On the meeting of the houses of parliament, the ministry of Ratazzi had to sustain a formidable attack front the liberal members, Who demanded the impeachment of time premier and his colleagues. Ratazzi, finding himself unsupported by any section of the house, after an unavailing defense, resigned his portfolio on Dec. 10, and was succeeded in office by signor Farini At the Close of the German-Italian war (see GERMANY), Venetia, on Oct.. 3. 1866. became part of the kingdom of Italy by treaty with Austria. Turin, the chief town of Piedmont, was the capital from 1859 till 1865; the court was transferred to Florence during the latter year. In 1867 the French army began to be withdrawn from Rome, and the national aspiration to have the Eternal City as capital of the kingdom of Italy seemed now near its realization. Some of the French troops remained at Rome until the urgent necessities of the Franco-Prussian war compelled the emperor Napoleon to withdraw them. The last detachment left the pontifical territory on Aug. 8, 1870; and on the 20th of the following month, the Italian troops, under gen. Cadrona, entered Rome after a short resistance by the pontifical troops, who ceased firing at the request of the pope. On Oct. 2, 1870, the kingdom of Italy assumed the last of its extensive limits, when the whole of the papal states were absorbed by it, and Rome was its recognized capital; and thus were realized the aspirations of many generations, the dreams of Mazzini, and the policy of count Cavour.—The last seven years of Victor's reign were uneventful, but were marked by the further consolidation and progress of the kingdom; and after his death (in Jan.. 1878) his policy was maintained by his son Humbert. See Sismondi, Macchiavelli, Guieciardini, Denina, Botta, Balbo, and other historians.
Italian Language and Italian language, the most musical of all the tongues of Europe, is descended from the Latin, and there have been various opinions as Co the way in which the transition took place. In the view, however, of the scientific students of language, there is nothing special in the case; the changes are sufficiently accounted for by that tendency to phonetic decay or corruption which is always at work in a living tongue, and which is especially active in a chaotic and transition state of society like that of Italy at the downfall of the Roman empire. The already cor rupt dialects of the uneducated become predominant, and being released from the fixing influence of a written literature, depart more and more from the grammatical standard; and in the case of Italy, the barbarian intruders would, to a still greater degree, mutilate the Latin, and introduce multitudes of wards from the northern tongues. For sonic centuries this corrupting process went on, in the course of which the Latin gradually divested itself of its original classical peculiarities and degenerated into the impure or vulgar form known as the Iloman a rustica, or lingua Romanza, which became the prevailing language of the various races of south-western Europe, and received from each some of the most salient characteristics of their own native dialects.
This "rustic Latin" may be termed the direct offspring of Latin, and the parent of Italian; in the compositions of the Provencal poets, we find one form of it elevated to the rank of a polished, or illustre, written language as early as the 10th c., while the form which prevailed in Italy continued as late as the 12th c., an uncouth and vulgar dialect, contemptuously excluded from all learned composition. In the Sicilian
court of the Hohenstaufen emperor, Frederick II., the Italian dialect was first rescued from this state of degradation; adopted by this monarch as the choice language of his court, it became the medium of his own and his son's literary and poetic creations, while his learned friend and secretary, Pier delle Vigne, may be termed the earliest Italian poet; his odes and canzoues, composed a hundred years before Dante, are written in wonderfully pure Italian. The university of Naples, and several of the Sicilian schools, were founded by Frederick, whose cultivated and enlightened court became the center of the letters and learning of Italy, and the abode of the best intel lects of the time. Here, Italian reached a considerable degree of refinement and correct ness, and received the name of the antic (court) or of the Sicilian language.
Poets have in all ages been the elevators and guardians of language; and we find Italian in the 12th and 13th centuries honorably employed by the poets of the age. especially by those of Tuscany, whose own oral dialect soon took precedence over all the others in polished expression and grammatical accuracy. The chief Italian poets of this age are Guido Guincelli, Guido Ghisilieri, Fabrizip and Guesto of Bologna, Guido Lapo of Mantua; and the Tuscan poets, Guittonc d'Arczzo, Bonagiunta da Lucca, and Brunette Lahti Fiorentino, the illustrious preceptor of Dante. Fra Guit tone, a member of the order of the Cavalicri Gaudenti, has left several compositions of merit, including sonnets and odes, but his most interesting literary legacy consists of 40 letters in prose, which are regarded as a valuable specimen of early Italian, being the most ancient epistolary composition in the language. The writings of these early poets possess more linguistic than poetic interest, and are to he found in various collec tions, chiefly in the Rime Antiche (1518), the Poeti Antick.i by Alacci (1661), and the modern work of Rannucci, Jfanuele della Letteratura del Primo Seca° (Florence, 1837. 3 vols.). Brunetto Latini (1260), the preceptor of Dante, was reputed "a man of great sense and science." His work, Il Tesoro, is a marvel of heterogeneous knowledge. Il 7esorettn is a curious compendium of moral precepts, and It Patafflo a still more curious production, the obscene levity of which earned for him a place in the Inferno of his pupil. Guido Cavaleanti, the cherished friend of Dante, was inure of a philosopher than a poet. Italian also began to be now adopted as the vehicle of learned and scien tific prose. The historical chronicles of Matted Spinola, a Neapolitan, are the oldest specimen of Italian prose literature (1247-68); but the Florentine Malespini (died about 1280) is the first historical writer whose style is elevated and polished. In short, con temporary with the appearance of Dante (q.v.), the Italian dialect was rapidly super ceding Latin in grave prose composition, as well as in poetry, and soon became the recognized oral and written polite language of thy entire country, while various local dialects were use amongst the illiterate classes of the people. It has been finely observed that Dante found the Italian language in its cradle, and exalted it to a throne; the Diana Cominedia imprinted on the Italian tongue a grave and majestic character, which at, once qualified it to rank with the languages of Greece and Home. The impetus imparted by Dante to the language and intellectual life of his country has continued to the present day.