DELLA CRUSCANS, THE, a group of insignificant versi fiers, the leaders of which were R. Merry (actually a member of the Florentine academy della Crusca—see ACADEMIES) and Han nah Cowley. Their first production was a Florentine Miscellany to which Mrs. Piozzi contributed. Returning to England in 1787 Merry began to publish verses in The World, and the col lected poems of the group appeared in The British Album (1789, four editions). In 1791 William Gifford fell upon them in The Baviad, giving in his footnotes quotations which amply justify the severity of his satire. He renewed the attack in The Maeviad and there are references to the Della Cruscans in T. J. Mathias's Pursuits of Literature (1794-97). The Della Cruscan manner, beyond furnishing a name for a particular kind of fan tastic and insipid verse had no consequences for literature.