CRESCENDO CRESCENZI. 



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languages is often considerable in these dialects ; but 

 most of them can be understood, without a great 

 deal of difficulty, by a man acquainted with English, 

 Danish, French, and Spanish. We will give an 

 example of the Papimento language a Creole dialect 

 spoken in St Thomas from a work extracted from 

 the four Gospels, entitled Da Tori va wi Massra en 

 Helpiman Jesus Christus, so leki wifindi datti na inni 

 dem fo Evangelists : Matthews, Marcus, Lucas, en 

 Johannes, 1816. (The Story of our Lord and Saviour 

 Jesus Christ, as we find it in the four Evangelists, 

 &c.) A part of the first chapter of the Gospel of St 

 John, from the fourth to the eighth verse, is given in 

 this work, as follows : Libi ben de na inni va hem, 

 Kaba da libi ben de Kandera va somma. Kaba da 

 Kandera de krini na dungru, ma dungru no ben teki 

 da Kandera. Gado ben senni wan somma, dem kali 

 Johannes, dissi ben Komm va takki vo da Kandera, 

 va dem somma Komm bribi na da Kandera. Hem 

 srefi no da Kandera, ma a ben Komm va takki na 

 somma vo da Kandera. This specimen will give an 

 idea of the strange mixture of words, and of the clum- 

 sy periphrases used to express ideas, e. g., libi ben de 

 na inni va hem ; of the poverty, e. g., ben for been, 

 has been, has, was, and had, &c. There are, how- 

 ever, in all languages, heavy periphrases, our fami- 

 liarity with which prevents us from being sensible of 

 them ; e. g., je venais de chez mot, or he is about to 

 set out on a journey ; which, if we had one word for 

 undertaking a journey, and a tense for expressing the 

 intention, might be expressed in one word. 



Tliat a careful investigation of the Creole dialects 

 would lead to several interesting discoveries respect- 

 ing the origin of some grammatical formations and 

 modes of expression, is hardly to be doubted. When 

 the allied armies invaded France, and the Russian 

 and German soldiers were often under the necessity of 

 communicating with each other, and with the French, 

 a kind of jargon came into use among them, hi which 

 the writer of this article observed that mi the low 

 German for me, and pretty nearly resembling the 

 French mot was used by all parties to express the 

 first person singular. The infinitive was also used in- 

 stead of the finite modes, expressing only the gross 

 idea of action without modification. Flesh, from the 

 German Fleisch (meat), dobri, from the Russian, for 

 good, were also employed by all parties, as was also 

 the word caput, to signify broken down, spoiled, &c. 

 This last word is still in use among the lower classes 

 of North Germany. Mi flesh caput meant, in this 

 military dialect, my meat is spoiled. Several of the 

 modern European languages must have originated in 

 this way, after the irruption of the northern tribes in- 

 to the Roman empire. 



CRESCENDO, or CRES. (Ital.) By the term 

 crescendo, the Italians signify that the notes of the 

 passage over which it is placed are to be gradually 

 swelled. This operation is not of modern invention. 

 The ancient Romans, as we learn from a passage in 

 Cicero, were aware of its beauty, and practised it 

 continually. 



Crescendo is also the name of a musical instrument, 

 invented, in 1778, by the counsellor Bauer, in Berlin, 

 wliich is played like a pianoforte, and, like this, is 

 furnished with wire strings. 



CRESCENT (crescens, Lat.) ; an emblem, repre- 

 senting the moon in her state of increase. This em- 

 blem of the Ottomans is of very high antiquity. The 

 Egyptians had their Isis, the Greeks their Diana, and 

 it is easy to conceive that the crescent, which an- 

 nounced the returning light of the moon, soon became 

 an object of worship with such people. Thus, Isis, 

 Diana, and the bull Apis, are decorated with this 

 emblem ; which is also found on medals of Alexan- 

 der, and other ancient monuments of art. The citi- 



zens of Athens of illustrious birth wore crescents of 

 ivory and silver upon their buskins ; and the same 

 mark of distinction was granted to the patricians and 

 senators of Rome. They were called lunulati calcei. 

 The crescent was often used by females as an ornament 

 for the head ; an example of which may be seen on a 

 bust of Marciana, in the villa Pamfili. On many medals 

 of queens, the bust is supported by a crescent, expres- 

 sive of the relation they bore to their husbands, who, 

 as kings, were as the sun, while they were as the 

 moon. It is also an emblem of the eternity of an 

 empire. The god Lunus bears it upon his shoulder ; 

 and the denarii of the Lucretian family have it ac- 

 companied by the Seven Stars of the northern hemi- 

 sphere. It is also found on medals of many cities, 

 particularly of Byzantium, from whence it is sup- 

 posed to have been borrowed by the Ottomans. 

 Since their establishment in Europe, it has been the 

 universal emblem of their empire. It decorates 

 their minarets, their turbans, their ensigns, their 

 insignia; everything appertaining to the Mussul- 

 mans is characterized by this sign, and their states 

 are designated as the empire of the Crescent. 

 During the crusades, particularly, the crescent was 

 the distinguishing symbol of the Mussulmans, as the 

 cross was of the Christians. 



CRESCENZI, PIETRO, or PETRUS DE, the re- 

 storer of the scientific study of agriculture hi Europe, 

 was bom at Bologna, in 1230. He figured as an 

 attorney and magistrate, till he was obliged, by civil 

 troubles, to leave his native country. He then 

 travelled through Italy, and collected useful obser- 

 vations. It was not till after thirty years of ab- 

 sence, when order was at length restored to his 

 native city, that he was permitted to return ; and, 

 at the age of seventy, he was made senator. He 

 now carried into execution his principles of agricul- 

 ture, on an estate near Bologna, in the cultivation 

 of which he passed the remainder of his life. See 

 his essay on agriculture, (Ruralium Commodorum, 

 twelve books,) which he composed at the desire of 

 Charles II. He submitted his work to the examina- 

 tion of learned men in Bologna, by whom it was 

 corrected and improved. It is a remarkable monu- 

 ment of his time, of which it is far in advance. 

 Apostolo Zeno has proved that these twelve books, 

 in the arrangement of which the author seems to 

 have followed Columella, were written originally in 

 Latin. There exists an Italian translation (// Libra 

 della Agricultura di P. Crescentio, Florence, 1487 

 et seq.), which is esteemed very highly, on account 

 of the purity of the language, and has given rise to 

 the opinion that Crescenzi wrote in his native tongue. 

 He understood the ancients, and made use of them. 

 His principles are simple, founded upon experience, 

 and free from many prejudices, which continued to 

 prevail in Europe for centuries after. His work was 

 no sooner published, tlian it spread throughout Eu- 

 rope. It was translated into several European lan- 

 guages, particularly for Charles V. of France, in a 

 splendid manuscript (1373), which is still extant ; 

 and no sooner was the art of printing invented, than 

 copies of this work were greatly multiplied. The 

 oldest known edition, which is now very rare, ap- 

 peared at Augsburg, in 1471, in folio. The earliest 

 Italian translation, the author of which is supposed 

 to be Lorenzo Benvenuti, of St Geminiano, and 

 which is accounted among the models of language, 

 is contained in the collection of the Classic! Italiani 

 (Milan, 1805). A more exact, but a less esteemed 

 translation, was made by Sansovino. We are in- 

 debted for much information concerning Crescenzi 

 and his work to professsor Filippo Re, at Bologna. 



CRESCENZI, D. JUAN BAPTISTA, marquis de la 

 Torre, was born at Roir.< towards the end of thf 



