nepotism: the estates of St. Peter were alienated in their favor by the liberal Celestin; 106 and Nicholas was aml tious for their sake to solicit the alliance of monarchs; to found new kingdoms in Lombardy and Tuscany; and to invest thein with the perpetual office of senators of Rome. All that has been observed of the greatness of the Colonna will likewise redound to the glory of the Ursini, their constant and equal antagonists in the long hereditary feud, which distracted above two hundred and fifty years the ecclesiastical state. The jealousy of preeminence and power was the true ground of their quarrel; but as a specious badge of distinction, the Colonna embraced the name of Ghibelines and the party of the empire; the Ursini espoused the title of Guelphs and the cause of the church. The eagle and the keys were displayed in their adverse banners; and the two factions of Italy most furiously raged when the origin and nature of the dispute were long since forgotten, 107 After the retreat of the popes to Avignon they disputed in arms the vacant republic; and the mischiefs of discord were perpetuated by the wretched compromise of electing each year two rival senators. By their private hostilities the city and country were desolated and the fluctuating balance inclined with their alternate sucBut none of either family had fallen by the sword, till the most renowned champion of the Ursini was surprised and slain by the younger Stephen Colonna.108 His triumph is stained with the reproach of violating the truce; their defeat was basely avenged by the assassination, before the church door, of an innocent boy and his two servants. cess. Bellorumque manâ grandi stipata parentum Cardineos apices necnon fastigia dudum Yet Muratori (Dissert. xlii. tom. iii.) observes, that the first Ursini pontificate of Celestine III. was unknown: he is inclined to read Ursi progenies. 108 Filii Ursi, quondam Cœlestini papæ nepotes, de bonis ecclesia Romanæ ditati, (Vit. Innocent. III. in Muratori, Script. tom. iii. P. i.) The partial prodigality of Nicholas III. is more conspicuous in Villani and Muratori. Yet the Ursini would disdain the nephews of a modern pope. 107 In his fifty-first Dissertation on the Italian Antiquities, Muratori explains the factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines. Tos Petrarch (tom. i. p. 222—230) has celebrated this victory ac cording to the Colonna; but two contemporaries, a Florentine (Gio zanni Villani, 1. x. c. 220) and a Roman, (Ludovico Monaldeschi, p. 533, 534,) are less favorable to their arms. the victorious Colonna, with an annual colleague, was de clared senator of Rome during the term of five years. And the muse of Petrarch inspired a wish, a hope, a prediction, that the generous youth, the son of his venerable hero, would restore Rome and Italy to their pristine glory; that his justice would extirpate the wolves and lions, the serpents and bears, who labored to subvert the eternal basis of the marble COLUMN. 109 109 The abbé de Sade (tom. i. Notes, p. 61-66) has applied the vith Canzone of Petrarch, Spirto Gentil, &c., to Stephen Colonna the younger: Orsi, lupi, leoni, aquile e serpi CHARACTER AND CORONATION OF PETRARCH. —- RESTORATION OF THE FREEDOM AND GOVERNMENT OF OROME BY THE TRIBUNE RIENZI. HIS VIRTUES AND VICES, HIS EXPULSION AND DEATH. RETURN OF THE POPES FROM AVIG NON. GREAT SCHISM OF THE WEST. REUNION OF THE LATIN CHURCH. LAST STRUGGLES OF ROMAN LIBERTY, STATUTES OF ROME. FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE ECCLE SIASTICAL STATE. Wooq to me suit mi totoob to telesni Queqegyiznoy nodi moseun doinweiseraltsog IN the apprehension of modern times, Petrarch as the Italian songster of Laura and love. In the harmony of his Scan rhymes, Italy applauds, or rather adores, the father her lyric poetry; and his verse, or at least his name, is repeated by the enthusiasm, or affectation, of amorous sensibility. Whatever may be the private taste of a stranger, his slight and superficial knowledge should humbly acquiesce in the judgment of a learned nation; yet I may hope or presume, that the Italians do not compare the tedious uniformity of sonnets and elegies with the sublime compositions of their epic muse, the original wildness of Dante, the regular beauties of Tasso, and the boundless variety of the incomparable Ariostoma The merits of the lover I am still less qualified to appreciate nor am I deeply interested in a metaphysical passion for a nymph so shadowy, that her existence has been questioned; for a matron so prolific,3 that she was delivered adi tuodaiw 2 1 The Mémoires sur la Vie de François Pétrarque, (Amsterdam, 1764, 1767, 3 vols. in 4to.,) form a copious, original, and entertaining work, a labor of love, composed from the accurate study of Petrarch and his contemporaries; but the hero is too often lost in the general history of the age, and the author too often languishes in the affectation of politeness and gallantry. In the preface to his first volume, he enumerates and weighs twenty Italian biographers, who have professedly treated of the same subject. 2 The allegorical interpretation prevailed in the xvth century; but the wise commentators were not agreed whether they should understand by Laura, religion, virtue, or the blessed virgin, or Bee the prefaces to the first and second volumeroibix aula gnideiloda • Laure de Noves, born abcut the year 1307, was married in January, of c.even legitimate children, while her amorous swain sighed and sung at the fountain of Vaucluse.5 But in the eyes of Petrarch, and those of his graver contemporaries, his love was a sin, and Italian verse a frivolous amusement. His Latin works of philosophy, poetry, and eloquence, established Ins serious reputation, which was soon diffused from Avignon over France and Italy: his friends and disciples were multiplied in every city; and if the ponderous volume of his writ ings be now abandoned to a long repose, our gratitude must applaud the man, who by precept and example revived the spirit and study of the Augustan age. From his earliest youth, Petrarch aspired to the poetic crown. The academical honors of the three faculties had introduced a royal degree of master or doctor in the art of poetry; and the title of poet-laureate, which custom, rather than vanity, perpetuates in the English court, was first invented by the Cæsars of 1325, t Hugues de Sade, a noble citizen of Avignon, whose jealousy was not the effect of love, since he married a second wife within seven months of her death, which happened the 6th of April, 1348, precisely one-and-twenty years after Petrarch had seen and loved her. Corpus crebris partubus exhaustum: from one of these is issued, in the tenth degree, the abbé de Sade, the fond and grateful biographer of Petrarch; and this domestic motive most probably suggested the idea of his work, and urged him to inquire into every circumstance that could affect the history and character of his grandmother, (see particularly tom. i. p. 122-133, notes, p. 7-58, tom. ii. p. 455–495, not. p. 76-82.)edi (stand] 5 el Vaucluse, so familiar to our English travellers, is described from the writings of Petrarch, and the local knowledge of his biographer, (Mémoires, tom. i. p. 340-359.) It was, in truth, the retreat of a hermit; and the moderns are much mistaken, if they place Laura and a happy lover in the grotto. bos O 1250 pages, in a close print, at Basil in the xvith century, but without the date of the year. The abbé de Sade calls aloud for a new edition of Petrarch's Latin works; but I much doubt whether it would redound to the profit of the bookseller, or the amusement of the public gozi Consult Selden's Titles of Honor, in his works, (vol. iii. p. 457466.) A hundred years before Petrarch, St. Francis received the visit of a poet, qui ab imperatore fuerat coronatus et exinde rex versuum dictus. 38 From Augustus to Louis, the muse has too often been false and venal but I much doubt whether any age or court can produce a similar establishment of a stipendiary poet, who in every reign, and at all events, is bound to furnish twice a year a measure of praise and verse, such as may be sung in the chapel, and, I believe, in the presence, of the sovereign. I speak the more freely, as the best time for abolishing this ridiculous custom is while the prince is a toan of vir Sue, and the poet a man of genius. 9 Germany. In the musical games of antiquity, a prize was bestowed on the victor: the belief that Virgil and Horace had been crowned in the Capitol inflamed the emulation of a Latin bard; 10 and the laurel was endeared to the lover by a verbal resemblance with the name of his mistress. The value of either object was enhanced by the difficulties of the pursuit; and if the virtue or prudence of Laura was inexorable,12 he enjoyed, and might boast of enjoying, the nymph of poetry. His vanity was not of the most delicate kind, since he applauds the success of his own labors; his name was popular; his friends were active; the open or secret opposi tion of envy and prejudice was surmounted by the dexterity of patient merit. In the thirty-sixth year of his age, he was solicited to accept the object of his wishes; and on the same day, in the solitude of Vaucluse, he received a similar and solemn invitation from the senate of Rome and the university of Paris. The learning of a theological school, and the ignorance of a lawless city, were alike unqualified to bestow the ideal though immortal wreath which genius may obtain from the free applause of the public and of posterity: but the candidate dismissed this troublesome reflection; and after some IWONO Isocrates (in Panegyrico, tom. i. p. 116, 117, edit. Battie, Cantab. 1729) claims for his native Athens the glory of first instituting and recommending the ἀλώνας καὶ τὰ ἄθλα μέγιστα – με μόνον τάχους και ῥώμης, ἀλλὰ καὶ λόγων καὶ γνώμης. The example of the Panathena was imitated at Delphi; but the Olympic games were ignorant of a musical crown, till it was extorted by the vain tyranny of Nero, (Sueton. in Nerone, c. 23; Philostrat. apud Casaubon ad locum; Dion Cassius, or Xiphilin, I. lxiii. p. 1032, 1041. Potter's Greek Antiquities, vol. i. p. 445, 450.) 10 The Capitoline games (certamen quinquenale, musicum, équestre, gymnicum) were instituted by Domitian (Sueton. c. 4) in the year of Christ 86, (Censorin. de Die Natali, e. 18, p. 100, edit. Havercamp.) and were not abolished in the ivth century, (Ausonius de Professoribus Burdegal. V.) If the crown were given to superior merit, the exclusion of Statius (Capitolia nostræ inficiata lyræ, Sylv. 1. iii. v. 31) may do honor to the games of the Capitol; but the Latin poets who lived before Domitian were crowned only in the public opinion. Petrarch and the senators of Rome were ignorant that the laurel was not the Capitoline, but the Delphic, crown, (Plin. Hist. Natur. xv. 39. Hist. Critique de la République des Lettres, tom. i. p. 150220.) The victors in the Capitol were crowned with a garland of oak leaves, (Martial, 1. iv. epigram 54.) 12 The pious grandson of Laura has labored, and not w without sucess, to vindicate her immaculate chastity against the censures of the grave and the sneers of the profane, (tom. ii. notes, p. 76—82.)-8382 |