1824.] 
ITALY. 
There has lately been published, from 
the Laurentian MS. at Florence, a Latin 
work, entitled “ Actions of Charle- 
magne at Carcassonne, Narbonne, also 
concerning the foundation of the mo- 
nastery of La Grasse.” This curious 
specimen of the Latinity of the middle 
ages is peculiarly fortunate in drawing a 
picture of the state of literature and 
manners at the time when the facts col- 
lected took place. The author of the 
Narrative was a monk, named William 
of Padua, who translated it into Latin, 
from the Rustic, or Romanesque lan- 
guage, in which it was written, by Filo- 
men, historiographer, of Charlemagne. 
The principal subject is the foundation 
of the Abbey La Grasse, in the diocese 
of Carcassonne, in the Corbiéres, moun- 
tains between the Basin of Languedoc 
and Le Rousillon. During the revo- 
lution, it was suppressed, but the town 
built about it still exists, and is one of 
the chief places of the canton in the 
department of Aude. Here is abundant 
recreation for the antiquarian mind, the 
work being a monument of traditions 
in all respects valuable. The style is 
mingled with barbarisms and idioms de- 
rived from the Roman tongue, but ex- 
actly conformable to the MS. The 
geographical and topographical details 
abound in various relations, which some- 
times refresh the memory with the recol- 
lection of things long past, but oftener 
lay claim to novelty, and open avarie- 
gated field of observation. The MS. 
has been referred to in the history of 
Languedoc, ‘in which the work entitled 
“ Gallia Christiana,” and in the Bidlio- 
theque Historique de la France, but is 
now published for the first time. The 
Latin title is as follows: “ Gesta Ca- 
roli Magni ad Carcassonam .et Narbo- 
nam, et de adificatione Monasterii Cras- 
sensis, edita ex Codice Laurentiano, 
&e.” — The date of the Latin translation 
was about the beginning of the twelfth 
century. y 
The school of young French artists 
maintained, at Rome, at the public ex- 
pense, among other labours on particu- 
lar objects of art, such as elevations, 
plans, chapiters, cornices, &c., are occu- 
pied also in restaurations, This may be 
designated as the Romanesque part’ of 
architecture ; it consists in re-establish- 
‘Ing, im toto, such as they may be con- 
ceived to have existed, those edifices, 
of which only the ruins or vestiges re- 
main. As points of studious investiga- 
tion, they exercise the perspicacity, and 
Literary and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
159 
by this means, at no considerable charge, 
the Temple of Concord, that of Jupiter 
Tonans, the Pantheon of Agrippa, the 
Theatre of Marcellus, and other struc- 
tures, have experienced a sort of resus- 
citation. In the course of some years, 
Rome, entire, will have thus risen up 
again. Figures, also, in plaister or mar- 
ble, copied from the antique, have been 
transmitted to Paris, where an annual 
exhibition has been opened of these and 
other articles, in painting, &c., issuing 
from the same source. 
Professor Gaupp, of Breslau, in his 
travels through Italy, discovered four 
leaves of a MS. of the Pandects, which 
he conceives to be of the seventh cen- 
tury. He found them in the royal li- 
brary of Naples. The leaves are of the 
sort called palimpserts. Over the an- 
cient writing, a fragment of the gram- 
marian Charistry, Xanthus of the “ Vite 
Pontificum” (Lives of the Pontiffs), of 
Anastasius; and, with an attentive in- 
spection, some passages of the Pandects, 
and others of the Pharsalia of Lucan, 
appear. M. Gaupp had them copied; 
and, from their coincidence, the Florence 
MS. is found to be very correct. The 
passages of the Pandects belong to the 
titles of the tenth book, “ Communi 
Dividundo, ad Exhibendum, &c.”? The 
capital letters are better executed than 
those of the Florence. M. G. intends 
to publish a fac-simile. 
UNITED STATES. , . 
- From the national almanack printed 
annually at Washington, we learn that 
the inhabitants of the United States 
amount to 9,654,415, of whom 1,543,688 
are slaves. Those employed in agricul- 
ture are 2,175,065, in trade 72,558, in 
manufactures 349,663. 
A Frenchman, M. Neale, residing some 
time in North Carolina, made a collection 
of rattlesnakes, and thinking they might 
be rendered tame, after a number of expe- 
riments, succeeded. The means that he 
employs are not correctly ascertained ; 
he merely avows the power of music, its 
gentle melodies subduing their greatest 
irritations.. M.Neale is now at Rich- 
mond, exhibiting his curiosities. He has 
two live rattlesnakes, oneamale, four feet 
eight inches in length, with eight rattles 
in his tail, indicating his age, nine years. 
The female is smaller, and has only five 
rattles: this he has had thirty months. 
Such is their docility, that after repeat- 
ing certain words, and caressing them 
with his hand, he lets them run about 
his neck and breast, handling them as if 
they were ends of whipcord. Far from 
injuring 
