IMPROVVISATORI INCA. 



49 



he received, through the interest of the princess 

 Violanta of Bavaria, the crown of laurel at the capi- 

 tol an honour which was then the more flattering, 

 because it had not yet lost its value by being- fre- 

 quently given, since Petrarch and Tasso had alone 

 been judged worthy of it. The rights of a Roman 

 citizen, and the privilege of adding a laurel crown 

 to his arms, were new honours given to him. 



Metastasio, also, at a very early period, showed an 

 extraordinary talent for this kind of poetry ; but the 

 exercise of it cost him much effort. After having 

 declaimed for some time, he felt all his strength 

 exhausted ; it was necessary to carry him to bed, 

 and to revive him by medical means ; but his 

 strength did not return for twenty-four hours. He 

 was obliged, therefore, from regard to his health, to 

 give up so dangerous an art. 



Females, also, have been highly distinguished for 

 this power. Quadrio mentions three celebrated im- 

 provvisatrici Cecilia Micheli of Venice, Giovanna 

 de' Santi, and a nun, Barbara of Correggio. No one 

 of these obtained greater fame than Maddalena 

 Morelli Fernandez, under Pius VI., among the Ar- 

 cadians, called Gorilla Olimpica, who lived in Tus- 

 cany, and excited the admiration of all travellers. 

 She was born at Pistoia, where her talents, carefully 

 formed by diligent study, were early developed. 

 The applause which she obtained in Italy, induced 

 the emperor Francis I. to invite her to Vienna, 

 where she was received with distinction, and loaded 

 with favours. The empress Catharine invited her to 

 Petersburg, but the fear of a cold climate prevented 

 her from going thither. The academy of the Arca- 

 dians chose her a member, and, in 1776, she was 

 publicly crowned in Rome, and received from the 

 Roman senate the title of nobile cittadina. She left 

 Rome, and afterwards lived at Florence, where she 

 died in 1800. Several females gifted with similar 

 talents, have appeared in later times Bandettini 

 (q. v.), Fantastic! at Florence, Mazzei, by birth 

 Lanti; the last of whom, perhaps, surpassed all the 

 others by the fertility of her imagination, by the 

 richness and the purity of her language, and by the 

 harmony and regularity of her verse. She also 

 attempted tragedies. In 1764, there died at Verona 

 the celebrated improvvisatore Zucco, who left behind 

 him a worthy scholar and successor, in the abbe 

 Lorenzi. The advocate Bernardi also attained to 

 some celebrity in Rome. 



Among the improvvisatori of our times, Francisco 

 Gianni, of whose extemporaneous poems a collection 

 appeared in 1795, has obtained great reputation; and 

 also Sestini. Tomasso Sgricci of Arezzo is still more 

 famous, who, in 1816, produced, in Florence, an ex- 

 temporaneous tragedy, of which the subject and the 

 characters were given by the spectators. In Paris, 

 he likewise produced, with great applause, the tra- 

 gedy of Missolonghi, in 1826. In Turin, he de- 

 claimed, extempore, the tragedy of Hector, which 

 the stenographer Delpino printed (Turin, 1823), and 

 in Florence, a tragedy on the death of Mary Stuart. 

 (See Rome in the \Qth Century.) He received, in 

 reward, letters of nobility, 



The printed works of the improvvisatori -who have 

 been most admired, have never passed mediocrity. 

 Perfetti was therefore wise enough not to allow any 

 thing of his to be printed, and it is probable we 

 should not have had such beautiful poems from 

 Metastasio, if he had not been obliged to renounce 

 extemporaneous poetry. Tfie cause is very evident, 

 without its being necessary, however, for us to sus- 

 pect the taste and penetration of its admirers. The 

 real or apparent inspiration of the poet, his lively 

 feeling, his striking action, the sound of his instru- 

 ment, and, in general, the whole effect of a living 



actor, cannot fail to produce powerful effects, and 

 leave no time for criticism, even if the poetry is of an 

 ordinary character. Bouterwek justly says, in his 

 Geschichte der Ital. Poesie (History of Italian Poe- 

 try), " Among the poetical curiosities of modern 

 Italy, the art of the improvvisatori has higher claims 

 on our attention, than most printed collections of 

 modern Italian poetry. Their art shows with what 

 flexibility and power an Italian fancy, when once ex- 

 cited, dan string together words and images in verse. 

 It thus becomes manifest, how an Italian, even with 

 a moderate cultivation of mind, is able to increase, 

 by a little volume of pretty good verses, the number 

 of those which he already finds, when he has once by 

 heart the poetry of his predecessors. The artificial 

 and yet happy enthusiasm of modern improvvisatori, 

 is a living monument of the former achievements of 

 Italian intellect." It is surprising that almost all 

 the improvvisatori are born in Tuscany or Venice, 

 principally at Sienna or at Verona, and that their 

 art has been transmitted in uninterrupted succession. 



The German Karschin, daughter of a peasant, 

 whose cows she tended, would have been much 

 admired as an improvvisatrice in Italy. The first 

 poet who made public exhibitions of this kind, 

 among the Germans, was the talented Wolf of 

 Altona, in 1824 (now professor of modern languages 

 at the gymnasium of Weimar), who appeared with 

 applause in several places. In France, in 1825, 

 Eugene de Pradel gave several successful evening 

 exhibitions of the same talent. 



INA; king of the West Saxons, in the seventh 

 and eightli centuries. He succeeded Cead walla, 

 about 689, and, after having obtained advantages 

 over the people of Kent, in 694, he turned his arms 

 against the Britons, from whom he wrested Somer- 

 setshire, and other parts of the west of England. 

 He then made war on the Mercians; but the contest 

 was terminated, without much advantage to either 

 party, by a bloody battle, which was fought in 715. 

 The latter part of the reign of Ina was spent in 

 works of peace, and he closed his days in a monas- 

 tery, having resigned his crown in 728. He is 

 celebrated as the principal legislator of the Anglo- 

 Saxons. His laws, some of which are yet extant, 

 served as the foundation of the code formed by Alfred 

 the Great. See Turner's History of the Anglo~Saxons. 



INACHUS; a son of Oceanus and Tethys, the 

 founder of the first royal race of Argolis, which ruled 

 382 years (from B. C. 1800). When Juno and 

 Neptune contended for the dominion of Argos, Ina- 

 chus, who was the arbiter of the dispute, adjudged it 

 to Juno. He is particularly famous on account of 

 his daughter lo. 



INCA, or YNCA ; an appellation which the 

 natives of Peru give to their kings and princes of 

 the blood. The Chronicle of Peru thus relates the 

 origin of the incas : This country had been a long 1 

 time the theatre of all sorts of wars, horrible crimes 

 and dissensions, till at length there appeared two 

 brothers, the one of whom was called IVfanco Capac. 

 Of this person the Indians say he built the city of 

 Cusco, settled laws and policy, and taught them to 

 adore the sun, and he and his descendants took the 

 name of inca, which, in the language of Peru, 

 signifies king, or great lord. These incas grew so 

 powerful, that they made themselves masters of the 

 whole country from Chile to Quito, establishing in 

 every province their peculiar policy and religious 

 institutions, and held it till the dispute between the 

 brothers Huascar and Atahualpa, of which the 

 Spaniards, under Pizarro, availing themselves, ob- 

 tained possession of Peru, and put an end to the 

 empire of the incas, in 1533. They number only 

 twelve of these incas. It is said that the most con- 



