and Vignola. Pope Leo X. and his successors vied with the other sovereigns of Italy in their munificent patronage of those men of genius, who, under the title of Cinquecentisti, are considered models of pure and noble Italian composition. The Orlando Pftrio• of Ariosto, held to be the first genuine epic of chivalry and romance, celebrates the deeds of the legendary ancestors of the house of Este. It exercised immense influence, even amongst the most illiterate classes, by whom its choicest beauties were committed to memory, iu order to be sung as the solace of labor in the field or city. The next great work of the century was La Gerusaleinme Litcraht, by Torquato Tasso w hose father was also an excellent poet and scholar. Tasso's prose writings and epis_es are noble in style, and grave and philosophical in matter 1 heir best imitators are L'Alamanni, B Grua Corkse and E./Imre/tide; Eneellai; and Ernsmo da Valvasone, in his La Caccia and HAngeleida (or The Wars of the Angels), from which probably borrowed some valuable hints (1393). Giangiorgio Trissino wrote the first notable; talian drama, Sofonisba. Besides this, the Tullia of Ludovico the Ot7a7e. of Sperone Speroni (15)O-88), the Torrismondo of Tasso, and the Edipo of Andrea dell' Acgatillara, deserve mention—the last is considered the best Italian tragedy of the time. Tr,e come dies of Bentiyoglio, Salviati, Cecchi, Firenzuola, and others, are stamp( d with that pre vailing spirit of licentiousness which disfigures many of the finest productions of the age. The popular dramatic pieces, or Cummedie dele Ade, enjoyed as high repute among the lower classes as the higher drama'did in courtly and patrician circles. Some of the chief composers of these pantomimic comedies are Flamini° Scala, Angelo Beolco,.Andrea Cohn°. The writers of pastoral dramas inundate this epoch, but none can compete with Guarini (q.v.) in his sweet idyllic work, II Pastor lido. Poetry was first combined, during this century, with music—one of the earliest operatic compositions being the Dafne of Itinuccini (died 16:31). The sonnets of :Michael Angelo excel in a certain dig nity and originality of thought. Vittoria Colonna, celebrated in the verse of Ariosto, was the most illustrious poetess of her time; which produced numerous other female writers, whose works have been collected and published by Domenichi.
Foremost among the prose-writers stands Macchlavelli; his Ark della Gnerra (Art of War), Ltorie Pi7orentine (IIistory of Florence), and political treatise, IIPrinciit (The Prince), all excel in their various styles. Giovanni Botcro, Ginnnotti, and Paulin. are also political writers of high merit. Greater than either is Francesco Guieciardini, whose History of lady has only one blemish, viz., want of brevity. The works of Bembo (q.v.). historian and poet, exhibit the Italian language subjected to a regular grammati cal system.. Literature vas historically treated by Barbieri and Doni; art, by Vesari, Campi, and Lomazzi ; and architecture, by Vignola and Palladio.
The progress of the age is equally perceptible in philosophy, which, bursting the fet• tors of scholastic formalism, displays the utmost freedom of speculation in the works of Cardin (q.v.), Bruno (q.v.), and Vanini. Many celebrated institutions or academies for the discussion and diffusion of knowledge date from the lfith c., one of the most noted being
the academy Della Crusca, founded at Florence for the preservation and perfecting of the Italian language.
The nth c., if less prolific in great literary names than its predecessor, is neverthe less the golden age of Italian science; it produced a host of illustrious discoverers in philosophy, mathematics, and physic. Such was the fame of Italian science at this period, that the universities of Florence, Naples, Pisa, and Venice were thronged with foreign students. Learned societies for the cultivation and practical demonstration of time physical sciences were opened throughout Italy (see ACADEMY). Libraries were col lected and enriched, to afford every facility to learned research. The most celebrated savants arc the world-famous Galileo (q.v.), Torricelli (q.v.), Borelli, the astronomer Cassini (q.v.), and the pupil and biographer of Galileo; Malpighi and I3ellini, anatomists and physicians. Contemporary with these, we find Ginn 1. meenzo Gravina, whose lectures on civil law attracted audiences from all Europe. In historical com position, the best known works are Sarpi's famous History of the Con no? of Trent; its equally famous refutation by Pimllavicino; The History of the Warsof the ....l'itherlonds. by Bentivoglio; and of The (lira Wars of France, by Davila (q.v.). A few of the great names of literature are Bianchi, an acute thinker on political and social science: Mimic Cucculi, author of the Aphorisms of the Art of it written with Spartan brevity of style; Barton, the Jesuit historian; and Segneri, the -Jesuit orator.
The poets of the rth c., at least Marini (q.v.) and his school, display a degenerate taste. Fondness for trivial conceits, false glitter, and artificiality. are their characteris tics; hut several of his contemporaries—Chiabrera, Guidi, Tassoni. author of the admir able mock-heroic poem, La Scechia Bapita (The Stolen Pail), Filicaja (q.v and others, have written with a grave energy of a style and a warmth of sentiment elevating to any age. The theatrical and operatic representations at the various sovereign courts were of exceeding splendor, as if in compensation for the paucity of dramatic compositions.
In the 18th C. a vigorous revival of poetry and letters took place. Giannone, in history; Capasso, in literature; Cirillo, in physic; Mazzoeld, in archceology; 11 Genovesi, in political the brothers Galiani, in their respective sciences of architecture, political economy, and philology; Filangieri (q.v.) and Beccaria (q.v.) in the philosophy of jurisprudence; Mario Pagano, in the science of civil law; Poll Volta (1745-1826), Galvani (1737-98), Scarpa (1748-1832), and Spallanzani (17'2949), in physi cal science; Maffei and Calsabigi, in poetry, are some of the names by which this period was ennobled. The 18th c. can also boast of the greatest dames in Italian dramatic literature, Metastasio (q.v.) (1698-1782), who is considered the master of the pastoral drama: flowing, sweet, and silvery, the language of his gentle muse presents a strange contrast to the brevity, sternness, and classical plainness of ltaly's greatest tragedian, Vittorio Alfieri (q.v.) (1749-1803), by whom a thorough revolution was effected in the drama of his country. A no less marked reformer of comedy is his contempory, Carlo Goldoni (q.v.) (P707-93).