as Cardan's process. Establishment of Jesuit col leges, in which religion formed a part of the system of teaching. Completion of the Cathedral of St. Peter's in 1614; it was dedicated by Pope Urban VIII. in 1626. Cultivation of the Mock-heroic by Tassoni (1565-1635), whose cele brated poem, "Secchia livered," which Balzac has pronounced the richest and most finished work since the age of Augustus. All Europe rang with his praises; Spenser translated and imitated much from him, and poets of all countries studied his poem. But while thus lauded by the world, Tasso languished in a dungeon at Ferrara, where he had been confined by Duke Alphonso on account of insanity. His madness, whether real or not, and his love-affair with Leonora, are clouded with uncertainty. After seven years of imprisonment he was released, and from that time to his death wandered about, a suspicious, gloomy, disappointed dupe of misfortune. "Jerusalem Delivered" celebrates the Rapita" (Rape events of the campaign of 1099 in the first Crusade, and vividly portrays the sentiments and superstitions which inspired Europe in undertaking the most giItalian cities in gantic military expeditions the world has ever witnessed. It is one of the world's poems. From the bucolics and rude eclogues of his predecessors Tasso developed the Pastoral Drama, and his “Aminta" was the first excellent specimen of this kind of composition. The work had many imitators, of whom the most famous was Battista Guarini (1537-1612), whose "Pastor Fido" was considered as second only to Tasso's production. Theatrical music was employed in the acts of this drama, and in one scene united with dancing, thus opening the way for the Italian Opera. of the Bucket) is a burlesque on the petty wars so common between the thirteenth and fourteenth the satellites of he succeeded Decline of Poetry under the Seicentisti. Marini.— Popular Italian literature of the greater part of the seventeenth century was so full of extravagant metaphors and concetti that the word "seicentisti" (writers of the seventeenth century) has become almost a synonyme for false and vitiated taste. The seduction Galileo as Pro- of Italian poets, and even of those of all Europe, is attributed to Marini (1569-1625), who in his lifetime enjoyed greater popularity than either Dante, Petrarch, or Tasso. His most celebrated performance, Adonis," is one of the longest poems in existence, and, though characterized by an easy and graceful versification, is destitute of interest. A good fessor of Math ematics at the Academy of Florence. Salvator Rosa (1615-1673), a celebrated painter of the wild scenery of nature, storms, etc. 66 |