LXX. in the caftle of St. Angelo. But his juftice was CHAP. fullied with cruelty, his activity was prompted by the ambition of conqueft; after his deceafe, the abufes revived; the treafure was diffipated; he entailed on posterity thirty-five new taxes and the venality of offices; and, after his death, his ftatue was demolished by an ungrateful, or an injured, people". The wild and original character of Sixtus the fifth ftands alone in the series of the pontiffs: the maxims and effects of their temporal government may be collected from the pofitive and comparative view of the arts and philofophy, the agriculture and trade, the wealth and population, of the ecclefiaftical state. For myself, it is my wish to depart in charity with all mankind, nor am I willing, in these last moments, to offend even the pope and clergy of Rome 98. 97 This outrage produced a decree, which was infcribed on marble, and placed in the Capitol. It is expreffed in a style of manly fimplicity and freedom: Si quis, five privatus, five magiftratum gerens de collocandâ vivo pontifici ftatuâ mentionem facere aufit, legitimo S. P. Q. R. decreto in perpetuum infamis et publicorum munerum expers esto. MDXC. menfe Augusto (Vita di Sifto V. tom. iii. p. 469.). I believe that this decree is ftill observed, and I know that every monarch who deferves a statue, fhould himself impose the prohibition. 99 The histories of the church, Italy, and Chriftendom, have contributed to the chapter which I now conclude. In the original Lives of the Popes, we often discover the city and republic of Rome; and the events of the xiyth and xvth centuries are preserved in the rude and domestic chronicles which I have carefully infpected, and fhall recapitulate in the order of time. 1. Monaldeschi (Ludovici Boncomitis) Fragmenta Annalium CHAP. 1 Antiquitat. medii Ævi Italiæ, tom. iii, p, 247–548.):- the authentic ground-work of the history of Rienzi. 3. Delphini (Gentilis) Diarium Romanum (A. D. 1370-1410), in the Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. P. ii. p. 846, 4. Antonii (Petri) Diarium Rom. (A. D. 1404-1417), tom. xxiv. p. 969. 5. Petroni (Pauli) Miscellanea Historica Romana (A. D. 1433— 1446), tom. xxiv. p. 1101. 6. Volaterrani (Jacob.) Diarium Rom. (A. D. 1472-1484), tom. xxiii. p. 81. 7. Anonymi Diarium Urbis Romæ (A.D. 1481–1492), tom. iii, P. ii. p. 1069. 8. Infeffuræ (Stephani) Diarium Romanum (A. D. 1294, or 1378-1494), tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1109. 9. Hiftoria Arcana Alexandri VI. five Excerpta ex Diario Joh. Burcardi (A. D. 1492-1503), edita a Godefr. Gulielm, Leibnizio, Hanover, 1697, in 4to. The large and valuable Journal of Burcard might be completed from the MSS. in different libraries of Italy and France (M. de Foncemagne, in the Memoires de l'Acad. des Infcript. tom. xvii. p. 597–606.). Except the last, all these fragments and diaries are inserted in the Collections of Muratori, my guide and master in the history of Italy, His country, and the public, are indebted to him for the following works on that subject: 1. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (A. D. 500-1500), quorum potiffima pars nunc primum in lucem prodit, &c. xxviii. vols. in folio, Milan, 1723-1738. 1751. A volume of chronological and alphabetical tables is still wanting as a key to this great work, which is yet in a disorderly and defective state. 2. Antiquitates Italia medii Ævi, vi vols. in folio, Milan, 1738-1743, in lxxy curious differtations on the manners, government, religion, &c. of the Italians of the darker ages, with a large fupplement of charters, chronicles, &c. 3. Differtioni fopra lé Antiquita Italiane, iii vols. in 4to, Milano, 1751, a free verfion by the author, which may be quoted with the fame confidence as the Latin text of the Antiquities. 4. Annali d'Italia, xviii vols. in o?avo, Milan, 1753-1756, a dry, though accurate and useful, abridgement of the history of Italy from the birth of Chrift to the middle of the xviiith century. g. Dell' Antichita Eftenfee et Italiane, ii vols. in folio, Modena, 1717. 1740. In the hiftory of this illuf trious race, the parent of our Brunfwick kings, the critic is not feduced by the loyalty or gratitude of the subject. In all his works, Muratori approves himself a diligent and laborious writer, who afpires above the prejudices of a Catholic prieft. He was born in the year 1672, and died in the year 1750, after paffing near fixty years in the libraries of Milan and Modena (Vita del Proposta Ludovico Antonio Muratori, by his nephew and fucceffor Gian Francesco Soli Muratori, Venezia, 1756, in 45o), CHA P. LXXI. Profpect of the Ruins of Rome in the Fifteenth Cen- IN the laf, of p, the Turned Poggito and [N the laft days of pope Eugenius the fourth, CHA P. themselves among a friend, afcended the Capitoline hill; repofed the ruins of columns and temples; and viewed from that commanding fpot the wide and various profpect of defolation. The place and the object gave ample scope for moralifing on the viciffitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave; and it was agreed, that in proportion to her former greatnefs, the fall of Rome was the more awful and deplorable. "Her primæval state, "fuch as fhe might appear in a remote age, when "Evander entertained the ftranger of Troy, has ▾ I have already (not. 50, 51. on chap. 65.) mentioned the age, character, and writings of Poggius; and particularly noticed the date of this elegant moral lecture on the varieties of fortune. 2 Confedimus in ipfis Tarpeia arcis ruinis, pone ingens portæ cujufdam, ut puto, templi, marmoreum limen, plurimafque paf fim confractas columnas, unde magnâ ex parte profpectus urbis patet, p. 5.). Eneid viii. 97-369. This ancient picture, so artfully introduced, and fo exquifitely finished, must have been highly interefting to an inhabitant of Rome; and our early ftudies allow us to ympathife in the feelings of a Roman, "been LXXI. View and of Poggius difcourfe from the Capitoline hill, A. D. 1430. CHAP. LXXI. "been delineated by the fancy of Virgil. This "Tarpeian rock was then a favage and folitary "thicket in the time of the poet, it was crowned "with the golden roofs of a temple; the temple " is overthrown, the gold has been pillaged, the wheel of fortune has accomplished her revo lution, and the facred ground is again dif"figured with thorns and brambles. The hill of દ "the Capitol, on which we fit, was formerly the "head of the Roman empire, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings; illuftrated by the footsteps of fo many triumphs, enriched with "the fpoils and tributes of so many nations. "This fpectacle of the world, how is it fallen! “how changed! how defaced! the path of vicr tory is obliterated by vines, and the benches of the fenators are concealed by a dunghill. Caft your eyes on the Palatine hill, and feek among the fhapelefs and enormous frag "ments, the marble theatre, the obelisks, the coloffal ftatues, the porticoes of Nero's palace: furvey the other hills of the city, the vacant fpace is interrupted only by ruins and gardens. The forum of the Roman people, where "they affembled to enact their laws and elect "their magiftrates, is now enclofed for the culti vation of pot-herbs, or thrown open for the "reception of fwine and buffaloes. The public "and private edifices, that were founded for દર eternity, lie proftrate, naked, and broken, "like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the « ruin is the more vifible, from the ftupendous "relics relics that have furvived the injuries of time CHAP. "and fortune "." These relics are minutely defcribed by Poggius, one of the first who raised his eyes from the monuments of legendary, to thofe of claffic, fuperftition. 1. Besides a bridge, an arch, a fepulchre, and the pyramid of Ceftius, he could difcern, of the age of the republic, a double row of vaults in the falt-office of the Capitol, which were infcribed with the name and munificence of Catulus. 2. Eleven temples were visible in some degree, from the perfect form of the Pantheon, to the three arches and a marble column of the temple of peace, which Vefpafian erected after the civil wars and the Jewish triumph. 3. Of the number, which he rafhly defines, of feven therma or public baths, none were fufficiently entire to reprefent the ufe and diftribution of the feveral parts; but thofe of Diocletian and Antoninus Caracalla ftill retained the titles of the founders, and aftonished the curious fpectator, who, in obferving their folidity and extent, the variety of marbles, the fize and multitude of the columns, compared the labour and expence with the ufe and importance. Of the baths of Conftantine, of Alexander, of Domitian, or rather of Titus, fome veftige might yet be found. 4. The triumphal arches of Titus, Severus, and Constantine, were entire, both the ftructure and the 4 Capitolium adeo .... immutatum ut vinex in fenatorum fubfellia fuccefferint, ftercorum ac purgamentorum receptaculum factum. Refpice ad Palatinum montem . . . . vafta rudera..., cæteros colles perluftra omnia vacua ædificiis, ruinis vineisque oppleta confpicies (Poggius de Varietat. Fortunæ, p. 21.)... ́s See Poggius, p. 8-22. infcriptions; LXXI. His defcription of the ruins. 3 |