188 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
StR, 
i HAVE now tranfmitted to you the 
continuation of my remarks on the 
prefent ftate of ITALIAN LITERA- 
TURE; and hope you will readily 
give place to it. I have reafon to believe, 
that the former article gratified a num- 
ber of your intelligent readers. Unfor- 
tunately, I am compelled to extend it, 
contrary to my original defign, toa third 
paper, as the futjeéts of Antiquities and 
Painting are of too much iapertance 
among the Italians, to be comprifed with- 
in a narrow compafs. The prefent in- 
terefting fituation of Italian politics can- 
not fail, J conceive, to add fomething to 
the intereft of an article relating to the 
mental ftate of that country. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
The rich libraries of Italy furnifh a 
ftock of inexhauftible materials for Bib- 
liography. The Catalogus Codicum Se- 
culo XV, imprefforvum, in Bibliotheca Mag- 
Lrabecchiana, has been \ately completed, 
by the publication of the third volume, 
at Florence, by CAMBIGIANA, under 
the aufpices of the librarian Fossi.— 
Some part alfo of the riches of the im- 
menfe colleétion of the Vatican, have 
been lately communicated to_the public. 
The great care and diligence which 
SPALETTI bdeftowed, in tranferibing, 
with minute exaétnefs, the famous ma- 
nufcript of Greek Anthclogy, removed 
from the library of Heidelberg to that 
of the Vatican, are well known tothe 
learned. The canon UnpgeN has jut 
made a purchafe of that copy, of the 
heirs of that learned abbé, on account of 
the duke of SAxE GoTHa. 
M. ADELUNG, nephew to the per- 
fon of that name at Drefden, has alfo 
obtained permitlion, by favour of cardi- 
nal ZELADA, to take copies of a great 
number of manufcripts, which may tend 
to throw Jight on-ancient philofophy and 
German poetry. The firft volume of 
this Collection will {peedily make its ap- 
pearance. 
TOPOGRAPHY. 
Among the fubjeéts cultivated with 
the greateft fuccefs in Italy, may be 
Yeckoned the defcriptions of particular 
cities, families, foundations, and every 
fpecies of topography. Tothe Defcrip- 
tions of the Pontine Marthes, already 
publifhed, of which the number is con- 
fiderable, the abbéT esta has lately add- 
ed another, entitled, Leitere Pontine, 
fat Rome, by Salvioni, in 8vo. 1794). In 
thefe letters, which are eight in number, 
Prefent State of Literature in Italy. 
[ March, 
the author oppofes the nition, that the 
marfhes were produced by volcznic 
caufes, and demonftrates, in contradic- 
tion to Frisr, that the deficcation of 
them was awork undertaken by Cethe- 
gus, who made fome progrefs in the 
fame. He alfo advances feveral new ar- 
guments in fupport of a conjeéture, 
which he former!y hazarded, that Terra- 
cina is the city of Lamus, where Ulyfles 
landed. A writer, named MaGALor- 
TI, in a late werk, has attempted to 
prove, that Terni was not a colony, bur 
a municipal town of the Romans (at 
\Fuligno, by Tomaffini, in 4to. 1795). 
ANGELO Fasronthas publithed, at 
Pifa, the third volume of the learned 
hiftory of the academy of that ‘city, 
Eiforia Accdemie Pifane (by Mugnani, 
699 pages, in 4to. 1795).—And laftly, 
the family of Sforza have at length met 
with an hiftoiiographer, in the abbé 
Ratti (Deila Familia Sforza, at Rome, 
by ee 2 vols. 4to. 1794 and 1795). 
The firft volume gives the hiftory of the 
men, and the fecond, that of the women 
of the family. The counts De SANTA 
Frora are at prefent the fole defcend- 
ants of the Sforzas of. Lombardy, for- 
merly fo renowned and flourifhing. 
BIOGRAPHY. 
A work has been publithed at Flcrence, 
by the Chevalier BALDELLI, intitled, 
Elogio di N. Macchiavelli (116 pages, in 
8vo. 1795). The free and impartial me- 
thod of judging affumed by this writer, 
although it cannot fail to infpire his read- 
ers with a good opinion ef his under- 
ftanding, has drawn upon him a multt- 
tude of adverfaries. There has alfo ap- 
peared, a Mita di L. Anneo Seneca, lib. iv. 
di Carl de’ Rofmini, Acad. Florent. (at 
Roveredo, by Marchefani, 358 pages, in 
8vo.1795)- This is an ordinary pro- 
duétion, interlarded diffufely with paf- 
fages from Seneca, and void of genuine 
criticiim. The author has not even pe- 
rufed the Efar de Diderot, which handles 
the fame fubjeét. 
NOVELS. 
Count AnrHony Marre Borro- 
MEO, a gentleman of Padua, publithed 
(at Borrano, in 8vo. 1794) an Alphabeti- 
cal Notice of Italian Novelifts, in which 
the topographical execution, and the 
judgment and tafte of the compiler, ap- 
pear to greatadvantage. ‘The particular 
merits of each novel: are characterifed, 
and the beit editions indicated. Eight 
novels, hitherto unpublifhed, terminate 
the work. 
At the end of the work is fubjoined, 
5 a fup~ 
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