702 S A V 
trial. Savonarola, finding that the adverse party were not 
to be intimidated, proposed that Domenico should be al¬ 
lowed to carry the host with him into the fire. This was ex¬ 
claimed against by the whole assembly as an impious and 
sacrilegious proposal. It was, however, insisted upon by 
Domenico, who thereby eluded the ordeal. But the result 
was fatal to the credit of Savonarola. The populace in¬ 
sulted and turned against him, and in a pretty severe con¬ 
flict, they apprehended him, with Domenico, and another 
friar, and dragged them to prison. The resolution and 
eloquence of Savonarola disconcerted his judges at the 
first examination, but upon the application of torture 
his constancy gave way, and he acknowledged the im- 
osture of his pretending to supernatural powers. He and 
is companions were condemned to be first strangled and 
then burnt, and the sentence was put into execution on 
the 23d of May, 1498, before an immense crowd of spec¬ 
tators, a part of whom still looked up to him as a saint and 
martyr, while the rest execrated him as a hypocrite and 
seducer. 
Such was Savonarola, concerning whose real character 
opinions long continued to be at variance, and even at this 
time they are said by no means to be uniform. The 
friends of reformation, civil and religious, says the eloquent 
biographer of Lorenzo, would willingly regard him as a 
man who had elevated views and good intentions, though 
perverted by a spirit of fanaticism, and there seems no 
reason to doubt that be was really a friend to the liberty of 
Florence, and felt an honest indignation at the profligacy 
of the court of Rome, and the corruption of the Catholic 
church. At the same time design and artifice appear to 
have mixed with his enthusiasm, and the character of a 
leader of a party is as discernable in his conduct as that of 
a reformer. The great instrument by which he obtained 
his ascendancy was eloquence, and perhaps no man ever 
possessed more of that kind which is calculated to operate 
upon a popular assembly. Several volumes of his sermons 
have been published with other works, ascetical, theolo¬ 
gical, and apologetical, which are now consigned to 
oblivion. His numerous biographers, apologists, and cen- 
surers, indicate the strong impression made on the public by 
his actions and unhappy fate. Guicciardini's Hist. Ros- 
coe's Lorenzo. 
SAVORY, s. [satureia , Lat.] A plant.-—It is of the 
verticillate kind, with a labiated flower, whose upper lip or 
crest is divided into two parts; but the lower lip, or beard, is 
divided into three parts, the middle part being crenated: 
these flowers are produced from the wings of the leaves in a 
loose order, and not in whorls or spikes as are most of this 
tribe of plants. Miller. See Satureia. 
. SAVOU, or Coffin Island, a small island near the 
west coast of Madagascar. Lat. 17. 30. S. long. 44.22. E. 
SAVOUR, s. [saveur, Fr.] Scent; odour.—I smell sweet 
savours, and I feel soft things. Shakspeare. —Taste; power 
of affecting the palate. 
I taste 
The savour of death from all things. Milton. 
SAVOUR, v. n. favourer, Fr.] To have any particu¬ 
lar smell or taste; to betoken; to have an appearance or 
taste of something. 
If 'twere a secret that concerned my life. 
This boldness might become thee; 
But such unnecessary rudeness savours 
Of some design. Denham. 
To SAVOUR, v. a. To like. 
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile ; 
Filths savour but themselves. Shakspeare. 
To exhibit taste of.-—Thou savourest not the things that 
be of God. Gospel .-—That savours only of rancour and 
pride. Milton. 
SAVOURILY, adv. With gust, with appetite.—The 
S A V 
collation he fell to very savourily. L’Estrange.—With a 
pleasing relish. 
There’s a dearth of wit in this dull town. 
Where silly plays so savourily go down. Dry den. 
SAWOURYNESS, s. Taste ; pleasing and picquant. 
SAV'OURY, adj. Pleasing to the taste.—The savoury 
pulp they chew. Milton. —Pleasing to the smell. 
The pleasant savoury smell 
So quickened appetite, that I 
Could not but taste. Milton. 
SAV'OY, s. A sort of small cabbage. See Brassica. 
SAVOY, a duchy in the south of Europe, forming the 
north-west part of the continental states of the kingdom of 
Sardinia, and extending from Lat. 45. 8. to 46. 28. N. It 
is bounded on the west by France, on the east by Piedmont. 
Its form is oblong, its length from north to south, being 94 
miles, its general breadth between 60 and 70. Its superficial 
extent is about 3800 square miles; its population about 
450,000. 
Face of the Country. —The surface of Savoy is in the 
highest degree bleak and rugged; mountains, rocks, preci¬ 
pices, and forests, all the materials of the sublime, are its 
characteristic features. Its scenery is thus remarkable, less 
for beauty than for grandeur, producing in the mind of the 
spectator feelings of wonder, awe, and even terror. Streams 
at one time dashing among precipitous ridges of rocks, and 
forming magnificent cascades ; at another expanding into 
beautiful sheets, or winding slowly through the bottom of 
a pleasant valley, or losing themselves in the gloom of a 
forest, present to the traveller, at each step, new objects of 
interest and astonishment. From the tops of the mountains 
the view is infinitely diversified : the bottom of the valley 
is strewed with cottages, fields, and vineyards; verdant pas¬ 
tures extend along the base of the mountains, and through a 
considerable part of the ascent. To these succeed forests, 
generally of great length; while the summit is crowned with 
numerous masses of snow and ice. Savoy is the region of 
Mount Blanc, Mount St. Bernard, Mount Cenis, Mount 
Iseran, Mount Valaison, and Mount Toumet, all connected 
together, and forming a stupendous barrier between Savoy 
and Piedmont. The roads in this country are often impas¬ 
sable for carriages; burdens are generally carried on the 
backs of mules or horses. The traveller is exposed to hazard 
in passing along the brink of chasms and precipices, or ap¬ 
proaching the huge masses of snow, which a slight motion 
is sufficient to detach. The mountains on the side of France 
are less elevated, and the fall of the waters being in general 
in a northerly and westerly direction, there was, as far as 
depended on physical causes, no impropriety in allotting 
this country to France, by the treaty of Paris in 1814. 
Agriculture. —The plough is of use only in the valleys; 
on the high grounds the peasants break up the soil with the 
pick-axe and spade, and, to improve it, carry up mould and 
manure in baskets from the valleys. Small reservoirs are 
prepared near the tops of the hills and mountains, from which 
water is-let out at pleasure in spring and summer; while to 
prevent the earth Horn being washed down the declivity, 
small stone walls are erected, so that, by dint of skill and 
industry, cultivation is extended over tracks which would 
otherwise be a continued surface of naked rock. Savoy, 
though naturally one of the poorest countries in Europe, is 
thus enabled to supply the wants of its inhabitants. The 
products of the valleys are wheat, oats, barley,. rye, and 
hemp. The slopes of the mountains are covered with pas¬ 
ture, and in favourable situations, with vines. Numbers of 
cattle and sheep are annually driven for sale into Piedmont 
and the Milanese. The mountains contain also mines of 
iron, copper, and silver; while the forests supply fuel, both 
for working these and for domestic purposes. 
Manufactures in so thinly peopled a country as Savoy, are 
in a very primitive state, being confined to coarse linens, to 
tanneries, and to some works on a small scale for paper, 
hardware, and pottery. The exports are limited to raw 
produpe. 
