1802. ] 
the fcene, by pouring on the ftream below 
a flood of filver light, which dances, 
mingled with the red flames reflected from 
the burning coke. 
13¢6.—After breakfafting with Mr.—, 
by whofe kindnefs we obtain a very in- 
telligent guide, we go through all the 
works, obferve the various procefles of 
fmelting, cafting, and hammering, the 
iron dug on the fpot; fee the inclined 
planes and rail-ways, by which the lime 
and coal (alfo found in the neighbour- 
hood) are tranfported ; and examine a huge 
fieam-engine, by means of which the va- 
rious wheels are fupplied with water. In 
the evening we wander in fome beautiful 
woods on the hill, through which an ex- 
cellent path, with benches and fummer- 
houfes, has been made, for the public ufe, 
by the difinterefted munificence of Mr. 
Reynolds. : 
141h,— Leaving Coalbrook Dale early in 
the morning, we put ourfelves into the 
mail-coach at Shifnal, whirl rapidly pat 
Wolverhampton, with its coal-pits and 
forges, glance through the little London 
of Birmingham, greet in hafte the claffic 
fhades of Stratford, rumble, between fleep 
and waking, through the awful grandeur of 
Oxford, and find ourfelves feated at breakfaftt 
in the center of London: I quickly efcape 
from its {moke and noife, and rejoice to 
find myfelf once more fafe in my little 
quiet home. 
—T eer 
‘For the Monthly Magazine. 
Of the sourcE, whence DANTE is fup- 
pofed to have drawn the suBJecT, Gc. 
of his DIVINA COMMEDIA. 
} a pamphlet, intitled Dz uz’ antico 
Tefto a Penna cella Divina Commedia 
di Dante, con alcune Annotazioni, &c. Let- 
tera di Euftaxio Dicearcheo, which was 
pubiifhed laft winter at Rome, the author, 
Padre Coftanzi, fuperior of the Monaftery 
of St. Califto, gives an account of a ma- 
nufcript copy of the Pcem of Dante, in 
the library of the Monaftery of Monte 
Cafino, which is valuable on account of 
its antiquity, and the various readings it 
contains. But what renders it ftiJl more 
important, isthe commentary accompany- 
ing the text, as it throws light on many 
doubtful and obfcure pafflages. P. Cof- 
tanzi has carefully collated this manu- 
f{cript with the excellent Roman edition 
of Dante, in three volumes, quarto, 1791, 
by P. Lombardi, which is the fruit of 
eighteen years’ ftudy, and was printed at 
the expence of Angelucci, who afterwards 
teok fo ative a part during the continu- 
Source of Danie’s Commedia 
307 
ance of the Roman Republic. In the 
courfe of this comparifon, P. Coftanzi has 
frequently had occafion to praife the aili- 
gence and acumen of Lombardi, many of 
whole happy conjeftural emendations are 
confirmed by this manufcript. The Com- 
mentary appears to have been written be- 
fore the year 1368, and is confequently as 
old as, if not older than, any of the [l- 
Juftrations of Dante, as, for inftance, that 
of Benvenuto of Imola. The form of 
the letters, and the orthography prove the 
manufcript to be nearly of the fame age. 
P, Coftanzi has colleted not ‘only all the 
moft important various readings, but like- 
wife fuch paflages from the Conimentary 
as contributed moft towards ill-rating 
the poet, chiefly containing hiftorical an- 
ecdotes of the perfons mentioned by 
Dante, and of the cuffloms, &c. of the age 
he lived in. 
But what renders this publication mof 
interefting to the lovers of Italian litera- 
ture, 1s the author’s inquiry relative to 
the fource whence Dante derived the plan 
and ‘part of the materials of his work. 
Notwithftanding the great number of com- 
mentators who have written on the Dz- 
wna Commedia, no fatisfattory anfwer had 
been given to the queftion, whence the 
firft idea of the poem was taken. Mott 
of them were {atisfied with the sint Dante 
has himfelf given in the poem, by chufing 
Virgil for his mafter and guide; from 
whofe Journey to Tartarus he has un- 
doubtedly adopted fome traits. Still, 
however, no one would, on that account, 
attempt to deny him the honour of being 
the original inventor of the fudje&t of his 
poem. From his Heathen guide Dante 
could borrow but little; for his Journey 
comprehends the three kingdoms of ex- 
iftence after death, according to the dot- 
trines of the Church of Rome, and the 
poet performs his journey in the chara&ter 
ofa Roman Catholic Chriftian. Bottari 
was the firit who took notice of a work, 
which is ucdoubtedly older, more than a 
century older, than Dante’s, and in which 
Dante may have found the three principal 
parts into which his poem is divided. The 
work we allude te is the Vifen of Alberico, 
by a boy, nine years of age, and afterwards 
a Monk in the Monafcry of Monte Cafi- 
no, in the library of which place the ori- 
ginal of it fill exifts in manutciipt. Bot- 
tari had feen a copy of it in the’ Padre 
Abate D.Conftantino Gaetani’s, collection 
of manulcripts in the library di Sapienza at 
Rome. Bottari was led to fuipedt that 
Dante had borrowéd, not only the plan of 
his Divina Commedia fron this Vifiow of 
Hier ICD, 
