What they point out as the four most celebrated pictures, are, Raphael's Transfiguration; Volterra's Descent from the Cross; Dominichino's Saint Jerome; and Andrea Sacchi's Romualdo.-F.

There are ten thousand six hundred pieces of ancient sculpture of one sort or other now in Rome; (relievos, statues, and busts.) And six thousand three hundred ancient columns of marble. What multitudes of the latter sort have been sawed up for tables, or wainscoating chapels, or mixed up with walls, and otherwise destroyed! And what multitudes may there yet lie undiscovered under ground! When we think of this altogether, it may give us some faint idea of the vast magnificence of Rome in all its glory.-F.

END OF SECTION II.

SPENCE'S ANECDOTES.

SECTION III. 1732-33.

INTEND to publish all the most select and sacred books of the Chinese, in one volume, which will not be so much as the Pentateuch. -A Latin translation of their family ritual, with a dissertation of their funerals prefixed to it.-A treatise to prove that the character Tao signifies the great God: in this I shall show; First, That their Tao is one and three. Secondly, That he created the material world. Thirdly, That he created all intelligent beings. Fourthly, That he was incarnated. Fifthly, That though he has the attributes of whatever is excellent, yet he is but one. They call him Ching Gin, or the Holy One. Besides these I shall publish" The Temple of the most Ancient Wisdom," in which I shall show that Adam was informed of the doctrines of the Trinity and Future Redemption: that this knowledge was delivered down to Moses and revived by him; that it was preserved in other mystic books, and that several of these books are still preserved in China. I also intend to republish my Chronological Table, with an

account how to manage it.*—M. Fauquet, Bishop of Eleutheropolis; then resident in the College of the Propaganda at Rome.

There are about thirty-five thousand houses in Rome; twenty-three thousand of which belong to the religious orders. The Pope can suppress any religious society if he pleases, so that all their property is in his power.-His usual way of rewarding those whom he is under obligations to, is by assigning them a pension on one of these religious societies; and as he can thus tyrannize over them, he allows them to tyrannize over their dependents in their turn.-Ficoroni.

Dante wrote before we began to be at all refined; and of course, his celebrated poem is a sort of gothic work. He is very singular, and very beautiful in his similes; and' more like Homer than any of our poets since. He was prodigiously learned for the times he lived in; and knew all that a man could then know. Homer, in his time, was unknown in Italy; and Petrarca boasts of being the first poet that had heard him explained. Indeed in Dante's time there was not above three or four people in all Italy that could read Greek: (one in particular at Viterbo, and two or three elsewhere.) But though he had never seen

* A long article of M. Fauquet's upon Chinese learning is omitted here, because better printed accounts are before the public.-Editor.

I got this list of his intended publications at the desire of M. Ramsay; and observed at the time that he was working on so many designs together, that I feared he would never finish one of them; which proved to be the case. The bishop brought out of China near four hundred of their books, but lost almost half of them before he reached Europe.-Spence,

Homer, he had conversed much with the works of Virgil. -His poem got the name of Comedia after his death. He somewhere calls Virgil's works Tragedie (or sublime poetry); and in deference to him, called his own Comedia (or low): and hence was that word used afterwards, by mistake, for the title of his poem.-Dr. Cocchi, at Florence.

Dante, Galileo, and Machiavelli, are the three greatest geniuses that Florence has ever produced.—Dr. C.

Petrarca is the best of all our lyric poets; though there are several now who are very strenuous in preferring Chiabrera to him. It has divided the wits into two parties, they are called Petrarchists, or Chiabrerists, according to the side they take. The dispute turns wholly on their lyric pieces.-Chiabrera is not so equal a writer as Petrarch: some of his odes are extremely good; and others full of false thoughts. Those which are his best are lofty, and full of fire, after the manner of the Greeks.-Petrarca's language is excellent; and reads extremely well, even though you should fling it into prose. His poetry is often fine, soft, and moving; but he is not without his false thoughts (concetti) too sometimes.-Dr. C.

Tasso followed Ariosto too much in his particular faults; so that they are a good deal alike so far: but he was more classically read, and especially in the old critics. He endeavoured also to write on a more correct plan. Sperone brags of finding out and disposing the subjects for him.Ariosto loved the classics too; and, in particular, understood Horace better than any man in his time. When he first came to Rome, Bembo, and several of the greatest wits there, were endeavouring to get to understand Horace. Ariosto joined them; and they all allowed him to have a

greater insight into that author than any of them.—“ I believe he did not understand Greek." "No, sir ;" and he owns it in a letter to Bembo.-Ariosto was a vast master of poetical language; his imagination is strong, and his descriptions often extremely lively and natural. He wrote his Orlando to divert himself: and did not care whether he was correct or no. The great Galileo used to compare that poem to a melon field: "You may meet with a very good thing here and there in it (says he), but the whole is of very little value.”—Dr. C.

Ariosto, Boiardo, and Berni, have written all on the same subject, the siege of Paris; and took it from an old prose romance called I Reali di Francia: as the ancients used to write in droves, on the siege of Thebes, or the siege of Troy. Dr. C.

[In speaking of their Latin poets, he mentioned Vida, Sannazaro, and Fracastorio; but went no farther.-Spence.]

Folengo's Poem is written in mixed language: Latin, with several of the words Italianized; as the Fidenzian† is Italian Latinized. Macaronic Poetry is the general name for both of them; or any other such confused ridiculous stuff.Dr. C.

* This is at variance with the accounts given by the biographers of Ariosto, who represent him as very solicitous about the correctness of his poem; indeed the alterations and corrections which he made in each subsequent impression during his life afford sufficient proof of it. He was engaged in revising it for a new edition at the time of his death.-It is in one of his Satires, addressed to Bembo, that he laments having lost the opportunity of learning Greek from Gregoris of Spoleto, his preceptor.-Editor.

The Italians sometimes call this lingua pedantesca. I believe the name above mentioned is taken from that of Fidenzio Glottochrysio; the sobriquet of the first inventor of it.-Editor.