192 
For tke Monthly Magazine. 
HISTORY of LITERATURE and of the 
FINE ARTS iz SICILY, from 1790 to 
1303. 
N the flourifhing times of Greece and 
Rome, Sicily held a diftinguifhed place 
in the republie of letters.’ In reflecting 
on what this ifland once was, our eyes 
furvey it with the fame fentiment of me- 
lancholy and of regret which {0 painfully 
affeéts us when contemplating the ruins 
of the ancient Palmyra. But let us not 
invoke the fhades of thofe who are no 
more, and forget the former fplendor of 
this ifland, that we may confider it only 
in its prefent ftate. 
The dawn of a glorious day appeared 
in Sicily at the period when Francefco de 
Aquino, Prince of Caramanico, affumed 
the reins of government in quality of 
viceroy. The Sicilian is not accuftomed 
to confider the means adopted by the re- 
prefentatives of the fovereign, in the ex- 
ercife of their functions ; it is fufficient 
for him if they are a€tuated by the will 
to do good. Caramanico not only pof- 
feffed this happy will, but likewile all the 
‘means of executing it with fuccefs A 
young advocate, named Cazelli, accom- 
panied the Prince in 1786 to Palermo, 
where he filled the ftation of Secretary of 
State. Notwithftanding all the reproaches 
caft upon him for his conduét in that pott, 
reproaches which cannot but: have been 
extremely exaggerated, it is impoffible to 
deny, that to him were, in a great mea- 
fure, owing the revival of the arts and 
{ciences in Sicily, and their progrefs dur- 
ing the adminifiration of his patron. 
Prince Caramanico, after the example of 
his predeceflor the Marquis Caraciolo, 
made a point of conferring diflinétion on 
“men of learning, and of paying a public 
homage to {cience, by honouring with his 
favour thofe who cultivated them with 
the greateft fuccefs. His zeal was not 
confined to empty demonttrations; feveral 
chairs were vacant.at the wniverfity of 
Palermo ; thefe he not only feized the firft 
opportunity of filling, but he founded fe- 
veral new ones, among others, that of 
rural economy, fo ably sccupied by Paolo 
Palfamo, whom he fent on a tour through 
France and England. The univerfity is 
likewife indebted to him for a botanical 
garden, which coft 50,000 ducats, and 
which heeflablifhed on a {pot where once 
the Inguifiticn prepared its faggots. It 
was on his invitation that the Profeffor 
Elifeo repaired to Naples to begin a courfe 
of experimental philofophy. Laftly, after 
Hiftory of Literature, 8c. in Sicily. 
[M arch 1, 
having in vain endeavoured to induce, 
firft, M. de Lagrange, and afterwards 
Toaldo, to fettle in Sicily, he was fo for-. 
tunate as to make the molt excellent 
choice in the perfon of Piazzi, the aftro- 
_nomer, who himfelf formed the plan of 
that {plendid obfervatory of which he has 
given fuch a fatisfaétory defcription in his 
work entitled, Giufeppz Piazxzi della Spe- 
cula afironamica dei regii fiudti di Palermo, 
in two volumes folio, Palermo, 1792 
1794. I fhail fay nothing of the anato- 
mical theatre, nor of many other intereft- 
ing eftablifhments fearcely fketched out by 
this zealous protector of every thing 
great and ufeful in the arts and {ciences, 
and which, in a fhort time, would cer- 
tainly have attained to a high degree of 
perfection had not death fnatched him 
away in the midft of his laudable ex- 
ertions. 
The propagation of knowledge among 
‘the lower claffes of the people had like- 
wife-been an obje& of his attention. Se. 
conded by the worthy Giovani Agoftino 
de Cofmi in the eftablifhment. of national 
{chools, he enjoyed, before he died, .the 
fweet confolation of knowing that his la- 
bours had not been in vain. ‘The lols of 
Prince Caramanico muft ever be an objeét 
of regret te Sicily. With him expired 
the fpirit by which he was animated ; and 
after his’ death, the magnificent fabric, 
{carcely begun, crumbled intoruin. The 
herrors which at this period conyulfed all 
Europe, haftened {till more the fatal ca- 
taftrophe. rp) 
But without dwelling upon thefe caufes, 
which were owing to the misfortunes of 
the times, it will perhaps be afked why 
the clafs of men of fcience is fo fmall in 
Sicily, and why the interef which the na- 
tion in general feels for them is fo weak? 
This quefiton may be afked at Naples 
as well as at Palermo: the evil there pro- 
ceeds from the fame fource, from: the de- 
fectivenefs of the penal code, and the 
wretched organization of the judicial eftab- 
lifhment, which opening a vaft fieid for 
chicane, beget a multitude of lawyers, 
who, abufing the nobleft funétions of the 
ftate, are intent only on acquiring for- 
tunes, and gradually undermine the pubs 
lic frength. The Sicilian is born with a 
fpirit of chicane; in his eyes a lawyer is. 
amas of the higheft importance: accord- 
ingly, in the city of Palermo alone, theit 
number, including their trains of folicit- 
ors, notaries, clerks, fcribes, &c. amount 
to no lefs than four thoufand. As 
their profeffion is almoft the only road to 
te 
