Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/271

Rh the events in which he took a part, in their totality as a drama, Whatever he touches, lies already dead on the dis- secting table, and his skill is that of the analytical patho- logist. Consequently, he fails to understand the essential magnitude of the task, or to appreciate the vital vigour of the forces contending in Europe for mastery. This is very noticeable in what he writes about the Reformation. Not- withstanding these defects, inevitable in a writer of Guicci- ardini’s temperament, the Storia d'Italia was undoubtedly the greatest historical work that had appeared since the beginning of the modern era. It remains the most solid monument of the Italian reason in the, the final triumph of that Florentine school of philosophical historians which numbered Macchiavelli and Vettori, Segui, Pitti, Nardi, Nerli, Varchi, and Giannotti. Up to the year 1857 the fame of Guicciardini as a writer, and the estima- tion of him as a man, depended almost entirely upon the History of Italy, and on a few ill-edited extracts from his aphorisms. At that date his representatives, the Counts Piero and Luigi Guicciardini, opened their family archives, and comraitte] to Signor Giuseppe Canestrini the publication of his hitherto inedited MSS. in ten important volumes. The vast miss of documents and finished literary work thus given to the world has thrown a flood of light upon Guic- ciardini, whether we consider hima as author or as citizen. It has raised his reputation as a political philosopher into the first rank, where he now disputes the place of intellec- tual supremacy with his friznd Macchiavelli; but it has coloured our moral judgment of his character and conduct with darker dyes. From the stores of valuable materials contained in those ten volumes, it will be enough here to cite (1) the Rieordi Politici, already noticed, consisting of about £00 aphorisms on political and social topics; (2) the observ itions on Macchiavelly’s Discors?, which bring into re- markable relief the views of Italy’s two great theorists on statecraft in the, and show that Guicciardini regarded Macchiavelli somewhat as an amiable visionary or political enthusiast; (3) the Storia Frorentina, an early work of tha author, distinguishe1 by its animation of style, brilli- ancy of portraiture, and liberality of judgment ; and (4) the Dialogs del Reggimento di Firenze, also in all probability an early work, in which the various forms of government sited to an Italiin commonwealth are discussed with in- finite subtlety, contrasted, and illustrated from the vicissi- tudes of Florence up to. To these may be addled a saries of short essays, entitled Descorse Polttict, composed during Guicciardini’s Spanish legation. It is only after a careful perusal of these minor works that the student of history may claim to have comprehended Guic- ciardini, anl may feel that he brings with him to the con- sideration of the Storia d Italia the requisite knowledge of the author’s private thoughts and jealously guarded opinions. Indeed, it may be confilently affirmed that those who desire to gin an insight into the true principles and feelings of the men who made and wrote history in the will find it here far more than in the work designed for publicition by tha writer. Taken in combination with Macchiavelli’s treatises, the Opere Jnedite furnish a compre- heusive body of Italian political philosophy anterior to the date of Fra Paolo Sarpi.

1em  GUIDI, (1650–1712), Italian lyric poet, was born at Pavia in 1650. As chief founder of the well-known Roman academy called “ L’Arcadia,” he had a considerable share in the reform of Italian poetry, corrupted at that time by the extravagance and bad taste of the poets Marini and Achillini and their school. The poet Guidi and the critic and jurisconsult Gravina cliecked this evil by their influence and example. The genius of Guidi was lyric in the highest degree ; his songs are written with singular force, and charm the reader, in spite of touches of bombast. His most celebrated song is that en- titled Alla Fortuna (To Fortune), which certainly is one of the most beautiful pieces of poetry of the 17th century. Guidi was squint-eyed, humpbacked, and of a delicate constitution, but possessed undoubted literary ability. His poems were printed at Parma in 1671, and at Rome in 1704. In 1681 he published at Parma his lyric tragedy Amalasunta in Italy, and two pastoral dramas Daphne and Endynion. The last had the honour of being men- tioned as a model by the critic Gravina, in his treatise on poetry. Less fortunate was Guidi’s poetical version of the six homilies of Pope Clement XI., first as having been severely criticized by the satirist Settano, and next as hav- ing proved to be the indirect cause of the author's death. A splendid edition of this version had been printed in 1712, and, the pope being then in San Gandolfo, Guidi went there to present him with a copy. On the way he found out a serious typographical error, which he took so much to heart that he was seized with an apoplectic fit at Frascati and died on the spot. Guidi was honoured with the special protection of Ranuccio II., duke of Parma, and of Queen Christina of Sweden.  GUIDICCIONI,, one of the best Italian pocts of the, was born at Lucca in, and died at Macerata in. He occupied a high position, being bishop of Fossombrone and president of Romagna. The latter office nearly cost him his life ; a murderer attempted to kill him, and had already touched his breast with his dagger when, conquered by the resclute calmness of the prelate, he threw away the weapon and fell at his feet, asking forgiveness. The Dime and Letters of Guidiccioni are models of elegant and natural Italian style. The best editions are those of Genoa (1749), Bergamo (1753), and that recently published at Florence.  GUIDO, an Italian monk of the , has by many been called the father of modern music, and a portrait of him in the refectory of the monastery of Avellana bears the inscription “Beatus Guido, inventor musicæ.” Although these statements are manifestly ex- aggerated, it is none the less true that Guido’s reforms mark an enormous progress in the notation as well as in the teaching of music. Of his life little is known, and that little is chiefly derived from the dedicatory letters prefixed to two of h's treatises and addressed respectively to Bishop Theodald (not Theobald, as Burney writes the name) of Arezzo, and Michael, a monk of Pomposa and Guido’s pupil and friend. Occasional references to the celebrated musician in the works of his contemporaries are, however, by no means rare, and from these it may be conjectured with all but absolute certainty that Guido was born in the. The place of his birth is, beyond a doubt, Arezzo; for on the title-page of all his works he is styled Guido Aretinus, or simply Aretinus. At his first appearance in history Guido was a monk in the Benedictine monastery of Pomposa, and it was there that lhe invented his educational method, by means of which, according to his own statement, a pupil might learn within five months what formerly it would have taken him ten years to acquire. Envy and jealousy, however, were his only reward, and by these he was compelled to leave his monastery—“ inde est, quod me vides prolixis fini) us exulatum,” as he says himself in the second of the letters above referred to. According to one account, he travelled as far as Bremen, called there by Archbishop Hermann in order to reform the musical service. But this statement has been doubted, for chronological and other reasons, 