[308] See Bembo's elegy on Poliziano quoted by me in the Revival of Learning, p. 484.

[309] See Revival of Learning, p. 506, for the transference of scholarship to Lombardy.

[310] See the Latin hendecasyllables quoted by me in the Revival of Learning, p. 415, and the Defense of Italian in the treatise "Della volgare Lingua" (Bembo, Opere, Milan, Class. It. x. 28). Carducci in his essay Delle Poesie Latine di Ludovico Ariosto, pp. 179-181, gives some interesting notices of Ercole Strozzi's conversion to the vulgar tongue.

[311] See Revival of Learning, pp. 410-415, 481-485.

[312] Opere del Cardinale Bembo (Class. It. Milano, 1808, vol. x.).

[313] See his Latin treatise De Imitatione. It is in the form of an epistle.

[314] See Panizzi, Bioardo ed Ariosto, vi. lxxxi.

[315] Sonnet xxxvi. of his collected poems.

[316] My edition is in four volumes, Gualtero Scotto, Vinegia, MDLII. They are collected with copious additions in the Classici Italiani.

[317] It will be impossible to do more than make general reference to the vast masses of Italian letters printed in the sixteenth century. I must, therefore, content myself here with mentioning the collections of La Casa, Caro, Bernardo, and Torquato Tasso, Aretino, Guidiccioni, together with the miscellanies published under the titles of Lettre Scritte al Signor Pietro Aretino, the Lettere Diverse in three books (Aldus, 1567), and the Lettere di Tredici Uomini Illustri (Venetia, 1554).

[318] Lettere, ed. cit. vol. iv. pp. 1-31.

[319] Another letter, dated Venice, August 1, 1504, is fuller in particulars about this dearly-loved brother.

[320] Il Cortegiano (ed. Lemonnier, Firenze, 1854), pp. 296-303. I have already spoken at some length about this essay in the Age of the Despots, pp. 183-190, and have narrated the principal events of Castiglione's life in the Revival of Learning, pp. 418-422. For his Latin poems see ib. pp. 490-497.

[321] Ed. cit. pp. 39-53.

[322] Ariosto's style was formed on precisely these principles.

[323] The preface to the Cortegiano may be compared with this passage. When it appeared, the critics complained that Castiglione had not imitated Boccaccio. His answer is marked by good sense and manly logic: see pp. 3, 4. With Castiglione, Aretino joined hands, the ruffian with the gentleman, in this matter of revolt against the purists. See the chapter in this volume upon Aretino.

[324] Varchi's Ercolano or Dialogo delle Lingue; Sperone's dialogue Delle Lingue; Claudio Tolommei's Cesano; Girolamo Muzio's Battaglie.

[325] Varchi called it Fiorentina, Tolommei and Salviati Toscana, Bargagli Senese, Trissino and Muzio Italiana. Castiglione and Bembo agreed in aiming at Italian rather than pure Tuscan, but differed in their proposed method of cultivating style. Bembo preferred to call the language Volgare, as it was the common property of the Volgo. Castiglione suggested the title Cortigiana, as it was refined and settled by the usage of Courts. Yet Castiglione was more liberal than Bembo in acknowledging the claims of local dialects.

[326] For a list of commentators upon Petrarch at this period, see Tiraboschi, lib. iii. cap. iii., section 1. Common sense found at last sarcastic utterance in Tassoni.

[327] See Revival of Learning, pp. 365-368.

[328] Quirino is mentioned as "legitimatum, seu forsitan legitimandum," in La Casa's will (Opp. Venezia, Pasinelli, 1752, vol. i. p. lxxvii.). From his name and his age at La Casa's death we ought perhaps to refer this fruit of his amours to the Venetian period of his life and his intimacy with the Quirino family. His biographer, Casotti, says that he discovered nothing about the mother's name (loc. cit. p. lxxiii.).

[329] La Casa received a special commission at Venice in 1546, to prosecute Pier Paolo Vergerio for heresy. When Vergerio went into exile, he did his best to blacken La Casa's character, and used his writings to point the picture he drew in Protestant circles of ecclesiastical profligacy. The whole subject of La Casa's exclusion from the College is treated by his editor, Casotti (Opp. vol. 1. pp. xlv.-xlviii.). That the Bishop of Benevento was stung to the quick by Vergerio's invectives may be seen in his savage answer "Adversus Paulum Vergerium" (Opp. iii. 103), and in the hendecasyllables "Ad Germanos" (Opp. i. 295), both of which discuss the Forno and attempt to apologize for it.

[330] Opp. vol. i. pp. 237-306. Galateo is said to have been a certain Galeazzo Florimonte of Sessa.

[331] Vol. ii. of the Venetian edition, 1752.

[332] Take for instance this outburst from a complimentary sonnet (No. 40, vol. i. p. 70):

Or this opening of the sonnet on Court-honors (No. 26):

Or this from a Canzone on his love (No. 2):

[333] Sonnet 58, vol. i. 154.

[334] No. 52, ib. p. 136.

[335] Canzone 4, ib. p. 102.

[336] Sonnets 8, 26, 40. ib. pp. 12, 39, 70; Canzone 2, ib. p. 79.

[337] They are Nos. 58, 50, 25, 26, 8. The sixth, on Jealousy, may be compared with Sannazzaro's, above, p. 200.

[338] La Casa, Canzone 4 (Opp. i. 151).

[339] De Poetis, Dial. ii.

[340] Opere di Messer G. Guidiccioni (Firenze, BarbÈra, 1867), vol. i. p. 12.

[341] We might parallel Guidiccioni's lamentations with several passages from the Latin elegies of the period, and with some of the obscurer compositions of Italian poetasters. See, for example, the extracts from Cariteo of Naples, Tibaldeo of Ferrara, and Cammelli of Pistoja on the passage of Charles VIII. quoted by Carducci, Delle Poesie Latine di Ludovico Ariosto, pp. 83-86. But the most touching expression of sympathy with Italy's disaster is the sudden silence of Boiardo in the middle of a canto of Orlando. See above, part i. p. 463.

[342] See, for example, "Donna, qual mi foss'io," and "In voi mi trasformai," or "Eran l'aer tranquillo e l'onde chiare."

[343] See "Carlo il Quinto fu questi"; "Nell'apparir del giorno"; and "Venite all'ombra de' gran gigli d'oro."

[344] Among the liveliest missiles used in this squabble are Bronzino's Sattarelli, recently reprinted by Romagnoli, Bologna, 1863.

[345] Alberigo Longo was in fact murdered in 1555, and a servant of Castelvetro's was tried for the offense. But he was acquitted. Caro, on his side, gave occasion to the worst reports by writing in May 1560 to Varchi: "E credo che all'ultimo sarÒ sforzato a finirla, per ogni altra via, e vengane ciÒ che vuole." See Tiraboschi, Part 3, lib. iii. chap. 3 sec. 13.

[346] The identity of male and female education in Italy is an important feature of this epoch. The history of Vittorino da Feltre's school at Mantua given by his biographer, Rosmini, supplies valuable information upon this point. Students may consult Burckhardt, Cultur der Renaissance, sec. 5, ed. 2, p. 312; Gregorovius, Lucrezia Borgia, book i. sec. 4; Janitschek, Gesellschaft der Renaissance, Lecture 3.

[347] See Vulgate, Gen. ii. 23: "HÆc vocabitur Virago," etc.

[348] In a rare tract called Tariffa delle puttane, etc., Tullia d'Aragona is catalogued among the courtesans of Venice. See Passano, Novellieri in Verso, p. 118.

[349] See Revival of Learning, p. 375.

[350] Rinaldo Corso, quoted by Tiraboschi.

[351] See Ricordi Inediti di Gerolamo Morone, pubblicati dal C. Tullio Dandolo, Milano, 1855.

[352] The most recent investigations tend rather to confirm the tradition of Vittoria's Lutheran leanings. See Giuseppe Campori's Vittoria Colonna (Modena, 1878), and the fine article upon it by Ernesto Masi in the Rassegna Settimanale, January 29, 1879. Karl Benrath's Ueber die Quellen der italienischen Reformationsgeschichte (Bonn, 1876) is a valuable contribution to the history of Lutheran opinion in the South.

[353] The whole document may be seen in the Archivio Storico, nuov. ser. tom. v. part 2, p. 139, or in Grimm's Life of Michelangelo.

[354] The first lines of the introductory sonnet are strictly true:

[355] The last biographer of Vittoria Colonna, G. Campori, has shown that her husband was by no means faithful to his marriage vows.

[356] The close of the twenty-second sonnet is touching by reason of its allusion to the past. Vittoria had no children.

[357] See, for instance, Rime Varie, Sonetto li. and lxxi. xc.

[358] It is No. 31 of the Rime Varie (Florence, BarbÈra, 1860).

[359] The introductory Sonnet has, however, these ugly concetti:

[360] Rime Sacre, 119, 120, 86, 87.

[361] Ibid. 75, 80, 81.

[362] For a brief account of Michelangelo's Rime, see Fine Arts, Appendix ii.; also the introduction to my translation of the sonnets, The Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella, Smith and Elder, 1878.

[363] Varchi's and Guidicci's Lezioni will be found in Guasti's edition of the Rime.

[364] I use the Life prefixed by G. Campori to his Lettere Inedite di Bernardo Tasso (Bologna, Romagnoli, 1869).

[365] The Amadigi was printed by Giolito at Venice in 1560 under the author's own supervision. The book is a splendid specimen of florid typography.

[366] Besides the Amadigi, Bernardo Tasso composed a second narrative poem, the Floridante, which his son, Torquato, retouched and published at Mantua in 1587.

[367] Giangiorgio Trissino, by Bernardo Morsolin (Vicenza, 1878), is a copious biography and careful study of this poet's times.

[368] Francesco died in 1514.

[369] See above, pp. 126-128.

[370] See Morsolin, op. cit., p. 360, for Trissino's own emphatic statement that his services had been unpaid. Ibid. p. 344, for a list of the personages he complimented.

[371] Ibid. p. 323.

[372] Ibid. pp. 219-235.

[373] Ibid. p. 301.

[374] Op. cit. p. 366.

[375] Op. cit. p. 385.

[376] Ibid. p. 413.

[377] Ibid. p. 414.

[378] The whole of this extraordinary sequel to Trissino's biography will be read with interest in the last chapter of Signor Morsolin's monograph. It leaves upon my mind the impression that Giulio, though unpardonably ill-tempered, and possibly as ill-conducted in his private life as his foes asserted, was the victim of an almost diabolical persecution.

[379] See Morsolin, op. cit., p. 197. This device was imprinted as early as 1529, upon the books published for Trissino at Verona by Janicolo of Brescia.

[380] The Poetica was printed in 1529; but it had been composed some years earlier.

[381] His grammatical and orthographical treatises were published under the titles of Epistola a Clemente VII., Grammatichetta, Dialogo Castellano, Dubbi Grammaticali. Firenzuola made Trissino's new letters famous and ridiculous by the burlesque sonnets he wrote upon them.

[382] Vicenza, Tolomeo Janicolo, 1529.

[383] Nine books were first printed at Rome in 1547 by Valerio and Luigi Dorici. The whole, consisting of twenty-seven books, was published at Venice in 1548 by Tolomeo Janicolo of Brescia. This Janicolo was Trissino's favorite publisher.

[384] See the Madrigals in Opere Burlesche, vol. iii. pp. 36-38.

[385] Ibid. p. 290.

[386] In Mac. xx. (p. 152 of Mantuan edition, 1771), he darkly alludes to this episode of his early life, where he makes an exposed witch exclaim:

[387] I cannot find sufficient authority for the story of Folengo's having had a grammar-master named Cocaius, from whom he borrowed part of his pseudonym. The explanation given by his Mantuan editor, which I have adopted in the text, seems the more probable. CocÁj in Mantuan dialect means a cork for a bottle; and the phrase ch'al fÀ di cocÁj is used to indicate some extravagant absurdity or blunder.

[388] There seems good reason, from many passages in his Maccaronea, to believe that his repentance was sincere. I may here take occasion to remark that, though his poems are gross in the extreme, their moral tone is not unhealthy. He never makes obscenity or vice attractive.

[389] Part of Folengo's satire is directed against the purists. See Canto i. 7-9. He confesses himself a Lombard, and shrugs his shoulders at their solemn criticisms:

To the reproach of "turnip-eating Lombard" he retorts, "Tuscan chatterbox." Compare vi. 1, 2, on his own style:

[390] The first line of the elegy placed upon the edition of 1526 runs thus:

Mensibus istud opus tribus indignatio fecit.

Folengo claims for himself a satiric purpose. The edition used by me is Molini's, Londra, 1775.

[391] See above Part i. p. 455, for the belief that Poliziano was the real author of the Morgante Maggiore.

[392] Canto i. 64, 65; ii. 1-4:

Folengo, of course, has a mistress, to whom he turns at the proper moments of his narrative. This mia diva Caritunga is a caricature of the fashionable Laura. See v. 1, 2:

[393] Canto ii. 9-42.

[394] Canto vi. 40-46. I have placed a translation of this passage in an Appendix to this chapter.

[395] Canto v. 56-58. The contempt for country folk seems unaffected.

[396] Canto vi. 55-57. This passage is a caricature of Pulci's burlesque description of the Last Day. See above Part i. p. 449. Folengo's loathing of the strangers who devoured Italy is clear here, as also in i. 43, ii. 4, 59. But there is no force in his invectives or laments.

[397]

[398] Canto vi. 8-11:

[399] Canto vii. 61-65.

[400] He has been identified on sufficiently plausible grounds with Ignazio Squarcialupo, the prior of Folengo's convent. In the Maccaronea this burlesque personage reappears as the keeper of a tavern in hell, who feeds hungry souls on the most hideous messes of carrion and vermin (Book xxiii. p. 217). There is sufficient rancor in Griffarosto's portrait to justify the belief that Folengo meant in it to gratify a private thirst for vengeance.

[401] In the play on the word lingue there is a side-thrust at the Purists.

[402] Canto viii. 23-32.

[403] Canto viii. 73-84. This passage I have also translated and placed in an Appendix to this chapter, where the chief Lutheran utterances of the burlesque poets will be found together.

[404] In addition to the eighth Canto, I have drawn on iii. 4, 20; iv. 13; vi. 44, for this list.

[405] Leo X.'s complacent acceptance of the Mandragola proves this.

[406] The curious history of Giulio Trissino, told by Bernardo Morsolin in the last chapters of his Giangiorgio Trissino (Vicenza, 1878), reveals the manner of men who adopted Lutheranism in Italy in the sixteenth century. See above, p. 304. I shall support the above remarks lower down in this chapter by reference to Berni's Lutheran opinions.

[407] The political and ecclesiastical satires known in England as the work of Walter Mapes, abound in pseudo-Maccaronic passages. Compare Du MÉril, PoÉsies Populaires Latines antÉrieures au xiime SiÈcle, p. 142, etc., for further specimens of undeveloped Maccaronic poetry of the middle ages.

[408] Those who are curious to study this subject further, should consult the two exhaustive works of Octave Delepierre, MacaronÉana (Paris, 1852), and MacaronÉana Andra (Londres, TrÜbner, 1862). These two publications contain a history of Maccaronic verse, with reprints of the scarcer poems in this style. The second gives the best text of Odassi, Fossa, and the Virgiliana. The Maccheronee di Cinque Poeti Italiani (Milano, Daelli, 1864), is a useful little book, since it reproduces Delepierre's collections in a cheap and convenient form. In the uncertainty which attends the spelling of this word, I have adopted the form Maccaronic.

[409] Take one example, from the induction to Odassi's poems (Mac. Andr. p. 63):

[410] The book was first printed at Vicenza. The copy I have studied is the Florentine edition of 1574. Scrofa's verses, detached from the collection, may be found in the Parnaso Italiano, vol. xxv.

[411] Op. cit. p. 23.

[412] Bernardino Scardeone in his work De antiquitate urbis Patavii, etc. (BasileÆ, 1560), speaks of Odassi as the inventor of Maccaronic poetry: "adinvenit enim primus ridiculum carminis genus, nunquam prius a quopiam excogitatum, quod MacaronÆum nuncupavit, multis farcitum salibus, et satyrica mordacitate respersum." He adds that Odassi desired on his deathbed that the book should be burned. In spite of this wish, it was frequently reprinted during Scardeone's lifetime.

[413] It is with great regret that I omit Bertapalia, the charlatan—a portrait executed with inimitable verve. Students of Italian life in its lowest and liveliest details should seek him out. Mac. Andr. pp. 68-71.

[414] Ibid. p. 71. I have altered spelling and punctuation.

[416] This anonymous poet has been variously identified with Odassi and with Fossa of Cremona. The frequent occurrence of Paduan idioms seems to point to a Paduan rather than a Cremonese author; and though there is no authoritative reason for referring the poem to Odassi, it resembles his style sufficiently to render the hypothesis of his authorship very plausible. The name of the hero, VigonÇa, is probably the Italian Bigoncia, which meant in one sense a pulpit or a reading-desk, in its ordinary sense a tub.

[417] Daelli, Maccheronee di Cinque Poeti Italiani (Milano, 1864), p. 50; cp. Mac. Andr. p. 19.

[418] Daelli, op. cit. pp. 52, 54.

[419] Ibid. p. 112; Mac. Andra, p. 32.

[420] "De fossa compositore quando venit patavio" (Mac. Andra, p. 39).

[421] Alione says:

Cum nos Astenses reputemur undique Galli.

[422] See the passage beginning "O Longobardi frapatores," and ending with these lines:

Daelli, op. cit. p. 94.

[423] Daelli, p. 93.

[424] In the first book of the Moscheis, line 7, he says:

The end of the Maccaronea sets forth the impossibility of modern bards contending with the great poet of antiquity. Pontanus, Sannazzarius, all the best Latin writers of the age, pale before Virgil:

This refrain he repeats for each poet with whimsical reiteration. Folengo's own ambition to take the first place among burlesque writers appears in the final lines of Mac. book iii.:

The induction to the Moscheis points to a serious heroic poem on Mantua which he abandoned for want of inspiration. We have in these references enough to account for the myth above mentioned.

[425] Compare Mac. vii. p. 195.

This great theme is nothing less than monasticism in its vilest aspects.

[426] At the end of the Maccaronea I think there may be an allusion to Odassi conveyed in these words, Tifi Caroloque futuris.

[427] I do not recognize Pulicanus, who is said to be the ancestor of Falchettus. Is it a misprint for Fulicanus? Fulicano is a giant in Bello's Mambriano, one of Folengo's favorite poems of romance.

[428] Mac. iii. The edition I quote from is that of Mantua (?) under name of Amsterdam, 1769 and 1771, 2 vols. 4to. See vol. i. p. 117, for a satire on the frauds and injustice of a country law-court, followed by a mock heroic panegyric of the Casa Gonzaga. The description of their celebrated stud and breed of horses may be read with interest.

[429] The episode of Berta's battle with her sister Laena (Mac. iv. p. 144), the apostrophe to old age (Mac. v. p. 152), the village ball (ibid. p. 163), the tricks played by Cingar on Zambellus (ibid. p. 168, and Mac. vi.), the description of the convent of Motella (Mac. vii. 196), the portrait of the ignorant parish-priest (Mac. vii. p. 202), the Carnival Mass (Mac. viii. p. 212), followed by a drunken Ker Mess (ibid. p. 214), are all executed in the broad style of a Dutch painter, and abound in realistic sketches of Lombard country-life.

[430] Mac. vii. p. 204.

[431] Mac. vii. p. 212. Folengo seems to have been fond of music. See the whimsical description of four-part singing, Mac. xx. p. 139, followed by the panegyric of Music and the malediction of her detractors.

[432] This episode of Cingar's triumph over the enemies of Baldus, his craft, his rhetoric, his ready wit, his infinite powers of persuasion, his monkey tricks and fox-like cunning, is executed with an energy of humor and breadth of conception, that places it upon a level with the choicest passages in Rabelais.

[433] Mac. xii. p. 296.

[434] In the course of this oration Folengo introduces an extraordinarily venomous invective against contadini, which may be paralleled with his allegory in the Orlandino. It begins (Mac. xiii. p. 11):

Progenies maledicta quidem villana vocatur,

and extends through forty lines of condensed abuse.

[435] Mac. xvi. p. 66.

[436] Mac. xx. p. 152. From this point onward the poet and Merlin are one person:

[437] The Novella of Luca Philippus, who kept a tavern at the door of Paradise, and had no custom, since no one came that way so long as Gulfora ruled on earth, forms a significant preface to her episode. See Mac. xxi. p. 180. The altercation between this host and Peter at the rusty gate of heaven is written in the purest Italian style of pious parody.

[438] Aretino's Cortigiana contains a very humorous exorcism inflicted by way of a practical joke upon a fisherman.

[439] See above, Part i, p. 453, note 2, for the distinction between the fiends and the sprites drawn by Pulci.

[440] See Lasca's Novella of Zoroastro; Bandello's novels of witchcraft (Part iii. 29 and 52); Cellini's celebrated conjuration in the Coliseum; and Ariosto's comedy of the Negromante. These sources may be illustrated from the evidence given by Virginia Maria Lezia before her judges, and the trial of witches at Nogaredo, both of which are printed in Dandolo's Signora di Monza (Milano, 1855). Compare the curious details about Lombard witchcraft in CantÙ's Diocesi di Como.

[441] It may be remembered that the necromancer in Cellini sent his book to be enchanted in the Apennines of Norcia. Folengo alludes to this superstition:

Qualiter ad stagnum NursÆ sacrare quadernos.

With regard to Val Camonica, see the actual state of that district as reported by CantÙ. Folengo in the Orlandino mentions its witches. Bandello (iii. 52) speaks of it thus: "Val Camonica, ove si dice essere di molte streghe."

[442] Witchcraft in Italy grew the more formidable the closer it approached the German frontier. It seems to have assumed the features of an epidemic at the close of the fifteenth century. Up to that date little is heard of it, and little heed was paid to it. The exacerbation of the malady portended and accompanied the dissolution of medieval beliefs in a population vexed by war, famine and pestilence, and vitiated by ecclesiastical corruption.

[443]

[444] This hypothesis receives support from the passage in which Baldus compares his new love for Crispis, the paragon of all virtues, with his old infatuation for Berta, who is the personification of vulgar appetite, unrefined natural instinct. See the end of Book xxiii.

[445] The rage of a man who knows that he has chosen the lower while he might have trodden the higher paths of life and art, flames out at intervals through this burlesque. Take this example, the last five lines of Book xxiii.:

[446] Zanitonella, p. 3.

[447] Ibid. p. 2. Compare Sonolegia xiii. ib. p. 40.

[448] Op. cit. p. 42.

[449] We may ascend to the very sources of popular Tuscan poetry, and we shall find this literature of double entendre in the Canzoni of the Nicchio and Ugellino, noticed above, Part i. p. 38. Besides the Canti Carnascialeschi edited by Il Lasca, we have a collection of Canzoni a Ballo, printed at Florence in 1569, which proves that the raw material of the Capitoli lay ready to the hand of the burlesque poets in plebeian literature.

[450] My references are made to Opere Burlesche, 3 vols., 1723, with the names of Londra and Firenze. Gregorovius says of them: "Wenn man diese 'scherzenden' Gedichte liest, muss man entweder Über die Nichtigkeit ihrer GegenstÄnde staunen, oder vor dem Abgrund der Unsittlichkeit erschrecken, den sie frech entschleiern." Stadt Rom. vol. viii. p. 345.

[451] The probable date is 1496.

[452] Orl. Inn. Rifatto da Fr. Berni, i. 14, 23-28, makes it clear that Berni was an eye-witness of the Sack of Rome. Panizzi's reference to this passage (Boiardo ed Ariosto, London, 1830, vol. ii. p. cxi.) involves what seems to me a confusion.

[453] The matter is fully discussed by Mazzuchelli in his biography of Berni. He, relying on the hypothesis of Berni having lived till 1536, if not till 1543, points out the impossibility of his having been murdered by the Cardinal, who died himself in July, 1535. This difficulty has recently been removed by Signor Antonio Virgili's demonstration of the real date of Berni's death in May, 1535. See Rassegna Settimanale, February 23, 1879, a paper of great importance for students of Berni's life and works, to which I shall frequently refer.

[454] It is enough to mention the Capitoli "Delle Pesche," "A M. Antonio da Bibbiena," "Sopra un Garzone," "Lamentazion d'Amore." References are made to the Rime e Lettere di Fr. Berni, Firenze, BarbÈra, 1865. For the Rifacimento of the Orlando Innamorato I shall use the Milan reprint in 5 vols., 1806, which also contains the Rime.

[455] Book III. canto vii. (canto 67 of the Rifacimento, vol. iv. p. 266).

[456] This translation will be found in Panizzi's edition of the Orlando Innamorato (London, Pickering, 1830), vol. ii. p. cxiv.

[457] Letter vi. to Messer Giamb. Montebuona.

[458] Letter xvii.

[459] Letter xxiv.

[460] Letter to Ippolito de' Medici (ed. Milan, vol. v. p. 227).

[461] Letter ix.

[462] Letter vii. Compare the sonnet "In nome di M. Prinzivalle da Pontremoli" (ed. Milan, vol. v. p. 3).

[463] It was published at Rome by Calvo in 1526, with the comment of M. Pietro Paolo da S. Chirico.

[464] Il Lasca prefixed a sonnet to his edition of 1548, in which he speaks of "Il Berni nostro dabbene e gentile," calls him "primo e vero trovatore, Maestro e padre del burlesco stile," says that it is possible to envy but impossible to imitate him, and compares him thus with Burchiello:

In another sonnet he climbs a further height of panegyric:

and winds up with the strange assurance that:

[465] Sonnet xxvii.

[466] Sonnet ix.

[467] The scholars of the day were not content with writing burlesque Capitoli. They must needs annotate them. See Caro's Commentary on the Ficheide of Molza (Romagnoli, Scelta di CuriositÀ Letterarie, Dispensa vii. Bologna, 1862) for the most celebrated example. There is not a sentence in this long and witty composition, read before the Accademia delle VirtÙ, which does not contain a grossly obscene allusion, scarcely a paragraph which does not refer to an unmentionable vice.

[468] The six opening lines of the Lamentazion d'Amore prevent our regarding Berni's jests as wholly separate from his experience and practice.

[469] A familiar illustration is Cellini's Capitolo del Carcere. Curious examples of these occasional poems, written for the popular taste, are furnished by Mutinelli in his Annali Urbani di Venezia. See above, Part i. pp. 172, 519, for the vicissitudes of terza rima after the close of the fourteenth century.

[470]

[471] Sonnets xi. xvi. xiv. iii. xx. The same vivid picturesqueness is displayed in the desecrated Abbey (Sonnet xvii.), which deserves to be called an etching in words.

[472] Sonnet xix. In the Capitolo to Ippolito de' Medici, Berni thus alludes to Aretino:

[473] "Di chi presuntuosamente gli ha voluto fare tanta ingiuria." This note occurs at Stanza 83 of Canto 1.

[474] In some cases the readings of the second edition are inferior to those of the first, while both fall short of Boiardo. Boiardo wrote in his description of Astolfo (Canto i. 60):

In the rifacimento of 1541 we have:

In that of 1545:

I take these instances from Panizzi.

[475] Boiardo ed Ariosto, vol. ii. p. cxxxiv.

[476] Lettere, Book ii. p. 121.

[477] Ibid. p. 249. We might quote a parallel passage from the Prologue to the Ipocrita, which Aretino published in 1542, just after accomplishing his revenge on Berni: "Io non ho pensato al gastigo che io darei a quegli che pongono il lor nome nei libri che essi guastano nella foggia che un non so chi ha guasto il Boiardo, per non mi credere che si trovasse cotanta temeritÀ nella presunzione del mondo." The hypocrisy of this is worthy of the play's title.

[478] Mazzuchelli (Scrittori d'Italia: Albicante, Giov. Alberto) may be consulted about the relations between these two ruffians, who alternately praised and abused each other in print.

[479] See Mazzuchelli, op. cit., under "Brocardo, Antonio." The spelling of the name varies. Bembo, six years afterwards, told Varchi that Aretino drove Broccardo for him into an early grave. See Lettere all'Aretino, vol. ii. p. 186, ed. Romagnoli. The probability is that Broccardo died of fever aggravated by the annoyance caused him by Aretino's calumnies. There is no valid suspicion of poison.

[480] This curious pamphlet was reprinted from a unique copy by Panizzi, op. cit. vol. iii. p. 361. In the introduction, Vergerio gives an interesting account of Berni. He represents him as a man of worldly life, addicted to gross pleasures and indecent literature until within a few years of his death. Having been converted to evangelical faith in Christ, Berni then resolved to use the Orlando as a vehicle for Lutheran opinions; and his rifacimento was already almost printed, when the devil found means to suppress it. Vergerio is emphatic in his statement that the poem was finished and nearly printed. If this was indeed the case, we must suppose that Albicante worked upon the sheets, canceling some and leaving others, and that the book thus treated was afterwards shared by Giunta and Calvo.

[481] I shall print a translation of the eighteen stanzas in an Appendix to this volume. Lines like the following,

Arrandellarsi come un salsicciuolo,

which are common in the mangled version, would never have passed Berni's censure.

[482] This appears from a reference in Aretino's second letter to Calvo, where he talks of Berni's "friends and relatives." It might be going too far to suggest that Berni was murdered by his ecclesiastical enemies, who feared the scandal which would be caused by the publication of his opinions.

[483] Vergerio may have communicated the eighteen stanzas to Aretino; or conversely he may have received them from him. I have read through the letters exchanged between him and Aretino—and they are numerous—without, however, finding any passage that throws light on this transaction. Aretino published both series of letters. He had therefore opportunity to suppress inconvenient allusions.

[484] We may note the dates and fates of the chief actors in this tragedy. Broccardo died of grief in 1531. Berni died, under suspicion of poison, in 1535. Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici was poisoned a few months later, in 1535. Alessandro de' Medici was murdered by Lorenzino in 1537. Pietro Paolo Vergerio was deprived of his see and accused of heresy in 1544. Berni's old friend, the author of Il Forno, M. La Casa, conducted his trial, as Papal Nuncio at Venice. Aretino, who had assumed the part of inquisitor and mutilator to gratify his private spite, survived triumphant.

[485] See the Raccolta di Poesie Satiriche, Milano, 1808.

[486] See, for the latter series, Poesie Satiriche, pp. 138-156.

[487] See Sonetti di Matteo Franco e di Luigi Pulci, 1759. Cp. above, Part i. p. 431.

[488] The best source of information regarding Pietro Aretino is his own correspondence published in six volumes (Paris, 1609), and the two volumes of letters written to him by eminent personages, which are indeed a rich mine of details regarding Italian society and manners in the sixteenth century. Mazzuchelli's Vita di Pietro Aretino (Padua, 1741) is a conscientious, sober, and laborious piece of work, on which all subsequent notices have been based.

[489] It may be mentioned that Ariosto has immortalized this bully in the Orlando (xlvi. 14), among the most illustrious men and women of his age:

[490] Aretino's comedies, letters, and occasional poems are our best sources for acquaintance with the actual conditions of palace-life. The Dialogo de le Corti opens with a truly terrible description of the debauchery and degradation to which a youth was exposed on his first entrance into the service of a Roman noble. It may have been drawn from the author's own experience. The nauseous picture of the tinello, or upper-servants' hall, which occurs in the comedy Cortigiana (act v. sc. 15), proves intimate familiarity with the most revolting details of domestic drudgery. The dirt of these places made an ineffaceable impression on Aretino's memory. In his burlesque Orlandino, when he wishes to call up a disgusting image, he writes:

[491] Aretino's correspondence and the comedy above mentioned throw sufficient light upon these features of Roman society. It will, for the rest, suffice to quote a passage from Monsignore Guidiccioni's letter to Giambattista Bernardi (Opere di M. Giov. Guidiccioni, BarbÈra, 1867, vol. i. p. 195): "Non solamente da questi illustri per ricchezze non si puÒ avere, ma non si puote ancora sperare premio che sia di lunghe fatiche o di rischio di morte, se l'uomo non si rivolge ad acquistarlo per vie disoneste. PerciocchÈ essi non carezzano e non esaltano se non adulatori, e quelli che sanno per alfabeto le abitazioni, le pratiche e le qualitÀ delle cortigiane." The whole letter should be read by those who would understand Roman society of the Renaissance. The italics are mine.

[492] Quoted by PhilarÈte Chasles from Gamurrini, Ist. Gen. delle famiglie nobili Toscane ed Umbre, iii. 332. I do not know exactly to what period the letter refers.

[493] Lettere, vol. i. p. 258.

[494] It may be remembered that Giberti, Bishop of Verona, was Berni's patron. This helps to account for the animosity between Berni and Aretino.

[495] Op. Burl. ii. p. 11:

Giovanni de' Medici wrote to him thus: "Vieni presto.... Il re a buon proposito si dolse che non ti aveva menato al solito, onde io diedi la colpa al piacerti piÙ lo stare in Corte che in Campo ... non so vivere senza l'Aretino."—Lettere scritte all'Aretino, i. 6.

[496] The sonnet by Berni quoted above, p. 371, was written to meet these libels of Aretino. It contains an allusion to Achille della Volta's poignard.

[497] See Aretino's Letters, vol. i. pp. 8, 10, for very interesting details concerning the death of Giovanni de' Medici. He here used the interest of his old master to secure the favor of Duke Cosimo.

[498] The edition of Aretino's own letters which I shall use is that of Paris, 1609 in six books. The edition of the Lettere scritte all'Aretino is Romagnoli's reprint, Scelta di CuriositÀ, Bologna, 1873-1876, Dispensa cxxxii., two books divided into four volumes; to these, for convenience sake, I shall refer as 1, 2, 3, 4.

[499] It is clear from a perusal of the Lettere all'Aretino that his reputation depended in a great measure upon these pious romances. The panegyrics heaped on them are too lengthy and too copious to be quoted. They are curiously mixed with no less fervent praises of the Dialoghi.

[500] Lettere, vol. i. p. 3.

[501] Lettere, i. 204.

[502] Lettere, ii. 58.

[503] Lettere, iii. 145; cp. iii. 89. The whole of the passage translated above is an abstract of a letter professedly written to Aretino by Doni (Lett. all'Ar. vol. iv. p. 395), which may be read with profit as an instance of flattery. The occurrence of the same phrases in both series of epistles raises a doubt whether Aretino did not tamper with the text of the correspondence he published, penning panegyrics of himself and printing them under fictitious names as advertisements. Doni was a man who might have lent himself to such imposture on the public.

[504] See Lettere all'Ar. vol. iv. p. 352, for a vivid description, written by Francesco Marcolini, of Aretino's train of living and prodigal hospitality. It realizes the vast banqueting-pictures of Veronese.

[505] Lettere, iii. 72.

[506] Lettere, i. 206. This passage occurs also in a letter addressed to Aretino by one Alessandro Andrea (Lett. all'Ar. vol. iii. p. 178); whence Mazzuchelli argues that Aretino tampered with the letters written to him, and interpolated passages before he sent them to the press. See last page, note 1.

[507] Lettere, ii. 213.

[509] See Lettere, ii. 257; iii. 340; v. 251.

[510] See the Capitolo al Duca di Fiorenza.

[511] Marcolini's letter (Lettere all'Aretino, vol. iv. p. 352), and some letters from obscure scholars (for example, ib. vol. ii. pp. 118-121), seem to prove that he was really openhanded in cases of distress.

[512] There is a letter from Barbarossa to Aretino in the Lettere all'Ar. vol. iii. p. 269.

[513] See the frank admissions in Lettere, ii. 52; iv. 168; i. 19, 30, 142.

[514] See the plates prefixed to Mazzuchelli's Life of Aretino. Compare a passage in his Letters, vi. 115, and the headings of the Letters addressed to him, passim.

[515] After studying the Lettere scritte all'Aretino—epistles, it must be remembered, from foreign kings and princes, from cardinals and bishops, from Italian dukes and noblemen, from illustrious ladies and great artists, and from the most distinguished men of letters of his day—I am quite at a loss to comprehend the furore of fashion which accompanied this man through his career. One and all praise him as the most powerful, the most virtuous, the bravest, the wittiest, the wisest, or, to use their favorite phrase, the divinest man of his century. Was all this a mere convention? Was it evoked by fear and desire of being flattered in return? Or, after all, had Aretino some now occult splendor, some real, but now unintelligible, utility for his contemporaries?

[516] The Papal Court was attacked by him; but none other that I can discover. The only Prince who felt the rough side of his tongue was the Farnese:

Cardinal Gaddi and the Bishop of Verona were pretty roughly treated. So was Clement VII. But all these personages made their peace with Aretino, and paid him homage.

[517] See the curious epistle written to Messer Pompeo Pace by the Conte di Monte Labbate, and included among the Lettere all'Aretino, vol. iv. p. 385. Speaking of Aretino's singular worth and excellent qualities, it discusses the question of the terror he inspired, which the author attributes to a kind of justifiable chantage. That Aretino was the inventor of literary chantage is certain; but that it was justifiable, does not appear.

[518] Aretino made no secret of his artificial method of flattery. In a letter to Bembo (Lettere, ii. 52), he openly boasts that his literary skill enables him to "swell the pride of grandees with exorbitant praises, keeping them aloft in the skies upon the wings of hyperboles." "It is my business," he adds, "to transform digressions, metaphors, and pedagogeries of all sorts into capstans for moving and pincers for opening. I must so work that the voice of my writings shall break the sleep of avarice; and baptize that conceit or that phrase which shall bring me crowns of gold, not laurels."

[519] As a sample of his begging style, we may extract the following passage from a letter (1537), referring to the king of France (Lettere, i. 111): "I was and ever shall be the servant of his Majesty, of whom I preached and published what appears in all my utterances and in all my works. But since it is my wonted habit not to live by dreams, and since certain persons take no care for me, I have with glory to myself made myself esteemed and sought by those who are really liberal. The chain was three years delayed, and four have gone without so much as a courtesy to me from the King's quarter. Therefore I have turned to one who gives without promising—I speak of the Emperor. I adored Francis; but never to get money from the stirring of his liberality, is enough to cool the furnaces of Murano."

[520] See Cromwell's letter, in the Lettere all'Aretino, vol. ii. p. 15.

[521] Lettere all'Aretino, vol. i. p. 245; vol. iv. pp. 281, 289, 300, contain allusions to this project, which is said to have originated with the Duke of Parma. The first citation is a letter of Titian's.

[522] "Divino," "Divinissimo," "Precellentissimo," "Unichissimo," "Onnipotente," are a few of the epithets culled from the common language of his flatterers.

[523] I will translate passages from two letters, which, by their very blasphemies, emphasize this contradiction. "One might well say that you, most divine Signor Pietro, are neither Prophet nor Sibyl, but rather the very Son of God, seeing that God is highest truth in heaven, and you are truth on earth; nor is any city but Venice fit to give you harborage, who are the jewel of the earth, the treasure of the sea, the pride of heaven; and that rare cloth of gold, bedecked with gems, they place upon the altar of S. Mark's, is naught but you" (Lettere scritte a P. Aretino, vol. iii. p. 176). The next is more extraordinary, since it professes to be written by a monk: "In this our age you are a column, lantern, torch and splendor of Holy Church, who, could she speak, would give to you the revenues of Chieti, Farnese, Santa Fiore, and all those other idlers, crying out—Let them be awarded to the Lord Pietro, who distinguishes, exalts and honors me, in whom unite the subtlety of Augustine, the moral force of Gregory, Jerome's profundity of meaning, the weighty style of Ambrose. It is not I but the whole world that says you are another Paul, who have borne the name of the Son of God into the presence of kings, potentates, princes of the universe; another Baptist, who with boldness, fearing naught, have reproved, chastised, exposed iniquities, malice, hypocrisy before the whole world; another John the Evangelist, for exhorting, entreating, exalting, honoring the good, the righteous, and the virtuous. Verily he who first called you Divine, can claim the words Christ spake to Peter: Beatus es, quia caro et sanguis non revelavit tibi, sed Pater noster qui in coelis est" (Ibid. p. 142).

[524] Her letter may be read in the Lettere all'Aretino, vol iii. p. 28.

[525] Lettere, ii. 9.

[526] She wrote to him again in 1539; see Lettere all'Aretino, vol. iii. p. 30. The series of letters from the virtuous Veronica Gambara are equally astonishing (ib. vol. i. pp. 318-333).

[527] Lettere all'Aretino, vol. ii. p. 335.

[528] Giorgio Vasari, the common friend of Pietro Aretino and M.A. Buonarroti, had no doubt something to do with the acquiescent courtesy of the latter.

[529] The adulation with which all the chief literary men of Italy greeted Aretino, is quite incredible. One must read their letters in the Lettere all'Aretino to have any conception of it. See in particular those of Varchi (ib. vol. ii. pp. 186-202), of Dolce (vol. ii. pp. 277-295), of Paolo Giovio (vol. iii. pp. 59-64), of NiccolÒ Martelli (vol. iii. pp. 116-125), of Annibale Caro (ib. p. 163), of Sperone (ib. pp. 324-330), of Firenzuola (ib. p. 345), of Doni (vol. iv. p. 395). Molza, terrified by one of Aretino's threats, cringes before him (vol. i. p. 340). Doni signs himself "Il Doni dell'Aretino," and Vergerio, Bishop of Capo d'Istria, "Il Vescovo dell'Aretino." Even the excellent Bishop of Fossombrone pays him courtly compliments (vol. ii. pp. 61-67). The pitch attained by these flatteries may be understood from this opening of a letter: "Bella armonia, e soave concento, dovea essere nel cielo, Signor Pietro divino, e fra le stelle amiche, il dÌ, che Iddio e la Natura di voi fece altero dono a questa nostra etade," etc. ad. inf. (vol. iv. p. 269). Here is another fragment: "Manifestamente si vede e si conosce che da Iddio per conservazione de la sua gloria e per utilitÀ del mondo v'abbi fra tanti avversari," etc. (vol. iv. p. 398).

[530] Lettere, v. 184. The above is only a condensed paraphrase of a very long tirade.

[531] Lettere, ii. 242.

[532] Lettere, i. 123.

[533] Lettere, ii. 182.

[534] Lettere, i. 210.

[535] Lettere, i. 143.

[536] Lettere, iii. 84. Letter at the end of the Talanta.

[537] Lettere, i. 99.

[538] Lettere, vi. 4.

[539] See Lettere, ii. 168, iii. 169, for his method of composing these books.

[540] I have purposely chosen an extract where the style is keen and mobile. Had I taken examples from the Letters, I could have produced a far closer parallel to Lilly's rhetoric.

[541] See the article on Albicante in Mazzuchelli's Scrittori Italiani, vol. i.

[542] For what follows see Tiraboschi, tom. vii. part 3, lib. iii.

[543] These lines have been, without authority, ascribed to Giovio; they may thus be rendered:

Giovio, we may remember, styled Aretino divino, divinissimo, unichissimo, precellentissimo, in his letters.

[544] Among the many flatteries addressed to Aretino none is more laughable than a letter (Lettere all'Aretino, vol. iii. p. 175) which praises his physical beauty in most extravagant terms: "Most divine Lord Peter; if, among the many and so lovely creatures that swinish Nature sends into this worst of worlds, you alone are of such beauty and incomparable grace that you combine all qualities the human frame can boast of: for the which cause there is no need to wonder that Titian, when he seeks to paint a face that has in it true beauty, uses his skilled brush in only drawing you," etc. etc. The period is too long to finish.

[545] I should not be surprised to see an attempt soon made to whitewash Aretino. Balzac, in his Catherine de MÉdicis, has already indicated the line to be followed: "L'ArÉtin, l'ami de Titien et le Voltaire de son siÈcle, a, de nos jours, un renom en complÈte opposition avec ses oeuvres, avec son caractÈre, et que lui vaut une dÉbauche d'esprit en harmonie avec les Écrits de ce siÈcle, oÙ le drolatique Était en honneur, oÙ les reines et les cardinaux Écrivaient des contes, dits aujourd'hui licentieux."

[546] I will only refer to a very curious epistle (Lettere a P. Aretino, vol. iii. p. 193), which appears to me genuine, in which Aretino is indicated as the poor man's friend against princely tyrants; and another from Daniello Barbaro (ibid. p. 217), in which the Dialogue on Courts is praised as a handbook for the warning and instruction of would-be courtiers. The Pornographic Dialogues made upon society the same impression as Zola's Nana is now making, although it is clear to us that they were written with a licentious, and not an even ostensibly scientific, intention.

[547] While these sheets are passing through the press, I see announced a forthcoming work by Antonio Virgili, Francesco Berni con nuovi documenti. We may expect from this book more light upon Aretino's relation to the Tuscan poet.

[548] Age of the Despots, chaps. v. and vi.

[549] "Mi È parso piÙ conveniente andare dietro alla veritÀ effettuale della cosa che all'immaginazione di essa" (Principe, cap. xv.).

[550] The section on the types of commonwealths in the Discorsi (cap. ii.) comes straight from Polybius. But I am not aware of any signs in Machiavelli of a direct study of the elder Greek philosophical writings.

[551] I refer to the Opere Inedite. In the Isteria d'Italia, Guicciardini's style is inferior to Machiavelli's.

[552] I cannot refrain from translating a paragraph in Spaventa's Essay upon Bruno, which, no less truly than passionately, states the pith of this Italian tragedy. "The sixteenth century was the epoch, in which the human spirit burst the chains that up to then had bound it, and was free. There is no more glorious age for Italy. The heroes of thought and freedom, who then fought for truth, were almost all her sons. They were persecuted and extinguished with sword and fire. Would that the liberty of thought, the autonomy of the reason, they gave to the other nations of Europe, had borne fruit in Italy! From that time forward we remained as though cut off from the universal life; it seemed as if the spirit which inspired the world and pushed it onward, had abandoned us" (Saggi di Critica, Napoli, 1867, p. 140).

[553] EpistolÆ Angeli Poliziani, lib. ix. p. 269 (ed. Gryphius, 1533).

[554] Laurentius Valla: Opera omnia, BasileÆ, 1465. The "De Voluptate" begins at p. 896 of this edition.

[555] "Uterque pro se de laudibus Voluptatis suavissime quidem quasi cantare visus est; sed Antonius hirundini, Nicolaus philomelÆ (quam lusciniam nominant) magis comparandus" (ib. lib. iii. p. 697).

[556] "Me quidem sententi odiosus est si quis in moechos, si rerum naturam intueri volumus, invehat" (ib. lib. i. cap. 38). "Quisquis virgines sanctimoniales primus invenit, abominandum atque in ultimas terras exterminandum morem in civitatem induxisse.... Melius merentur scorta et postribula quam sanctimoniales virgines ac continentes" (ib. lib. i. cap. 43).

[557] "Quod natura finxit atque formavit id nisi sanctum laudabileque esse non posse" (ib. lib. i. cap. 9).

[558] For the following sketch of Pomponazzi's life, and for help in the study of his philosophy, I am indebted to Francesco Fiorentino's Pietro Pomponazzi, Firenze, Lemonnier, 1868, 1 vol. I may here take occasion to mention a work by the same author, Bernardino Telesio, ibid. 1872, 2 vols. Together, these two books form an important contribution to the history of Italian philosophy.

[559] It will be remembered that in the controversy between Galileo and the Inquisition, the latter condemned Copernicus on the score that he contradicted Aristotle and S. Thomas of Aquino.

[560] These are the words: "Hoc sacro approbante Concilio damnamus et reprobamus omnes asserentes animam intellectivam mortalem esse, aut unicam in cunctis hominibus, et hÆc in dubium vertentes, cum illa non solum vere per se et essentialiter humani corporis forma existat ... verum et immortalis, et pro corporum quibus infunditur multitudine, singulariter multiplicabilis et multiplicata et multiplicanda sit."

[561] Cap. viii. "Cum et Aristoteles dicat, necesse esse intelligentem phantasma aliquod speculari." Again, ibid.: "Ergo in omni suo intelligere indiget phantasia, sed si sic est, ipsa est materialis; ergo anima intellectiva est materialis." Again, ibid.: "Humanus intellectus corpus habet caducum, quare vel corrupto corpore ipse non esset, quod positioni repugnat, vel si esset, sine opere esset, cum sine phantasmate per positionem intelligere non posset et sic otiaretur."

[562] Cap. ix. "Et sic medio modo humanus intellectus inter materialia et immaterialia est actus corporis organici." Again, ibid.: "Ipse igitur intellectus sic medius existens inter materialia et immaterialia." Again, ibid.: "Homo est medius inter Deos et bestias, quare sicut pallidum comparatum nigro dicitur album, sic homo, comparatus bestiis, dici potest Deus et immortalis, sed non vere et simpliciter."

[563] Cap. viii. "Vixque sit umbra intellectÛs." Again, cap. ix.: "Cum ipsa sit materialium nobilissima, in confinioque immaterialium, aliquid immaterialitatis odorat, sed non simpliciter."

[564] See (cap. viii.) the passage which begins "SecundÒ quia cum in ista essentia."

[565] See the passages quoted above; and compare De Nutritione, lib. i. cap. 11, which contains Pomponazzi's most mature opinion on the material extension of the soul, which he calls, in all its faculties, realiter extensa.

[566] De Immortalitate, cap. xiv. After demonstrating that the intellectus practicus, as distinguished from the speculativus and the factivus, is the special property of man, and that consequently in Ethics we have the true science of humanity, he lays down and tries to demonstrate the two positions that (1) "prÆmium essentiale virtutis est ipsamet virtus quÆ hominem felicem facit;" (2) "poena vitiosi est ipsum vitium, quo nihil miserius, nihil infelicius esse potest."

[567] For this argument he refers to Plato in cap. xiv.: "Sive animus mortalis sit, sive immortalis, nihilominus contemnenda est mors, neque alio pacto declinandum est a virtute quicquid accidat post mortem."

[568] See especially the exordium to cap. viii.

[569] Ritter, Geschichte der Christlichen Philosophie, part v. p. 426, quoted by Fiorentino, op. cit.

[570] De Incant. cap. 3.

[571] Ibid. cap. 4.

[572] Ibid. cap. 12.

[573] Peroration of De Incant.

[574] De Incant. cap. 12.

[575] De Fato, lib. iii. cap. 7.

[576] An interesting description of a humanist opening his course at Padua, and of the excitement in the town about it, is furnished by the anonymous Maccaronic poet who sang the burlesque praises of VigonÇa. See Delepierre, MacaronÉana Andra, London, 1862. Above, p. 331.

[577] He makes these assertions in a treatise De Mente HumanÂ.

[578] In the peroration of his treatise on Incantation, Pomponazzi says: "Habes itaque, compater charissime, quÆ, ut mea fert opinio, Peripatetici ad ea quÆ quÆsivisti, dicere verisimiliter haberent. Habes et quÆ veritati et ChristianÆ religioni consona sunt."

[579] From my Sonnets of Michael Angelo and Campanella, p. 119.

[580] Ibid. p. 123.

[581] Ibid. p. 174.

[582] It may be worth reminding the reader that Pomponazzi died in 1525, and Machiavelli in 1527—the year of Rome's disaster. Their births also were nearly synchronous. Pomponazzi was born in 1462, Machiavelli in 1469.

[583] I need hardly guard this paragraph by saying that I speak within the limits of the Renaissance.

[584] Those who are curious in such matters, may be referred to the following works by Giustiniano Nicolucci: La Stirpe Ligure in Italia, Napoli, 1864; Sulla Stirpe Iapigica, Napoli, 1866; Sull'Antropologia delta Grecia, Napoli, 1867; Antropologia dell'Etruria, Napoli, 1869; Antropologia del Lazio, Napoli, 1873. Also to Luigi Calori's Del Tipo Brachicefalo negli Italiani odierni, Bologna, 1868, and a learned article upon this work by J. Barnard Davis in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Jan. July, 1871. Nicolucci's and Calori's researches lead to opposite results regarding the distribution of brachycephalic skulls in Italy. Nicolucci adopts in its entirety the theory of an Aryan immigration from the North; Barnard Davis rejects it. It seems to me impossible in our present state of knowledge to draw conclusions from the extremely varied and interesting observations recorded in the treatises cited above.

[585] That the Æneid was still the Italian Epos is proved by the many local legends which connected the foundation of cities with the Trojan wars.

[586] It is enough to mention a few names—Gregory the Great, Lanfranc, S. Anselm, Peter the Lombard, Hildebrand, S. Thomas Aquinas, Accursius, Bartolus—to prove how strong in construction, as opposed to criticism, were the Italian thinkers of the middle ages.

[587] "Roma, caput mundi," is a significant phrase. It marks the defect of Italian nationality as distinguished from cosmopolitan empire.