Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/828

Rh 784 ANA Appiana, et pira a Mallio MaUiana, cognominata sunt, sic hcec literarum quae vestra ope et opera Gennania in Italiain deferentur, aliquando et Poggiana et Monte- politiana vocabuntur.&quot; Poggio Bracciolini, to whom this letter is addressed, and to whom the world is indebted for the preservation of so many classical remains, is the first eminent person of modern times whose jests and opinions have been trans mitted to posterity. Poggio was secretary to five succes sive popes. During the pontificate of Martin V., who was chosen in 1417, Poggio and other members of the Roman chancery were in the habit of assembling in a common hall adjoining the Vatican, in order to converse freely on all subjects. Being more studious of wit than of truth, they termed this apartment Buggiale, a word which Poggio himself interprets Mendaclorum Officina. Here Poggio and his friends discussed the news and scandal of the day ; communicated entertaining anecdotes ; attacked what they did not approve (and they approved of little) ; and in dulged in the utmost latitude of satiric remark, not sparing even the pope and cardinals. The jests and stories which occurred in these unrestrained conversations were collected by Poggio, and formed the chief materials of his Facetiae, first printed, according to De Bure, in 1470. This collec tion, which forms a principal part of the Poggiana, is chiefly valuable as recording interesting anecdotes of eminent men of the 14th and 15th centuries. It also contains a number of quibbles or jeux de mots, and a still greater number of idle and licentious stories. Many of these are not original, some of them being taken from ancient authors, and a still greater number from the Fabliaux of the Trouveurs. On the other hand, Poggio has suggested much to succeeding writers. Prior s Hans Carvel and several of Fontaine s fables are from stories originally related by Poggio. The Facetiae forms, upon the whole, the most amusing and interesting part of the Poggiana printed at Amsterdam in 1720; but this collec tion also comprehends additional anecdotes of Poggio s life, and a few extracts from his graver compositions. Though Poggio was the first person whose remarks and Ion mots were collected under the name of Ana, the Sca ligerana, which contains the opinions of Joseph Scaliger, was the first work published under that appellation, and accordingly may be regarded as having led the way to that class of publications. There are two collections of Scaligerana the Prima and Secunda. The first was com piled by a physician named Francis Vertunien, Sieur de Lavau, who attended a family with whom Joseph Scaliger resided. He, in conseqxtence, had frequent opportunities of meeting the celebrated critic, and was in the custom of committing to writing the observations which dropped from him in the course of conversation, to which he occasionally added remarks of his own. This collection, which was chiefly Latin, remained in manuscript many years after the death of the compiler. It was at length purchased by M. de Sigogne, who published it in 1669, under the title of Prima Scaligerana, nusqiiam antehac edita, calling it prima in order to preserve its claim of priority over another Scaligerana, which, though published three years before, had been more recently compiled. This second work, known as Secunda Scaligerana, was collected by two brothers of the name of Vassan, students of the university of Leyden, of which Scaliger was one of the professors. Being particularly recommended to Scaliger, they were received in his house, and enjoyed his conversa tion. Writing down what they had heard, particularly on historical and critical subjects, they soon made up a large manuscript volume, in which, however, there was neither connection nor arrangement of any description. After pass ing through various hands, this manuscript came into the possession of M. Daille&quot;, who for his own use arranged in alphabetical order the articles which it contained. Isaac Yossius, obtaining the manuscript in loan from M. Daille&quot;, transcribed it, and afterwards published it at the Hague, under the title of Scaligerana, sive Excerpta, ex Ore Josephi Scaligeri. This edition was full of inaccuracies and blunders, and a more correct impression was afterwards published by M. Daille&quot;, with a preface complaining of the use that Vossius had made of the manuscript, which he declares was never intended for publication, and was not of a nature to be given to the world. Indeed, most literary men in that age conceived that the Scaligerana, particu larly the second, detracted considerably from the reputa tion of the great scholar. Joseph Scaliger, with more extensive erudition, but, as some think, less genius than his father Julius Csesar Scaliger, had inherited his vanity and dogmatical spirit. Conversing with two young students, he would probably be but little cautious in the opinions he expressed, as his literary errors could not be detected or. exposed. Unfortunately the blind admiration of his pupils led them to regard his opinions as the responses of an oracle, and his most unmerited censures as just condemna tions. The Scaligerana, accordingly, contains many false hoods, with much unworthy personal abuse of the most distinguished characters of the age. In imitation of the Scaligerana, a prodigious number of similar works appeared in France towards the end of the 1 7th and beginning of the 18th century. At first these collections were confined to what had fallen from eminent men in conversation ; but they were afterwards made to embrace fragments found among their papers, and even passages extracted from their works and correspondence. Of those which merely record the conversations of eminent men, the best known and most valuable is the Menagiana. Gilles Menage was a person of good sense, of various and extensive information, and of a most communicative dis position. For a long period an assembly of literary men met once a week at his house ; and during his later years he daily received critics and scholars as visitors. Much of his time was thus spent in conversation ; and his habitual associates were at pains to record his opinions, which were generally founded on a correct taste and judg ment, and were always delivered in an interesting and lively manner. A collection of his oral opinions was pub lished in 1693, soon after his death; and this collection, which was entitled Menagiana, was afterwards corrected and enlarged by M. la Monnoye, in an edition published by him in 1715. The Perroniana, which exhibits the opinions of Cardinal du Perron, was compiled from his conversation by M. do Puy, and published by Vossius, by the same contrivance which put him in possession of the Scaligerana. Some parts of this collection are useful in illustrating the literary and ecclesiastical history of the age in which Du Perron lived ; but it contains many puerile, imprudent, and absurd remarks, many of them the interpolations of his friends. The Thuana, or observations of the president De Thou, have usually been published along with the Perroniana. This collection is not extensive, and by no means of suet value as might have been expected from a man so able and distinguished. The Valesiana is a collection of the literary opinions of the historiographer Adrian de Valois, published by his son. M. de Valois was a great student of history, and the Valesiana accordingly comprehends many valuable histori cal observations, particularly on the works of Du Cange. The Fureteriana (1696) contains the bon mots of M. Furetiere of the French Academy, the stories which he was in the habit of telling, and a number of anecdotes and remarks found in his papers after his decease. This pro-