[11] The copper mines, mentioned by Aristotle, are no longer open. That they were worked by the Etruscans was first proved by Raffaello Foresi, when, in 1865, he made known the discovery of various bronze objects. These were found by one of the Foresi peasants near the entrance into the ancient copper mines above Portoferraio, together with a mould for receiving the melted bronze. Finely-worked bronze ornaments were found about the same time during an investigation made at Foresi’s suggestion, associated in a sepulchral cavern with skulls of Etruscans and Ligurians. [12] “Storia dell’Isola dell’Elba.” Giuseppe Ninci. Portoferraio, 1815. [13] qui in portoferraio nel MDCCCII fu recato pargoletto vittore hugo qui nacque la sua parola che più tardi lava di fuoco sacro dovea correre le vene dei popoli e forse tre anni vissuti in quest’aura cui danno atomi il ferro ed il mare afforzando il corpo infermiccio di lui serbavano l’orgoglio dei suoi natali alla francia la gloria del suo nome al secolo all’umanita un apostolo e un genio immortale. [14] napoleon the great passing by this place in MDCCCXIV. took in the neighbouring field a ploughshare from the hands of a peasant and himself tried to plough but the oxen rebellious to those hands which yet had guided europe headlong fled from the furrow. [15] napoleon I. having conquered empires reduced kings to vassalage overcome by the snows of russia not by arms in this hermitage through him transformed into a palace dwelt from the 23 august to the 14 September 1814 and having tempered afresh his immortal genius on the 24 february 1815 hence darted forth to amaze anew the world at his daring. The municipality of marciana with grateful and reverent soul to so great a name decreed the erection of this memorial the 18 february 1863. [16] 1897. [17] The sky; formed, according to the ancient Finnic legend, by the wondrous smith Ilmarinen. In the “Song of the Sampo” he boasts that he has made it so well that “no hammer-marks remain; no pincer-marks are seen.” [18] The reader will recognise the allusion to cantos xxi. and xxiv. of Dante’s “Inferno,” of which the former describes the lake of pitch in which the barrators were tortured, and the latter the terrible valley in which the sacrilegious Vanni Fucci and his like were tormented with serpents. [19] Compare, for instance, the Italian and Latin versions of the following verse, taken from a short poem on a laurel branch which the poet, having plucked on the Appian Way, presented to a lady friend who bore the name of Daphne; and compare these again with the well-known Horatian ode “Integer Vitæ”:— “Io son, Daphne, la tua greca sorella: Che vergin bionda sul Peneo fuggia, E verdeggiai pur ieri arbore snella Per l’Appia Via. En soror, Daphne, tua quæ fugaci Jam pede ad Peneum pudibunda adibam; Appiæ et nuper virui tenella Margine laurus. Integer vitæ scelerisque purus Non eget Mauris jaculis neque arcu Nec venenatis gravida sagittis, Fusce, pharetra.”