792. .. Italian hterature. 197 
above allfother academies, not only in Rome and 
Italy, but likewise in many other parts of Europe, 
that it is respected as an universal literary republic. 
This institution was intended to put out of fafhion 
the barbarous taste which prevailed very much for 
the greatest part of the last century in the writings 
of the Italians; a faulty taste from which the wri- 
ters of other parts of Europe were not at all free. 
But, before I undertake to fhew how it has been by 
degrees extirpated, and how the good stile was reco- 
vered, by imitating the best masters of antiquity, 
it will not be amifs to give a cursory review of the 
state of letters in the greater part of Italy, when the 
society of 4rcadia was instituted. 
Four centuries were almost pafsed since the Italian 
language had received all its splendour, in Dante, Boc- 
caccio *§ Petrarca. For two centuries after them, 
most Italian writers followed their steps with, per- 
haps, even too great a degree of servility ; so that, al-~ 
though nothing singularly beautiful then appeared, 
yet no yicious manner of stile had taken place ; 
mediocrity seems to have then characterised the 
works of the Italians. At last, however, the zra ar- 
rived, which has been called the golden age of the 
Italian language. Pope Leo x. who was no lefs in- 
clined to letters, and generous to the literati, than 
Augustus, and was the promoter of learning and 
of arts in his dominions, had the pleasure to see flou- 
rifh around him eminent writers, which, both in num- 
ber and in quality, might be compared with the 
sublime geniuses that surrounded the throne of the 
Roman emperor, Epic poetry reached there to the 
