JACOPO PASSAVANTI, a Dominican. Friar, wrote a devotional book, entitled, _Lo Specchio della Penitenza,_ written in prose so musical and flowing as to be preferred by some to the prose of Boccaccio, because Passavanti never indulges in the over-elaboration sometimes to be detected in the pages of the _Decamerone._ GIOVANNI DA CATIGNANO known in the Calendar as the Blessed John of the Cells, after a dissolute youth was converted by the ardent exhortations of the Abbot of Vallombrosa, and in deep contrition ended his days as a hermit. Some letters from this interesting penitent are extant, written in a style so exquisitely Tuscan that they are quoted by the Accademia della Crusca as models of propriety and elegance. Another canonized celebrity, SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA, is no less remarkable for the beauty of her style than for the beauty of her character. A Life of Saint Francis of Assisi, entitled _Fioretti di San Francesco,_ has been highly praised for the freshness and simplicity of the language. The piety or the modesty of the author induced him to conceal his identity. These religious writers, though treating of subjects so different, almost equalled Boccaccio in perfection of style, but the two authors who produced collections of stories somewhat similar to his, FRANCO SACCHETTI and SER GIOVANNI FIORENTINO, were very far indeed from approaching his mastery. On reviewing the literary development of Italy in the Fourteenth Century, we find that the language attained the fullest perfection both in prose and verse, only the lighter kinds of poetry remaining uncultivated. The appearance in one century of two such great poets as Dante and Petrarch was quite phenomenal and threw a lustre over the age which has attracted the whole world. But another fact, less universally known, is equally worthy of attention, namely the extraordinary merit of the prose writers of the period. It may well be doubted whether any compositions in Italian prose of a later date exhibit the rare qualities of those of the Fourteenth Century. Leopardi, indeed, produced marvels of style, but they were the result of art and study, whereas the writers of the Fourteenth Century display an ease and a simplicity, a freshness and a graphic power, combined with the most exquisite lightness and harmony in their phrases, that must ever render them more admirable models than the artificial and laborious productions of later ages. [Footnote 1: For details on the subject of this most terrible pestilence, probably the worst that ever afflicted humanity, we may refer the reader to Father Gasquet's valuable and interesting work on the subject.] CHAPTER V. WRITERS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.