who is said to understand forty-two languages. Our cicerone reduced the number to thirty, two more than Sir William Jones was acquainted with; and there is reason to believe, that even after this deduction, the depth of his erudition has been somewhat exaggerated, though it is doubtless wonderful. Mezzofanti is now at the age of forty-two, He was out of town at the time of our visit, and deprived us of the pleasure of looking at the University Library, of which he has charge.

The most eminent man in the medical school, and the first physician in Italy, is Dr. Tommasini, professor of clinical medicine. A friend at Florence had given us letters to him; but he had unfortunately gone to Naples, a distance of four or five hundred miles, on a professional visit to a patient of distinction, who died before his arrival. He is a native of Modena, and now at the age of about forty. We saw the portraits of two female professors in the hall. They have good faces, and were eminent in their departments, though in my opinion out of their proper spheres. Of this the Bolognese appear to be sensible; for the chairs of these fair lecturers on the most indelicate of all subjects, are now vacant, and will probably never again be filled by the same sex.* There are forty professorships in the University, and the number of students is seven or eight hundred.

The afternoon was occupied in an excursion to the Certosa or Campo Santo, at the distance of a mile and a half from the town, in the western suburbs. It is approached by a fine avenue, bordered by fields, gardens, and trees, and its situation is extremely rural. It was formerly a large convent, with a chapel attached to it. The grounds, courts and cloisters have been converted into cemeteries, crowded with graves and sepulchral monuments, many of which are stately piles of marble in the first style of elegance.

A striking peculiarity was observed in the disposition of the graves. The dead are assorted according to their ages. There is one compartment for children; another for female adults; a third for male adults; and a fourth for persons beyond

*The French still keep up the custom, and some of the first lectures, in the department alluded to, are given by females, with experiments on all kinds of subjects, real and artificial, dead and alive. I accompanied a medical friend to one of them, and heard an elderly woman of great volubility, deliver her instructions to a class of students. Such exercises may no doubt be useful, but they are not very attractive.

Ja certain age. Prices of sepulture vary as in Pere la Chaise. The grounds are a mile and a half in circuit, substantially enclosed, and prettily shaded with pyramids of cypress. Several grave diggers were at work in opening tombs and vaults, whose voices alone broke the profound quiet, which reigns through the cemetery. The church is still kept up, in which the last sad offices are performed. About the walls are suspended many spoils and trophies, taken from the Turks at Constantinople, Tunis, and Algiers. Among the rest are chains, in which captives are bound. They are about four feet in length, with a fetlock at one end, and a ring at the other. In the cells of the church is an extensive assortment of rude but rare Madonnas, exhibiting the miraculous forms in which the Virgin appeared at different and remote places, in France, Spain, Italy and the East.

At evening we visited the Chiesa del Servi, which is the popular church at Bologna, and the scene of half the intrigues in the city. Preparations were making for the last and great day of the Feast of the Madonna, to take place on the morrow. It is a long low edifice, with the high altar nearly in the centre. The air was suffocating from the smoke of censers and tapers, as well as from the garlic of the crowd, which thronged the aisles. Our attention was arrested by a group, bending at a shrine of peculiar sanctity, on one side of the church. The faces of the Virgin and her child were of a black glossy colour, besmeared with grease. To prevent any farther deformities of the frightful images, they had been encased in glass, so as to be seen but not caressed. Three lamps were burning in front. The central one was open, into which the devotees dipped their fingers, and daubed their foreheads with the holy unction. Sometimes little flowers or sprigs were substituted, immersed in oil, rubbed as near the face of the idols as possible, and then kissed with fervour by the prostrate votaries. Armed soldiers were stationed before the altars to keep the peace in the general rush to the shrines. At 8 o'clock, an officer of the guard, wearing his sword, cocked hat, and cane, bustled through the aisles, driving the multitude from their prayers and from the church, while they were in the very act of kneeling. This scene was one of the most singular, as well as the most strongly marked by abject superstition and unresisted tyranny, that I witnessed in the whole course of my tour through Italy, not excepting the idolatrous worship in St. Peter's.

After the show was over at the church, we went to a more dignified spectacle at the Teatro del Corso. The theatre is spacious and neat; and the boxes exhibited a splendid circle of beauty, whose white head-dresses gave to their complex. ions the delicacy of nuns. We saw the dramatic corps belonging to Maria Louisa, Archduchess of Parma, and late Empress of France, who were here on a visit for a few days, from the neighbouring city. They are highly respectable, and the entertainment of the evening was far from being dull. The music was excellent, worthy of the native city of Rossini.

LETTER LXXXIII.

DEPARTURE FROM BOLOGNA-RIDE TO FERRARA-ENVIRONSSKETCH OF THE CITY-LIBRARY-TOMB OF ARIOSTO-MANUSCRIPTS-HOSPITAL OF SAINT ANNA-PRISON OF TASSODUCAL PALACE-HOUSE OF ARIOSTO-CHAPEL OF BENEDICTINES-CERTOSA-SANTA MARIA IN VADO-CATHEDRAL— | DEPARTURE FROM FERRARA-PASSAGE OF THE PO-SCENERY OF ITS BANKS-AUSTRIAN CUSTOM-HOUSES-ROVIGO-THE ADIGE-MONSELICE-ARRIVAL AT PADUA.

September, 1826.-At 6 o'clock on the morning of the 10th, we left Bologna for Ferrara. A ride of thirty miles presented very little variety of scenery, and few objects worthy of attention. The route extends over a flat country, covered with poplars and vines. It is bordered by much stagnant water, in the form of pits for rotting hemp. They are mantled with corruption, and emit a horrible stench. The inhabitants have sallow bilious countenances, and the region is extremely insalubrious. Hemp is one of the staple commodities. The peasantry were engaged in dressing it. Large quantities of it are taken across the mountains to Leghorn, and thence exported. It bears a higher price in market, than the same article from any other part of Italy. A canal connects Bologna with Ferrara. We saw a few boats navigating its sluggish channel, which does not appear to be much used for transportation. On the very banks of it, many teams were met, laden with heavy articles.

The suburbs of Ferrara at once reminded us of the Cam

agna di Roma. Immense solitudes extend to the very alls of the city. The ground is unfenced, untilled, and alost unpastured. A few cattle and sheep were seen sprinkd over the dreary waste. The faubourg, without the gate, resents a still stronger picture of desolation. Its houses e tenantless and ruinous; some with the roofs tumbled in, ad others with shattered windows. Here and there a sickly, [ualid inhabitant was crawling along the street, with a voice most too feeble and sepulchral to beg. The city is girt ith walls and moats. Above the dilapidated portals, the ope's arms are conspicuously displayed, and a regiment of iards, sufficient to reclaim the desert which spreads under e ramparts, is stationed at the entrance, to extort fees from avellers. Half an hour was occupied in the examination our passports and luggage. Cardinal Arizzio, from Naes, is the vicegerent of his Holiness, and no part of St. eter's patrimony is more shamefully neglected, povertyricken, and wretched.

We took lodgings at the Three Crowns, a large shell of a ilding. The arms of the Ex-Empress Maria Louisa, of e King of Prussia, of the Prince Michael of Russia, and e Grand Duke of Tuscany, were suspended in the court, ith an inscription stating precisely the day when each of ese royal personages ate his macaroni and omelet at the re Corone.

After taking such refreshments as the house afforded, we ›mmenced a ramble over the town, which is of formidable xtent, and may be styled what a foreign minister denomiated one of our own--" a city of respectable distances." he streets are wide, straight, and originally handsome, but ow gone to decay, solitary, and in many instances grassrown. Frequently you might walk half a mile without eeting an inhabitant. The ruins of the interior, as well as e solitudes beyond the walls, recall an image of Rome, ad are in accordance with the feelings awakened by the Prion of Tasso and the tomb of Ariosto.

Our first visit was to the Library. Collections of antiquies occupy the courts below. A custode received us at the oor. He is an intelligent old man, who has held his office or twenty-seven years. He is precise and oratorical in his iction, has his story well conned by rote, and can repeat the ontents of half the books he shows. The library is one f the richest and rarest in Italy, filling four or five different

halls, and comprising 80,000 volumes, together with a great number of valuable manuscripts. In the first room, the portraits of all the Cardinals, good, bad, and indifferent, who were born at Ferrara, amounting to eighteen, are paraded round the walls.

At the end of the principal hall stands the splendid tomb of Ariosto, erected by order of General Miolis, after the conquest by the French. The dust of the poet was transferred from the church of Benedictines, and deposited with great funeral pomp. It was a tribute of false respect to disturb the ashes, and inurn them in a fresh cold sarcophagus, however proud it may be. The monument is in the shape of the front of a Grecian temple, supported by four pillars of the composite order. A mixture of colours detracts from the taste of the pile, the basis of which is of red Verona marble, and the upper part of clouded African and black antique. A wreathed bust of the poet is placed aloft, against a black field. Beneath is an inscription, recording the date and circumstances of the removal, and styling Areosto (as the name is here written) the most celebrated of the Italian poets, placing him before Dante or Tasso. Lower down are the classical lines, originally inscribed on his tomb; and on the pedestal is yet another inscription, which is at least one too many. The bust is supported by a figure of Love on one side, and of Comedy on the other.

In

The most interesting compartment of the library, is that which contains the manuscripts of Ariosto, comprising the original of his Orlando Furioso, and of his satirical attack upon the Pope. Alfieri's name, with the date of his visit to Ferrara, in 1786, is written on the margin, and carefully protected from injury, by being covered with silk paper. the same collection are the original letters of Tasso, written during his imprisonment, copies of which are given in the Illustrations of Hobhouse. The old custode stated, that Lord Byron passed fifteen days in this library, and gave him a louis d'or a day, for the privilege of making such extracts, from the books and manuscripts as he chose. Here are deposited the fantastic old armed chair and the inkstand of Ariosto; as also a medal bearing his head on one side, and a man in the act of clipping the tongue of a serpent, upon the reverse.

Our next visit was to the Hospital of St. Anna, an extensive edifice fronting upon the Corso. The court is shaded