T I R 



495 



T I R 



the means of replenishing his treasury. This was soon 

 done by imposing exorbitant and extraordinary taxes, 

 which were chiefly levied upon the agriculturists. 



Notwithstanding this seeming tranquillity from 1792 to 

 1796, the Sultan was engaged in inciting all the native 

 chiefs against the British power in India ; but it was not 

 until 1798 that the whole extent of his secret machina- 

 tions and intrigues became known. At the commence- 

 ment of this year ambassadors were sent from Seringapa- 

 tam to the Mauritius. Their object was to renew the 

 Sultan's relations with Fiance, and to solicit the aid of 

 10,000 European and 30,000 negro troops. The proceed- 

 ings of the embassy were first made known in the month 

 of June to the Marquis Wellesley, the governor-general. 

 About the same time intelligence was received in India 

 of the operations of the French in Egypt. Circumstances 

 like these left no doubt as to the intentions of the Sultan, 

 and on the 3rd of February, 1799, orders were issued for 

 (he British armies and those of the allies immediately to 

 invade the dominions of Tippoo. Hostilities commenced 

 on the 5th of March ; and, on the 5th of April, General 

 Harris took a strong position opposite the west side of 

 Senngapatam. Alter besieging the place some time, a 

 ral attack was made on the 4th of May, 1799. The 

 Sultan had scarcely finished his repast when he heard the 

 noise of the assault. He instantly repaired towards a 

 breach which the English had succeeded in making a few 

 l>efore. His troops lied ; he endeavoured to rally 

 them ; and so long as any of his men remained firm, he 

 continued to dispute the ground against an English column 

 which had forced the breach and gained the ramparts. 

 1'inding all his efforts against the enemy fruitless, he 

 mounted his horse, and, in endeavouring to effect his 

 retreat, arrived at a bridge leading to the inner fort ; but 

 the place was already occupied by the English, and in 

 his attempts to proceed he was met by a party of Eu- 

 ropeans from withinside the gate, by whom he was at- 

 !. Owing to two wounds which he received in his 

 1 . he fell from his horse ; his attendants placed him 

 upon a palankeen, in one of the recesses of the gateway, 

 and entreated him to make himself known to the English. 

 This he disdainfully refused to do. A short time after- 

 wards some European soldiers entered the gateway, and 

 one of them attempting to take off the Sultan's sword-belt, 

 the wounded prince, who still held his sword, made a 

 thrust at him and wounded him in the knee ; upon which 

 the soldier levelled his musket and shot him through the 

 hrad. On the afternoon of the 5th of May he was buried 

 in the mausoleum of Hyder Aly. Four companies of Eu- 

 ropean troop escorted the funeral procession, which was 

 strikingly solemn. 



When Tippoo met his death he was in his fiftieth year. 

 He was of dark complexion, and about five feet nine 

 inches high ; he had a round face, with large black eyes, 

 and an aquiline nose, which gave much animation and ex- 

 >n to his countenance. Although after his misfor- 

 tunes in 1792 he oppressed the people more than they had 

 ever been in the time of his father, he was nevertheless 

 very popular; and even now the Mysoreans consider him 

 as a martyr to the faith, and as a prince who fell gloriously 

 in the cause of his religion. He used to pass a great por- 

 tion of his day in reading, and his library, consisting of 

 about 12,000 volumes, was well selected. About one-hall 

 of this collection is preserved at the East India House, 

 London; the other half was left at Fort William for the 

 of the college. The Museum and the Library of the, 

 Ivi^f India House contain many articles both of value and 

 c-.urio<ity which once belonged to Tippoo Saib. 



lemoirs of Tippoo Sultan,' in Stewart's Descriptive 

 Catalogue nf th ary of the fate Tippoo SM- 



l.in i,f Mi/xore, Cambridge, 1809. This is the most au- 

 account of Tippoo's life.) 



TIPTON. [STAFFORDSHIRE.] 



TIKABOSCHJ, GIRO'LAMO, born at Bergamo in 1731, 



studied in the college of Monza, and afterwards entered 



the order of the Jesuits. About 17(56 he was made pro- 



in the university of Milan, where he wrote 



-t work, the history of a monastic order long since 



mppreMed, under peculiar circumstances : ' Vetera Huniili- 



. Milan, 1766. In 1770 he was ap- 



poiii 1 ,dcna librarian of his rich lil 



in tli nclli, deceased. Henow applied 



himself to the undertaking of his great work, ' Storia della 



Letteratura Italiana,' published at Modena, 1772-1783, 

 which he completed in eleven years. The subject was vast 

 and intricate ; the only author who had yet attempted to 

 write a general history of Italian literature, Gimma of 

 Naples, had only sketched a rough and very defective out- 

 line of it in his ' Storia dell' Italia Letterata.' There were 

 however local histories and biographies concerning parti- 

 cular towns and districts, and the rest of the materials had 

 to be sought among the archives and libraries of Italy. 

 Tiraboschi undertook to write the history of the literature 

 of autient and modern Italy in the most extended sense 

 of the word, including most of, if not aU, the individuals 

 deserving of mention in every department of learning, 

 who have flourished in Italy, from the oldest times on 

 record, beginning from the Etruscans and the Greek colo- 

 nies of Magna Graeciaand Sicily, and then proceeding with 

 the history of Roman literature through its rise, progress, 

 and decay, down to the invasion of the northern tribes, with 

 which the second volume concludes. The author distri- 

 butes the great divisions of learning in separate chapters ; 

 poetry, grammar, oratory, history, philosophy, medicine, 

 jurisprudence, and the arts ; he gives an account of the 

 principal libraries, and of the great patrons of learning, and 

 although he does not profess to write biography, properly 

 speaking, yet he gives biographical notices of the more il- 

 lustrious writers and of their productions. The third volume 

 comprises the literary history of Italy during the dark 

 ages, as they are commonly called, from the fifth to the 

 twelfth century. The author makes bis way through the 

 scanty and obscure records of those times, and brings to 

 light much curious information concerning the intellectual 

 state of Italy under the Goths, the Longobards, and the 

 Franks. The ecclesiastical writers come in for a great share 

 of this part of the work. The fourth volume includes the 

 period (rom 1183 to the year 1300. The revival of studies, 

 the formation of the Italian language, the foundation of uni- 

 versities, notices of the civilians and canonists who flou- 

 rished in that age, an account of the Italian troubadours, 

 of the earliest Italian poets, and of the Italian Latinists, and 

 a view of the splendid architectural works of Arnolfo di 

 Lapo, of Niccol6 and Giovanni of Pisa, and other artists, 

 impart a cheering aspect to this period. The fifth volume 

 embraces the 14th century, the age of Dante, Petrarca, and 

 Boccaccio. The author is particularly diffuse in speaking 

 of Petrarca. The sixth volume concerns the 15th century, 

 an age of classical studies ; the age of Cosmo and Lorenzo 

 de' Medici, of Poggio, Filelfo, Niccoli, Palla Strozzi, 

 Coluccio Salutati, Paolo Manetti, Cardinal Bessarion, 

 and other collectors of MSS., founders of libraries, and 

 encouragers of learning, and the age also of distinguished 

 jurists and ecclesiastical writers. Thisvolunieis veiy large 

 and is divided into three parts, whilst the preceding 

 volumes are divided each into two parts, each part being 

 subdivided into books and chapters. We cannot help 

 thinking that this mode of division is too formal and cum- 

 bersome, and that it might have been simplified and made 

 clearer. 



The seventh volume of Tiraboschi's history treats of the 

 16th century, the age of Leo X., the Augustan age, as it 

 is sometimes called, of Italian literature. This volume, 

 which is still more bulky than the one preceding, ia divided 

 into four parts. After giving a sketch of the general con- 

 dition of Italy during that period, of the encouragement to 

 learning afforded by the various princes, of the universities, 

 academies, libraries, and museums, the author treats first 

 of the theological polemics which arose with the Reforma- 

 tion, then of the philosophical and mathematical studies, 

 of natural history and medicine, of civil and ecclesiastical 

 jurisprudence, of historical writing, and of the Italian Hel- 

 lenists and Orientalists. He passes next in review the 

 Italian poets, among whom Ariosto and Tasso hold a con- 

 spicuous place, and afterwards the Latin poets, the gram- 

 marians, rhetoricians, and pulpit orators, and lastly the 

 artists, among whom Michael Angelo, Raffaello, Tiziano, 

 and Correggio stand prominent. It is impossible to peruse 

 this long list of illustrious names without being struck with 

 the seemingly inexhaustible fertility of the Italian mind in. 

 almost every branch of knowledge. 



The eighth volume embraces the 17th century, which in 

 Italy is scornfully styled the age of the ' seicentisti,' or the 

 age of bad taste, a reproach however which applies mainly 

 to the poets, and not even to the whole of them. The 

 department of history is filled with good names, as well as 



