A manual of Italian literatureCliffe, Francis Henry
History
A manual of Italian literature
Cliffe, Francis Henry
Italian literature -- History and criticism
Another writer, less orthodox, but more celebrated, was GIORDANO
BRUNO. His works, however, although published on the threshold of the
Seventeenth Century, were conceived and written in the Sixteenth. He
was burnt alive for his heresies in the year 1601. For some years
he took refuge in England, and it would have been well for his
prosperity had he stayed there. In these days of greater latitude of
speculation, there appears to be little in his works to bring down
upon him so terrible a penalty, but the provocation hardly given by
the works, seems to have been afforded by the author. He was irritable
and vainglorious, and he knew neither prudence nor discretion. His
great treatise, _Della Causa, Principio ed Uno,_ is an exposition of
Pantheism, but his vague reveries have little foundation in science to
recommend them. He also wrote a Comedy, rather more indelicate than
should emanate from the pen of a philosopher.
CAMPANELLA, a somewhat kindred spirit, though without the latent
Atheism of Giordano Bruno, was a Dominican Friar, a native of Cosenza.
He was suspected of disaffection, perhaps of heresy, and was cooped
up for twenty-seven years in a narrow dungeon. He beguiled his weary
captivity by writing long philosophical works. They are, however, all
in Latin,[1] and therefore do not come within the scope of this volume.
I mention them as a sign of the revival of the long dormant spirit
of science and speculation. Campanella wrote in defence of Galileo's
theory of the rotation of the earth round the sun. Campanella obtained
his liberty in 1629 and retired to France, where he met with some
kindness from Cardinal Richelieu.
The first Edition of the celebrated _Dictionary of the Accademia della
Crusca_ was published in 1613. It is curious that with the universal
attention it aroused, it did not raise the standard of taste and
scholarship, for truth to tell, the average run of inferior writers
produced works incredibly bad.
There was a dearth of really good writers of stories in prose in the
Seventeenth Century. The _Stories_ of CELIO MALASPINI are racy and
amusing, and give a graphic idea of the manners and customs of the
early part of the Century, but they are often indelicate and have
few graces of style to recommend them. TRAJANO BOCCALINI wrote some
vivacious political and literary squibs which had a wide circulation in
an age long before the introduction of newspapers, where alone writings
on such ephemeral topics now appear.
Florence could boast of a select band of philosophers, MAGALOTTI,
VIVIANI, REDI and DATI, but their influence does not seem to have
extended beyond Tuscany. AUTON MARIA SALVINI was a laborious grammarian
and one of the chief compilers of the Dictionary above named.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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