In 1819 Manzoni published his first tragedy, _Il Conte di Carmagnola_, which, boldly violating all classical conventionalisms, excited a lively controversy. It was severely criticized in the _Quarterly Review_, in an article to which Goethe replied in its defence, "one genius," as Count de Gubernatis remarks, "having divined the other." The death of Napoleon in 1821 inspired Manzoni's powerful stanzas _Il Cinque maggio_, the most popular lyric in the Italian language. The political events of that year, and the imprisonment of many of his friends, weighed much on Manzoni's mind, and the historical studies in which he sought distraction during his subsequent retirement at Brusuglio suggested his great work. Round the episode of the _Innominato_, historically identified with Bernardino Visconti, the novel _I Promessi sposi_ began to grow into shape, and was completed in September 1822. The work when published, after revision by friends in 1825-1827, at the rate of a volume a year, at once raised its author to the first rank of literary fame. In 1822, Manzoni published his second tragedy _Adelchi_, turning on the overthrow by Charlemagne of the Lombard domination in Italy, and containing many veiled allusions to the existing Austrian rule. With these works Manzoni's literary career was practically closed. But he laboriously revised _I Promessi sposi_ in the Tuscan idiom, and in 1840 republished it in that form, with a sort of sequel, _La Storia della Colonna infame_, of very inferior interest. He also wrote a small treatise on the Italian language. Entry: MANZONI
The treatise _De vulgari eloquentia_, in two books, also in Latin, is mentioned in the _Convito_. Its object was first to establish the Italian language as a literary tongue, and to distinguish the noble or "courtly" speech which might become the property of the whole nation, at once a bond of internal unity and a line of demarcation against external nations, from the local dialects peculiar to different districts; and secondly, to lay down rules for poetical composition in the language so established. The work was intended to be in four books, but only two are extant. The first of these deals with the language, the second with the style and with the composition of the canzone. The third was probably intended to continue this subject, and the fourth was destined to the laws of the ballata and sonetto. It contains much acute criticism of poetry and poetic diction. This work was first published in the Italian translation of Trissino at Vicenza in 1529. The original Latin was not published till 1577 at Paris by Jacopo Corbinelli, one of the Italians who were brought from Florence by Catherine de' Medici, from a MS. now preserved at Grenoble. The work was probably left unfinished in consequence of Dante's death. Entry: DANTE
Throughout the reign of Paul, Czartoryski was in high favour and on terms of the closest intimacy with the emperor, who in December 1798 appointed him ambassador to the court of Sardinia. On reaching Italy Czartoryski found that the monarch to whom he was accredited was a king without a kingdom, so that the outcome of his first diplomatic mission was a pleasant tour through Italy to Naples, the acquisition of the Italian language, and a careful exploration of the antiquities of Rome. In the spring of 1801 the new emperor Alexander summoned his friend back to St Petersburg. Czartoryski found the tsar still suffering from remorse at his father's assassination, and incapable of doing anything but talk religion and politics to a small circle of private friends. To all remonstrances he only replied "There's plenty of time." The senate did most of the current business; Peter Vasilevich Zavadovsky, a pupil of the Jesuits, was minister of education. Alexander appointed Czartoryski curator of the academy of Vilna (April 3, 1803) that he might give full play to his advanced ideas. He was unable, however, to give much attention to education, for from the beginning of 1804, as adjunct of foreign affairs, he had the practical control of Russian diplomacy. His first act was to protest energetically against the murder of the due d'Enghien (March 20, 1804), and insist on an immediate rupture with France. On the 7th of June the French minister Hédouville quitted St Petersburg; and on the 11th of August a note dictated by Czartoryski to Alexander was sent to the Russian minister in London, urging the formation of an anti-French coalition. It was Czartoryski also who framed the Convention of the 6th of November 1804, whereby Russia agreed to put 115,000 and Austria 235,000 men in the field against Napoleon. Finally, on the 11th of April 1805 he signed an offensive-defensive alliance with England. But his most striking ministerial act was a memorial written in 1805, but otherwise undated, which aimed at transforming the whole map of Europe. In brief it amounted to this. Austria and Prussia were to divide Germany between them. Russia was to acquire the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora, the Bosphorus with Constantinople, and Corfu. Austria was to have Bosnia, Wallachia and Ragusa. Montenegro, enlarged by Mostar and the Ionian Islands, was to form a separate state. England and Russia together were to maintain the equilibrium of the world. In return for their acquisitions in Germany, Austria and Prussia were to consent to the erection of an autonomous Polish state extending from Danzig to the sources of the Vistula, under the protection of Russia. Fantastic as it was in some particulars, this project was partly realized[2] in more recent times, and it presented the best guarantee for the independent existence of Poland which had never been able to govern itself. But in the meantime Austria had come to an understanding with England as to subsidies, and war had begun. Entry: CZARTORYSKI
The first work of Boccaccio, composed by him at Fiammetta's command, was the prose tale, _Filocopo_, describing the romantic love and adventures of Florio and Biancafiore, a favourite subject with the knightly minstrels of France, Italy and Germany. The treatment of the story by Boccaccio is not remarkable for originality or beauty, and the narrative is encumbered by classical allusions and allegorical conceits. The style also cannot be held worthy of the future great master of Italian prose. Considering, however, that this prose was in its infancy, and that this was Boccaccio's first attempt at remoulding the unwieldy material at his disposal, it would be unjust to deny that _Filocopo_ is a highly interesting work, full of promise and all but articulate power. Another work, written about the same time by Fiammetta's desire and dedicated to her, is the _Teseide_, an epic poem, and indeed the first heroic epic in the Italian language. The name is chosen somewhat inappropriately, as King Theseus plays a secondary part, and the interest of the story centres in the two noble knights, Palemone and Arcito, and their wooing of the beautiful Emelia. The _Teseide_ is of particular interest to the student of poetry, because it exhibits the first example of the _ottava rima_, a metre which was adopted by Tasso and Ariosto, and in English by Byron in _Don Juan_. Another link between Boccaccio's epic and English literature is formed by the fact of Chaucer having in the _Knight's Tale_ adopted its main features. Entry: BOCCACCIO
ISABNORMAL LINES ISMAIL HADJI MAULVI-MOHAMMED ISAEUS ISMAILIA ISAIAH ISMAY, THOMAS HENRY ISAIAH, ASCENSION OF ISMID, or ISNIKMID ISANDHLWANA ISNARD, MAXIMIN ISAR ISOBAR ISATIN ISOCLINIC LINES ISAURIA ISOCRATES ISCHIA ISODYNAMIC LINES ISCHL ISOGONIC LINES ISEO, LAKE OF ISOLA DEL LIRI ISÈRE (river in France) ISOMERISM ISÈRE (department of France) ISOTHERM ISERLOHN ISOXAZOLES ISFAHAN ISRAEL ISHIM ISRAELI, ISAAC BEN SOLOMON ISHMAEL ISRAËLS, JOSEF ISHPEMING ISSACHAR ISHTAR ISSEDONES ISHTIB ISSERLEIN, ISRAEL ISIDORE OF ALEXANDRIA ISSERLES, MOSES BEN ISRAEL ISIDORE OF SEVILLE ISSOIRE ISINGLASS ISSOUDUN ISIS ISSYK-KUL ISKELIB ISTAHBANÁT ISLA, JOSÉ FRANCISCO DE ISTHMUS ISLAM ISTRIA ISLAMABAD ISYLLUS ISLAND ITACOLUMITE ISLAY ITAGAKI, TAISUKE ISLES OF THE BLEST ITALIAN LANGUAGE ISLINGTON ITALIAN LITERATURE ISLIP ITALIAN WARS ISLY ITALIC ISMAIL Entry: ISABNORMAL
HAYDN, FRANZ JOSEPH (1732-1809), Austrian composer, was born on the 31st of March 1732 at Rohrau (Trstnik), a village on the borders of Lower Austria and Hungary. There is sufficient evidence that his family was of Croatian stock: a fact which throws light upon the distinctively Slavonic character of much of his music. He received the first rudiments of education from his father, a wheelwright with twelve children, and at an early age evinced a decided musical talent. This attracted the attention of a distant relative named Johann Mathias Frankh, who was schoolmaster in the neighbouring town of Hainburg, and who, in 1738, took the child and for the next two years trained him as a chorister. In 1740, on the recommendation of the Dean of Hainburg, Haydn obtained a place in the cathedral choir of St Stephen's, Vienna, where he took the solo-part in the services and received, at the choir school, some further instruction on the violin and the harpsichord. In 1749 his voice broke, and the director, Georg von Reutter, took the occasion of a boyish escapade to turn him into the streets. A few friends lent him money and found him pupils, and in this way he was enabled to enter upon a rigorous course of study (he is said to have worked for sixteen hours a day), partly devoted to Fux's treatise on counterpoint, partly to the "Friedrich" and "Württemberg" sonatas of C. P. E. Bach, from which he gained his earliest acquaintance with the principles of musical structure. The first fruits of his work were a comic opera, _Der neue krumme Teufel_, and a Mass in F major (both written in 1751), the former of which was produced with success. About the same time he made the acquaintance of Metastasio, who was lodging in the same house, and who introduced him to one or two patrons; among others Señor Martinez, to whose daughter he gave lessons, and Porpora, who, in 1753, took him for the summer to Männersdorf, and there gave him instruction in singing and in the Italian language. Entry: HAYDN
The time and manner of the introduction of cards into Europe are matters of dispute. The 38th canon of the council of Worcester (1240) is often quoted as evidence of cards having been known in England in the middle of the 13th century; but the games _de rege et regina_ there mentioned are now thought to have been a kind of mumming exhibition (Strutt says chess). No queen is found in the earliest European cards. In the wardrobe accounts of Edward I. (1278), Walter Stourton is paid 8s. 3d. _ad opus regis ad ludendum ad quatuor reges_, a passage which has been thought to refer to cards, but it is now supposed to mean chess, which may have been called the "game of four kings," as was the case in India (_chaturaji_). If cards were generally known in Europe as early as 1278, it is very remarkable that Petrarch, in his dialogue that treats of gaming, never once mentions them; and that, though Boccaccio, Chaucer and other writers of that time notice various games, there is not a single passage in them that can be fairly construed to refer to cards. Passages have been quoted from various works, of or relative to this period, but modern research leads to the supposition that the word rendered _cards_ has often been mistranslated or interpolated. An early mention of a distinct series of playing cards is the entry of Charles or Charbot Poupart, treasurer of the household of Charles VI. of France, in his book of accounts for 1392 or 1393, which runs thus: _Donné à Jacquemin Gringonneur, peintre, pour trois jeux de cartes, à or et à diverses couleurs, ornés de plusieurs devises, pour porter devers le Seigneur Roi, pour son êbatement, cinquante-six sols parisis_. This, of course, refers only to the painting of a set or pack of cards, which were evidently already well known. But, according to various conjectural interpretations of documents, the earliest date of the mention of cards has been pushed farther back by different authorities. For instance, in the account-books of Johanna, duchess of Brabant, and her husband, Wenceslaus of Luxemburg, there is an entry, under date of the 14th of May 1379, as follows: "Given to Monsieur and Madame four peters, two florins, value eight and a half moutons, wherewith to buy a pack of cards" (_Quartspel met te copen_). This proves their introduction into the Netherlands at least as early as 1379. In a British Museum MS. (Egerton, 2, 419) mention is made of a game of cards (_qui ludus cartarum appellatur_) in Germany in 1377. The safe conclusion with regard to their introduction is that, though they may possibly have been known to a few persons in Europe about the middle of the 14th century, they did not come into general use until about a half-century later. Whence they came is another question that has not yet been answered satisfactorily. If we may believe the evidence of Covelluzzo of Viterbo (15th century) cards were introduced into Italy from Arabia. On the authority of a chronicle of one of his ancestors he writes: "In the year 1379 was brought into Viterbo the game of cards, which comes from the country of the Saracens, and is with them called _naib_." The Crusaders, who were inveterate gamblers, may have been the instruments of their introduction (see _Istoria della città di Viterbo_, by F. Bussi, Rome, 1743). According to other authorities, cards came first to Spain from Africa with the Moors, and it is significant that, to this day, playing cards are called in Spain _naipes_ (probably a corruption of the Arabic _Nabi_, prophet). Taken in connexion with the statement of Covelluzzo, this fact would seem to prove the wide popularity of the game of _naib_, or cards, among the Arab tribes. The meaning of the word (prophet) has been suggested to refer to the fortune-telling function of cards, and the theory has been advanced that they were used by the Moorish gypsies for that purpose. Gypsies are, however, not known to have appeared in Spain before the 15th century, at a time when cards were already well known. In regard to the word _naib_, the Italian language still preserves the name _naibi_, playing cards. Entry: CARDS
The upper classes have Norman, Spanish and Italian origin. The knights of St John of Jerusalem, commonly called "of Malta," were drawn from the nobility of Catholic Europe. They took vows of celibacy, but they frequently gave refuge in Malta to relatives driven to seek asylum from feudal wars and disturbances in their own lands. At the British occupation there were about two dozen families bearing titles of nobility granted, or recognized, by the Grand Masters, and descending by primogeniture. These "privileges" were guaranteed, together with the rights and religion of the islanders, when they became British subjects, but no government has ever recognized papal titles in Malta. High and low, all speak among themselves the Phoenician Maltese, altogether different from the Italian language; Italian was only spoken by 13.24% in 1901. Such Italian as is spoken by the lingering minority has marked divergences of pronunciation and inflexion from the language of Rome and Florence. In 1901, in addition to visitors and the naval and military forces, 18,922 Maltese spoke English, and the number has been rapidly increasing. Entry: MALTA
A regulation excluding Maltese from the navy (because of their speaking on board a language that their officers did not understand) provoked from Trinity College, Cambridge, the Strickland correspondence in _The Times_ on the constitutional rights of the Maltese, and a leading article induced the Colonial Office to try an experiment known as the Strickland-Mizzi Constitution of 1887. This constitution (abolished in 1903) ended a period of government by presidential casting votes and official ascendancy. For the first time the elected members were placed in a majority; they were given three seats in the executive council; in local questions the government had to make every effort to carry the majority by persuasion. When persuasion failed and imperial interests, or the rights of unrepresented minorities, were involved the power of the Crown to legislate by order in council could be (and was) freely used. This system had the merit of counteracting any abuse of power by the bureaucracy. It brought to bear on officials effective criticism, which made them alert and hard-working. Governor Simmons eventually gave his support to the new constitution, which was received with acclamation. Strickland, who had been elected while an undergraduate on the cry of equality of rights for Maltese and English, and Mizzi, the leader of the anti-English agitation, were, as soon as elected, given seats in the executive council to cooperate with the government; but their aims were irreconcilable. Mizzi wanted to undo the educational forms of Mr Savona, to ensure the predominance of the Italian language and to work the council as a caucus. Strickland desired to replace bureaucratic government by a system more in touch with the independent gentlemen of the country, and to introduce English ideas and precedents. Friction soon arose. Mizzi cared little for a constitution that did not make him complete master of the situation, and resigned his post in the government. Entry: A
It would seem that from the date of Machiavelli's discourse to Leo on the government of Florence the Medici had taken him into consideration. Writing to Vettori in 1513, he had expressed his eager wish to "roll stones" in their service; and this desire was now gratified. In 1521 he was sent to Carpi to transact a petty matter with the chapter of the Franciscans, the chief known result of the embassy being a burlesque correspondence with Francesco Guicciardini. Four years later, in 1525, he received a rather more important mission to Venice. But Machiavelli's public career was virtually closed; and the interest of his biography still centres in his literary work. We have seen that already, in 1504, he had been engaged upon a comedy in the manner of Aristophanes, which is now unfortunately lost. A translation of the _Andria_ and three original comedies from his pen are extant, the precise dates of which are uncertain, though the greatest of them was first printed at Rome in 1524. This is the _Mandragola_, which may be justly called the ripest and most powerful play in the Italian language. Entry: MACHIAVELLI
At first sight it seems unnatural that, whilst the most burning political passions were raging, and whilst the most brilliant men of genius in the new classical and patriotic school were at the height of their influence, a question should have arisen about "purism" of language. Yet the phenomenon can be easily accounted for. Purism is another form of classicism and patriotism. In the second half of the 18th century the Italian language was specially full of French expressions. There was great indifference about fitness, still more about elegance of style. Prose then was to be restored for the sake of national dignity, and it was believed that this could not be done except by going back to the writers of the 14th century, to the "aurei trecentisti," as they were called, or else to the classics of Italian literature. One of the promoters of the new school was Antonio Cesari of Verona, who republished ancient authors, and brought out a new edition, with additions, of the _Vocabolario della Crusca_. He wrote a dissertation _Sopra lo stato presente della lingua italiana_, and endeavoured to establish the supremacy of Tuscan and of the three great writers Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio. And in accordance with that principle he wrote several books, taking pains to copy the "trecentisti" as closely as possible. But patriotism in Italy has always had something municipal in it; so to this Tuscan supremacy, proclaimed and upheld by Cesari, there was opposed a Lombard school, which would know nothing of Tuscan, and with Dante's _De vulgari eloquio_ returned to the idea of the "lingua illustre." This was an old question, largely and bitterly argued in the Cinquecento (16th century) by Varchi, Muzio, Castelvetro, Speroni and others. Now the question came up again quite fresh, as if no one had ever discussed it before. At the head of the Lombard school were Monti and his son-in-law Count Giulio Perticari. This gave Monti an occasion to write _Proposta di alcune correzioni ed aggiunte al vocabolario della Crusca_, in which he attacked the Tuscanism of the _Crusca_, but in a graceful and easy style, such in fact as to form a prose that is one of the most beautiful in Italian literature. Perticari on the other hand, with a very inferior intellect, narrowed and exasperated the question in two treatises, _Degli scrittori del Trecento_ and _Dell' amor patrio di Dante_, in which, often disguising or altering the facts, he only makes confusion where there was none. Meantime, however, the impulse was given. The dispute about language took its place beside literary and political disputes, and all Italy took part in it--Basilio Puoti at Naples, Paolo Costa in the Romagna, Marc' Antonio Parenti at Modena, Salvatore Betti at Rome, Giovanni Gherardini in Lombardy, Luigi Fornaciari at Lucca, Vincenzo Nannucci at Florence. Entry: 6
The Italian language has its native seat and living source in Middle Italy, or more precisely Tuscany and indeed Florence. For real linguistic unity is far from existing in Italy; in some respects the variety is less, in others more observable than in other countries which equally boast a political and literary unity. Thus, for example, Italy affords no linguistic contrast so violent as that presented by Great Britain with its English dialects alongside of the Celtic dialects of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, or by France with the French dialects alongside of the Celtic dialects of Brittany, not to speak of the Basque of the Pyrenees and other heterogeneous elements. The presence of not a few Slavs stretching into the district of Udine (Friuli), of Albanian, Greek and Slav settlers in the southern provinces, with the Catalans of Alghero (Sardinia, v. _Arch. glott._ ix. 261 et seq.), a few Germans at Monte Rosa and in some corners of Venetia, and a remnant or two of other comparatively modern immigrations is not sufficient to produce any such strong contrast in the conditions of the national speech. But, on the other hand, the Neo-Latin dialects which live on side by side in Italy differ from each other much more markedly than, for example, the English dialects or the Spanish; and it must be added that, in Upper Italy especially, the familiar use of the dialects is tenaciously retained even by the most cultivated classes of the population. Entry: ITALIAN
There are 22 public elementary schools for boys and 18 for girls (education being compulsory and gratuitous), with about 20,000 pupils, and 56 private schools with 5700 pupils. Secondary education is provided by one higher and four lower technical schools with 1375 pupils, three _ginnasii_ or lower classical schools, and three _licei_ or higher classical schools, with 1000 pupils, and three training colleges with over 700 pupils. Higher education is imparted at the university (_Istituto di studii superiori e di perfezionamento_), with 600 to 650 students; although only comprising the faculties of literature, medicine and natural science, it is, as regards the first-named faculty, one of the most important institutions in Italy. The original _Studio Fiorentino_ was founded in the 14th century, and acquired considerable fame as a centre of learning under the Medici, enhanced by the presence in Florence of many learned Greeks who had fled from Constantinople after its capture by the Turks (1453). Although in 1472 some of the faculties and several of the professors were transferred to Pisa, it still retained importance, and in the 17th and 18th centuries it originated a number of learned academies. In 1859 after the annexation of Tuscany to the Italian kingdom it was revived and reorganized; since then it has become to some extent a national centre of learning and culture, attracting students from other parts of Italy, partly on account of the fact that it is in Florence that the purest Italian is spoken. The revival of classical studies on scientific principles in modern Italy may be said to have begun in Florence, and great activity has also been displayed in reviving the study of Dante; Dante lectures being given regularly by scholars and men of letters from all parts of the country, above the church of Or San Michele as in the middle ages, under the auspices of the _Società Dantesca_. Palaeography, history and Romance languages are among the other subjects to which especial importance is given. Besides the _Istituto di studii superiori_ there is the _Istituto di scienze sociali_ "_Cesare Alfieri_," founded by the marchese Alfieri di Sostegno for the education of aspirants to the diplomatic and consular services, and for students of economics and social sciences (about 50 students); an academy of fine arts, a conservatoire of music, a higher female training-college with 150 students, a number of professional and trade schools, and an academy of recitation. There are also many academies and learned societies of different kinds, of which one of the most important is the _Accademia della Crusca_ for the study of the Italian language, which undertook the publication of a monumental dictionary. Entry: FLORENCE