POETRY POGGIO BRACCIOLINI. 



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in his Ars f'oetica,nr letter to the Pisos, shows him- 

 self his pupil. In modern times, it lias been treated 

 by Marc. Hier. Vida, Torquato Tasso and many 

 other Italians, Nic. Boileau, Jul. Caes. Scaliger, 

 Ger. Voss, L. Racine, D'Alembert, Marmontel, 

 Baumgarten, the founder of aesthetics, Joh. Ad. 

 Schlegel, Salzer, En gel, Jean Paul Fr. Richter (in 

 his f'orschule der jEsthetik) and Clodins. Besides 

 these, the theory of poetry in general has been 

 treated by Lessing, Klopstock, W. von Humboldt, 

 Herder, Schiller, Goethe, the Schlegels, Muller and 

 others ; in English, by Blair, Wordsworth, Camp- 

 bell, I lazlitt. and others. 



We may divide the history of poetry into two 

 periods; the one before the birth of Christ, the other 

 since. The Hebrews are the first people from whom 

 poetical productions have descended to our times. 

 Only obscure traces remain of any earlier poetry of 

 the Indians, Persians, Syrians and Arabians. The 

 religious poetry of the Hebrews is of very ancient 

 date, and possesses a solemn character, distinct from 

 that of the other nations of antiquity. It begins with 

 cosmogony, becomes at a later period of a warlike 

 character, then assumes the form of sacred songs in 

 the time of David, and attains under Solomon (from 

 1044 to 975) its greatest elevation, after which it 

 assumes a prophetical character. (See Hebrews.) 

 We next come to classic antiquity, and become 

 acquainted with poetry in the plastic character, 

 which it assumed in Asia Minor and Greece, 

 tinder the influence of the prevailing paganism, 

 which received such rich and various hues from 

 the glowing imagination of the people. Greek 

 poetry may again be divided into three peri- 

 ods : the first of these extends from the earliest 

 times of Greece to the Persian war. Greek poetry 

 begins in Thrace and Asia Minor, and the great 

 national epic of Homer, or the Homerides, the 

 rhapsodists, the cyclic and gnomic poets, indicate a 

 wide diffusion of poetry at that time. Lyric poetry 

 soon attained a peculiar eminence. The second 

 period extends from the Persian war to the time of 

 Alexander the Great. It is the flourishing period 

 of the dramatic art, and of cultivated Greek poetry 

 in general. The third period shows the decline of 

 Greek poetry under the successors of Alexander, 

 and the revival of the same in Alexandria. (See 

 Greek Literature.} From the Greeks we turn to 

 their imitators, the Romans, whose language was 

 not employed in poetry till a late period, and who, 

 until the second Punic war, or until the time in 

 which they became closely connected with the 

 Greeks, made only rude essays in poetry. The era 

 of Augustus and Tiberius was the golden age of 

 their poetry, and it thence declined continually, until 

 the introduction of the Christian religion, and the 

 irruption of the barbarians. The fragments which 

 have come down to us from the flourishing period of 

 Indian poetry, some centuries before Christ, are of 

 an original character and peculiar delicacy. The 

 second chief period of the times since Christ (see 

 Modern and Romantic), first shows us the Latin 

 language applied in the Christian worship to a mys- 

 tic religious poetry ; and later, in the ninth, tenth, 

 and succeeding centuries, employed by learned men 

 in imitations of the old Roman poetry; contempo- 

 rary with these we witness the rise of Arabian poetry, 

 (q. v. ) A peculiar poetry sprung up in the modern 

 languages among the French' at the time of the 

 Provengals or Troubadours, in the eleventh century. 

 In its devotion, valour, and love, the spirit of chi- 

 valry is apparent. (See Romantic) This romantic 

 poetry of the Franks declined into mere artificial 

 rhyming, after the end of the twelfth century. 

 Under the dominion of Francis I., poetry somewhat 



revived ; but the age of Louis XIV. was the golden 

 ra of French poetry; although it often, but in its 

 >\vn manner, imitated the ancients, and modernized 

 ancient materials. Rhetorical elegance and easy 

 wit were its chief aim. (See French Literature ) 

 The modern Italian poetry sprung from the Proven- 

 gal. But a poetry of a natural character began in 

 Sicily, after the thirteenth century, and flourished, 

 peculiarly from the time of Dante and Petrarch to 

 ;o that of Ariosto and Tasso, in the thirteenth, four- 

 teenth, and fifteenth centuries, and thence declined 

 into bombast and imitation. (See Italian Poetry ) 

 The Spanish poetry appears originally the sister of 

 the Provengal, but mingled with the Oriental cha- 

 racter. The earliest Castilian poetry, properly so 

 called, belongs to the thirteenth century ; but it 

 began to nourish under the administration of Charles 

 I., and declined under Philip IV. Simultaneous with 

 it, and in connexion with it, flourished the Portu- 

 uese. (See Spanish Literature, and Portuguese 

 Literature.) The German poetry, which is closely 

 connected with the northern, and has its own epic 

 cycle, flourished at various times, and with much 

 variety of character, but most vigorously when free 

 from the influence of foreign models. (See German 

 Poetry.) The origin of the English and Scottish 

 poetry is lost, like that of the German in the distant 

 period of the bards ; it was refined by the Norman 

 French poetry. But the flourishing period of Eng- 

 lish poetry is placed in the times of queen Elizabeth, 

 although Chaucer is esteemed the father of modern 

 English poetry. The Scandinavian poetry, other- 

 wise called northern, presents chivalry peculiarly 

 coloured by the northern character, since the thir- 

 teenth century, when the German Heldenbuch (book 

 of heroes) was introduced into Norway, and foreign 

 tales became blended with native ones. In the four- 

 teenth century, the poetry of the mastersingers took 

 the place of that which had been founded on the 

 ancient sagas. (See Danish and Swedish Language 

 and Literature.) These are the principal divisions 

 in the history of poetry. For further information, 

 see Warton's History of English Poetry, Sismondi's 

 Litterature du Midi de I' Europe, Bouterwek's His- 

 tory of modern Poetry and Eloquence (in German.) 



POGGIO BRACCIOLINI, one of the early pro- 

 moters of literature in Italy, was born at Terranu- 

 ova, in the Florentine territory, in 1380. On com- 

 pleting his education, he went to Rome, where he 

 obtained the office of writer of apostolical letters, 

 and in 1414 attended John XXII. to the council of 

 Constance. In 141 6 he undertook the task of search- 

 ing the monasteries for ancient manuscripts ; in that 

 of St Gall he discovered a complete copy of Quin- 

 tilian, with a part of the Argonautics of Valerius 

 Flaccus, and in other religious houses several of 

 Cicero's orations, and obtained copies of the works 

 of Silius Italicus, Vegetius, Ammianus Marcellinus, 

 Columella, &c. In 1418, on the invitation of cardi- 

 nal Beaufort, he visited England ; but the barba- 

 rism of the cour.try at that period soon led him to 

 return, and he finally attached himself to Cosmo de 

 Medici. In 1440, he published his Dialogues on 

 Nobility, one of the most finished of his works. In 

 1453, he was chosen chancellor to the Florentine 

 republic. His History of Florence had not received 

 its last polish at his death, in 1459. Poggio was 

 licentious, quarrelsome, and intemperate in contro- 

 versy; but his sentiments are in general liberal and 

 manly, and he may be deemed the most elegant 

 composer in Latin (the language of all his works) 

 of that period. His writings are numerous, and 

 upon various topics. Many are discussions on moral 

 arguments, a few are philosophical, and several con- 

 troversial : the remainder are chiefly translations, 

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