

[779] ‘Della bellezza delle donne,’ in the first vol. of the _Opere di Firenzuola_, Milano, 1802. For his view of bodily beauty as a sign of beauty of soul, comp. vol. ii. pp. 48 to 52, in the ‘ragionamenti’ prefixed to his novels. Among the many who maintain this doctrine, partly in the style of the ancients, we may quote one, Castiglione, _Il Cortigiana_, l. iv. fol. 176.

[780] This was a universal opinion, not only the professional opinion of painters. See below.

[781] This may be an opportunity for a word on the eyes of Lucrezia Borgia, taken from the distichs of a Ferrarese court-poet, Ercole Strozza (_Strozzii Poetae_, fol. 85-88). The power of her glance is described in a manner only explicable in an artistic age, and which would not now be permitted. Sometimes it turns the beholder to fire, sometimes to stone. He who looks long at the sun, becomes blind; he who beheld Medusa, became a stone; but he who looks at the countenance of Lucrezia

‘Fit primo intuitu cæcus et inde lapis.’

Even the marble Cupid sleeping in her halls is said to have been petrified by her gaze:

‘Lumine Borgiado saxificatur Amor.’

Critics may dispute, if they please, whether the so-called Eros of Praxiteles or that of Michelangelo is meant, since she was the possessor of both.

And the same glance appeared to another poet, Marcello Filosseno, only mild and lofty, ‘mansueto e altero’ (Roscoe, _Leone X._ ed. Bossi, vii. p. 306).

Comparisons with ideal figures of antiquity occur (p. 30). Of a boy ten years old we read in the _Orlandino_ (ii. str. 47), ‘ed ha capo romano.’ Referring to the fact that the appearance of the temples can be altogether changed by the arrangement of the hair, Firenzuola makes a comical attack on the overcrowding of the hair with flowers, which causes the head to ‘look like a pot of pinks or a quarter of goat on the spit.’ He is, as a rule, thoroughly at home in caricature.

[782] For the ideal of the ‘Minnesänger,’ see Falke, _Die deutsche Trachten- und Modenwelt_, i. pp. 85 sqq.

[783] On the accuracy of his sense of form, p. 290.

[784] _Inferno_, xxi. 7; _Purgat._ xiii. 61.

[785] We must not take it too seriously, if we read (in Platina, _Vitae Pontiff._ p. 310) that he kept at his court a sort of buffoon, the Florentine Greco, ‘hominem certe cujusvis mores, naturam, linguam cum maximo omnium qui audiebant risu facile exprimentem.’

[786] _Pii. II. Comment._ viii. p. 391.