Sir,--The high value of your Journal as a repertory of interesting
literary information, which without it might be lost to the world, is
becoming daily more apparent from the number and character of your
correspondents. You have my best wishes for its success.
The communication of Sir FREDERICK MADDEN respecting the singular and
obvious error in Marin Sanuto's _Lives of the Doges of Venice_, has
renewed in me a desire for information which I have hitherto been unable
to obtain; and I will, therefore, with your permission, put it here as a
_Query_.
Who was the _foreigner_ who gave to the world the very interesting book
respecting _Sanuto_ under the following title?--_Ragguagli sulla Vita e
sulle Opere di Marin Sanuto, &c. Intitolati dall' amicizia di_ _uno
Straniere al nobile Jacopo Vicenzo Foscarini.--Opera divise in trè
perti_, Venezia, 1837-8. in 8vo.
The able writer has noticed that the very mutilated and incorrect manner
in which Muratori has printed all that he has given of Sanuto, and
especially _Le Vite de' Dogi_, of which the original copy still remains
inedited in the Estensian Library at Modena. There can be no doubt that
some ignorant or indolent transcriber made the mistake of _iudeo_ for
_richo_, so satisfactorily and happily elucidated by SIR FREDERICK
MADDEN. How much it is to be regretted that the _Diary_ of Sanuto, so
remarkable for it simplicity and ingenuous truthful air, should still
remain inedited. It relates to an epoch among the most interesting of
Modern History, and the extracts given in the _Ragguagli_ only make us
wish for more.
From this Diary it appears that the Valori were among the most
distinguished citizens of a state which could boast that its merchants
were princes. The palace they inhabited is no known by the name of the
Altoviti, its more recent owners, and many of the tombs of the Valori
are to be found in the church of St. Proculus. Macchiavelli mentions
Bartolomeo Valori among the _Cittadini d' autorita_, and, according to
Nardi, he was Gonfaloniere in the first two months of the years 1402,
1408, and 1420. He was also one of the Platonic Academy that Ficino
assembled around him. In this Diary of Sanuto will be found many minute
and interesting details respecting Savonarola, and the relation of the
tragical death of Francisco Valor, who had also been several times
Gontaloniere, and whom Savonarola, in his confession, said it was his
intention to have made perpetual Dictator.
I would have given a specimen of this very interesting diary, but that I
scrupled to occupy space which your correspondents enable you to fill so
effectively, for I fully subscribe to the dictum of the
_Ragguagliatore_, "Il Sanuto si presenta come la Scott degli Storiei,
compincendosi come Sir Walter delle giostre, delle feste, e delle
narrazioni piacevole e di dolce pietà.