(Vol. ii., p. 247.)
The work entitled _The Adventures of Sig. Gaudentio di Lucca_ was
published at London in 1737, in 1 vol. 8vo. It purports to be a
translation from the Italian, by E.T. Gent but this is a mere fiction.
The work is evidently an English composition. It belongs to the class of
_Voyages Imaginaires_, and its main object is to describe the
institutions and manners of the Mezoranians, an Utopian community,
supposed to exist in the centre of Africa. Sig. Gaudentio is able, by an
accident, to visit this people, by the way of Egypt, and to return to
Europe; he resides at Bologna, where he falls under the suspicion of the
Inquisition, and having been brought before that tribunal, he describes
his former life, and his adventures in the country of the Mezoranians.
A second London edition of this work, of the date of 1748, is mentioned
in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for Jan. 1777. There is an edition in
12mo., printed at Edinburgh, 1761. And there is another London edition,
in 8vo., of the year 1786. Copies of the editions of 1737 and 1786 are
in the British Museum.
There are two French translations of the work. One is of the date 1746,
under the title of _Mémoires de Gaudentio di Lucca_. The second, of
1754, by M. Dupuy Demportes, speaks of the first having been made by an
Englishman named _Milts_; but the person and name appear to be
fictitious. The first translation is said by Barbier, _Dict. des
Anonymes_, No. 11,409, to have been revised by the Chevalier de Saint
Germain, who made additions to it of his own invention. The second
translation is reprinted in the collection of _Voyages Imaginaires_,
Amsterdam et Paris, 1787, tom. vi.
An anonymous writer in the _Gent. Mag._ for Jan. 1777, vol. xlvii., p.
13., speaking of Bishop Berkeley, says that "the _Adventures of Signor
Gaudentio di Lucca_ have been generally attributed to him." The writer
of the note added to the _Life of Berkeley_ in Kippis's _Biogr. Brit._,
1780, vol. ii. p. 261., quotes this statement, and adds that the work is
ascribed to him by the booksellers in their printed catalogues. This
writer thinks that the authorship of Bp. Berkeley is consistent with the
internal evidence of the book but he furnishes no positive testimony on
the subject. {299}
In a letter from Mr. J.C. Walker to Mr. Pinkerton, of 19 Jan., 1799
(published in Pinkerton's _Literary Correspondence_, vol. ii., p. 41.),
Lord Charlemont is referred to as believing that Gaudentio di Lucca is
founded in fact; that Bishop Berkeley, when he was at Cairo, conversed
with persons who had attended a caravan, and that he learned from them
what he narrated in the account of Gaudentio. This passage is cited in
Southey's _Common-place Book_, p. 204; but the work is manifestly
fictitious, and it does not appear that Berkeley, though he twice
visited the Continent, was ever out of Europe.
The date of the publication of Gaudentio is quite consistent with the
authorship of Berkeley, who died in 1753; but the notice in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ only proves the existence of a rumour to that
effect; and the authentic _Life of Berkeley_, by Dr. Stock, chiefly
drawn up from materials communicated by Dr. R. Berkeley, brother to the
Bishop, and prefixed to the collected edition of his work (2 vols. 4to.
Lond., 1784), makes no allusion to Gaudentio. There is nothing in the
contents of this work which renders it likely that the authorship should
have been carefully concealed by Bp. Berkeley and his family, if he had
really been the author. The literary execution of Gaudentio is good; and
it is probable that the speculative character of the work, and the fact
that Berkeley had visited Italy, suggested the idea that he had composed
it. The belief that Bishop Berkeley was the author of _Gaudentio di
Lucca_ may therefore be considered as unauthorised.
The copy of the edition of _Gaudentio_ of 1786, which is preserved in
the British Museum, contains in the title-page the following note, in
pencil:
"Written originally in English by Dr. Swale of Huntingdon. See
_Gent. Mag._ 1786."
The _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1786 does not, however, contain any
information about the authorship of _Gaudentio_; and the name of Dr.
Swale appears to be unknown in literary history. At the same time, a
positive entry of this sort, with respect to an obscure person,
doubtless had some foundation. On the authority of this note, Dr. Swale
is registered as the author of Gaudentio in the printed catalogue of the
British Museum Library, whence it has passed into Watt's _Bibl. Brit._
Perhaps some of your correspondents, who are connected with Huntingdon,
may be able to throw some light on Dr. Swale.
Lastly, it should be added, that the writer of the article "Berkeley,"
in the _Biographic Universelle_, adverts to the fact that _Gaudentio di
Lucca_ has been attributed to him: he proceeds, however, to say that--
"The author of a Life of Berkeley affirms that Berkeley is not
the author of that book, which he supposes to have been written
by a Catholic priest imprisoned in the Tower of London."
I have been unable to trace the origin of this statement; nor do I know
what is the _Life of Berkeley_, to which the writer in the _Biogr.
Univ._ refers. The Life published under the direction of his family
makes no allusion to Gaudentio, or to the belief that it was composed by
Bishop Berkeley.
The _Encyclopédie Méthodique_, div. "Econ. pol. et dipl." (Paris, 1784),
tom. I. p. 89., mentions the following work:--
"La République des Philosophes, ou l'Histoire des Ajaoiens,
relation d'un voyage du Chevalier S. van Doelvett en Orient en
l'an 1674, qui contient la description du Gouvernement, de la
Religion, et des Moeurs des Ajaoiens."
It is stated that this romance, though composed a century before, had
only been lately published. The editor attributed it to Fontenelle, but
(as the writer in the _Encycl. Méth._ thinks) probably without reason.
The title of Berkeley to the authorship of Gaudentio has doubtless no
better foundation.