Volume 6 Part 39 (2/2)
3. Delphini (Gentilis) Diarium Romanum, (A.D. 1370--1410,) in the Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. P. ii. p. 846.
4. Antonii (Petri) Diarium Rom., (A.D. 1404--1417,) tom. xxiv. p. 699.
5. Petroni (Pauli) Miscellanea Historica Romana, (A.D. 1433--1446,) tom.
xxiv. p. 1101.
6. Volaterrani (Jacob.) Diarium Rom., (A.D. 1472--1484,) tom. xxiii p.
81.
7. Anonymi Diarium Urbis Romae, (A.D. 1481--1492,) tom. iii. P. ii. p.
1069.
8. Infessurae (Stephani) Diarium Romanum, (A.D. 1294, or 1378--1494,) tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1109.
9. Historia Arcana Alexandri VI. sive Excerpta ex Diario Joh. Burcardi, (A.D. 1492--1503,) edita a G.o.defr. Gulielm. Leibnizio, Hanover, 697, in 14to. The large and valuable Journal of Burcard might be completed from the MSS. in different libraries of Italy and France, (M. de Foncemagne, in the Memoires de l'Acad. des Inscrip. tom. xvii. p. 597--606.)
Except the last, all these fragments and diaries are inserted in the Collections of Muratori, my guide and master in the history of Italy.
His country, and the public, are indebted to him for the following works on that subject: 1. _Rerum Italicarum Scriptores_, (A.D. 500--1500,) _quorum potissima pars nunc primum in lucem prodit_, &c., xxviii.
vols. in folio, Milan, 1723--1738, 1751. A volume of chronological and alphabetical tables is still wanting as a key to this great work, which is yet in a disorderly and defective state. 2. _Antiquitates Italiae Medii aevi_, vi. vols. in folio, Milan, 1738--1743, in lxxv. curious dissertations, on the manners, government, religion, &c., of the Italians of the darker ages, with a large supplement of charters, chronicles, &c. 3. _Dissertazioni sopra le Antiquita Italiane_, iii.
vols. in 4to., Milano, 1751, a free version by the author, which may be quoted with the same confidence as the Latin text of the Antiquities.
_Annali d' Italia_, xviii. vols. in octavo, Milan, 1753--1756, a dry, though accurate and useful, abridgment of the history of Italy, from the birth of Christ to the middle of the xviiith century. 5. _Dell'
Antichita Estense ed Italiane_, ii. vols. in folio, Modena, 1717, 1740.
In the history of this ill.u.s.trious race, the parent of our Brunswick kings, the critic is not seduced by the loyalty or grat.i.tude of the subject. In all his works, Muratori approves himself a diligent and laborious writer, who aspires above the prejudices of a Catholic priest.
He was born in the year 1672, and died in the year 1750, after pa.s.sing near 60 years in the libraries of Milan and Modena, (Vita del Proposto Ludovico Antonio Muratori, by his nephew and successor Gian. Francesco Soli Muratori Venezia, 1756 m 4to.)]
Chapter LXXI: Prospect Of The Ruins Of Rome In The Fifteenth Century.--Part I.
Prospect Of The Ruins Of Rome In The Fifteenth Century.-- Four Causes Of Decay And Destruction.--Example Of The Coliseum.--Renovation Of The City.--Conclusion Of The Whole Work.
In the last days of Pope Eugenius the Fourth, [101] two of his servants, the learned Poggius [1] and a friend, ascended the Capitoline hill; reposed themselves among the ruins of columns and temples; and viewed from that commanding spot the wide and various prospect of desolation.
[2] The place and the object gave ample scope for moralizing on the vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave; and it was agreed, that in proportion to her former greatness, the fall of Rome was the more awful and deplorable. ”Her primeval state, such as she might appear in a remote age, when Evander entertained the stranger of Troy, [3] has been delineated by the fancy of Virgil. This Tarpeian rock was then a savage and solitary thicket: in the time of the poet, it was crowned with the golden roofs of a temple; the temple is overthrown, the gold has been pillaged, the wheel of fortune has accomplished her revolution, and the sacred ground is again disfigured with thorns and brambles. The hill of the Capitol, on which we sit, was formerly the head of the Roman empire, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings; ill.u.s.trated by the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched with the spoils and tributes of so many nations. This spectacle of the world, how is it fallen! how changed! how defaced! The path of victory is obliterated by vines, and the benches of the senators are concealed by a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine hill, and seek among the shapeless and enormous fragments the marble theatre, the obelisks, the colossal statues, the porticos of Nero's palace: survey the other hills of the city, the vacant s.p.a.ce is interrupted only by ruins and gardens.
The forum of the Roman people, where they a.s.sembled to enact their laws and elect their magistrates, is now enclosed for the cultivation of pot-herbs, or thrown open for the reception of swine and buffaloes.
The public and private edifices, that were founded for eternity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visible, from the stupendous relics that have survived the injuries of time and fortune.” [4]
[Footnote 101: It should be Pope Martin the Fifth. See Gibbon's own note, ch. lxv, note 51 and Hobhouse, Ill.u.s.trations of Childe Harold, p.
155.--M.]
[Footnote 1: I have already (notes 50, 51, on chap. lxv.) mentioned the age, character, and writings of Poggius; and particularly noticed the date of this elegant moral lecture on the varieties of fortune.]
[Footnote 2: Consedimus in ipsis Tarpeiae arcis ruinis, pone ingens portae cujusdam, ut puto, templi, marmoreum limen, plurimasque pa.s.sim confractas columnas, unde magna ex parte prospectus urbis patet, (p.
5.)]
[Footnote 3: aeneid viii. 97--369. This ancient picture, so artfully introduced, and so exquisitely finished, must have been highly interesting to an inhabitant of Rome; and our early studies allow us to sympathize in the feelings of a Roman.]
[Footnote 4: Capitolium adeo.... immutatum ut vineae in senatorum subsellia successerint, stercorum ac purgamentorum receptaculum factum.
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