398 
Extracts from Lord Alexander'Giraffi! s [Dec. 1, 
Herbert, the second son of William, 
Earl of Pembroke, who died in the year 
1594. 
Shonen Bach. 
Hampstead , May 12, 1821. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
I HAVE in my possession a copy of 
a little work ; which, I believe, is 
scarce, entitled 44 An Exact Historie 
of the late Revolutions in Naples, and 
of their monstrous successes, not to be 
paralleled by any Antient or Modern 
History ; published by the Lord Alex¬ 
ander Giraffi in Italian, and (for the 
rarenesse of the subject) rendered to 
English, by J. H. Esq. London, 1650.” 
Though, from the unfortunate termina¬ 
tion of the late struggle in that quarter, 
the subject may have lost some of its 
interest, yet as you express a desire for 
any information respecting Naples, a 
short analysis of this book, with a few 
extracts from it, will not, perhaps, be 
unacceptable. 
The first tiling which strikes the 
reader on the perusal of it is, the re¬ 
markable manner in which this tre¬ 
mendous explosion burst forth, and 
the rapidity of its progress, which 
might well excite the astonishment of 
the rest of the world, not excepting 
England, where a revolution had also 
so recently taken place, under different 
circumstances. 44 It would stumble 
any one’s belief,” says the translator 
in his preface, 44 that a young fellow, 
a petty, poor, bare-footed fisherman, 
should" draw after him in lesse than 
three days, above forty thousand armed 
men, and shaking off his linen slop, 
blue waistcoat, and red bonnet, should 
the fourth day ride triumphantly upon 
his courser in cloth of silver, command 
all Naples, and consequently near upon 
six hundred thousand souls, as abso¬ 
lutely as ever monarch did: and all 
this by his own single orders, which 
were of force enough to plunder or 
burn any house, to banish the proudest 
lord, or chop oft‘ any head, without 
judicial proceeding.” 
The 44 Historie,” after giving an ac¬ 
count of the state of affairs in Sicily, 
where there had also been some pre¬ 
vious commotions, which had ended in 
the people’s obtaining the abolition of 
the most burdensome taxes, goes on to 
detail the occurrences of the Neapolitan 
revolution, (if such it can properly be 
called) during the short space of ten 
days which it lasted. Each day forms 
a separate head or chapter. In the first, 
which is the 7th of July, 1647, we are 
introduced to the extraordinary charac¬ 
ter who was the principal agent in these 
transactions, Tomasso Anello of Amalfi, 
vulgarly called Masanello by contrac¬ 
tion. 44 He was about twenty-four 
years old, a spriteful man, and plea¬ 
sant, of a middle stature, black eyed, 
rather lean than fat, having a small 
tuft of hair. His profession was to 
angle for little fish with a cane, hook, 
and line, as also to buy fish, and to 
carry and retail them to some that 
dwelt in his quarter.” This man 44 out 
of a kind of natural craft,” observed 
the murmurs of the people which were 
increasing every day, against the ga- 
bells or taxes on fruit, corn, &c. and 
expressed to his companions a great 
desire to redress their wrongs. They 
laughed and jeered at him, but he told 
them in reply, 44 Ye laugh at me now, 
but you shall shortly see what Masanel¬ 
lo can do; let me alone, if I do not free 
you from so many slaveries, let me be 
held infamous for ever.” 
His first measure was to collect k 
number of boys, amounting in a short 
time to 2000, whom he formed into 
companies, giving each one a weak 
cane in his hand, and taught them to 
go about the city, crying 4 ‘ May the 
Pope live, may the King of Spain and 
plenty live, but may the ill govern¬ 
ment die! God gives plenty, but the 
ill government dearth!”—with other 
exclamations of a similar kind. A 
tumult took place this day in the mar¬ 
ket-place, in which Masanello was very 
active, and addressed the people in the 
following terms, 44 Be merry, dear 
companions and brothers, give God 
thanks, and to the glorious Virgin of 
Carmine, that the hour of our redemp¬ 
tion draws near : this poor, bare-footed 
fellow, as another Moses, who freed the 
Israelites from Pharaoh’s rod, shall in 
that manner redeem you of all gabells, 
from the first time that they were 
ever imposed. A fisherman, who was 
Peter, reduced with his voice from 
Satan’s slavery to the liberty of Christ, 
Rome herself, and with Rome a world ; 
now another fisherman, who is Ma¬ 
sanello, shall release Naples, and with 
Naples a whole kingdom, from the 
tyranny of gabells. From henceforth 
ye shall shake from off your necks the 
intolerable yoke of so many grievances, 
which have depressed you hitherto.” 
Incited 
