I T A 



on the mail of his companion, and he, turned toward the 

 enemy, feems to Itamp impatiently the ground. Experience 

 and rage, old vigour, young velocity, expanded or con- 

 trafted, vie in exertions of energy ; yet in this fcene of 

 tumult one motive animates the whole, eagernefs to engage 

 with fubordination to command ; th.is prelerves the dignity 

 of action, and from a ftraggling rabble, changes the figures 

 to men whofe legitimate conteft intereils our wilhes."' 



Three plates in lines, which he advanced no further than 

 the aquafortis ftate, will clofe our lift of the works of this 

 admired and regretted artift. The firft, in the order of pro- 

 duclion, is a mailerly etching of large folio fize, after Trum- 

 bull, of " The Death of General Montgomery," 'which vvas 

 finifhed by Mr. Clemens (a German artift). It was per- 

 formed feveral years ago, and difclofed powers which ought 

 to have made an earlier imprefiion than they did on the eye 

 and tafte of the public. The next is " The Proceflion of 

 Chaucer's Pilgrims to Canterbury, ' a large folio plate of tlie 

 frieze proportions, after a very capital work from the pencil 

 of the academician Stothard. 



Chaftening every ambitious difplay of his own executive 

 powers ; repreffing every idea and every fcehng that was not 

 homogeneous with the nature, and proportioned to the de- 

 mands of the occafion, Scliiavonetti has here, like the hero 

 of the Odyfley, expreffed, " no more than juft the things he 

 QUght.'' The fpirit which animated him in the performance 

 of tiiis work, like that which has animated the painter, feenis 



■ to have glided from the elyfium of the great artills of anti- 

 quity ; there is the fame truth of Nature, and the fame 

 unollentatious claflic purity of ftyie, pervading the whole ; 



♦' Enhght'ning ev'ry line in fuch a guife. 

 That they feem rather fallen from the ikies 

 Than of a Mortal hand.'' 



Since the lamented death of Scliiavonetti, the proprietor 

 «f this plate has with fome inconlillency ftated to the public, 

 that, " in the prefent ftate of this etching, confidered with 

 reference to the peculiar circumftances of the cafe, perhaps 

 !lo better mode could be devifed of paving an imprefilve and 

 lading tribute to his memory, and one in which all his ad- 

 mirers could participate, than by giving it to the public as 

 he left it, a confecrated monument of his genius;'' he has 

 before held forth a powerful additional motive to this end, 

 a motive as powerful as tafte and frienddiip themfelves could 

 lyive connecled with fnch a pnrpofe, by informing his 

 readers, that " the inovement of the figtu-es and the ex- 

 preffion in their heads and charaflers are as finely maintained 

 in outline, as they could poffibly have been in the moft 

 fmifhed print," which is pretty ilrong language, yet he has 

 fince announced Mr. Bromley and himfelf as t'tie finiftiers of 

 . the plate. 



Now, though the prefent writer does not think finiftiing, 

 in the engraver's art, is thus utterly thrown away, or con- 

 tributes nothing in addition to an exquifite outline, to the 

 motions, charaj:ters, and expreffions of a protradlcd group 

 of' figures, fuch as the Canterbury pilgrims; or though, 

 'regarding the above as an impaffioncd, or hyperbolic fen- 

 tehce frofn the pen of Mr, Cromek ; he can make due al- 

 lowance for the .occafion which gave it birth, he yet thinks 



■ the impreiUve atid lalling tribute to the memory of Schia- 

 vbnetti ftionld have been paid; the monument which his genius 

 itfelf had raifed ftiould have been confecrated ; and he therefore 

 regrets thofe views of profit, or thofe hopes of reputation, 

 g'r thofe ulterior miftakes which have prevented this con- 

 fummalion. Achilles and Ulyffes could not both be the 



-heroes of the fame poem ; and it would have been wife for 



I T A 



Mr. Bromley, and well for the public, Tor hini to have l5e- 

 gun his Canterbury pilgrims on a frefti plate of copper. 



The next, and the laft: of our artift's performances, was 

 an etching, of folio dimennons, of the portrait of fir Jofeph 

 Banks, as prefident of the Royal Society, from a pifture 

 by T. Philhps, R.A. replete with that truth of charaAer 

 and mild force of execution, which ufvially diftinguifh the 

 works of this painter. To detail the merits of this work, 

 would be but to call forth afrefli our former praifes ; it is as 

 mafterly a difplay of his talent m the portrait branch of his 

 art, as the etching of the Canlcrlniry pilgrims is of his merit 

 in tiie hiilontal. This plate, as we are given to underftand, 

 is now finifhmg by Nicholas Scliiavonetti, who may natu- 

 rally be prefunicd to be at leaft as well acquainted with his 

 brother's ftyle and profefGonal intentions, as any engraver 

 whatever. 



Of Francifco Bar':oloz7,i of Florence, the pupil of Wag- 

 ner, but more the pupil of Italy and nature, and the prin- 

 cipal iiiftruiftor of Schiavonetti and Volpato, we fnall fav 

 but little. He is ftill at upwards of fourfcore years cf 

 age, confidercd as fpeaking for himfelf by his produClions, 

 though doomed to linger out the evening of his glorious day, 

 in Portugal, far from the haunts of ftudious retirement, and 

 amidft the din of arms. Till nature has clofed her account 

 with him, what bold auditor fhall prefume to eftimate his 

 w-orlh ; 



Of him and his difciple Schiavonetti^ we have already 

 fpoken as two of the brighteft ilars iri our graphic hemi- 

 fphere. The latter has fallen from his zenith ; that Barto- 

 lozzi may long remain above the horizon, is our fervent 

 wiih. 



But it has been emphatically faid, that " ftars teach as 

 well as fhine." On the continent of Europe, they teach 

 and ftiine in vain, while war defolates tlie plains of the 

 weftern peninfula ; if Ate flings wide and wild her torch, in 

 vain exift the charms and the leiTuns of art : in vain are the 

 heavens ferene, if an earthquake rages below. 



ITALIC, or Italxax Hours, are the twenty-four hours 

 of the natural day accounted from the fun fetting of one day 

 to the fame again the next day. 



This way of reckoning was ufed by the Jews of old, and 

 is ufed by the Itahans to this day. 

 .Italic CharaSir, in Printing. See Letteij. 



Italic Sttl, is the name of a party of ancient philofo- 

 phers founded by Pythagoras ; fo called, becaufe that phi- 

 lofupher taught in Italy, fpreading his doftrine among the 

 people of Tarentum, Metapontu.'i, Heraclea, Naples, &c. 

 See Pythagoiuc StS. 



ITALY, in Geography and Hijlory. In ancient geo- 

 graphy, this country, the moft celebrated in Europe, was 

 denominated Italia. It is bounded on the N. and N.W. 

 by the Alps ; on the E. by the mare Supernm, that is, the 

 Adriatic gulf, or gulf of 'Venice ; on the W. by the mare 

 Inferum, or Tufcan fea ; and on the S. by the Ionian 

 fea adjacent to Greece. In form, it has been compared to 

 the fliape of a boot, lying in an oblique direction from 

 N.W. to S.E. From the Alps to the fretum Siculum, or 

 ftrait of MefTina, it extends from 47- to 37° 45' N. lat. or 

 about nine degrees. In breadth it is very unequal, in fome 

 places not exceeding 2°, and in others upwards of 8 long. ; 

 lu-iice its length from N. to S. is about 6co miles, and its 

 breadth varies from t to 300 miles or more. It has borne 

 at different periods very different names. One of its moft 

 ancient names was Italia, either from Italus, a king of that 

 country, not known in hiftory, or from a Greek- word 

 fignifying an ox, aa animal very common in that part of 



the 



