The Italians are a fanciful people, who have often mixed a grain or two
of pleasantry and even of folly with their wisdom. This fanciful
character betrays itself in their architecture, in their poetry, in
their extemporary comedy, and their _Improvisatori_; but an instance
not yet accounted for of this national levity, appears in those
denominations of exquisite absurdity given by themselves to their
Academies! I have in vain inquired for any assignable reason why the
most ingenious men, and grave and illustrious personages, cardinals, and
princes, as well as poets, scholars, and artists, in every literary
city, should voluntarily choose to burlesque themselves and their
serious occupations, by affecting mysterious or ludicrous titles, as if
it were carnival-time, and they had to support masquerade characters,
and accepting such titles as we find in the cant style of our own vulgar
clubs, the Society of "Odd Fellows," and of "Eccentrics!" A principle so
whimsical but systematic must surely have originated in some
circumstance not hitherto detected.
A literary friend, recently in an Italian city exhausted by the
_sirocco_, entered a house whose open door and circular seats appeared
to offer to passengers a refreshing _sorbetto_; he discovered, however,
that he had got into "the Academy of the Cameleons," where they met to
delight their brothers, and any "spirito gentil" they could nail to a
recitation. An invitation to join the academicians alarmed him, for with
some impatient prejudice against these little creatures, vocal with
_prose e rime_, and usually with odes and sonnets begged for, or
purloined for the occasion, he waived all further curiosity and
courtesy, and has returned home without any information how these
"Cameleons" looked, when changing their colours in an "_accademia_."
Such literary institutions, prevalent in Italy, are the spurious remains
of those numerous academies which simultaneously started up in that
country about the sixteenth century. They assumed the most ridiculous
denominations, and a great number is registered by Quadrio and
Tiraboschi. Whatever was their design, one cannot fairly reproach them,
as Mencken, in his "Charlatanaria Eruditorum," seems to have thought,
for pompous quackery; neither can we attribute to their modesty their
choice of senseless titles, for to have degraded their own exalted
pursuits was but folly! Literary history affords no parallel to this
national absurdity of the refined Italians. Who could have suspected
that the most eminent scholars, and men of genius, were associates of
the _Oziosi_, the _Fantastici_, the _Insensati_? Why should Genoa boast
of her "Sleepy," Yiterbo of her "Obstinates," Sienna of her "Insipids,"
her "Blockheads," and her "Thunderstruck;" and Naples of her "Furiosi:"
while Macerata exults in her "Madmen chained?" Both Quadrio and
Tiraboschi cannot deny that these fantastical titles have occasioned
these Italian academies to appear very ridiculous to the _oltramontani_;
but these valuable historians are no philosophical thinkers. They
apologise for this bad taste, by describing the ardour which was kindled
throughout Italy at the restoration of letters and the fine arts, so
that every one, and even every man of genius, were eager to enrol their
names in these academies, and prided themselves in bearing their
emblems, that is, the distinctive arms each academy had chosen. But why
did they mystify themselves?
Folly, once become national, is a vigorous plant, which sheds abundant
seed. The consequence of having adopted ridiculous titles for these
academies suggested to them many other characteristic fopperies. At
Florence every brother of the "Umidi" assumed the name of something
aquatic, or any quality pertaining to humidity. One was called "the
Frozen," another "the Damp;" one was "the Pike," another "the Swan:" and
Grazzini, the celebrated novelist, is known better by the cognomen of
_La Lasca_, "the Roach," by which he whimsically designates himself
among the "Humids." I find among the _Insensati_, one man of learning
taking the name of STORDIDO _Insensato_, another TENEBROSO _Insensato_.
The famous Florentine academy of _La Crusca_, amidst their grave labours
to sift and purify their language, threw themselves headlong into this
vortex of folly. Their title, the academy of "Bran," was a conceit to
indicate their art of sifting; but it required an Italian prodigality of
conceit to have induced these grave scholars to exhibit themselves in
the burlesque scenery of a pantomimical academy, for their furniture
consists of a mill and a bakehouse; a pulpit for the orator is a hopper,
while the learned director sits on a mill-stone; the other seats have
the forms of a miller's dossers, or great panniers, and the backs
consist of the long shovels used in ovens. The table is a baker's
kneading-trough, and the academician who reads has half his body thrust
out of a great bolting sack, with I know not what else for their
inkstands and portfolios. But the most celebrated of these academies is
that "degli Arcadi," at Rome, who are still carrying on their
pretensions much higher. Whoever aspires to be aggregated to these
Arcadian shepherds receives a personal name and a title, but not the
deeds, of a farm, picked out of a map of the ancient Arcadia or its
environs; for Arcadia itself soon became too small a possession for
these partitioners of moon-shine. Their laws, modelled by the twelve
tables of the ancient Romans; their language in the venerable majesty of
their renowned ancestors; and this erudite democracy dating by the
Grecian Olympiads, which Crescembini, their first _custode_, or
guardian, most painfully adjusted to the vulgar era, were designed that
the sacred erudition of antiquity might for ever be present among these
shepherds.[305] Goldoni, in his Memoirs, has given an amusing account of
these honours. He says "He was presented with two diplomas; the one was
my charter of aggregation to the _Arcadi_ of Rome, under the name of
_Polisseno_, the other gave me the investiture of the _Phlegræan_
fields. I was on this saluted by the whole assembly in chorus, under the
name of _Polisseno Phlegræio,_ and embraced by them as a fellow-shepherd
and brother. The _Arcadians_ are very rich, as you may perceive, my dear
reader: we possess estates in Greece; we water them with our labours for
the sake of reaping laurels, and the Turks sow them with grain, and
plant them with vines, and laugh at both our titles and our songs." When
Fontenelle became an Arcadian, they baptized the new _Pastor_ by their
graceful diminutive--_Fontanella_--allusive to the charm, of his style;
and further they magnificently presented him with the entire Isle of
Delos! The late Joseph Walker, an enthusiast for Italian literature,
dedicated his "Memoir on Italian Tragedy" to the Countess Spencer; not
inscribing it with his Christian but his heathen name, and the title of
his Arcadian estate, _Eubante Tirinzio_! Plain Joseph Walker, in his
masquerade dress, with his Arcadian signet of Pan's reeds dangling in
his title-page, was performing a character to which, however well
adapted, not being understood, he got stared at for his affectation! We
have lately heard of some licentious revellings of these Arcadians, in
receiving a man of genius from our own country, who, himself composing
Italian _Rime_, had "conceit" enough to become a shepherd![306] Yet let
us inquire before we criticise.
Even this ridiculous society of the Arcadians became a memorable
literary institution; and Tiraboschi has shown how it successfully
arrested the bad taste which was then prevailing throughout Italy,
recalling its muses to purer sources; while the lives of many of its
shepherds have furnished an interesting volume of literary history under
the title of "The illustrious Arcadians." Crescembini, and its founders,
had formed the most elevated conceptions of the society at its origin;
but poetical vaticinators are prophets only while we read their
verses--we must not look for that dry matter of fact--the event
predicted!
Il vostro seme eterno
Occuperà la terra, ed i confini
D'Arcadia oltrapassando,
Di non più visti gloriosi germi
L'aureo feconderà lito del Gange
E de' Cimmeri l'infeconde arene.
Mr. Mathias has recently with warmth defended the original _Arcadia_;
and the assumed character of its members, which has been condemned as
betraying their affectation, he attributes to their modesty. "Before the
critics of the Arcadia (the _pastori_, as they modestly styled
themselves) with Crescembini for their conductor, and with the _Adorato
Albano_ for their patron (Clement XI.), all that was depraved in
language and in sentiment fled and disappeared."
The strange taste for giving fantastical denominations to literary
institutions grew into a custom, though, probably, no one knew how. The
founders were always persons of rank or learning, yet still accident or
caprice created the mystifying title, and invented those appropriate
emblems, which still added to the folly. The Arcadian society derived
its title from a spontaneous conceit. This assembly first held its
meetings, on summer evenings, in a meadow on the banks of the Tiber; for
the fine climate of Italy promotes such assemblies in the open air. In
the recital of an eclogue, an enthusiast, amidst all he was hearing and
all he was seeing, exclaimed, "I seem at this moment to be in the
Arcadia of ancient Greece, listening to the pure and simple strains of
its shepherds." Enthusiasm is contagious amidst susceptible Italians,
and this name, by inspiration and by acclamation, was conferred on the
society! Even more recently, at Florence, the _accademia_ called the
_Colombaria_, or the "Pigeon-house," proves with what levity the
Italians name a literary society. The founder was the Cavallero Pazzi,
a gentleman, who, like Morose, abhorring noise, chose for his study a
garret in his palazzo; it was, indeed, one of the old turrets which had
not yet fallen in: there he fixed his library, and there he assembled
the most ingenious Florentines to discuss obscure points, and to reveal
their own contributions in this secret retreat of silence and
philosophy. To get to this cabinet it was necessary to climb a very
steep and very narrow staircase, which occasioned some facetious wit to
observe, that these literati were so many pigeons who flew every evening
to their dovecot. The Cavallero Pazzi, to indulge this humour, invited
them to a dinner entirely composed of their little brothers, in all the
varieties of cookery; the members, after a hearty laugh, assumed the
title of the _Colombaria_, invented a device consisting of the top of a
turret, with several pigeons flying about it, bearing an epigraph from
Dante, _Quanto veder si può_, by which they expressed their design not
to apply themselves to any single object. Such facts sufficiently prove
that some of the absurd or facetious denominations of these literary
societies originated in accidental circumstances or in mere pleasantry;
but this will not account for the origin of those mystifying titles we
have noticed; for when grave men call themselves dolts or lunatics,
unless they are really so, they must have some reason for laughing at
themselves.
To attempt to develope this curious but obscure singularity in literary
history, we must go further back among the first beginnings of these
institutions. How were they looked on by the governments in which they
first appeared? These academies might, perhaps, form a chapter in the
history of secret societies, one not yet written, but of which many
curious materials lie scattered in history. It is certain that such
literary societies, in their first origins, have always excited the
jealousy of governments, but more particularly in ecclesiastical Rome,
and the rival principalities of Italy. If two great nations, like those
of England and France, had their suspicions and fears roused by a select
assembly of philosophical men, and either put them down by force, or
closely watched them, this will not seem extraordinary in little
despotic states. We have accounts of some philosophical associations at
home, which were joined by Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Walter Raleigh, but
which soon got the odium of atheism attached to them; and the
establishment of the French Academy occasioned some umbrage, for a year
elapsed before the parliament of Paris would register their patent,
which was at length accorded by the political Richelieu observing to the
president, that "he should like the members according as the members
liked him." Thus we have ascertained one principle, that governments in
those times looked on a new society with a political glance; nor is it
improbable that some of them combined an ostensible with a latent
motive.
There is no want of evidence to prove that the modern Romans, from the
thirteenth to the fifteenth century, were too feelingly alive to their
obscured glory, and that they too frequently made invidious comparisons
of their ancient republic with the pontifical government; to revive
Rome, with everything Roman, inspired such enthusiasts as Rienzi, and
charmed the visions of Petrarch. At a period when ancient literature, as
if by a miracle, was raising itself from its grave, the learned were
agitated by a correspondent energy; not only was an estate sold to
purchase a manuscript, but the relic of genius was touched with a
religious emotion. The classical purity of Cicero was contrasted with
the barbarous idiom of the Missal; the glories of ancient Rome with the
miserable subjugation of its modern pontiffs; and the metaphysical
reveries of Plato, and what they termed the "Enthusiasmus
Alexandrinus"--the dreams of the Platonists--seemed to the fanciful
Italians more elevated than the humble and pure ethics of the Gospels.
The vain and amorous Eloisa could even censure the gross manners, as it
seemed to her, of the apostles, for picking the ears of corn in their
walks, and at their meals eating with unwashed hands. Touched by this
mania of antiquity, the learned affected to change their vulgar
Christian name, by assuming the more classical ones of a Junius Brutus,
a Pomponius, or a Julius, or any other rusty name unwashed by baptism.
This frenzy for the ancient republic not only menaced the pontificate,
but their Platonic or their pagan ardours seemed to be striking at the
foundation of Christianity itself. Such were Marcellus Ficinus, and that
learned society who assembled under the Medici. Pomponius Lætus, who
lived at the close of the fifteenth century, not only celebrated by an
annual festival the foundation of Rome, and raised altars to Romulus,
but openly expressed his contempt for the Christian religion, which this
visionary declared was only fit for barbarians; but this extravagance
and irreligion, observes Niceron, were common with many of the learned
of those times, and this very Pomponius was at length formally accused
of the crime of changing the baptismal names of the young persons whom
he taught for pagan ones! "This was the taste of the times," says the
author we have just quoted; but it was imagined that there was a mystery
concealed in these changes of names.
At this period these literary societies first appear: one at Rome had
the title of "Academy," and for its chief this very Pomponius; for he is
distinguished as "Romanæ Princeps Academiæ," by his friend Politian, in
the "Miscellanea" of that elegant scholar. This was under the
pontificate of Paul the Second. The regular meetings of "the Academy"
soon excited the jealousy and suspicions of Paul, and gave rise to one
of the most horrid persecutions and scenes of torture, even to death, in
which these academicians were involved. This closed with a decree of
Paul's, that for the future no one should pronounce, either seriously or
in jest, the very name of _academy_, under the penalty of heresy! The
story is told by Platina, one of the sufferers, in his Life of Paul the
Second; and although this history may be said to bear the bruises of the
wounded and dislocated body of the unhappy historian, the facts are
unquestionable, and connected with our subject. Platina, Pomponius, and
many of their friends, were suddenly dragged to prison; on the first and
second day torture was applied, and many expired under the hands of
their executioners. "You would have imagined," says Platina, "that the
castle of St. Angelo was turned into the bull of Phalaris, so loud the
hollow vault resounded with the cries of those miserable young men, who
were an honour to their age for genius and learning. The torturers, not
satisfied, though weary, having racked twenty men in these two days, of
whom some died, at length sent for me to take my turn. The instruments
of torture were ready; I was stripped, and the executioners put
themselves to their work. Vianesius sat like another Minos on a seat of
tapestry-work, gay as at a wedding; and while I hung on the rack in
torment, he played with a jewel which Sanga had, asking him who was the
mistress which had given him this love-token? Turning to me, he asked,
'why Pomponio, in a letter, should call me Holy Father? Did the
conspirators agree to make you pope?' 'Pomponio,' I replied, 'can best
tell why he gave me this title, for I know not.' At length, having
pleased, but not satisfied himself with my tortures, he ordered me to
be let down, that I might undergo tortures much greater in the evening.
I was carried, half dead, into my chamber; but not long after, the
inquisitor having dined, and being fresh in drink, I was fetched again,
and the archbishop of Spalatro was there. They inquired of my
conversations with Malatesta. I said it only concerned ancient and
modern learning, the military arts, and the characters of illustrious
men, the ordinary subjects of conversation. I was bitterly threatened by
Vianesius, unless I confessed the truth on the following day, and was
carried back to my chamber, where I was seized with such extreme pain,
that I had rather have died than endured the agony of my battered and
dislocated limbs. But now those who were accused of heresy were charged
with plotting treason. Pomponius being examined why he changed the names
of his friends, he answered boldly, that this was no concern of his
judges or the pope; it was, perhaps, out of respect for antiquity, to
stimulate to a virtuous emulation. After we had now lain ten months in
prison, Paul comes himself to the castle, where he charged us, among
other things, that we had disputed concerning the immortality of the
soul, and that we held the opinion of Plato; by disputing you call the
being of a God in question. This, I said, might be objected to all
divines and philosophers, who, to make the truth appear, frequently
question the existence of souls and of God, and of all separate
intelligences. St. Austin says, the opinion of Plato is like the faith
of Christians. I followed none of the numerous heretical factions. Paul
then accused us of being too great admirers of pagan antiquities; yet
none were more fond of them than himself, for he collected all the
statues and sarcophagi of the ancients to place in his palace, and even
affected to imitate, on more than one occasion, the pomp and charm of
their public ceremonies. While they were arguing, mention happened to be
made of 'the Academy,' when the Cardinal of San Marco cried out, that we
were not 'Academics,' but a scandal to the name; and Paul now declared
that he would not have that term evermore mentioned under pain of
heresy. He left us in a passion, and kept us two months longer in prison
to complete the year, as it seems he had sworn."
Such is the interesting narrative of Platina, from which we may surely
infer, that if these learned men assembled for the communication of
their studies--inquiries suggested by the monuments of antiquity, the
two learned languages, ancient authors, and speculative points of
philosophy--these objects were associated with others which terrified
the jealousy of modern Rome.
Some time after, at Naples, appeared the two brothers, John Baptiste and
John Vincent Porta, those twin spirits, the Castor and Pollux of the
natural philosophy of that age, and whose scenical museum delighted and
awed, by its optical illusions, its treasure of curiosities, and its
natural magic, all learned natives and foreigners. Their names are still
famous, and their treatises, _De Humana Physiognomia_ and _Magia
Naturalis_, are still opened by the curious, who discover these children
of philosophy wandering in the arcana of nature, to them a world of
perpetual beginnings! These learned brothers united with the Marquis of
Manso, the friend of Tasso, in establishing an academy under the
whimsical name _degli Oziosi_ (the Lazy), which so ill-described their
intentions. This academy did not sufficiently embrace the views of the
learned brothers; and then they formed another under their own roof,
which they appropriately named _degli Secreti_. The ostensible motive
was, that no one should be admitted into this interior society who had
not signalised himself by some experiment or discovery. It is clear
that, whatever they intended by the project, the election of the members
was to pass through the most rigid scrutiny; and what was the
consequence? The court of Rome again started up with all its fears, and,
secretly obtaining information of some discussions which had passed in
this academy _degli Secreti_, prohibited the Porta's from holding such
assemblies, or applying themselves to those illicit sciences, whose
amusements are criminal, and turn us aside from the study of the Holy
Scriptures.[307] It seems that one of the Porta's had delivered himself
in the style of an ancient oracle; but what was more alarming in this
prophetical spirit, several of his predictions had been actually
verified! The infallible court was in no want of a new school of
prophecy. Baptista Porta went to Rome to justify himself; and, content
to wear his head, placed his tongue in the custody of his Holiness, and
no doubt preferred being a member of the _Accademia degli Oziosi_ to
that _degli Secreti_. To confirm this notion that these academies
excited the jealousy of those despotic states of Italy, I find that
several of them, at Florence as well as at Sienna, were considered as
dangerous meetings, and in 1568 the Medici suddenly suppressed those of
the "Insipids," the "Shy," the "Disheartened," and others, but more
particularly the "Stunned," _gli Intronati_, which excited loud laments.
We have also an account of an academy which called itself the
_Lanternists_, from the circumstance that their first meetings were held
at night, the academicians not carrying torches, but only _Lanterns_.
This academy, indeed, was at Toulouse, but evidently formed on the model
of its neighbours. In fine, it cannot be denied that these literary
societies or academies were frequently objects of alarm to the little
governments of Italy, and were often interrupted by political
persecution.
From all these facts I am inclined to draw an inference. It is
remarkable that the first Italian academies were only distinguished by
the simple name of their founders. One was called the Academy of
Pomponius Lætus, another of Panormita, &c. It was after the melancholy
fate of the Roman academy of Lætus, which could not, however, extinguish
that growing desire of creating literary societies in the Italian
cities, from which the members derived both honour and pleasure, that
suddenly we discover these academies bearing the most fantastical
titles. I have not found any writer who has attempted to solve this
extraordinary appearance in literary history; and the difficulty seems
great, because, however frivolous or fantastical the titles they
assumed, their members were illustrious for rank and genius. Tiraboschi,
aware of this difficulty, can only express his astonishment at the
absurdity, and his vexation at the ridicule to which the Italians have
been exposed by the coarse jokes of Menkenius, in his _Charlatanaria
Eruditorum_.[308] I conjecture that the invention of these ridiculous
titles for literary societies was an attempt to throw a sportive veil
over meetings which had alarmed the papal and the other petty courts of
Italy; and to quiet their fears and turn aside their political wrath,
they implied the innocence of their pursuits by the jocularity with
which the members treated themselves, and were willing that others
should treat them. This otherwise inexplicable national levity, of so
refined a people, has not occurred in any other country, because the
necessity did not exist anywhere but in Italy. In France, in Spain, and
in England, the title of the ancient Academus was never profaned by an
adjunct which systematically degraded and ridiculed its venerable
character and its illustrious members.
Long after this article was finished, I had an opportunity of consulting
an eminent Italian, whose name is already celebrated in our country, Il
Sigr. Ugo Foscolo;[309] his decision ought necessarily to outweigh mine;
but although it is incumbent on me to put the reader in possession of
the opinion of a native of his high acquirements, it is not as easy for
me, on this obscure and curious subject, to relinquish my own
conjecture.
Il Sigr. Foscolo is of opinion that the origin of the fantastical titles
assumed by the Italian academies entirely arose from a desire of getting
rid of the air of pedantry, and to insinuate that their meetings and
their works were to be considered merely as sportive relaxations, and an
idle business.
This opinion may satisfy an Italian, and this he may deem a sufficient
apology for such absurdity; but when scarlet robes and cowled heads,
laureated bards and _Monsignores_, and _Cavalleros_, baptize themselves
in a public assembly "Blockheads" or "Madmen," we _ultramontanes_, out
of mere compliment to such great and learned men, would suppose that
they had their good reasons; and that in this there must have been
"something more than meets the ear." After all, I would almost flatter
myself that our two opinions are not so wide of each other as they at
first seem to be.