I T A 



ymtis arc lengthened out to a great degree. Tlicy have a 

 great talle for iniilic ; and to gratify their paffioii this way, 

 have altered abundance of their primitive words ; leaving, 

 out confonatits, taking in vowels, foftening and lengthening 

 out their terminations for tlie fake of the cadence. 



Hence the language is rendered extremely mufical, and 

 fiicceeds better than any other in operas, and fome parts 

 of poetry ; but it fails in llrengtli and nervoufncfs : hence 

 aifo a great part of its words, borrowed from the La- 

 tin, become fo far difguifcd, that they are not eafily known 

 again. 



The multitude of fovereign dates into which Italy is 

 divided, has given rife to a great number of different dialects 

 in that language ; which, however, are all good in the place 

 where they are ufed. The Tufcan is ufually preferred to 

 the other dialects, and the Roman pronunciation to that of 

 the other cities; whence the Italian proverb, -'Lingua 

 Tofcana in bocca Romaua." 



The Italian is generally pretty well underltood throughout 

 F.iirope, and is frequently fpokcn in Germany, Poland, and 

 Hungary. A.t Conflantinople, in Greece, and in the ports 

 of the Levant, the Itahan is ufed as commonly as the 

 language of the country ; indeed in thofe places it is not 

 fpoken fo pure as in Tufcany, but is corrupted with manv 

 cf the proper words and idioms of the place ; v/hence it 

 takes a uevr name and is called Fruni Italian. See Lan- 

 guage. 



TlALiAX Coins, Meafurcs, Marble, SUhs. See the fub- 

 ■flantives. 



Italian' School of Engraving. Engraving, with the work 

 of the fcorper occnfionaily intermingled with that of the 

 graver, had been pra'tifed in Italy, from time immemorial, 

 in oramenting thofe golden and fiiver vafes, falvers, clialiccs, 

 and other veflels of p'ate, which adorned the communion- 

 tables of the Catholic church, and the fide-boards of the no- 

 ble and opulent, when, about the middle of the fifteenth 

 century, Alafo, or Thomafo, Finiguerra, a goldfmith of 

 Florence, accidentally difcovercd the means of printing 

 from the incifions thus fculptured on the metal : fo that en- 

 graving on copper-plates, as it is now praftifed, with the view 

 of rendering impreffions on paper, is a fcion from the decora- 

 tive part of the art or trade of the goldfmith ; but which 

 has gradually far out-grown the parent tree. 



Vafari, in his biography of Marc Antonio, has, with 

 great propriety, connecled his account of that dillinguifhed 

 engraver, with an hiilory of the difcovery which rendered 

 his art fo famous and fo extenfively beneficial. He fays 

 that Finiguerra, having performed an engravuig on a piece 

 of plate, and intending to fill up the hollows v/ith enamel ; 

 in order to try the eflecl of it previoufly to putting on the 

 tnamel, caii fome melted fulphur upon it, and, on taking it 

 ofl, perceived that the dirt (or charcoal with which he firll 

 tried his work) coUeded at the bottom of the ftrokes, by 

 adliering to tlie fulphur, gave an imprefCon of what he had 

 engraven. Struck with the difcovery, he repeated the ex- 

 periment, by applying moiftened paper to his engraving 

 inllead of fulphur, roUing it gently with a roller, and this 

 e\perinie:)t being attended with fuccefs, he imparted his 

 difcovery to Baccio Baldini, who was alfo of Florence, 

 bv whom it was communicated to Sandro BoticelH, and 

 pirhaps alfo Antonio Pollajuolo, and Andrea Mantegna. 



The baron Heinnekin, however, believes that roUing. 

 prefs printing had previous exiftence in Germany, and fub- 

 feqnent writers (among whom is our countryman Strutt), 

 giving credit to the opinion of an author, who is fo generally 

 wo'thv of it as Heinnekin, have copied this behef, or «• 



\'.l. X!X. 



I T A 



peatcd this alTertion cf the baron, perhaps witli too li'tlc re- 

 flexion. 



An accidental difcovery of this kind, which might have 

 taken place in any country where paper vv'as known and 

 ufed, reflefts fo little real honour upon its birth-place, as to 

 be unworthy of half the importance which has been iiuliiC- 

 trioufly endeavoured to be attaclicd to it ; yet for this trivial 

 or fancied honour, the connoilfeurs and literati of Italy and 

 Geri^any have contended ; and we mnft allow, that the 

 mind of Heinnekin appears, in this indance, to have been in- 

 fluenced by an evident bias in favour of the prctenllons of 

 his country. 



He oppofes, however, only conjefturc to the plain and 

 fimple fad of Vafari, which we have related above ; ai:d 

 tliough he, as well as others, have feduloully fought for evi- 

 dence in the dates of the earlielt German engravings, no 

 fuch evidence has been fouiid. No German print impreflcd 

 from an engraved plate, of which the date has not been fub- 

 fequently altered to iir.pofe on the credulous, has been, or 

 can be produced, as the prefent writer believes, bearii:g a;i 

 earher date than 1460, the year in which, according to Vafari, 

 the accident happened in the workfliop of Finiguerra, which 

 gave to Europe the means of printing from the iacifion of 

 tlie graver. 



Finiguerra was born at Florence fon-.e time about the 

 year 1424, and died in the fame city at an advanced age. 

 He is reported to have lludied under Maffaccio. Pnibabiv 

 he learned drawing in the fchool of that mailer: and Baccio 

 Bandinelli, in one of his letters fays, that Mafo wcrk?d 

 with PolLijuolo and other contemporary artills, on the far 

 famed metal doors of the church of St. John at Florence. 

 About the year 1450, he engraved alfo for the church of 

 St. John, the PafTiun of Chrill on a facred vafe of gold, 

 in a very artift-like manner, though the figures were fmall. 

 This facl is reported in b letter from M. Gabuori to Ma- 

 riette; but of his other engravings we are compelled to fpeak. 

 with doubt. 



Whether any imprejjions from the works of this artifl 

 remain to atteii his difcovery of printing, and corroborate 

 the ftatement of Vafari, is at the bell uncertain. Strutt has 

 mentioned diibioufiy, " The Seven Planets ;" which arc 

 really from the graver of Boticelli, and with better fliow of 

 reafon, a fmall plate of an artiil engaged in his profeflion, 

 which is marked with the letter F on a (tone, and is certainly in 

 the very carlieft flyle (for Baldini and Boticelli can fcarcely be 

 faid to have attained a flyle) of Italian engraving ; to wliicli 

 the foreign writers on art have added the twenty-four fol- 

 lowing fmall engravings, which are, for the moll part, of t!ie 

 circular form. According to Huber and Rolt they were 

 recogni/.ed as the work of Finiguerra by M. Otto, a well- 

 known amateur of Leiplic, by M. I'Abbe Zani of Parma, 

 and by the more celebrated baron de Stofch, the latter of 

 whom refidcd :i long time at Florence, whilll he was finming 

 his immenfe colleftion of works of art. All of thefe con- 

 noiffeurs iiave admitted them into their collections as the 

 work of Finiguerra; and Heinnekin, after attentive exami- 

 nation, has adjudged them to be his engraving and printing. 



1. A conchant female, perhaps intended for a Venus. 

 On a flreamer furmounting the couch, is inferibod " Amor 

 vuol fc, odove fenonnc.' 2. The mak and female fup- 

 porters (a young man and woman) of the arms of the 

 Medicis, with a vafe of flowers, &c. The female is dreffej 

 in the Grecian talle, and holds two gir.iles. N. B, This 

 feems to have been printed from the cover of a round box. 

 3. A half-length figure of a young man with a parroquet 

 on his Ihouldes, playing the guitar, encircled by a border 

 of fruit. 4. An adolefeent inpid tied to j tree, his eyes 

 5 S bandaged. 



