XVI. CHAP. botti have been most commended, (a) and of these his verses entitled Julia are incomparably the best.(b) Besides the writings of Accolti which have been published, he left a poem in manuscript, entitled The liberality of Leo X. which an eminent critic asserts was written in a fine style and full of matter.(c) Of his style a very sufficient specimen remains, but we may be allowed to regret the loss of those A. D. 1518 A. Pont. VI. A. Et. 43. (a) "Tra quelli Strambolli dello Accolti, ve ne sono "molti acutissimi, e sull' andare de' buoni Epigrammi de' "Greci e de' Latini." Redi, Annotaz. al suo Ditirambo di Bacco in Tosc. p. 87. Ed. Fir. 1685, 4°. } (b) The works of Accolti were first printed at Florence A stanza di Alessandro di Francesco Rossegli adi vi. di Agosto, 1513. 8°. Again at Florence in 1514. 12°. at Venice in 1515, at Florence in 1518, and at Venice in 1519, by Nicolo Zopino é Vincentio Compagna, with the following title: "OPERA NOVA del preclarissmo Messer Bernardo Ac"colli, Aretino, Scriptore Apostolico, & Abbreviatore. "Zoe, Soneti, Gapitoli, Strambotti, & una Commedia "con dui capitoli, uno in laude dela Madonna, l'altro "de la Fede. In the title page of this edition is the figure of Accolti in meditation. (c)" Opera di stile dolce, e piena di sustanza.” Dolce, trattato secondo di sua Libreria. ap. Mazzuch. Scrittori d'Ital. i, 68. those anecdotes which the poem of Accolti would have transmitted to us respecting Leo X. and which would, in all probability, have done so much honour to his memory. 66 The person, however, to whom the Italian critics have unanimously attributed the praise of having, both by his precept and example, revived a true taste in Tuscan literature, was a native of Venice, the illustrious Pietro Bembo. "It was he who opened a new Augustan Bembo. age, who emulated Cicero and Virgil with equal success, and recalled in his writings. "the elegance and purity of Petrarca and of "Boccaccio."(a) The early part of the life of Bembo had been divided between amusement and study; but neither the circumstances of his family nor his own exertions had enabled him to provide for his support, in a manner equal to his rank or his habits of life. His appointment by Leo X. to the important office of pontifical secretary, not only gave him (a) "A lui devono la poesia, come la lingua nostra il lor "pregio più bello; avendo egli aperto il secolo nuovo. "d'Augusto; emulato Virgilio e Cicerone; risuscitato PeCC trarca e Boccaccio nell' eleganza e purità del suo scrivere, senza cui non si scrive all' immortalità." Bettinelli, del risorgimento d'Italia negli Studii, &c. ii. 105. CHAP. A. D. 1518. A. Et. 43. A. Pont. VI. XVI.. CHAP. him a fixed residence, but enabled him by its emoluments to secure a respectable competency; his salary of one thousand crowns having been increased by the grant of ecclesiastical revenues to the annual amount of three thousand.(a) The society which Bembo met with at Rome was highly congenial to his taste; and he appears from his letters to have enjoyed it with no common relish. Amongst his most intimate friends and associates we find the cardinals da Bibbiena and Giulio de' Medici, the poets Tebaldeo and Accolti, the inimitable artist Raffaelle d' Urbino and the accomplished nobleman Baldassare Castiglione.(b) The high reputation which Bembo enjoyed throughout all Italy induced the pontiff to employ him. occasionally in important embassies; but Bembo was designed by nature rather for an elegant writer than a skilful negotiator, and his missions were seldom crowned with success. In A. D. 1518. A. Pont. VI. A. Et. 43. (a) Mazzuch. Scrittori d'Ital. art. P. Bembo. iv. 739. (b) One of the letters of Bembo written to the cardinal da Bibbiena, whilst he was detained by indisposition at Rubiera on his embassy to the emperor; and in which se veral of his illustrious associates are enumerated, in such a manner as to shew the friendly intimacy that subsisted between them, is given in the Appendix, No. CLXI. In the execution of his office as pontifical secretary, he is however entitled to great commendation, and the letters written by him and his associate Sadoleti, first demonstrated that the purity of the Latin idiom was not incompatible with the forms of business and the transaction of public affairs. A short time before the death of Leo X. Bembo had retired from Rome, on account, as has been generally supposed, of the infirm state of his health; but there is reason to conclude that although this was the pretext, he had some cause of dissatisfaction with the pontiff and that he left it with a resolution never more to return.(a) Being now released from the cares of business, he chose as his residence the city of Padua. He had already selected as the partner of his leisure a young woman named Morosina, whom he frequently mentions in his letters, and who continued to reside with him until the time of her death in the year 1535; a period VOL. III. T (a)" Sallo Iddio, che io da Roma mi dipartì, et da "Papa Leone, in vista chiedendogli licenzia per alcun brieve "tempo per cagion di risanare in queste contrade, ma in "effetto per non vi ritornar più, et per vivere a me quello 66 o poco o molto che di vita "gli altri più che a me stesso." Pontefici, &c. lib. v. ep. i. mi restava, e non à tutti CHAP. A. D. 1518. A. Et. 43. XVI. CHAP. riod of nearly twenty-two years. By her he had two sons and a daughter, to whose education he paid particular attention.(a) The revenues which he derived from his ecclesiastical preferments, now enabled him to enjoy the liberty of a private life, devoted to his own studies A. D. 1518. A. Pont. VI. A. Et. 43. (a) Lucilio, one of his sons, died young in 1531. Torquato, who was admitted into the church and became a canon of Padua, distinguished himself by his literary acquirements. Helena was married in 1543, to Pietro Gradenigo a noble Venetian. Mazzuch. Scrittori d'Ilal. iv. 741. Agostino Beazzano has celebrated her accomplishments in one of his sonnets beginning, "Helena, del gran Bembo altero pegno." Morosina is said to have been buried in one of the churches of Padua, with the following inscription; Hic jacet Morosina, Petri Bembi Concubina. But Mazzuchelli has shewn that this epitaph is fictitious. She was in fact interred in the church of S. Bartolommeo at Padua ; over her sepulchre is inscribed Morosina, Torquati Bembi Matri. Bembo is said to have regarded her as a legitimate wife. That he loved her with a sincere and constant affection is apparent from the grief which he suffered on her loss; on which occasion eleven of his sonnets remain which have more pathos than any of his writings. v. et Bemb. Ep. Fam. lib. vi. Ep. 66, 67. Lellere volgari, vol. ii. lib. ii. Ep. 14. |