L’APE ITALIANA. 
The Decameron of Giovanni Boc- 
caccio.* 
ea annals of history afford suffi- 
; cient proof, that whenever litera- 
ture flourishes in any nation, the lan- 
guage made use of has previously existed, 
fixed and mature, inthe productions of 
the preceding age. For example, in the 
age of Pericles, the Greek language had 
been already established by Homer and 
Hesiod: the Latin language, under Au- 
gustus, had been matured by Plautus 
and Terence: and the French idiom had 
also acquired grace and harmony from 
the writings of Montaigne and Amyot, 
before the age of Louis XIV. Italy 
alone forms an exception to this rule, 
and stands single—presenting, as it were, 
aphenomenon. The thirteenth century, 
terminating the long reign of ignorance, 
which had signalized the domination of 
barbarism in Europe, beheld the revival 
of literature; but, as if disdaining to 
appear under too familiar a form, it was 
found necessary to create for her an en- 
tirely new language; and the powerful 
talent of those who, for the first time, 
adopted it in their writings, showed it 
so rich in beauty, that it seemed to rise 
ingigantic proportions under their hands: 
like the fabled Minerva, issuing already 
armed from the brain of Jove. 
When the first spring of Italian glory 
passed away, and, by the inevitable fate 
of human occurrences, a servile crowd 
of imitators succeeded to the noble army 
of inventors, there arose an immediate 
necessity of supplying by art, the weak- 
ness of intellect, and of compiling a 
grammar to serve as an assistance in the 
cultivation of the language. But the 
Tules of grammar are like those of 
poesy—they exist in nature, and are in- 
dependent of human convention ; but 
the philologist can only collect them 
from the productions of the artist, who 
first learnt how to employ them, by 
means of that species of instinctive rea- 
son which it is impossible to define. In 
fact, the rules of tragedy and of oratory 
were not formed by Aristotle or Quin- 
tilian: those philosophical critics only 
extracted them systematically from the 
principal works of Sophocles and Ci- 
cero.t Thus it was impossible other- 
* We are happy to announce the acces- 
sion of a learned Italian correspondent, by 
whose means we hope to be enabled to re- 
new this series with additional lustre.— 
Eprr. y 
+ Nor were the principles of the sublime 
aiid beautiful invented or discoyered by 
’ Monrtuty Mac. No. 416. 
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio. 
! 
321 
wise to establish the rules of Italian 
grammar, than by collecting them from 
the writings of those great men who had 
so successfully adopted them.* 
Nevertheless, one circumstance ren- 
dered this undertaking difficult. The 
revival of literature, in Italy, took place 
before the invention of printing; ‘conse- 
quently the works of that period cireu- 
lated only in manuscript; and it was 
impossible but that, sooner or later, the 
ignorance of rapidly succeeding copyists 
should gradually have altered the con- 
struction. Hence it happened, that when 
philologists began to study these pro- 
ductions, and take them as models of 
fine writing, their embarrassment was 
extreme. The character of a language 
principally consists in the conformability 
of the words, in the variety of phraseo- 
logy, in the use of the particles, and in 
the order of construction ; and it is im- 
possible to compile precepts and gram- 
mars, from manuscripts in which these 
parts are unfortunately marred and cor- 
rupted. And confusion is at the height, 
when some few, unwilling to believe that 
the copyists have, from time to time, al- 
tered the originals of these works, and. 
not daring to suppose that the authors 
themselves were capable of letting some, 
errors escape while writing, take it into 
their heads to consider all these faults 
of grammar as so many graces to be 
faithfully imitated. This spirit of mis- 
taken criticism co-operating with the 
interpolations of successive copyists, 
went little short of rendering the Italian 
language upon a par with that spoken 
by the companions of Nimrod in the 
plains of Shinaar. 
To put an end to this reproach, an 
universal cry arose throughout Italy ; 
and men endowed with sound logic and 
unerring taste, undertook to discover 
the true reading of those ancient texts, 
and, 
Longinus any more than by Edmund Burke 
or Dr. Blair. They only systematized or 
detailed, what they already found in previous 
examples. 
* This is put, perhaps, rather too gene-~ 
rally. Literally, it seems applicable only to 
idiomatic grammar. The genuine or funda- 
mental principles of grammar (or what 
might be called universal grammar, with 
which the idiomatic or vernacular ought at 
least to conform) seem to be founded in the 
nature of things, the operations of intellect, 
and the associations of ideas. Grammar, 
thus considered in its universalities, consti- 
tutes one of the most important branehes 
of the really valuable (that is, to say,» the 
unmystified) part of metaphysics. Err. : 
2 ; ; u ; 
4 Be jul 
