630 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[JUNB, 



The billowy horizon once more sinki 

 The traveller of six thousand years. With him 

 Depart the glories of the west. The tints 

 Elysian change — the fiercely brilliant streaks 

 Of crimson disappear ; but o'er the hills 

 A flush of orange hovers, softening up 

 Into harmonious union with the blue 

 That comes a sweejiing down ; for Twilight hastes 

 To dash all other colours from the sky 

 But this her favourite azure. Even now 

 The East displays its palely-beaming stan. 

 With the mild radiating moon ; and thus 

 There is no end to all thy prodigies. 

 O Nature ! 

 The Lives of celebrated Architects, an- 

 cient and modern, with historical and critical 

 Observations on their Works, and of the prin- 

 ciples of the Art, by Fras'CESCO Milizia ; 

 translated from the Italian by Mrs. Edward 

 CresV. Willi Notes and additional Lives- 2 

 vols. 8vo. — We had no book, it seems, exclu- 

 sively devoted to the lives of architects, 

 though poets have long since been packed 

 together,aye,and painters, and engravers,and 

 musicians. This discovery, some speculating 

 book-seller makes, and the chasm must of 

 course be forthwith fiUed-up. He consults a 

 professional firiend — will he undertake it ? — 

 No ; in these budding days every architect is 

 ill a bustle of biLsiness, or speedily hopes to 

 be so ; hut then there are scribblers in 

 abundance ready to encounter any labour — 

 no matter how onerous or how foreign from 

 their particular studies ; and if not, some 

 wife, or sister, or daughter can be found, 

 who, though incompetent to collect, com- 

 1)ine or arrange, can at least translate, if 

 by good luck any European language will 

 but furnish the materials ready cut and dried. 

 Turn to the catalogues, and lo, one Mili- 

 zia's Lives of the Architects, ready written 

 in choice Italian. But the author published 

 sixty years ago. — No matter; add an appen- 

 dix. — But who knows any thing about fo- 

 reign architects for the last sixtj' years? — No 

 matter again ; Mr. So-and-so wtII just give us 

 the births and deaths of a few English ones ; 

 or if he be liimself building churches to 

 tumble down again in half a centurj', you 

 can pick them out of Watkins. Enough ; 

 the business is done ; and forthwith appears 

 a translation of Milizia's work — with letters 

 of free naturalization, a welcome accession 

 to the world of English literature. Though 

 before scarcely known, perhaps, beyond the 

 narrow precincts of Rome, he proves a 

 miracle of genius — a man of extraordinary 

 and imparalleled research, exiiibiting the 

 soimdest judgment, the most exquisite 

 taste, sagacit)', knowledge, &c. But who 

 was this Milizia ? — an Architect ? No ; an 

 admirer of the fine-arts universally, and of 

 political economy, mathematics and medi- 

 cine to boot ; a maker of books, in short, 

 of the last century, with very much of the 

 spirit of oiu- own ; a translator and abridger 

 of all sorts of things — of Buchan's Domestic 

 Medicine, we believe, somebody's Natural 

 History, Bailey's History of Astronomy; 

 with we know not how many treatises on 



architecture, design, 8m;. Who shall doubt 

 his industry ? Of his judgment, connected, 

 or imconnected with the subject, we will 

 presently furnish a specimen or two. But 

 first take his own account of himself. 



" It is not uncommon for authors to write elegant 

 and egotistical effusions on their moral and physical 

 character, which often excite a smile. I would wil- 

 lingly delineate my own ; but, as it has nothing in 

 it singular or extraordinary, I find it diflicult to do. 

 Thus, I, who have long studied myself, know not 

 myself, and yet have attempted to describe others, 

 sometimes from their writings, which, perhaps, con- 

 tain opinions diametrically opposite to their real 

 sentiments. I am phlegmatic, choleric, and haughty ; 

 at the same time modest, kind, and capable of 

 endurance; courageous, noble in my ideas, and free 

 from prejudice, open to the reasoning of others, and 

 fond of novelty. I cannot boast of much penetration 

 or reflection, yet am desirous of possessing every 

 thing. I am industrious, compassionate, a sincere 

 friend, and a good man ; humble without being 

 abject ; generous and easy, but severe. I hold in 

 abhorrence every mercenary feeling. I am studious, 

 and anxious of acquiring knowledge of whatever is 

 most useful : my works and my discourses have pro- 

 cured me the reputation of being learned. I know 

 m>"self to be otherwise, and am a heterogeneous 

 compound of contradictions." — In this singular and 

 amusing sketch we have strong evidence (says the 

 fair translator) of the success usually attendant on a 

 steady perseverance in the pursuit of knowledge; 

 and a proof that, although not regularly initiated in 

 the principles of architecture in the early part of his 

 life, the subsequent industry of Milizia enabled him 

 to become the author of many useful works on its 

 principles and history. 



These two extracts wUl, we think, ena- 

 ble the reader to measure the calibre of 

 both author and translator — the skilfid and 

 consistent anatomy of character of the one, 

 and the admirable logic and phraseology of 

 the other. 



We have first an introduction of about 

 seventy pages, comprising a sketch of the 

 origin, progress and purposes of architec- 

 ture, with reasons for every thing, as abun- 

 dant as blackberries ; the best part of the 

 book, imdoubtedly, but of course the least 

 necessary, with such a profusion of similar 

 things as are already in the market. Then 

 follows a list of all the architects discoverable 

 from the days of Noah — we beg the author's 

 pardon, Ninus, '2737 anno mundi, it seems — 

 classed in periods, successively, from Ninus 

 to Pericles, to Alexander, to Augustus, to 

 the fourth century, to Charlemagne, to the 

 fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, 

 and eighteenUi centuries. We have 600 

 lives in about 800 pages— the reader may 

 judge of the scanriness of detail. Of two- 

 thirds of these nobody can care a rush. 

 Nothing of any interest to any soid breath- 

 ing is told of them or their works. A few 

 are given at greater length, such as Buo- 

 narotti, Beniini, &c. ; presenting, however, 

 nothing but what has been repeated a 

 thousand times. In general, a better ac- 

 count of Italian architects is given than 

 those of any other country ; this was to be 

 expected. Of English architects tlie ac- 

 coimt is very meagre, eked out as it is by a 



