CHAP. XVI.

THE tranquillity which Italy now enjoyed, CHA P.

supreme

XVI.

A. D. 1518.

A. Et. 43.

A. Pont. VI.

and the favour and munificence of the pontiff, at length called forth and expanded those seeds of genius, which although they had been sown by the provident hand of his father at the close of the preceding century, had, under the dark and stormy pontificates to men of of his predecessors, narrowly escaped entire talents at extirpation. From the time of the elevation

of Leo X. the city of Rome had become the general resort of men of talents and of learning from all parts of Italy; who being attracted as well by the charms of that literary society which was there to be met with, as by the well known

VOL. III.

S

Encouragement given

Rome.

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A. D. 1518

A. Ft. 43.

A. Pout. VI.

CHAP. known disposition of the pontiff to encourage and reward superior merit, either chose that place as their stationary residence, or paid it long and frequent visits. Nor was it only to the grave and the learned that Rome held forth its attractions. Whoever excelled in any art or accomplishment that could afford amusement; whoever, in short, could render himself either the cause, or the object, of mirth, was certain of receiving at Rome, and even in the pontifical palace, a hearty welcome and often a splendid reward.

Italian

poets.

In the gay tribe that exist only in the sunshine of prosperity, the poets hold a distinguished rank; but the fountain of Poetry ran at this time in two separate currents, and whilst some of them drank at the Tuscan stream, a still greater number imbibed the pure waters. from the Latian spring. In considering the state of polite letters at this period, it will be necessary to keep in view this distinction; and our first attention will therefore be turned towards those writers, who are chiefly known to the present times by their poetical productions in their native tongue.

Among those few men of distinguished talents who, after having ornamented the aca

demy

demy of Naples, had survived the desolation of their country, and whose exertions contributed to the preservation of a true taste in Italian composition, Sanazzaro must not be forgotten.(a) In the course of the preceding pages we have seen him on several occasions employing his powers in exciting his countrymen to resist their invaders, or in expressing his indignant sorrow at their subjugation. His Italian compositions seem to have been chiefly produced before the pontificate of Leo X. and it has already been remarked, that the superior applause obtained by Pietro Bembo in his Italian writings, is supposed to have induced Sanazzaro to direct his talents towards the cultivation of the Latin tongue. It may however with justice be observed, that if the Venetian excel the Neapolitan in elegance and correctness of style, yet in vigour of fancy and strength of expression, the latter has generally the advantage.(b) Nor can it be doubted, that

$ 2

CHAP.

XVI.

A. D. 1518. A. Pont. VI.

A: Et. 43.

Sanazzaro.

(a) v. Ante, chap. ii. vol. i. p. 85.

(b) of this, his seventeenth Canzone, in which he laments the obstacles that oppose his attempts to immortalize his name by his writings, may be esteemed a sufficient proof. The reader will find this poem in Mr. Mathias's elegant selection of the Poeti Lirici d' Italia, vol. i. p. 105.

CHAP. that if he had persevered in his exertions and

XVI.

A. D. 1518.

A. Et. 43.

undertaken a work deserving of his talents, he would have established are putation as an Italian A. Pont. VI. poet, which would scarcely have been excelled by that of any other writer of whom Italy can boast.(a)

Tebaldeo.

Another surviving member of the Neapolitan academy was Antonio Tebaldeo, of whose writings some specimens have also been given in the foregoing pages. He was a native of Ferrara, born in the year 1463,(b) and educat ed to the profession of medicine; in which however it is not probable that he made any great proficiency, as it appears that from his youth he had been devoted to the study of poetry and was accustomed to recite his verses to the music of his lute. A collection of his poems was published by his cousin Jacopo Tebaldeo at Modena in the year 1499; contrary,

as

(a) The Italian poems of Sanazzaro have generally been published with his Arcadia, of which there have been numerous editions: of these the most complete and correct are those by Comino, Padua, 1723. 4to. and by Remondini, · Venice, 1752. 8vo.

(b) Giornale d' Ital. iii. 374.

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A. D. 1518.

A. Et. 43.

as it has been said, to the wishes of the author, CHAP. who was sensible of their inaccuracies and defects.(a) It was probably for this reason that he turned his attention to Latin poetry, in A. Pont. VI. which he is acknowledged to have been more successful than in his Italian compositions.(b) Soon after the elevation of Leo X. Tebaldeo took up his residence in Rome, and the pontiff is said to have presented him with a purse of five hundred ducats in return for a Latin epigram in his praise.(c) A more authentic testimony of the high favour which he had obtained with the pontiff, appears in a letter yet preserved from Leo to the canons of Verona, recommending to them one Domizio Pomedelli

(a) Impresso in Modena per Dionysio Bertocho nel anno de la redemptione humana м.CCCC.LXXXXVIII. a di "XIII. de Magio. Imperante lo sapientissimo Hercule "Duca di Ferrara, Modena & Regio. in 4to." This edition is dedicated by the editor to the marquis of Mantua. The dissatisfaction of the author is alluded to by Narni, in his poem Della Morte del Danese, lib. ii. cant. iv. where he represents Tebaldeo, as,

"Mesto alquanto dell' opra sua prima."

Zeno, Note al Fontan. Bib. Ital. ii. 52.

(b) Tiraboschi, Storia del Lett. Ital. vi. ii. 154.

(c) Giornale d'Ital. iii. 376. Tirab. Storia della Lelt. Ital. vi. ii. 155.