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304 Improvements in Mufical Inftruments.—-Morganie Maggiore. {May 1, ) 
lated ; fo are almoft all thofe of Ziegler 
and Hegemann. Kotzebue’s comedies are 
the more fuccefsful, as the refemblance of 
the two languages permits the humourous 
fallies of that author to be preferved. 
I cannot deny myfelf the pleafure of 
mentioning a very remarkable Dutch poet 
who is fill living. His poetic and dra- 
matic fervour was not excited till an age 
in which the fire of others has been Jong 
extinguifhed, At eighty-one, M, Straal- 
man, formerly a burgomafter of Amfter- 
dam, tranflated into verfe the Orettes of 
Voltaire, which was acted at Amfterdam 
in 1803. 
tors caufed the audience to forget that the 
poet no longer poffefled the ardour of ear- 
ly youth, and that his verfes were fre- 
quently deficient in correétnefs and ener- 
gy. The old man, whofe enthufiafm 
made him young again, liberally reward- 
ed the aétors. The manner in which he 
employs the leifure moments ef the even- 
ing of life cannot but be commended, and 
in this inftance any criticif{m would be be- 
neath criticifm. 
re 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
7 the laft Number of your valuable 
Magazine, (for January,) I found 
among the lift of patents one of Mr. 
Hawkins’s, concerning feveral inventions 
applicable to mufical mftruments. After 
enumerating feveral of them, of the me- 
rits of which I do not pretend to judge, 
he fays: ‘* Laftly, a piece of machinery, 
werked with a pedal, is to be attached to 
a flant, on which a mufic-book is placed, 
to turn over the leaves at pleafure, while 
the hands are otherwife employed.” I 
think it my duty to undeceive the paten- 
‘tee, if he thinks that he is the firft inventor 
of fuch a piece of mechanifm. Being a 
lover of mechanical inventions, (though 
I do not follow any trade or bufinefs what- 
foever,) I invented fuch a machine in the 
year 1799, and further improved it in 
the year 18923 fince which time I have 
had it continually in ufe, and can turn 
my leaves fucceflively, not only forwards, 
but alfo backwards, when it is neceflary 
to repeat the firft part of a mufical piece. 
If Mr. Hawkins wifhes it, he may fee 
fuch a machine at Mr. Broadwood’s and 
Son, in Great Pulteney-ftreet, though 
not with the latter improvement, He 
may there alfo fee the patent, which by 
the defire of Mr. john Broadwood and 
Son I have taken out forthem. There- 
fore if Mr. H.’s invention is not miateri- 
The united efforts of the ac- - 
ally different and fuperior, he cannot pre- 
vent others from making and felling them, 
though Mr. Broadwood and Son them- 
felves fhould not be inclined to make ufe 
of the patent. Iam, Sir, &c. : 
Fulneck, near Leeds, JOHN ANTES. 
February 22, 1806. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ACCOUNT of the MORGANTE of LUIGE 
PULCI. 
N the Life of Luigi Pulci prefixed toa 
pocket-edition of his Morgante pub- 
lifned at London in the year 1768, I find 
that he was of a noble family in Florence, 
which city gave him birth in 1432. He 
had two brothers, Bernardo and Luca, 
both celebrated poets in their age; the 
former being particularly noted as one of 
the earlieft writers of pattorals, the latter 
as the firft compofer of poetical epiftles in 
the Ftalian language. 
author of * Il Ciriffo Calvaneo,”” a poem 
quoted for the purity of its language in 
the ** Vocabolario della Crufca,”” and of 
a complimentary poem on Lorenzo de* 
Medicis, intitled ** La Gioftra del Mag- 
nifico Lorenzo ;” fo that Verino, in his 
book ‘* De Tiluftratione Urbis Florenti- 
nz,’’ alluding to this remarkable affinity - 
of talent, fays, 
Carminibus patriis notiffima Pulcia Proles. 
Quis non hanc Urbem Mufarum dicat ami- 
cam , 
Si tres producat fratres domus una poetas ? 
Other branches of the family'might — 
have boafted a participation with ‘ the 
three brothers’’ in the favours of the god 
of verfe. Antonia, the wife of Bernar- 
de, caught the infpiration, and her reli- 
gious poems were long held in high, and 
perhaps deferved eftimation. 
But the glory of the name of Pulei 
was carried off by Luigi, the author of 
the ** Morgante Maggiore,” a glory 
which ts bounded, in the opinion of mot 
writers of the prefent day, to that ** re- 
flected honour” of having prefented Boy- 
ardo and Ariofto with a model for their 
more celebrated poems. 
Whether this opinion was or was not 
founded in jultice, it is my intention to con- 
fider at large in the following eflay. The 
pcem itfelf mufl be examined for that pur- 
pole ; and your readers may be the more 
difpofed to enter on this tafk by reflecting; 
that with regard to the Italian poets, pers 
haps more than thofe of any other nations 
fafhion and prejudice have ufurped the 
place of inveftigation, and the cenfures 
of cold-blooded critics have beén blindly — 
adopied and followed, without thoughts 
Luca was alfo the ~ 
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