10 V Ape Italiana. 
diately nominated him his secretary of 
state. The dignity of a cardinal’s hat 
appeared to be at no great distance, 
and it was with infinite surprise that 
at the next election, his name was not 
found comprehended in the list. Ca- 
sotti attributes his exclusion to the 
honourable cause of having been too 
strenuously recommended by some 
prince , an interference of which the 
severe and fastidious character of the 
Pope did not altogether approve. His 
election indeed had been strongly in¬ 
sisted upon even by the King of France. 
It is, however, probable he would not 
have been forgotten in the second pro¬ 
motion of the sacred college, had not 
his death taken place in the mean time 
at the age of fifty-three. 
This author was universally allowed 
a very high rank among the first 
geniuses of the splendid and refined 
period in which he wrote. Tiraboschi 
observes, that in point of pure Tuscan 
elegance and richness of style, there 
are few that will bear a comparison 
with him, and that had he only pro¬ 
duced his Galateo, it would have fully 
justified his admission among the most 
classical writers of the language. 
It is well known that Torquato 
Tasso wrote an academical criticism, 
consisting of an entire treatise, upon 
one of his celebratad sonnets, com¬ 
mencing 
“ Questa vita mortal che in una o due 
Brevi e notturn ’ore trapassa oscura 
E fredda, involta havea fin qui la pura 
Parte di me nell ’atri nubi sue.” 
The eloquence of his orations was 
such, that they were studied and imi¬ 
tated by the first public speakers and 
pleaders of his time. Though the style 
of his versification is neither the most 
harmonious nor the most impassioned 
of the Tuscan muse, it is amply re¬ 
deemed by its grandeur of thought, and 
the truth and beauty of its images. 
Disdaining to confine himself to a mere 
imitation of Petrarch, who had been 
esteemed the only model of poetic com¬ 
position, he dared to open for himself 
a new career; and sacrificing some¬ 
thing of the sweetness and delicacy of 
style peculiar to that poet, he intro¬ 
duced an elevated and serious tone, 
which, though less graceful, is cer¬ 
tainly more impressive. He ought not, 
however, to have despaired of recon¬ 
ciling the opposite qualities of strength 
and beauty, which if united would have 
rendered liis name equal to that of 
Dante or Ariosto. 
—No. XXIII. [Aug. 1, 
His letters, written in Italian, are 
remarkable for force of sentiment, stu¬ 
died elegance, and correctness of ex¬ 
pression. For this reason, however, 
they are not so pleasing, as greater ease 
and familiarity of manner in epistolary 
writing would have rendered them. 
In his Latin compositions, as well as 
in his imitations of the Greeks, he 
stands nearly unrivalled: while his 
lives of the two celebrated cardinals, 
Bembo and Contarini, are exquisite 
specimens of biographical composition. 
He published an excellent transla¬ 
tion of the orations of Thucydides, and 
the description of the Plague of Athens. 
But amidst the fame which he justly 
acquired by many noble and beautiful 
productions, he did not escape the de¬ 
served censure for the occasional free¬ 
doms and licentiousness introduced 
into his effusions of a lighter stamp. 
In his Capitolo del Forno, of which he 
admitted himself to be the author, 
there are passages which make us regret 
that it should ever have seen the light. 
He was accused, like Tansillo, of 
having written an express treatise on 
Obscenity; and it was even said that 
he took an opportunity of writing it 
while employed as Nuncio from the 
Pope. On the other hand he is defend¬ 
ed by the authority of Menage, and of 
the celebrated Magliabecchi, the last 
of whom demonstrates that the impro¬ 
per little epigram upon an ant, attri¬ 
buted to Casa, is really the work of a 
Niccolo Secco. It was said by many 
that he was refused the honour of the 
purple on the score of this unlucky 
chapter upon an Oven. But this is 
scarcely probable; as, independent of 
other reasons, if such productions really 
disqualified him from receiving the ho¬ 
nour of a hat, it would equally apply 
to the dignity of an Archbishop and the 
seriousness of an Apostolic Nuncio. 
To put the most charitable construc¬ 
tion, as we are bound to do, upon 
such a case, we may suppose that, like 
Tansillo, or our own T. Brown the 
younger, poor Casa thought to expiate 
the erotic offences of his youth, by writ¬ 
ing the following treatise upon good 
manners; with which we now propose 
to edify our readers. It is pretty cer¬ 
tain that the wildness of genius, and 
the exuberant feelings of love and ad¬ 
miration, with which, without except¬ 
ing Shakespeare, the early productions 
of our very first geniuses abound, ge¬ 
nerally terminate about the close of 
their career in celebrating La Nascita 
della 
