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 462 ITALY (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) chiefly known as a profound and philosophical statesman by his discourses on Livy, his dia- logues on the art of war, and especially by his Principe, a manual of government, which was constantly in the hands of such sovereigns as Charles V. and Sixtus V., and the real intent and character of which has been long in dis- pute. His style is marked by simplicity, strength, thought, and a rare but felicitous use of ornament. Other political writings were the Bagione di stato of Bolero, and the JSepub- blica jiorentina of Giannotti. Nearer to Ma- chiavelli in merit was Paruta (1640-"J8), the author of Discorsi politiei, and of a treatise Delia perfesione della vita chile. The most renowned of Italian historians is Guicciardini (1482-1540), whose work, embracing the pe- riod from 1490 to 1534, is esteemed for im- partiality, but is diffuse and tedious. Paolo Giovio wrote in Latin a partisan history of his own time. Historians of Florence were Nar- di, Varchi, Nerli, Segni, Capponi, and Scipione Ammirato ; the Storie jiorentine of the last ex- tends from the foundation of the city to 1574. Historians of Venice were Bembo (1470-1547), Paruta, and Contarini; of Genoa, Giustiniani, Bonfadio, and Foglietta; of Ferrara, Cinzio and Falletti ; and of Naples, Costanzo, Porzio (La congiurazione dei laroni, &c.), and Sum- monte. General histories were written by Giambullari and Adriani. The splendor of the fine arts in this century gave occasion for his- torians of art, the principal of whom was Va- sari (1512-'74), whose lives of the most excel- lent painters, sculptors, and architects of Italy are written with naturalness and grace, and contain interesting notices of prominent Ital- ian works of art. The autobiography of the Florentine goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini, one of the liveliest books in the literature, not only recounts his own fortunes, but gives curious notices of the courts of Rome, Florence, and France. He wrote also valuable treatises on jewelry and sculpture. Works on painting were written by Bernardino Campi of Cremo- na, Lomazzo of Milan, and Armenino of Faen- za._ Vignola and Palladio gained distinction as writers on architecture, and Marchi by a trea- tise on military architecture. Philosophy now began to assume an independence of the scholas- tics, and Girolamo Cardan and Giordano Bruno ventured upon the boldest speculations. Math- ematics were cultivated by Tartaglia, Cardan, and others. The Imtituzione di tutta la tita del? uomo of Alessandro Piccolomini treats of education, marriage, the government of a fam- ily, and the chief end of man. The Cortigia- no of Castiglione (1478-1529) has rare literary merits, making courtesy the theme of many learned and weighty reflections. Numerous novelists now flourished, among whom Ban- dello holds the first rank, his Novelle being chiefly founded on real and common events. The novels of the monk Firenzuola and the Cene of Lasca are both elegant and indelicate. Vettori and Salviati commented on the older poets, and the latter was engaged in com- piling the Vocabolario della Crusca, then the most important philological work in the lan- guage. All words not used by the great Flor- entine authors were excluded from it; even Tasso was not admitted as an authority. In the 17th century the natural sciences especially nourished. Under able patrons, the principal of whom was Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany, the Italian universities attained unprecedented celebrity. Scientific academies were founded in Korne, Florence, Bologna, and Naples; the Florentine accademia del Cimento embraced the most illustrious savants of the time, and pub- lished important accounts of its researches. Preeminent among philosophers was Galileo (1564-1642), who was denounced as an inno- vator, and maintained the Copernican system only at his peril. His Dialoghi and other works are written with elegance, his style and taste having been formed by reading Ariosto. His most noted pupils were Viviani, Torricelli, and Castelli; and contemporary physicists were Borelli, Malpighi, Bellini, and Francesco Redi. The learned and philosophical jurisconsult Vin- cenzo Gravina attracted scholars from all parts of Europe to his lectures in Rome on public law, contained in his Origine del diritto chile and other publications. The greatest histo- rians were Sarpi, Davila, Bentivoglio, and Pal- lavicini. Sarpi (died in 1623), the defender of the republic of Venice in its contest with the holy see, wrote an anti-papal and spirited history of the council of Trent, which was re- plied to by Pnllavicini in a work on the same subject. Davila, after 16 years' residence in France, narrated the civil wars of that country in a work esteemed for its truthfulness, and in respect of style one of the best Italian histories. Bentivoglio, the papal nuncio in Flanders, wrote of the Flemish wars of his time, many of the heroes of which he knew personally. Baldinucci, Dati, and Scamozzi were historians of the fine arts, and Cinelli and Boccalini of literature, while Bianchi treated important his- torical problems as to migrations, colonies, voyages, and the origin of monarchies and re- publics. Montecucculi, the military antagonist of Turenne, acquired distinction as an author by his aphorisms on the art of war. The Jesuit Bartoli wrote the history of his society, and the sermons of the Jesuit Segneri were unrivalled in eloquence. Pietro della Valle (died in 1652) described his travels (Viaggi) in Turkey, Persia, and India. The first Italian literary journal, the Giornale de' letterati, was established in Rome in 1668. A want of natu- ralness and truthfulness marked the poetry of the age; external delineations, trifling details, conceits, and plays upon words were the lead- ing objects of the poets. At their head was Marini of Naples (died in 1625), who was ad- mired not only in Italy but in France and Spain, and originated the poetical school of the Marinists, by which only his faults were imi- tated. Among his contemporaries and sue-