CRITICAL SKETCHES OF RECENT CONTINENTAL PUBLICATIONS. ART. IX.-Tavole Cronologiche e Sincrone questo magistrato fu mutato in quello di Priori della Storia Fiorentina, compilate da Alfredo Reumont. Florence, Vieusseux. 1841. We have to acknowledge the receipt of many valuable works by a recent consignment from the house of Messrs. Vieusseux, and amid the many of which we shall furnish notices the present is not among the least interesting. Its value to the Florentine student (and who is not a Florentine student that merits the name of student?) from its synchronizing history, and enabling him to put his hand instantaneously on the portion of information required, is immense. In the learned introduction the patriotic name of Count Litta receives most honourable mention; a writer who has recently been reviewed in this Journal, and on whom we have prepared a second paper, to bring down his illustrious work, in its present state of advancement, to the notice of our readers. The Medici also maintain in the introduction their inseparable connection with all that graced and dignified Florence; we have a valuable table of the principal authorities of that city, the character of their functions, institutions, duration, &c. The Gonfalonieri follow in chronological arrangement; and the rise of the Signoria is briefly and clearly described in the following extract: "Signoria. Quel magistrato il quale ottenne in Firenze una stabilità che in certo modo può recar maraviglia, portò il nome di Priori delle Arti (vedi 1282.) Venne creato dai popolani, quando questi ebbero ottenuto forma e forza politica coll' istituzione delle Compagnie del popolo, alla quale seguì poi quella delle Arti; talchè infine poterono pensare a togliere il gov. erno della città ai nobili, le cui fazioni s' indebolivano sempre più nelle loro gare. Tre arti delle piu potenti, quelle di Calimala, del Cambio e della Lana, furono le prime ad accordarsi per eleggere 3 Priori. Poi, prendendo a ciò parte alcune altre, il numero ne fu accresciuto a 6, il che faceva uno per ogni sestiere; in appresso a 12, ovvero due per sestiere. Qualche volta ve n' erano anche 14; ridotti però di nuovo a 12 subito dopo la cacciata del Duca d'Atene, quando i Grandi parteciparono al governo; e tinalmente, dopo la caduta di questi, stabilmente ristretti a soli 8, cioè 2 per ciascun quartiere. Troviamo anche 8 priori col gonfaloniere di giustizia incluso; com nel 1343. Il nome di della libertà nel 1458. Per essere eligibile a priorato, bisognava avere anni 30 compiti e trovarsi ascritto ad una delle Arti: e siccome i nobili, a fine di partecipare ai magistrati, adempivano questa formalità senza poi fare verun' altra cosa, Giano della Bella, mediante la sua mutazione (v. 1293, e Introd. p. 12), procurò di escluderli interamente, ampliando codesta condizione fino a ricercarsi l'esercizio effettivo, e non solamente l'esser descritto alla matricola di un'Arte. Nell' istessa mutazione venne aggiunto ai priori il Gonfaloniere di giustizia, il quale era allora specialmente incaricato di vegliare sull' esecuzione degli ordini di guistizia fatti da quell' istesso Giano della Bella (vedi Esecutore.) Il gonfalone de lpopolo, fatto di zendado colla croce vermiglia in campo bianco, veniva sempre custodito nelle camere del Gonfaloniere, ed esponevasi al pubblico sol quando questi voleva intorno a se radunare il popolo stesso. Col progredir del tempo, codesto uffizio fu riguardato come la suprema dignità della repubblica." The Pedigree of the Medici, Albizzi, Strozzi, follows. The work then divides into eras:1st. From the foundation of Florence to the battle of Campaldino, 1290. 2d. From the govern ment of the Guelphs to the exile of the Duke of Athens, 1291-1343. 3d. From the fall of the nobles to the tumults of the populace (Ciompi), 1344-1378. 4. From the contest between the new nobility and the people to the return of Cosmo de' Medici from exile, 1379-1434. 5. From the rise of the Medici to the fall of the Republic, 1531-2. 6. The Principality. 1st. Medicean dynasty, 1532-1737. 2d. Lotharingian-Austrian dynasty, 1737-1840. A copious index, that most valuable appendage, but sadly omitted by English writers, follows. The Thucydides of Dr. Arnold, for example, is rendered nearly useless to the student by this omission. We shall now indicate our author's plan, which is both systematic and elegant. Each page, with its corresponding opposite one, is divided into six heads:-1. Imperatori: 2. Papi; 3. Storia Politica; 4. Storia Letteraria; 5. Storia Artistica; 6. Avvenimenti Contemporanei. We collect from a page that we have opened accidentally, the following illustration of the treatment of the subject, under the several heads, for the year 1543. Pope Pius IV., 3d and 4th December. cana. STORIA POLITICA. 3. Bianca Cappello Veneziana arriva in Firenze. Papa Pio IV. confermò il Concilio e i suoi Scorrerie dei pirati Algedecreti mediante bolla del dì 27 Genn. 1564. rini sulle coste della TosGli atti furono sottoscritti da 255 Padri tra i quali 4 Legati, 2 Cardinali, 3 Patriarchi, e 25 Vescovi. (Il Concilio Tridentino venne accettato in quasi tutta l'Italia, nell' Impero, nella Polonia e nel Portogallo, senza restrizione; nella Monarchia Spagnuola, con riserva dei diritti della corona. In Francia il Concilio non fu mai formalmente pubblicato.) La storia del Concilio di Muore Francesco Salviati, 4. (Decembre), Il Concilio di Trento fu scritta dal Sarpi v. pittore Fiorentino. Il palazzo Trento concluso dopo venticin1552, dal Pallavicini v. 1607, e dell' Escuriale presso Madrid que sedute generali. Revisione da molti autori moderni; ultim- cominciato. amente poi da J. H. de Wessenberg, insieme colla storia dei Concilj di Costanza e di Basilea (1840.) The history of Italy being nearly an artistic history, we warn our readers that the fifth column often reads to a page beyond the others. Neither must they imagine that contemporaneous art is at all neglected, as the brief notice of the Escurial in the above article clearly evinces. As a catalogue of art it is of great value: take the following notices, however brief, of Marc Antonio and Sebastian del Piombo. 1527. Marcantonio Raimondi, bolognese, celeberrimo incisore, parte da Roma dopo il sacco, e va a Bologna, dove credesi ch' egli passasse il resto dei suoi giorni. Nacque verso il 1483, e più non viveva nel 1534. Studiò sotto il Francia Bolognese; poi si trasferì a Venezia, e si perfezionò nel disegno in Roma sotto la direzione di Raffaello. La prima sua stampa che porti data, e del 1505. Le più belle tra le molte sue opere, sono quelle ch' egli fece sui disegni di Raffaello; nelle quali si ammireranno mai sempre la grazia, l' espressione, la correzione del disegno, l'ottimo gusto e la delicatezza del Bulino. Tra i suoi scolari ed imitatori si distinsero i seguenti: Agostino Veneziano," &c. A list of this distinguished engraver's pupils follows; and it may probably be interesting to some of our readers to be informed that the very finest specimens of this master are in the printroom of the British Museum, though the fact was probably not known by Signor Reumont. The notice we extract on Sebastian del Piombo, is merely with the intention of indicating the care that has been taken of the artistic portion. "1546. Muore Sebastiano del Piombo (Luciano,) pittore Veneziano. Cristo che porta la croce, nella Galleria Corsini; Cristo flagellato, in San Pietro in Montorio a Roma; Lazzaro risuscitato, a Londra." In the last noticed picture in our National Gallery, Michael Angelo is reported to have drawn that wonderful figure, the Lazarus, himself, when he felt anxious that Sebastian might del dogma, riforma delle pratiche e della disciplina. La congregazione per la spiegazione dei decreti del Concilio fu istituita nel 1588. vanquish Raphael. We here close our notice of Signor Reumont's work, of which, were the merits fully known, the sale in England would undoubtedly be large, since it is an excellent book of reference. ART. X.-Curiosités et Anecdotes Italiennes, par M. Valery. London, Tilt & Bogue, 1842. THIS Book of Anecdotes is extremely well arranged to afford both amusement and information, and the simple character and naturalmindedness of the author rather add to its charm. The following anecdote, which has evidently even the author's credence, appears highly amusing as well as characteristic. It only furnishes fresh argument in our notion for the abolishment of the confessional, of which Passavanti, who tells the anecdote, admitted that it led to numerous evils, and it furnishes a very clear corollary to the assertions of Maria Monk as to the very peculiar categories put to young women in the Roman Catholic confessional. "At Cologne a young girl named Beatrice was placed in a monastery by her parents. There she grew up in monastic innocency until one day a priest asked her, in the confessional, whether she had ever sinned carnally. To this she of course replied no. Are you then a virgin?' was the next question. To which she replied that she had never been approached by a man. To this the priest replied, 'A woman can sin without a man, and lose her virginity.' On this point she demanded explanations which, when given, excited on her part such an insatiable curiosity, that she became discontent with the monastery and left the walls, and plunged into a worldly course of sin. Before quitting, however, she took the keys of the sacristy, flung herself before the altar of the Virgin, and, addressing the image of the Madon na, said, 'Madonna, internally tormented with disquietude and anxiety, I leave thy service to enter the world.' Fifteen years she remained in the world leading a course of mortal sin. She then, heart-smitten, returned to her convent, and demanded of the porter if he knew a young nun of the name of Beatrice. She has lived in this convent holily and religiously from her childhood to this day,' said the porter. She was about to quit the monastery, not understanding what the porter meant, when the Virgin appear ed to her and said, 'For fifteen years since thou hast quitted the monastery I have discharged thy duty in thy dress and form. You will find the keys on the altar where you left them.' Beatrice resumed her keys and continued in penitence until her death, for no one knew her offence save her confessor, to whom she related this wondrous story." And this is obviously credited by a writer in the nineteenth century, then is the measure of the "Credo quia impossibile est" full. Impersonations of the Virgin of this character are recounted in so many Roman Catholic countries that assuredly they are right in their conclusions that she is Regina Cali, for no mortal could possess such ubiquity. What a deal of invisible agency takes place that we simple folk wot not of, and what a vast invisible biography has to be written by the confessors of Rome if all that meets their ears be like this committed to writing! By the by we were not aware until this moment that confessions were reduced to writing. We always considered them "Secreta in pectore sacerdotis deposita in æternum." Even our Roman Catholic brethren may not be the best pleased to hear the contrary. Passavanti's own rule for confession is comprised under the eight points indicated by this Latin verse. "Quis, quid, ubi, per quos, quoties, cur, quomodo, quando." And he gives as an injunction to the confessor "Quilibet observet animæ medicamina dando." Quis? gives the name and condition. Quid? the sin committed. Ubi? locality. Per quos? accomplices. Cur? motives. Quoties? number of offences. Quomodo? nature of offence. Quando? time of action, youth, manhood, old age. peo A very ingenious system, and placing the ple wholly in the hands of their spiritual advisers to use or to abuse. A few Dominicans, like Jacques Passavanti, would establish as stringent an inquisition as ever St. Dominic founded or aided to found. that I must be near it, and also know that I was born to die and that many have died younger. The other thought companion to it troubles me no more, I mean the fear of the pains that we suffer after death for sin, for I am a good Christian, and I ought to believe that I shall be delivered by the sacred blood of Jesus Christ, who shed it to deliver Christians. How agree able is life? How happy will be its close?" A sweeter picture than the life of this amiable and cheerful Christian, surrounded as he was by his grandchildren, one eighteen and the last two, singing to amuse them, having lost no portion of his memory, intelligence, or affection, writing eight hours per day and walking many others, with the fondest feelings to his beloved Venice, then the proud queen of the seas, is scarcely imaginable. And he died as calm as he had lived, with these words grasping the crucifix, the symbol of his age, "Joyous and full of hope I shall depart with you, my good God." Then arranging himself with decency and closing his eyes as to sleep he died with a slight sigh. And so passed Luigi Cornaro. He was led on to the formation of his temperate course by having lived a somewhat irregular life until thirty-five years old, when he began his abstinence system. But his system is not very rigorous, since it includes veal, mutton, venison, poultry, game, and fish, salt water and fresh, and wine. He renounced fruit, salads, pork, pastry, herb soup, as unfit for a weak stomach like his own, and only allowed them for ostrichlike digestions. His eulogium on sobriety ought to be printed by every temperance society. We can give only one more brief extract. "La sobrietà fa i sensi purgati, il corpo leggiero, l' intelletto vivace, l'animo allegro, la memoria tenace, i movimenti spediti, le azioni pronte e disposte. Per lei l'anima, quasi sgravata del suo terrestre peso, prova gran parte della sua libertà, gli spiriti si muovono dolcemente per le arterie, corre il sangue per le vene, il calore temperato e soave fa soavi e temperati effetti e finalmente queste potenze nostre serbano con bellissimo ordine una gioconda et grata armonia. O santississima e innocente sobrietade, unico refrigerio della natura, madre benigna della vita umana, vera medicina così dell'animo come del corpo nostro, quanto debbono gli uomini laudarti e ringraziarti di tuoi cortesi doni." Amid the writers that constitute the grace and glory of her literature, Italy has few who write with greater purity of diction than Luigi Cornaro, and the author of La Vita Sobria may be numbered among those of her sons whose lives and writings equally commend them to the admiration and emulation of posterity. So much for the Dominicans. The celebrated Louis Cornaro follows. He was the well-known Mathieu Palmieri, the author of the Vita author of the Discourse on a Temperate Life. Civile, Gonfalonier of Florence, who died in This, with the Compendium and Exhortatio, 1475, follows. This writer enjoyed the singular were composed by him beginning at the age of privilege of getting his work entitled La Città eighty-three, on to ninety-five. A very remark-di Vita, condemned by the Inquisition, though able period for composition. Cornaro was born in 1467, and lived to be ninety-eight. He appears to have been in high health to the close of existence. We extract from a letter written at ninety-one. The thought of death causes me no annoy ance, since I well know at my advanced age unpublished. Palmieri had a little crazed himself with that old Rabbinical tradition originally diffused by Origen, that the souls of men were those spirits that had remained neutral in the angel war in Heaven. The splendid passage in the Inferno is familiar to all Italian students on this subject. Palmieri, however, as the author of the treatise Della Vita Civile, deserves well of mankind. It is dedicated to his friend Alexander ab Alexandro. It consists of a series of moral and physical instruction highly valuable. The Florentine belles even do not escape him; he points out their dressing either too high or too low with great naïveté, and lays down the golden rule of the juste milieu. The origin of the Inferno has long been ascribed by Florentine tradition to the following vision of Dante. "Orlandi hic Caroli Magni metire nepotis Ingentes Artus; cætera facta docent." 'Si monumentum quæris circumspice," was clearly a plagiarism from this; and in addition, the warrior's length, portentous and gigantic, is shown fully mating all ideas even of the wielder of Durindana. In short, not only has Orlando had his fame, but a little more, for we have been shown Roman effigies for those of the famous Paladin of Charlemagne. "A little before the battle of Campaldino, the poet, aged 24, and no less ardent a Guelph than he was afterwards a Ghibellin, came to the Florentine encampment, accompanied by a faithful and learned follower. The generals received We pass next to a singular conjunction of them well. After some hours of uncertain names-Lucretia Borgia and Cardinal Bembo. fighting the army of Arezzo was defeated. Dante behaved well and mingled in the chace. Returning over the field of battle, he found his friend among the dead. But the corse suddenly raised itself as though alive, and recounted to Dante, confused and mute, the events that had befallen him since the battle. He had, after the combat, passed to the end of a luminous sphere, and when he wished to go on, Charlemagne, taking him by the hand, told him that he was in the moon, the centre of the universe, and explained to him, after the plan of the Divina Commedia, the system of the world, the immateriality of the soul, the punishment of the damned, the rewards of the good, and above all, of those who had well served their country. He had learnt from Charlemagne, that his death at Campaldino had rendered him worthy to be placed among these last, and to enjoy with him eternal beatitude. The body then fell back on the earth, and the poet, after having buried his friend, returned to the army." The author of the work we are reviewing discovered in that storehouse of antiquity-the Ambrosian Library, ten letters from Lucretia Borgia to the cardinal. Love verses passed between them, it appears, and Lucretia sent him a lock of her hair, which was also seen by our author, but which has been denied to the less favoured view of later visitors. Bembo was certainly one of the gayest of the gay. His liaison with Lucretia lasted from 1503-6, when he took another mistress, whom he kept triennially also to 1509. If Victor Hugo has given us a somewhat fearful picture of the Borgia, Ariosto has mated him by as strong opposite commendation, placing her beyond her famous namesake. The cardinal was a man, however, who had a taste for precept, if he did not follow it out by practice. Luther did not disdain to apply his celebrated lines on the guilt of Rome, but apostrophized her in them at his departure. "Vivere qui sancte vultis discedite Rouæ Omnia hic esse licent, non licet esse probum.' But though the manners of the age are somewhat developed by such intimacies as Lucretia Borgia and Cardinal Bembo, yet an incident that we are about to indicate is so startling that it would not be credited save on the most indisputable authority. Imperia was a Roman lady living in the time of Leo X., the mistress of Beroaldes (le Jeune), Sadolet, &c., and for her accomplishments in the annals of gallantry this Roman Phryne received a medal, and the following inscription was extant to her memory at the close of the last century in the church of San Gregorio on Mount Celius. "Imperia, Cortisana Romana, quæ digna tanto nomine, raræ inter homines formæ specimen dedit; vixit annos xxvi. dies xii. obiit 1511. die 15 Augusti." As to any portion of the truth of this statement, nothing certain can now be known, but it is a well known Florentine tradition with respect to the singular plan of the Inferno. Passing Ange Pandolfini, which paper, however, well merits attention, we come to the Traditions of Orlando. Certainly if ever knight had reason to be proud of his fame, this Paladin, who has had Boiardo, Berni, and Ariosto, to sing his praise, with countless legends in various quarters of Europe and Asia, might feel no ordinary self-gratulation. The Bodleian contains a song of the twelfth century, attributed to him. France has grottoes, rocks, nay even the Gulf of Gascony, named after him. The celebrated cleft made by the Durindana, is still shown in the gorges of the Pyrenees. The Roland-seck bears him to the Rhine, and even Busbek, the skilful minister of the emperor with Soliman II., Surely Rome must at this period have lost all who imported lilacs into Europe, says that even sense of even shame! The apartments of Imthe Georgians sang of his fame. In Italy, relics peria were so luxurious that the Spanish ambasof him are equally rife. An old Milanese sador had the insolence to spit in the face of Chronicle, copied from one more ancient still, one of her attendants, pleading that all around speaks of the praise of this knight as sung in him was too costly to be thus treated. When the theatres there; Pavia boasts that she retains will foreigners abandon this disgusting practice, his lance; Roland and Oliver are on the cathedral which one sees even in the Théâtre Français ? of Verona, and the name of the former's sword The story of Imperia's daughter is really one of is yet legible. The church of the Holy Apostles the most affecting in Italian annals. Being at Florence contains the same figures. The forced by the Cardinal Alphonso Petrucci, who statutes of Bologna interdict the French singers was afterwards strangled in prison as the chief from inflaming the people to quarrels by their of the conspiracy among the cardinals to poison Leo, into a house of ill fame, she swallowed | peaceable: it must therefore be under not merely poison and sank dead at his feet rather than national but likewise international law; and yield to his wishes. What Italian bard has thus the analogy upon which Dr. Wheaton sung her story! Yet where are there deeper builds his argument falls to the ground; but elements of the purely chaste and beautiful than secondly, even supposing that the analogy was in this ill-starred victim to priestly lust! The a correct one, it would not prove what Dr. work before us is replete with anecdotes of rare Wheaton attempts to demonstrate; for a search and unknown interest to the public, and we into houses is allowed by all governments when commend it sincerely to our readers, not doubt there appears to be reason for suspecting that ing that they will rise from its contents with they are abused for unlawful purposes. the same pleasure and interest with ourselves. ART. XI.-Inquiry into the Validity of the British Claim to a Right of Visitation and Search of American Vessels suspected to be engaged in the African Slave trade: By HENRY WHEATON, LL.D., Minister of the United States at the Court of Berlin. Author of the "Elements of International Law," &c. &c. London. Miller. 1842. Lord Aberdeen, in his note to Mr. Stevenson, observes, "Nor is it as American that such vessels are ever visited." This Dr. Wheaton appears not to understand, for he says, "It is very little satisfaction to the master or proprietor of an American vessel to be told that he is not visited as an American:" and again, "all this is perfectly indifferent to him ;"-so it may; but it is not indifferent to America. If an American be convicted of-we will say murder -he is hanged; but he is hanged as a murderer, not as an American: and though it may matter very little to the condemned culprit under what aspect his life is taken, it matters very THE days are long past in which everything much to the nation. Besides, the responsibility American was treated in England with con- of all these things necessarily lies with the tempt; the power and energy of our trans- government of the searching or capturing party. Atlantic friends we cheerfully acknowledge; If a house be searched for contraband goods, the we can rejoice in their "progress," and gladly search is made by the servants of the law, and aid them with our fourteen centuries of experience. This, then, being the case, and entertaining, as we do, a hearty respect for the nation, we regret that so strange a kind of ratiocination as that which we sometimes meet with, should possess the public mind. the law is therefore responsible; if a search be made at sea, it is made by the officers of the crown, and the crown is therefore responsible. All this is clear enough: and we cannot see any reason to change our previous opinions from the perusal of Dr. Wheaton's volume, though we hail any communications from our talented correspondent and contributor with great pleasure. ART. XII.-1. Tragedie di Lord Byron tradotte. 3. Massaniello Dramma. Storico di P. DE' VIR- GILII. This book of Dr. Wheaton, is an instance in point, cleverly written, and certainly in a very quiet and gentlemanlike spirit; it nevertheless is adapted only to aggravate the existing irritation, and to obscure the true state of the question. In the first place we object to the very title-page-"Search of American vessels "-no such thing; it is a search into all and any vessels suspected of carrying on the African slavetrade, and whether bearing American colours OR NOT. This makes a wide difference in the animus and intent of the proceeding. France has submitted for some time past :-the proposition, moreover, is an international one; it is THE name of P. de' Virgilii is becoming daily founded on treaties, and these based on the more and more known throughout Italy. The acknowledgment of a mutual right of search; wild scenes which he has described, his sympaand certainly America has no right therefore to thy with the unbridled mind of "la Jeune consider her dignity compromised. But Dr. Italie;" his power, unregulated indeed, but Wheaton says, The right was a right exclu- nevertheless most impressive; his utter disresively of war, never exercised but by an outrage gard of all probabilities and all proprieties, have upon the rights of peace. It was an act analo- tended to elevate him to a high rank in the gous to searching the dwelling-houses of indi- school to which he belongs. Yet those familiar viduals on land—the vessel of the navigator was with grander models of the mischievous will his dwelling-house; and, like that in the senti- marvel that such compositions as those of De' ment of every people that cherished the blessings Virgilii should be so much esteemed. They of personal liberty and security, ought to be a will compare him with those from whom he sanctuary inviolable to the hand of power, unless drew his inspiration, and see that had he been upon the most unequivocal public necessity and measured with those more magnificent instru under the most rigorous personal responsibility ments of evil, he would have seemed but a of the intruder. Now this is a great fallacy. small man. Yet when we consider the advenDid Dr. Wheaton never consider that a ship is tures of Silvio Pellico and Andryane we shali by no means analogous to a house, inasmuch as scarcely wonder at a very general misunderit may be removed perpetually from one empire standing both of religion and government to another, and be made the means of interna-among persons who have been so unfortunately tional communications, as well warlike as placed. Yet it is very astonishing to find such |