180 



ITALY (POETRY). 



he seen from Vcrmiglioli's Lezioni elementarie di 

 Anheologia (Verona, 1822, 2 vols.), which are as 

 useless to foreign countries as I .aim's investigations 

 on Roman inscriptions, which either treat of what is 

 well known, or explain obscurely whatever they give 

 of new. The Raccolla di Antichitd Grcche e Ro- 

 mane ad Vso degli Artisti, dis. ed Incise da Clio. 

 Bignoli, is not without merit. The activity of the 

 trade in works of art in Italy, promotes also the 

 publication of views of the monuments of the middle 

 ages (for example, the Monument! sepolcrali di Tos~ 

 cana, the Raccolta degli migliori Fabbric/ie, Monu- 

 utenti ed Antichitd di Milano ; the Fabbriche di 

 f'enezia, Franchioni, Cisa di (Jresy, Piola, Ventu- 

 roli, Bonati), for explaining which associations of 

 men of talent have been formed. Almost every book 

 of travels by an Italian, presents inquiries into the 

 remains of antiquity ; and .Helzoni, who first kindled 

 the enthusiasm of the succeeding travellers for inves- 

 tigating the remains of the Egyptian art, only fol- 

 lowed the taste of his country. Delia Cella, the 

 naturalist Brocchi, one of the most intelligent of the 

 late writers of Italy, the learned writer on numis- 

 matics Sestini, and Camillo Borghese, prove this 

 position. It is not, however, so much the custom in 

 Italy to embellish travels with engravings as it is in 

 France and Britain. Even the descriptions of cities, of 

 which new ones are ever in demand, are without this 

 embellishment, and retain their old defects. Italy is 

 more independent in the exact sciences than in liter- 

 ature, properly so called, particularly in the physical 

 department; and, by its mathematicians, astronomers, 

 naturalists, has acquired a reputation, to which it 

 has been less true in the fine arts, with the exception 

 of the plastic arts. Where men like Sangro, FJauti, 

 Borgnis, Brunacci, Lotteri, Bordoni, employ them- 

 selves in geometry and its application to geodesy and 

 mechanics; where astronomers like Plana, Brambilla, 

 Inghirami, Oriani, Carlini, Piazzi, Cacciatore, De 

 Cesaris, are engaged in observatories like those at 

 Naples, at Palermo, at Milan, Turin, Bologna, 

 Florence, Rome, the sciences must make a rapid 

 progress. The Correspondence astronomique of baron 

 Zach (see Zach) afforded the Italian scholars an op- 

 portunity to make their discoveries and researches 

 known to the rest of Europe. Zach, who lived in 

 Genoa till 1827, promoted thence the diffusion of 

 useful knowledge connected with his science, by an 

 Almanacco Genovese. Unhappily, a part of the 

 strict mathematical investigations is buried in the 

 transactions of literary societies ; for example, in the 

 Transactions of the royal academy of sciences at 

 Naples ; in the Transactions of the Pontonine society 

 (Naples, 1819); in the Memoirs of the Lombardo- 

 Venetian institute; in the reports of the scientific 

 society at Modena; in the Ricerche geometriche ed 

 idrometriche fatte nella Scuola degV Ingegneri ponti- 

 Jici d'Acque e Strode (Rome, 1820), which but too 

 rarely pass the Alps. Geodesy, especially, is prose- 

 cuted with great ardour, and two trigonometrical 

 measurements, connected with each other, have given 

 satisfactory results. Equal zeal is manifested in the 

 physical sciences, in which names like Zamborii, 

 Brugnatelli, Configliacchi, Bellinger!, and Ranconi 

 answer for the exactness of the observations and 

 correctness of the calculations. The experiments on 

 magnetism and electricity (Banarelli) have excited a 

 lively interest even in Italy, and Configliacchi's and 

 Brugnatelli's Giornale di Fisica, Chimica, Storia 

 Naturale, Medicina ed Arti, which is published very 

 regularly, gives the best account of their variety and 

 thoroughness. Even the Opuscoli scientifici di Bo- 

 logna an- almost exclusively devoted to the natural 

 sciences in the widest comprehension, and maintain 

 an honourable name. The geological observations 



of the count Marzari Pencati, who thought himself 

 able to refute by ocular evidence the Wernerian 

 theory of the formation of the earth, have attracted 

 much attention. Among the geologists of Italy must 

 be mentioned the talented and learned Brocchi (who 

 died in 1827, in Egypt), the author of the Conchy lio- 

 logia subapennina, and who, by his interesting essays, 

 did much towards increasing the popularity of ttie 

 Bibl. Ital. Renier, Corniani, Monticelli, and Covelli 

 (Prodrome della Mineralogia fesuviana) keep up the 

 interest in these studies. Patronised by government, 

 the physical sciences have received the most exten- 

 sive application to agriculture and technology, which 

 have made respectable progress, at least in Upper 

 Italy. New branches of industry, as well as new 

 kinds of plants (rice from China, and grain from 

 Mongolia), have been introduced ; and the best 

 mode of rearing silk-worms, maufacturing wine, and 

 managing bees, has been made the object of public 

 investigation, and the results have been very favour- 

 able. The labours of the Accad. de' Georgqfili, at 

 Florence, have contributed much to the promotion of 

 agriculture. Botany cannot be slighted in the 

 Garden of Europe. Savii's Elementi di Botanica, 

 afford foreign countries nothing new, but the works 

 of Sebastiani, of Mauri, of Brignoli, Moricand, Te- 

 nore, of the superintendents of the gardens at Pisa, 

 Rome, Naples, Palermo, evince the interest which is 

 taken in this department ; and the Pomona in Rilieva 

 of Pizzagalli, and Degaspari and Bergamaschi's 

 Osscrvaz. Micologiche, evince the zeal of their 

 authors. The investigation of the higher economy 

 of nature has received valuable contributions from 

 Brunatelli, Configliacchi, from Angelini, Metaxa, 

 the describer of the Proteus anguineus, Ranzani, 

 Petagna, Laurenti, and Cavolini ; and the structure 

 of the human body was illustrated by Palletta, Mas- 

 cagna and others. The medical literature of Ger- 

 many has attracted much attention, and several of 

 the most distinguished German writers in this 

 department have obtained successful translators and 

 editors, especially for the use of the lecturers in 

 Pavia, Padua, and Bologna. Many of the German 

 works in the department of metaphysics have been 

 also translated, although the French, like Destutt de 

 Tracy, accorded more with the taste of the Italians. 

 Besides Gioia, the author of the Ideologia esposta, 

 'i'alia, the editor of a Saggio di Estetica, Germani 

 Simoni, and some unsuccessful commentators upon 

 Beccaria, the Collezione de'' classici Metafisici (Pavia, 

 1819 22) was, perhaps the best production in this 

 department. De' Simoni has treated of natural law. 

 Numerous explanations and editions have appeared 

 of the Austrian code, which is possessed of legal 

 authority in some of the states that speak Italian. 

 It is worthy of mention, that Llorente's History of 

 the Inquisition, and Sismondi's History of the Italian 

 Republics of the Middle Ages, may be freely sold in 

 the Italian states, while they are strictly prohibited 

 by the neighbouring states. 



Italian Poetry. Italian poetry sprang from the 

 Provengal, which was the first to flourish in Europe 

 on the revival of civilization, and which was also 

 communicated to Italy. Until the thirteenth century, 

 we find in Italy only the poetry of chivalry by the 

 Provengals and Troubadours. These wandering 

 bards, intelligible to the Italians, and particularly to 

 the Lombards, by the affinity of their sister language, 

 traversed Italy, and were welcome guests at the 

 courts, especially of the nobles of Lombardy, at a 

 time when poetry was considered as indispensable at 

 tensts. An instance of the estimation in which Trou- 

 badours (q. v.) were held, as the chief ornaments 01 

 a princely court, is found in the visit of Raimondo 

 Berlinghieri, count of Barcelona and Provence, to 



