Poliziano, Ariosto, Bembo, Sannazzaro, Amalteo, della Casa, Paterno, Vittoria Colonna, Molza, Tansillo, Martelli, Tasso (Bernardo and Torquato), Celio Magno, Lemene, Maggi, Cotta, Casaregi, Manfredi, Rinaldi, Chiabrera, Filicaja, Testi, Venerosi, Bedori, Gozzi, Rossi, Zappi, Brugueres, Frugoni, Menzini, and Guidi.

The sonnets, which amount to upwards of two hundred, are from the pens of Dante, Cino, Petrarch, Perotti, Buonacorsi, Boiardo, Conti, Lorenzo de Medicì, Colonna, Sannazzaro, Bembo, Ariosto, Fracastoro, Tebaldeo, da L'Aquila, Cariteo, Amanio, Capello, Gabara, Tolomei, Alamanni, Guidiccione, Stampa, Rainieri, Molza, Bussi, Buonarotti, Varchi, della Casa, Caro, Castiglione, Tomitano, Salvago, the two Tassos, Paterno, Amalteo, Rota, Costanzo, Tarsia, Fiamma, Tansillo, Magno, Giustiniano, Marino, Baldi, Mozzarello, Lorenzini, Redi, Filicaja, Testi, Maggi, Menzini, Guidi, Zappi, Crescimbeni, Manfredi, Baruffaldi, Cotta, Spinola, Perotti, Preti, Passerini, Maffei, Morando, Ongaro, Petrocchi, Frugoni, Lazzarini, Casaregi, Morei, Stampiglia, Venerosi, Algarotti, and Metastasio.

From this enumeration, it will be obvious that the present collection is more curious and novel, than composed with much regard to the intrinsic merit of the contents. The quotations from Petrarch are purposely limited, because a selection of his Canzons and Sonnets were previously printed in a separate volume, under the title of Rime Scelte di Francesco Petrarca*. Tasso and Ariosto are more advantageously known by their epic than by their lyric productions; and such particulars of their lives, as have been ascertained, have, on various occasions, been communicated to the public. Of most of the other poets, however, whose names we have mentioned, the history has been little diffused on the northern side of the Alps; and some short biographical and critical notices would, therefore, have formed a very desirable appendage to the specimens. We have likewise to remark that, from an extreme parsimony of marginal notes, many of the allusions must be wholly unintelligible to the bulk of readers.

In his introductory remarks, the editor has briefly appreciated the characters of Petrarch and Guidi, as lyric poets, and marked the discriminating style of each. Guidi is, moreover, honoured with a portrait, and a short biographical sketch-Mr. Mathias has not confined his exertions to Italian prose. His dedication to Dr. Mansel, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, is composed, with apparent facility, in the form of an elegant can

*See Rev. Vol. xxxvi., N. S. p. 96.

zon;

zon;-the Sonnets are introduced by one of his own;-and we find Gray's beautiful lines on the death of the Hon. R. West, rendered thus:

• In van per me ride il nascente giorno,
E'l Sole innalza i rosseggianti rai,
Sciolgon gli angelli in van pietosi lai,
E'l suol rinverde in lieto manto adorno:

Altri oggetti i desio di giorno in giorno,
Ed altre note, ahi! note no, ma guai;
Non giunge il mio martìr tra' spirti gai;
Muor la gioja imperfetta a me d'intorno.
Sorge l'Aurora intanto annunziatrice
Di novi ufizj a' più felici cori;
Sparge i suoi beni il suol con larga maxo;
Destan gli augelli lor vezzosi amori ;
Io chiamo lui cui più sentir non lice,
E piango più perchè lo piango in vano.'

Our limits preclude all critical examination of the canzons and sonnets with which we are here presented. Among the former, thofe of Chiabrera, Filicaja, Testi, Celio Magno, and, above all, of Guidi, will chiefly attract the admiration of competent judges; while among the latter, Petrarch, Costanzo, Castiglione, Lazzarini, Rota, Passerini, Frugoni, &c. will, probably, claim a preference. We cannot, however, refrain from observing that many pieces of first rate merit have been overlooked or rejected, and several admitted that discover no pretensions to pre-eminence. At the same time, we are ignorant of any one selection which comprises so much of the lyric poetry of Italy within the compass of three pocket vo

lumes.

II. The world is much indebted to the editor for superintending the publication of the second article, and rendering it accessible to the British scholar. The whole range of Italian criticism scarcely presents us with a more interesting historical treatise than Crescimbeni's Isteria della volgar Poesia, including the Commentaries, which are not the least valuable portion of the author's writings. Mr. Mathias acquaints us that he has made use of the Venice edition of 1731. Besides an introductory sonnet, and an address to the poetical and learned English reader, he has prefixed a general table of contents, the life of the author by the Abate Morei, and a catalogue of Crescimbeni's works.

It may humble the pride of learning to remark, that of this celebrated man little is now known that can interest or amuse the lovers of literary anecdote, or reward the curiosity of those who delight to contemplate the varied gradations of life and character. We only learn that Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni

was born of a noble family at Macerata, on the 9th of October 1663; that he studied for some time under the Jesuits; that he afterward applied, though with little steadiness or success, to the profession of law, under the direction of his uncle at Rome; that he finally gave his undivided attention to the belles lettres and the muses; that he contracted an intimate correspondence with several of the learned of his day; that he obtained ecclesiastic preferment from Clement XI.; that he was the founder and director of the Roman Society of Arcadia ; that he published many works; that he had many friends, and some enemies; that his person was slender, his voice uncouth, and his temper, naturally irritable, subdued into gentleness by the virtue of self government;-and lastly, that he died, very generally regretted, on the 8th of March, 1728.

III. This account of Italian poetry is extracted from various parts of the large and popular work of Tiraboschi, intitled a General History of Italian Literature. The editor has followed the last Modena edition, begun in 1787, and completed

in 1794,

The first volume opens with a handsome canzone, by way of dedication, to Mr. Roscoe: which truly classical effusion is followed, as in the preceding instance, by an address to the learned and poetical English reader. On this occasion, Mr. Mathias pleads the cause of his favourite language and poetry with as much zeal as discretion. It is not, however, without sincere concern that we are informed of the failure of a plan for publishing in London, in a neat and correct form, a series of the most celebrated Italian historians. Since the execution of such a scheme would have redounded to the national honour and advantage, we hope that, under more favourable circumstances, it may still be accomplished.

As a suitable introduction to these historical extracts, the learned editor has prefixed some account of the author's life and writings, in a letter published by the Abate Ciocchi; and from this narrative we have selected the particulars most worthy of notice.

Girolamo Tiraboschi was born of a respectable family at Bergamo, on the 28th December, 1731. Before he had completed his fifteenth year, he was admitted into the society of the Jesuits, to which he remained faithfully attached till the abolition of the order. The year of his appointment to the Professorship of Eloquence in the college of Brera, at Milan, is not mentioned but it appears that he enjoyed this situation when he was promoted to the place of chief Librarian to the Duke of Modena. In 1766, he published his Memorie degli Umiliati, which stamped his character as a learned and ingenious critic.

7

Having

Having removed to Modena, in June 1770, he was formally installed in his office; and, at the opening of the new university of that place, he was, at the express desire of the sovereign, enrolled in the list of honorary professors.

During the first year of his residence in Modena, Tiraboschi compiled the first volume of his History of Italian Literature, a work of immense extent and research, which he com pleted in the course of eleven years. In these years, he likewise composed and published the life of St. Olympia, a letter concerning the essay of Lampillas, the life of Fulvio Testi, the first two volumes of the Modenese Library, and a great many fugitive articles inserted in the first twenty-three volumes of the Modena Journal. As a testimony of distinguished regard, Duke Hercules III. conferred on him the honours of knighthood; nominated him superintendant of the ducal library and gallery of medals; and, that he might prosecute his studies without interruption, -exempted him from the personal attendance attached to his office. The city of Modena granted him, at the same time, a diploma of nobility, and accompanied this expression of their high respect with a handsome present of silver plate.

These rewards of persevering industry and eminent literary acquirements were not bestowed in vain; for the remaining eleven years of Tiraboschi's life gave birth to various writings. Among these we may mention the concluding five volumes of the Modenese Library, three volumes of the Historical Memoirs of Modena, various articles in the twenty additional vo lumes of the Modena Journal, a great many additions and corrections for the Encyclopædia printed at Padua, &c. During the execution of these multiplied performances, he revised the press and prepared the particular indexes with his own hand, His literary correspondence was also voluminous and extensive. Yet, in the midst of this accumulation of active and incessant pursuits, he found leisure to provide the library and collection entrusted to his care with the requisite additions, and to render them truly useful to the interests of learning and science.

On the 30th of May 1794, he was attacked by a violent disorder, which terminated fatally on the 3d of June, in the same year. His surviving friends and countrymen still revere, and deplore the loss of, so much application and talent, united to modest, gentle, and obliging manners, benevolence of heart, and unaffected piety.

Of the seven chapters of the present publication, the first treats of the origin of Provençal and Italian Poetry; the second, of Provençal Poetry from the year 1183 to 1300; the third, REV. SEPT. 1805.

C

of the early periods of Italian Poetry; and the remaining four, of the same subject during the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. The author's accuracy and diligence of investigation are conspicuous throughout: but some of the most inviting parts of his subject are frequently frittered down into partial and minute details; and the spirit of heaviness seems sometimes to have crept over his bulky lucubrations. A connected view of Italian Literature, sketched with a due regard to liberal criticism, and deducing the subject to the present times, is still a desideratum in the commonwealth of letters.

IV. In Francesco Redi we find the rare combination of the sober experimentalist, and the enthusiastic poet. He was born of a respectable family at Arezzo, on the 18th of February 1626. He 'studied grammar and rhetoric in the schools of the Jesuits at Florence, and the other sciences in the university of Pisa, where he took the degree of doctor in philosophy and physic. Ferdinand II, then Grand Duke of Tuscany, and a liberal patron of learning and the arts, appointed him his first physician; an office which Redi discharged to the entire satisfaction of all the Ducal family. Indeed, the striking indications which he exhibited, even at an early age, of talent, genius, and observation, the suavity of his manners, and the correctness of his deportment, powerfully recommended him to the notice and protection of a court, which delighted to reward merit, and to deserve the esteem of the public. It appears that Redi, in his youth, composed many amorous and moral poems; which, in maturer age, he committed to the flames. His leisure hours were chiefly divided between natural philosophy and the study of his native language. While he supplied Menage with a large portion of his Italian etymologies, he cherished the efforts of the celebrated Menzini, cultivated a literary correspondence with some of the first scholars in Europe, and attained to unexampled purity and elegance of style. His observations on vipers, and on the generation of insects, are obviously penned by the hand of a master; and, when we reflect on the imperfect state of natural knowlege at the period at which he lived, they bespeak much originality of thought, accompanied by a degree of moderation and politeness which seldom characterized the controversial writings of the 17th century. His observations on several curious productions of India, and of animals which live within other animals, contain many interesting discoveries. His letters at the same time shew that he was not inattentive to the duties of his profession; for they exhibit various cases of diseases and' modes of treatment. For some time previous to his decease, this eminent philosopher and amiable man had