HISTORICAL, LITERARY, AND ARTISTICAL TRAVELS IN ITALY, A COMPLETE AND METHODICAL GUIDE FOR TRAVELLERS AND ARTISTS, BY M. VALERY, LIBRARIAN OF THE ROYAL LIBRARIES OF VERSAILLES AND TRIANON; AUTHOR OF Voyages en Corse, à l'ile d'Elbe et en Sardaigne. SOLD ALSO BY AMYOT, RUE DE LA PAIX; TAUCHY, BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS; BOOKSELLERS ON THE CONTINENT. 1859 PREFACE. It is difficult to make but one tour in Italy; and he who has no wish to return is scarcely worthy to have been there at all. I have visited it four times. Though there are many and ingenious works on Italy, it appears to me that none of them can serve as a guide to travellers of the present day. The Travels of Lalande, full of information once correct, now belong to the past; and since the epoch of their publication, the history of art has made undeniable progress: the opinions of M. Cochin, which he perpetually thrusts forward, appeared of doubtful accuracy to a great artist, more than forty years ago. The description which I publish has profited by this progress, and is supported by the recent and best authorities, Lanzi for painting, and Cicognara and Quatremère for sculpture and architecture; the impressions and research of facts alone are mine. If it have no other merit, this book may become a kind of portable library, and be of service as a methodical catalogue of the vast museum of Italy. The literary effect is occasionally diminished by these indications, but I have thought it my duty to prefer accuracy and usefulness. I have found it impossible to pass over in silence the names of so many noble painters, full of elegance and variety, in the second rank of the Italian schools, but who assuredly would be in the first of any other. The fire-side reader may skip this nomenclature of paintings and statues, a kind of Letter of Girodet written from Florence, May, 1790. See his OEuvres posthumes, tom. II, p. 363. TRAVELS IN ITALY. BOOK THE FIRST. GENEVA.-GLACIERS.-BANKS OF THE LAKE. CHAPTER I. Privilege of the earlier travellers-Dijon.-Tombs of the dukes of Burgundy-House of Bossuet Dissertation proposed by the Academy of Dijon on the revival of the arts and sciences.-Dôle.-Saint Cergues. Had I travelled in the days of Montaizne. I might have been allowed, like him from the beginning of my journey, to give the particulars of every stage and of my several resting-places; to speak without offence even of the cheer 1 had met with and the wine I had drunk; as well as to relate the news, incidents, stories, and marvels I had learned on the way. But the prodigies of modern civilisation, the great roads and the newspapers, no longer permit, and have in fact almost prescribed, this part of a traveller's narralive. My adventures would appear common-place, my news out of date, and my astonishment ridiculous. This pecuarity of the olden times cannot be tolerated now; at the present day, to keep fath with the public, a voyage must be dred a book. It has been attempted, but in vain, to make the delicacy of Fresh taste conform to the frivolous Do and puerilities of certain English ravelers. I will, however, confess that, caring my first journey, such was my uristy to see and know, that I often 1st the diligence dinner, notwithstanding its importance, that I might visit the monuments of the place. Each mausoleum is surrounded by a basso-relievo in marble, on which the obsequies of the princes are represented. In spite of the painful emotions intended to be excited by such a ceremony, it is easy to trace, under the frock and in the features of these monks, all the passions and feelings of the human breast portrayed with a truth and reality altogether admirable. I sought the house in which Bossuet was born, and was somewhat disappointed when I found it to have all the appearance of being recently built. It is occupied by a small bookseller, and is covered with placards like the columns in the Palais-Royal. The house of Crebillon, on the contrary, is very extensive, and serves at present as bread-depot for the troops. In the interior was a mill, of I know not what kind, which made almost as much noise as the thunderclap of Atrée. As to Piron's house, I did not look for it; there is a certain degradation of talent that produces an absolute indifference for the memory of an author. Independently of the learning for which the society of Dijon has always been distinguished, this town is, as it were, the mightiest source of French eloquence: Bossuet belongs to it by birth, and Rousseau by talent. It is well known that the program of its Academy, on the effects of the revival of the arts and sciences, fired the genius of this writer; yet Diderot gave him a good hint, if the anecAt Dijon, I went to the museum to see dote told by Marmontel be true: the afde tombs of the two dukes of Burgundy,firmative was the pons asinorum, and 1 hp Fearnought and Philip-the-Bold, this old apology for letters did not suit which were formerly at the Chartreuse. the paradoxical raptures of Rousseau. |