of te + be seen in the drawing-room, and in the cess of Paolo Giovio, the voluptuous asylum of that court prelate and man of letters, who, while passing his life in attendance on princes, or in the seclusion of his museum, must have resided but very rarely in his diocese of Nocera. Besides, there is little to interest in the recollections of Paolo Giovio; this priest, nay, bishop, notwithstanding the elegance of his style, was but a venal and diffamatory writer. Paolo Giovio pretended to have built his palace on the site of At the town of Vico, on returning to one of Pliny the Younger's villas. AcCosmo, is the Odescalchi villa, the most cording to Benedetto Giovio, the Odesextensive of the many villas on the bor- calchi villa is on the same spot as the des of the lake, and an abode of almost delightful Suburbanum of Pliny's moely splendour, but which struck me dest friend, Caninius Rufus, with its melancholy despite its late magni- gallery where an eternal spring prebest embellishments. All the rich vailed, its impenetrable shade of planeTansrading of this palace are less grate-trees, its canal with verdant banks enamy taste than the shade of the su- melled with flowers, and that lake which delm planted at its gate on the served as a basin to receive its waters; 3 bank of the lake, with its stone bench, for the memory of Pliny is predomiWhere one can enjoy so delightful a nant over all these shores he has beView of Cosmo, the lake, and the mounstowed his name on one of the steamboats lains. At Vico, in the house called of the lake, and though more than seGala, now the property of the Fossani venteen centuries have elapsed, he is family, was the museum, or the gallery still the glory of the country. So his letters, the candid Immodesty of his this subject (Lettere, p. 12; Tiraboto part iil, p. 905-6), and what he says of passer in bis letters to Henry II. king of Prime and to Giambattista Gastaldo. (Lett., p. 31, & Tiraboschi, 1614.) Cassandra Giovio, a lady of de holy of Paolo Giovio, probably his great-niece, Meat Castan in 1541, seems to offer a perfect conat with this writer and even with Giambattista the dull bat erodite author of the Lettere which we have already spoken. Cassandre a few poetical compositions, graceful ng: such is this stanza from a poem the age of eighteen, on the day of her marriage with Grouimo Magnocavallo :Pochi colta, Amor, ne' lacci tuoi, eto Il giorno, e l'ora, e l' anno; bar pin illustri del regno lombardo-veneto, E. 13 p. 47-) Lib. 1. ep. iii. "Only endeavour," says Pliny, Pliny invited him to write, but Caninius Rufus appears to have preferred a prudent silence: it is sometimes a great advantage to have done nothing. as it is said, and not to have given the measure of one's strength. Pilny's reasons, moreover, seem rather singular: "All other possessions change masters thousands and thousands of times, but the productions of your mind will be always your own." It appears that Caninius Rufus yielded to the persuasions of Pliny; for, in a letter from the latter, the fourth of book vili, we learn that he was engaged in the composition of an epic poem in Greek verse on Trajan's expedition against the Dacians. 3 Both the French translator of Pliny and the Italian have mistaken the sense in rendering lacus by basin, as the author of the Lettere lariane has demonstrated; it is the lake itself, as the present aspect of the places still proves. This miscontruction is not the only one that our visit to the country enables us to correct; In the same passage illa porticus, verna semper, does not seem rightly repdered by portico where reigns an eternal spring, but by alley arched over by trees: thus the delightful avenue of holms leading from Albano to Castelgondolfo is still called the Gallery. A French translator of Catullus has bestowed the usual epithet of tranquille on the lake of Garda, which is the most agitated of all the Italian lakes, a happy imitator of Titian: in the sacristies, St. Nicholas of Bari, by the elder Palma; a Crucifix, by Previtali; another by Moroni; four little saints, by Bramantino, and other works of the best Bergamese masters. The little oratory of Saint Jesus has, under a glass cover, an extraordinary painting of Christ carrying his cross, the only work at Bergamo by the celebrated and prolific painter Giambattista Castello, called il Bergamesco, who died in 1570, court painter at Madrid. Santa Maria delle Grazie has the St. Diego of Francesco Zucco, a good Bergamese painter, and pupil of the Campi, the rival of his clever compatriots Talpino and Cavagna; the painting of the high-altar is by the latter. At Santa Maria del Sepolcro is the St. Sigismund, one of Previtali's masterpieces. CHAPTER II. School at Santa Grata.-Library.-Municipal patriotism of the Italians.-Carrara school.-Painting perpetual in Italy.-Singers of Bergamo.-Old palace.-Tasso's Bergamese origin.-Palazzo della Podestadura.-Harlequin. The small church of the Benedictine nuns of Santa Grata, with its gilding and tasteful ornaments, has all the brilliancy of a drawing-room. It contains a much-admired painting, which has been at Paris, the Virgin in an aureola and several saints beneath, the masterpiece of Talpino, thought worthy of Raphael by Vasari. This Bergamese convent of Benedictines, having been suppressed by an imperial decree given at Compiegne (one might call it a capitulary of the time of Charlemagne) on the 25th April 1810, was not suffered to revive, as most of the other women convents in Lombardy, except on the condition of becoming a girls'school, so stubborn and unchangeable is the Austrian government in its system of schools. The old convent of the Holy Ghost is converted into a house of industry. The church offers some fine celebrated paintings St. Anthony of Padua performing a miracle to convert a heretic, a painting of amazing effect, is not by Dominico, but Giovanni Viani his father, a pupil of Guido; the Madonna by Lotto, in which the little St. John playing with a lamb shows a joy so lively and natural, is a charming figure that, as Lanzi says, neither Raphael no Correggio would have surpassed. Th Daniel in the lions' den and the S Francis, by Cavagna, placed on eac side this picture, sustain their dangerou proximity tolerably well. The library of Bergamo has forty-fiv thousand volumes, the gift of private in dividuals. The Carrara school of pain ing and architecture was likewise foun ed by the generous man whose name bears, Count Jacopo Carrara. In th absence of the patriotism and publ spirit of free states, which they cannc possess, the Italians evince a love of ar and of their native towns truly estimable since it is habitual, and if its exercise b unproductive of glory, it has at least th advantage of being useful. This feelin impels them to a sort of partial benevo lence somewhat singular. I was some times surprised at the favour accorded t certain plays, as well as to certain actor and actresses; but I learned that i was because the author or performer were of the town; nostro veronese nostro veneziano, nostro ferrareze, bo lognese, etc., is an expression of everyday use, to designate some compatriot artist or writer. The Carrara school contains many paintings attributed to various masters; a portrait of Raphael, supposed to be by himself, seems worthy of him for the sweet and noble expression of the physiognomy. Among other portraits are seven by Van-Dyck, two by Titian, one by Pordenone, one by Giorgione, one by Albert Durer, and one by Holbein. The Galatea is by Orbetto; a small painting of Christ between the two thieves, of 1456, by Vincenzo Foppa, is affecting and clever for that epoch; its inscription, Vincentius Brixiensis fecit, decidedly proves that this illustrious painter belongs to Brescia, and not to Milan, as Lomazzo and his followers have pretended. Four Bacchanals, three of which are copied from Titian, are by Padovanino; a St. Catherine by Lotto; the Virgin, the Infant Jesus and four saints by the elder Palma; a Holy Family, by Parmegiano; a Neptune, by Rubens; two Pietys and a Magdalen are by Annibale and Agostino Carracci. A cabinet of prints, a collection of medals, and a pretty good number of plasters, likewise make part of the Carrara school. It is astonishing that, with so many helps and such means of study, the Italian school has not attained a greater eminence in the last three centuries. Possibly this multitude of such | perfect models is an obstacle to originality and truth; artists, instead of looking within to their own resources, turn to things without, and wander in a vague and sterile imitation; and instead of expressing nature, they ape Titian, Raphael, or Giulio Romano; copying and repeating instead of creating. The art then becomes a kind of trade, an easy, regular, and continuous occupation which recalls the remark made with singular self-gratulation by Scipio Maffei, that if they paint badly in Italy, at all events they are always painting. The musical lyceum directed for forty years by Mayer, the clever Bavarian composer, is another Institution of art honourable to Bergamo. By a kind of miracle, this little town alone, has produced a greater number of eminent singers than any city in Italy; hence has escaped during thirty years past that flight of warblers, those harmonious tenors who have enchanted Europe, from Monbelli, Davide father and son, to the incomparable Rubini. Ender the portico of the Palazzo vecchio della ragione, or palace of justice, is a great statue of Tasso in Carrara marble. The father of the bard of the Gierusalemme was of Bergamo; misfortune and proscription had obliged him to quit the land of his birth, and to be a Wanderer in Italy and France, for adversity is traced back and seems heredivary in this poetic family; Ludovico Tasso, the maternal uncle, who was to Bernardo in the stead of a father, had been murdered in his house by robbers. This statue of Torquato seems to protest against the injustice of fate, which deprived the inhabitants of Bergamo of the honour of such a compatriot; it is an expression of illustrious regret and noble sorrow, a partial appropriation of the great man whom they lost, after passing among them the first days of his infancy. Bergamo, the primitive country of Tasso, Terona illustrata, part. 111, fol. 143. * See his beautiful sonnet on Bergamo: Terra, the hero bagna etc R me, part 11, 448 and the Lett, motile, travii, ixxxvi, cxxxi, and others, publutet at Pisa in 1827. Pensa che questa vita è simile ad una fiera soimse e pogolosa, nella quale si raccoglie grandissima turba di mercanti, di ladri, di glacatori: seems worthy to have given him birth, by the interest it ever continued to take in him. When he was detained in the hospital of Saint Anne, the town sent a petition to the duke of Ferrara in his favour, which was presented by one of its first citizens; there was also sent as a present at the same time a lapidary inscription interesting to the house of Este, which its sovereigns had long coveted. After his deliverance, Tasso went to Bergamo, was visited by the magistrates, enthusiastically welcomed by his friends, his admirers, and the lovely dames; and, although it was fair time, his presence was quite an event. Tasso has more than once spoken of Bergamo as being really his country, in his sonnets, dialo gues, and letters, and the comparison he has made of the miseries of human life to the perplexities of a great fair may be regarded as a reminiscence of this town The civic palace (della Podestadura), is one of the finest palaces planned by Scamozzi, but the upper part, which is not by him, and the statues over it, are in very bad taste. The great hall offers several remarkable paintings: St. Andrew d'Avellino celebrating mass, by Talpino; a Virgin, the Infant Jesus, with several saints overhead, and two Venetian magistrates kneeling below, by Felice Brusasorci, a noble and graceful painter; the great Cœnaculum, by Bronzino. The same piece contains also numerous portraits of cardinals and other illustrious Bergamese. The councilchamber is not less curious: there are a portrait of Bembo, by Titian; the Adulterous woman, by Talpino; a ceiling by Francesco Bassano, and the original designs of the great architect, the author of the plan, so badly followed, of this very palace della Podestadura, It is the commonly received opinion that Harlequin sprung from the vallies near Bergamo, but German criticism and erudition have just found him an Etrus. can genealogy.4 chi primo si parte, meglio allogla: chi plù indugla. si stanca, ed invecchiando divien bisognoso di molte cose; è molestato da nemici, e circondato dall' insidie; al üne muore infelicemente." Letter to bis kinsman the cavaller Enea Tasso, of Bergamo, CXXlx of the Lett. ined. 4 See Schlegel's Course of dramatic literature, lesson VIII. CHAPTER III. Gorlago.- Tower of Telgate;-of Palazzolo.-View. -Mount Coccaglio.-Vino santo.-Castle of Caleplo.-Vale of Calepio.-Ancient towers.-Lake of Isea.-Lovera.-Cenotaph by Canova.- Orrido del Tinazzo.-Pisogna.- Iron foundry. Cascade.Tavernola.-Monte d'Isola-Four sisters hermits. -Isea-Predora.-Odd ruin.-Sarnico.- Montecchio.- Vengeance by dishonoured maidens. The lake of Isca and its environs, though nearly always neglected, are worth a visit. This corner of Upper Italy is distinguished for his natural beauties, its works of art, and the productions of industry. At the village of Leriate, the principal church has a fine picture by Morone. The greater part of the churches of these villages have good paintings by Lombard or Venetian masters. The church of Gorlago, embellished with stuccos and gilding, possesses some valuable old paintings. There is a hall in this same village, painted in fresco, a grand and splendid work by an unknown author, which is worthy of a palace. Telgate begins that chain of flourishing villages which occupy the vale of Calepio. The tower is of great antiquity. chamber these three words, unnecessaril enough, are inscribed : Intra, vide, ao mira. a1 The castle of Calepio, which is not ti ancient manor house of that family, bu the palace built in 1430 by Count Tru sardo Calepio, rises majestically on th steep bank of the Oglio, which foan along at its feet. The vale of Calep enjoys the mildest temperature, some of its enormous mulberry tre are anterior to the introduction of sill spinning. The numbers of antique towe covering the neighbouring hills for cibly recall the cruel dissensions of th Guelphs and Gibelines; some of thes towers maintain their primitive eleva tion, but the most part have been lowere into houses, a sign of the defeat of thei occupants. Among the numerous boroughs an villages which border and embellish th shores of the lake of Isea, at once s smiling and sweet, so well cultivated and so wild, Lovera and Pisagna are th principal. Lovera, an ancient borough injured in the wars between the Guelph and Gibelines, was more especially the victim of Pandolfo Malatesta, lord o Bergamo, who to chastise its rebellion repaired thither with his army in the first days of October 1415: he took it, ordered the inhabitants to quit, and allowed them no more time than a candle would last that he had ordered to be A vast steeple ornamented with elegant basso-relievos by S. Marchesi, has been erected on the top of the rock of Palazzolo. From this species of watch-lighted; he afterwards sold the houses tower the view extends afar all round the country, embracing the Duomo of Milan and the tower of Cremona. Mount Coccaglio, above the villages of the same name, offers another marvellous prospect. Up two thirds of the ascent is an ancient monastery now be come an immense cellar, where the sweet and rather pleasant wine of the country, known by the name of vino santo, is prepared and stored; this wine, which every body makes at home, is dearer and held in higher esteem than all the most boasted foreign wines. Beside the grand Loggia is a chamber occupied by prince Eugene in the campaign of 1706, where, after seeing the greater part of that army which was going to deliver Turin file off, he dictated to his secretary a letter for the emperor, beginning with these words :-"I write to you from the finest point of view there is in Italy." On the door of this historical I and land. Lovera has two great and rich churches adorned with paintings, and a fine cenotaph by Canova, one of the repetitions of that of Volpato, devoted by Count Tadini to his son, a young man of great promise, who was crushed by the ruins of an arch. At Castro, near Lovera, is a narrow abyss, where the torrent justly called the Orrido del Tinazzo precipitates itself with a roaring noise. Pisagna, a small trading town, has a large square with a piazza opposite the lake, a modern church of the Corinthian order, and a fine iron foundry in a most picturesque spot at the foot of a majestic cascade. The Fenaroli palace, at Tavernola, enjoys from its terrace one of the finest prospects of the lake, particularly at sunrise. But the wonder of the lake of Cicognara bas pointed out three repetitions of this cenotaph; the one here alluded to must be the fourth. Isea, which distinguishes it from the five other lakes of Lombardy, although the smallest, is the high mountain, monte d'Isola, which shoots up from its bosom; a mountain crowned by the sanctuary of the Madonna and adorned at its base by vineyards, woods, fields, and meadows with fort Martinengo, its battlements and tower, once a kind of telegraph of the Guelphs and Gibelines. At the foot of this superb peak crouch, scarcely rising above the water, two little islands which enhance its majesty. The chronicles of the convent of Conventuals relate that four maiden sisters, seized with a holy enthusiasm, resolved to seclude themselves and live alone on four of the highest points on the borders of the lake | whence they might be able to see each other: the monte d'Isola was one of the retreats of these maiden hermits who were actuated only by the pure sentiments of love to God and mutual affection. Isea, the principal port on the lake, takes its name, it is said, from a temple of Isis, a proof of its antiquity. By the side of a rugged rock advancing into the lake, Predora shows its abundant vegetation of orange and lemon trees. A tower, one half of which has been demolished from top to bottom, owes its extraordinary ruin to the hostility of two brothers, one a Guelph, the other a Gibeline, to whom it had fallen in heritage; the first wished it to stand, the second to be pulled down. Sarnico, a populous trading borough, with a spacious square, stands close by where the rapid and Doisy Oglio issues from the lake. The summit of Montecchio, formerly the site of a monastery, is now occupied by a beautiful villa hidden by a wood of evergreens. The view, at once smiling, varied and extensive, is one of the most splendid in the country. The ruined castle was, in the thirteenth century, the theatre of an event, noticed and sung by Alteri, which furnishes another proof of the energy of that age and also of the women of the country. Montecchio was then held by two brigand chiefs, Tizzone and Gilolo, from whose violence the whole country suffered, and near Isea rested two young orphans, Tiburga and Imazza, daughters of Girardo Oldofredi whom they had recently lost. Tizzone See the following chapter. | and Giliolo, conscious that their proposals to marry their neighbours would not be accepted, made a forcible entrance during the night, with their men, into the villa of these noble ladies, and violated their persons. But Tiburga and Imazza, instead of bashfully deploring their injuries and killing themselves like Lucretia and other heroines of the same kind, flew to Brescia, raised the inhabitants to avenge the outrage, and, followed by an armed band, with thirteen women who had assumed cuirasses and military babiliments like themselves, laid siege to the rock of Montecchio. The defence was obstinate; but at last Tiburga, having placed a ladder, met Giliolo in the breach, the very man who had dishonoured her, smote off his head with her sword, and showed it to her companions in arms, crying out :-"God has given me the victory; so may the wicked perish!" Tizzone, after the taking of the fort, was discovered and taken in a subterranean hiding-place by Tiburga, whom he wounded with his lance, but she plunged her poniard in his heart. The bodies of Giliolo and Tizzone were thrown into the Oglio, and Imazza and Tiburga modestly retired to their villa, became the wives of two brave inhabitants of Brescia, and began a long posterity who religiously preserved the arms which their two ancestors had used so courageously. CHAPTER IV. Brescia.-Antique temple.-Statue of Victory.-Broletto palace. - Brigita Avogadro. — Women of Brescia.- Bayard's house. Brescia is a wealthy trading town of nearly forty thousand inhabitants; it has some fine paintings and noble edifices; but its various merits partially escaped me on my first journey, owing to the discovery of an antique temple, which I have since visited every year and watched its excavations with great interest. Doctor Labus had endeavoured to restore the inscription on the pediment, of which some few letters only remained; he was of opinion that Vespasian erected a monument in the town of Brescia, probably on account of the succour that it afforded him when he seized on the empire after defeating the forces of Vitellius. This was but a conjecture, but the doctor has since had the rare antiqua |