52 
His Life was writtey in Italian, by Fabio 
Ambrosio § Spinol a, and afterwards transe 
lated into Latin by Herman Hugo, both 
jestits, and printed at Antwerp, 1630; to 
which js prefixed his engraved portrait, 
tied toa stake, surrounded by flames. 
GIANNONE. 
When this celebrated author undertook 
the great work: of writing the History of 
his native County, it was upon a plan es- 
sentially different from that of other histo- 
rians. So far from filling his book with 
descriptions only ef battles and sieges, he 
asses them over so slightly that he has 
ae censured for giving his work the ti- 
tle of General History of the 
of Naples, But those who have thus cej- 
sured him, did not reflect that his princi- 
pal object was to illustrate the civil his- 
tory of his country. Fle has consequently 
jaid most stress upon the origin of those 
Jaws and customs upon which the cousti- 
tution of Naples was founded, with judi- 
cious remarks on the rise and progress of 
literature, language, and taste, among his 
countrymen Fhis he describes, with a 
masterly hand, the nature of the Neap O-= 
litdn gov ernment, front its earliest} infancy, 
and the vicissitudes which in different 
ages have either weakened it, or added to 
its strength. But, unfortunately for Gi- 
“annone, as he advanced mw his work, his 
Strict adhereuce to truth compelled him 
to develope the means by which the popes 
laid claim to, ard finally obtained, the so- 
vereignty of Rome, and afterwards of 
Naples. _ He dispersed the clouds of ig- 
norance, and drew aside the veil of error 
which had so long obscured the under- 
standing, and misled the minds, of the 
Kingdom 
people, and which the priests were too - 
wily to remove, lest the voice of instruc- 
‘tion should rouse them at once to liberty 
and revenge. Rome trembled at the shock, 
and endeavoured, but in vain, to prevent 
the consequences it dreaded by causing 
the book to be publicly burnt and ‘ana- 
thematizing its author. He would, most 
probably, like father Paul, have fallen 
under the dagger of an assassin, had he 
not found a protector in the Emperor 
Charles VI. who took him into favour, 
and assigned him a pension. The revo- 
lution which afterwards broke out in Na- 
ples again exposed him to danger. Grate- 
fully attached to the party of the empe- 
ror, his master and benefactor, 
moved to Vienna. The vengeance of the 
papal court pursued him. » Unable to at- 
tack him openly, its emissaries tock a 
surer method to accomplish his destrac- 
tion by indisposing the mind of the em- 
he re- - 
i 
Extracis from the Port-fotho of a Man of Letters. {Aug. 1, 
peror against him. In this they succeed- 
ed, and-he was deprived of his pension. 
Our unfortunate author then fled to Ve~ 
nice, Intending to publish the whole of his. 
History there ; but, attracted by some ad- 
vantayeous offers froma bookseller of Ge=- 
neva, he removed to that city in the lat- 
ter end of the year 1736. 
But it was in that seat of civiland reli- 
gous freedom that his calumniators found 
means to triumph over him. Though he 
was steady in fulfilling all the duties of a 
Roman Catholic, and regularly attended 
the chapel of the king of France’s resi- 
dent at Geneva, his enemies at Rome, 
Vienna, and Turin, industriously circu- 
lated a report that he had become an 
apostate from his religion, His conscious 
innocence, and the public testimony of . 
the inbabitants, induced him to disregard 
these reports. But, unfortunately, he 
ontracted an acquaintance with a Pied~ 
montese ofiicer , who resided in a part of 
Savoy bordering on the lake of Geneva. 
This man under the Rive. ce of. coms 
passionating his misfurtures, advised him 
to give the lie to these unfounded ru- 
mours, by some public and open act, 
which should at once testify the sincerity 
of bis faith, and silence the malignity ‘of 
his enemies. He therefore invited him 
to his house, which being out of the ter- 
ritories of the republic, he could there 
make a veneral coniession to a Catholic 
priest and celebrate the Easter festivals 
ma Catholich church. ‘The unsuspect- 
ing Giannone, who was at ali times strictly 
pious, eagerly followed this advice, and 
accompanied ‘the officer to his house, 
where he had no sooner arrived, than he 
found himself invested by a band of men, 
hired for the purpose, who conducted 
him to Chamberry,where he was confined 
in the prison of that city. But the king 
of Sardinia, on hearing of this outrage, 
released him, and generously offered him 
an asylum in ‘his dominions, with a com- 
petent support. 
He was born in the year 1680, was 
alive in 1741, but the year of his seats 
has not been ascertained. 
LOUIS RACINE. 
The Abbé de Lille, -in the preface 
to his last publication, “ ?Homme des 
Champs,” represents Racine in a very 
amiable light. 
““ When I was yet very young (says 
the Abbé), and had already began to tran~" 
slate some books of Virgil’s Georgics, T 
paid a vert to the son of the great Ra- 
cine. His Peems on Religion, in-which 
the verse is throughout elegant andcha 
ah 
