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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 8
       "Isabnormal Lines" to "Italic"

Author: Various

Release Date: May 15, 2012 [EBook #39700]

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          ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA

  A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
           AND GENERAL INFORMATION

              ELEVENTH EDITION


           VOLUME XIV, SLICE VIII

         ISABNORMAL LINES to ITALIC




ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:


  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




ISABNORMAL (or ISANOMALOUS) LINES, in physical geography, lines upon a
map or chart connecting places having an abnormal temperature. Each
place has, theoretically, a proper temperature due to its latitude, and
modified by its configuration. Its mean temperature for a particular
period is decided by observation and called its normal temperature.
Isabnormal lines may be used to denote the variations due to warm winds
or currents, great altitudes or depressions, or great land masses as
compared with sea. Or they may be used to indicate the abnormal result
of weather observations made in an area such as the British Isles for a
particular period.




ISAEUS (c. 420 B.C.-c. 350 B.C.), Attic orator, the chronological limits
of whose extant work fall between the years 390 and 353 B.C., is
described in the Plutarchic life as a Chalcidian; by Suidas, whom
Dionysius follows, as an Athenian. The accounts have been reconciled by
supposing that his family sprang from the settlement ([Greek:
klêrouchia]) of Athenian citizens among whom the lands of the Chalcidian
_hippobotae_ (knights) had been divided about 509 B.C. In 411 B.C.
Euboea (except Oreos) revolted from Athens; and it would not have been
strange if residents of Athenian origin had then migrated from the
hostile island to Attica. Such a connexion with Euboea would explain the
non-Athenian name Diagoras which is borne by the father of Isaeus, while
the latter is said to have been "an Athenian by descent" ([Greek:
Athênaios to genos]). So far as we know, Isaeus took no part in the
public affairs of Athens. "I cannot tell," says Dionysius, "what were
the politics of Isaeus--or whether he had any politics at all." Those
words strikingly attest the profound change which was passing over the
life of the Greek cities. It would have been scarcely possible, fifty
years earlier, that an eminent Athenian with the powers of Isaeus should
have failed to leave on record some proof of his interest in the
political concerns of Athens or of Greece. But now, with the decline of
personal devotion to the state, the life of an active citizen had ceased
to have any necessary contact with political affairs. Already we are at
the beginning of that transition which is to lead from the old life of
Hellenic citizenship to that Hellenism whose children are citizens of
the world.

Isaeus (who was born probably about 420 B.C.) is believed to have been
an early pupil of Isocrates, and he certainly was a student of Lysias. A
passage of Photius has been understood as meaning that personal
relations had existed between Isaeus and Plato, but this view appears
erroneous.[1] The profession of Isaeus was that of which Antiphon had
been the first representative at Athens--that of a [Greek: logographos],
who composed speeches which his clients were to deliver in the
law-courts. But, while Antiphon had written such speeches chiefly (as
Lysias frequently) for public causes, it was with private causes that
Isaeus was almost exclusively concerned. The fact marks the progressive
subdivision of labour in his calling, and the extent to which the
smaller interests of private life now absorbed the attention of the
citizen.

The most interesting recorded event in the career of Isaeus is one which
belongs to its middle period--his connexion with Demosthenes. Born in
384 B.C., Demosthenes attained his civic majority in 366. At this time
he had already resolved to prosecute the fraudulent guardians who had
stripped him of his patrimony. In prospect of such a legal contest, he
could have found no better ally than Isaeus. That the young Demosthenes
actually resorted to his aid is beyond reasonable doubt. But the
pseudo-Plutarch embellishes the story after his fashion. He says that
Demosthenes, on coming of age, took Isaeus into his house, and studied
with him for four years--paying him the sum of 10,000 drachmas (about
£400), on condition that Isaeus should withdraw from a school of
rhetoric which he had opened, and devote himself wholly to his new
pupil. The real Plutarch gives us a more sober and a more probable
version. He simply states that Demosthenes "employed Isaeus as his
master in rhetoric, though Isocrates was then teaching, either (as some
say) because he could not pay Isocrates the prescribed fee of ten minae,
or because he preferred the style of Isaeus for his purpose, as being
_vigorous and astute_" ([Greek: drastêrion kai panourgon]). It may be
observed that, except by the pseudo-Plutarch, a school of Isaeus is not
mentioned,--for a notice in Plutarch need mean no more than that he had
written a textbook, or that his speeches were read in schools;[2] nor is
any other pupil named. As to Demosthenes, his own speeches against
Aphobus and Onetor (363-362 B.C.) afford the best possible gauge of the
sense and the measure in which he was the disciple of Isaeus; the
intercourse between them can scarcely have been either very close or
very long. The date at which Isaeus died can only be conjectured from
his work; it may be placed about 350 B.C.

  Isaeus has a double claim on the student of Greek literature. He is
  the first Greek writer who comes before us as a consummate master of
  strict forensic controversy. He also holds a most important place in
  the general development of practical oratory, and therefore in the
  history of Attic prose. Antiphon marks the beginning of that
  development, Demosthenes its consummation. Between them stand Lysias
  and Isaeus. The open, even ostentatious, art of Antiphon had been
  austere and rigid. The concealed art of Lysias had charmed and
  persuaded by a versatile semblance of natural grace and simplicity.
  Isaeus brings us to a final stage of transition, in which the gifts
  distinctive of Lysias were to be fused into a perfect harmony with
  that masterly art which receives its most powerful expression in
  Demosthenes. Here, then, are the two cardinal points by which the
  place of Isaeus must be determined. We must consider, first, his
  relation to Lysias; secondly, his relation to Demosthenes.

  A comparison of Isaeus and Lysias must set out from the distinction
  between choice of words ([Greek: lexis]) and mode of putting words
  together ([Greek: synthesis]). In choice of words, _diction_, Lysias
  and Isaeus are closely alike. Both are clear, pure, simple, concise;
  both have the stamp of persuasive plainness ([Greek: apheleia]), and
  both combine it with graphic power ([Greek: enargeia]). In mode of
  putting words together, _composition_, there is, however a striking
  difference. Lysias threw off the stiff restraints of the earlier
  periodic style, with its wooden monotony; he is too fond indeed of
  antithesis always to avoid a rigid effect; but, on the whole, his
  style is easy, flexible and various; above all, its subtle art usually
  succeeds in appearing natural. Now this is just what the art of Isaeus
  does not achieve. With less love of antithesis than Lysias, and with a
  diction almost equally pure and plain, he yet habitually conveys the
  impression of conscious and confident art. Hence he is least effective
  in adapting his style to those characters in which Lysias peculiarly
  excelled--the ingenuous youth, the homely and peace-loving citizen. On
  the other hand, his more open and vigorous art does not interfere with
  his moral persuasiveness where there is scope for reasoned
  remonstrance, for keen argument or for powerful denunciation. Passing
  from the formal to the real side of his work, from diction and
  composition to the treatment of subject-matter, we find the divergence
  wider still. Lysias usually adheres to a simple four-fold
  division--proem, narrative, proof, epilogue. Isaeus frequently
  interweaves the narrative with the proof.[3] He shows the most
  dexterous ingenuity in adapting his manifold tactics to the case in
  hand, and often "out-generals" ([Greek: katastratêgei]) his adversary
  by some novel and daring disposition of his forces. Lysias, again,
  usually contents himself with a merely rhetorical or sketchy proof;
  Isaeus aims at strict logical demonstration, worked out through all
  its steps. As Sir William Jones well remarks, Isaeus lays close siege
  to the understandings of the jury.[4]

  Such is the general relation of Isaeus to Lysias. What, we must next
  ask, is the relation of Isaeus to Demosthenes? The Greek critic who
  had so carefully studied both authors states his own view in broad
  terms when he declares that "the power of Demosthenes took its seeds
  and its beginnings from Isaeus" (Dion. Halic. _Isaeus_, 20). A closer
  examination will show that within certain limits the statement may be
  allowed. Attic prose expression had been continuously developed as an
  art; the true link between Isaeus and Demosthenes is technical,
  depending on their continuity. Isaeus had made some original
  contributions to the resources of the art; and Demosthenes had not
  failed to profit by these. The _composition_ of Demosthenes resembles
  that of Isaeus in blending terse and vigorous periods with passages of
  more lax and fluent ease, as well as in that dramatic vivacity which
  is given by rhetorical question and similar devices. In the versatile
  disposition of subject-matter, the divisions of "narrative" and
  "proof" being shifted and interwoven according to circumstances,
  Demosthenes has clearly been instructed by the example of Isaeus.
  Still more plainly and strikingly is this so in regard to the
  elaboration of systematic, proof; here Demosthenes invites direct and
  close comparison with Isaeus by his method of drawing out a chain of
  arguments, or enforcing a proposition by strict legal argument. And,
  more generally, Demosthenes is the pupil of Isaeus, though here the
  pupil became even greater than the master, in that faculty of
  grappling with an adversary's case point by point, in that aptitude
  for close and strenuous conflict which is expressed by the words
  [Greek: agôn, enagônios].[5]

  The pseudo-Plutarch, in his life of Isaeus, mentions an _Art of
  Rhetoric_ and sixty-four speeches, of which fifty were accounted
  genuine. From a passage of Photius it appears that at least[6] the
  fifty speeches of recognized authenticity were extant as late as A.D.
  850. Only eleven, with a large part of a twelfth, have come down to
  us; but the titles of forty-two[7] others are known.[8]

  The titles of the lost speeches confirm the statement of Dionysius
  that the speeches of Isaeus were exclusively forensic; and only three
  titles indicate speeches made in public causes. The remainder,
  concerned with private causes, may be classed under six heads:--(1)
  [Greek: klêrikoi]--cases of claim to an inheritance; (2) [Greek:
  epiklêrikoi]--cases of claim to the hand of an heiress; (3) [Greek:
  diadikasiai]--cases of claim of property; (4) [Greek:
  apostasiou]--cases of claim to the ownership of a slave; (5) [Greek:
  eggyês]--action brought against a surety whose principal had made
  default; (6) [Greek: antômosia] (as = [Greek: paragraphê])--a special
  plea; (7) [Greek: ephesis]--appeal from one jurisdiction to another.

  Eleven of the twelve extant speeches belong to class (1), the [Greek:
  klêrikoi], or claims to an inheritance. This was probably the branch
  of practice in which Isaeus had done his most important and most
  characteristic work. And, according to the ancient custom, this class
  of speeches would therefore stand first in the manuscript collections
  of his writings. The case of Antiphon is parallel: his speeches in
  cases of homicide ([Greek: phonikoi]) were those on which his
  reputation mainly depended, and stood first in the manuscripts. Their
  exclusive preservation, like that of the speeches made by Isaeus in
  will-cases, is thus primarily an accident of manuscript tradition, but
  partly also the result of the writer's special prestige.

  Six of the twelve extant speeches are directly concerned with claims
  to an estate; five others are connected with legal proceedings arising
  out of such a claim. They may be classified thus (the name given in
  each case being that of the person whose estate is in dispute):

    I. _Trials of Claim to an Inheritance_ ([Greek: diadikasiai]).
         1. Or. i., Cleonymus. Date between 360 and 353 B.C.
         2. Or. iv., Nicostratus. Date uncertain.
         3. Or. vii., Apollodorus. 353 B.C.
         4. Or. viii., Ciron. 375 B.C.
         5. Or. ix., Astyphilus. 369 B.C. (c. 390, Schömann).
         6. Or. x., Aristarchus. 377-371 B.C. (386-384, Schömann).

    II. _Actions for False Witness_ ([Greek: dikai pseudomartyriôn]).
         1. Or. ii., Menecles. 354 B.C.
         2. Or. iii., Pyrrhus. Date uncertain, but comparatively late.
         3. Or. vi., Philoctemon. 364-363 B.C.

    III. _Action to Compel the Discharge of a Suretyship_ ([Greek: eggyês
               dikê]).
            Or. v., Dicaeogenes. 390 B.C.

    IV. _Indictment of a Guardian for Maltreatment of a Ward_ ([Greek:
               eisaggelia kakôseôs orphanou]).
            Or. xi., Hagnias. 359 B.C.

    V. _Appeal from Arbitration to a Dicastery_ ([Greek: ephesis]).
            Or. xii., For Euphiletus. (Incomplete.) Date uncertain.

  The speeches of Isaeus supply valuable illustrations to the early
  history of testamentary law. They show us the faculty of adoption,
  still, indeed, associated with the religious motive in which it
  originated, as a mode of securing that the sacred rites of the family
  shall continue to be discharged by one who can call himself the son of
  the deceased. But practically the civil aspect of adoption is, for the
  Athenian citizen, predominant over the religious; he adopts a son in
  order to bestow property on a person to whom he wishes to bequeath it.
  The Athenian system, as interpreted by Isaeus, is thus intermediate,
  at least in spirit, between the purely religious standpoint of the
  Hindu and the maturer form which Roman testamentary law had reached
  before the time of Cicero.[9] As to the form of the speeches, it is
  remarkable for its variety. There are three which, taken together, may
  be considered as best representing the diversity and range of their
  author's power. The fifth, with its simple but lively diction, its
  graceful and persuasive narrative, recalls the qualities of Lysias.
  The eleventh, with its sustained and impetuous power, has no slight
  resemblance to the manner of Demosthenes. The eighth is, of all, the
  most characteristic, alike in narrative and in argument. Isaeus is
  here seen at his best. No reader who is interested in the social life
  of ancient Greece need find Isaeus dull. If the glimpses of Greek
  society which he gives us are seldom so gay and picturesque as those
  which enliven the pages of Lysias, they are certainly not less
  suggestive. Here, where the innermost relations and central interests
  of the family are in question, we touch the springs of social life; we
  are not merely presented with scenic details of dress and furniture,
  but are enabled in no small degree to conceive the feelings of the
  actors.

  The best manuscript of Isaeus is in the British Museum,--Crippsianus A
  (= Burneianus 95, 13th century), which contains also Antiphon,
  Andocides, Lycurgus and Dinarchus. The next best is Bekker's
  Laurentianus B (Florence), of the 15th century. Besides these, he used
  Marcianus L (Venice), saec. 14, Vratislaviensis Z saec. 14[10] and two
  very inferior MSS. Ambrosianus A. 99, P (which he dismissed after Or.
  i.), and Ambrosianus D. 42, Q (which contains only Or. i., ii.).
  Schömann, in his edition of 1831, generally followed Bekker's text; he
  had no fresh apparatus beyond a collation of a Paris MS. R in part of
  Or. i.; but he had sifted the Aldine more carefully. Baiter and Sauppe
  (1850) had a new collation of A, and also used a collation of
  Burneianus 96, M, given by Dobson in vol. iv. of his edition (1828).
  C. Scheibe (Teubner, 1860) made it his especial aim to complete the
  work of his predecessors by restoring the correct Attic forms of
  words; thus (e.g.) he gives [Greek: êggya] for [Greek: enegya],
  [Greek: dedimen] for [Greek: dediamen], and the like,--following the
  consent of the MSS., however, in such forms as the accusative of
  proper names in [Greek: -ên] rather than [Greek: -ê], or (e.g.) the
  future [Greek: phanêsomai] rather than [Greek: phanoumai], &c., and on
  such doubtful points as [Greek: phrateres] instead of [Greek:
  phratores], or [Greek: Eilêthyias] instead of [Greek: Eileithyias].

  EDITIONS.--_Editio princeps_ (Aldus, Venice, 1513); in _Oratores
  Attici_, by I. Bekker (1823-1828); W. S. Dobson (1828); J. G. Baiter
  and Hermann Sauppe (1850); separately, by G. F. Schömann, with
  commentary (1831); C. Scheibe (1860) (Teubner series, new ed. by T.
  Thalheim, 1903); H. Buermann (1883); W. Wyse (1904). English
  translation by Sir William Jones, 1779.

  On Isaeus generally see Wyse's edition; R. C. Jebb, _Attic Orators_;
  F. Blass, _Die attische Beredsamkeit_ (2nd ed., 1887-1893); and L.
  Moy, _Étude sur les plaidoyers d'Isée_ (1876).     (R. C. J.)


FOOTNOTES:

  [1] See further Jebb's _Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeus_, (ii.
    264).

  [2] Plut. _De glor. Athen._ p. 350 c, where he mentions [Greek: tous
    Isokrateis kai Antiphôntas kai Isaious] among [Greek: tous en tais
    scholais ta meirakia prodidaskontas].

  [3] Here he was probably influenced by the teaching of Isocrates. The
    forensic speech of Isocrates known as the _Aegineticus_ (Or. xix.),
    which belongs to the peculiar province of Isaeus, as dealing with a
    claim to property ([Greek: epidikasia]), affords perhaps the earliest
    example of narrative and proof thus interwoven. Earlier forensic
    writers had kept the [Greek: diêgêsis] and [Greek: pisteis] distinct,
    as Lysias does.

  [4] This is what Dionysius means when he says (_Isaeus_, 61) that
    Isaeus differs from Lysias--[Greek: tô mê kat' enthymêma ti legein
    alla kat' epicheirêma]. Here the "enthymeme" means a rhetorical
    syllogism with one premiss suppressed (_curtum_, Juv. vi. 449);
    "epicheireme," such a syllogism stated in full. Cf. R. Volkmann,
    _Rhetorik der Griechen und Römer_, 1872, pp. 153 f.

  [5] Cleon's speech in Thuc. iii. 37, 38, works out this image with
    remarkable force; within a short space we have [Greek: xyneseôs
    agôn--tôn toiônde agônôn--agônistês--agônizesthai--antagônizesthai--
    agônothetein]. See _Attic Orators_, vol. i. 39; ii. 304.

  [6] For the words of Photius (cod. 263), [Greek: toutôn de oi to
    gnêsion martyrêthentes n' kataleipontai monon], might be so rendered
    as to imply that, besides these fifty, others also were extant. See
    _Att. Orat._ ii. 311, note 2.

  [7] Forty-four are given in Thalheim's ed.

  [8] The second of our speeches (the Meneclean) was discovered in the
    Laurentian Library in 1785, and was edited in that year by Tyrwhitt.
    In editions previous to that date, Oration i. is made to conclude
    with a few lines which really belong to the end of Orat. ii. (§ 47,
    [Greek: all' epeidê to pragma ... psêthisasthe]), and this
    arrangement is followed in the translation of Isaeus by Sir William
    Jones, to whom our second oration, was, of course, then (1779)
    unknown. In Oration i. all that follows the words [Greek: mê
    poiêsantes] in § 22 was first published in 1815 by Mai, from a MS. in
    the Ambrosian Library at Milan.

  [9] Cf. Maine's _Ancient Law_, ch. vi., and the _Tagore Law Lectures_
    (1870) by Herbert Cowell, lect. ix., "On the Rite of Adoption," pp.
    208 f.

  [10] The date of L and Z is given as the end of the 15th century in
    the introduction to Wyse's edition.




ISAIAH. I. _Life and Period._--Isaiah is the name of the greatest, and
both in life and in death the most influential of the Old Testament
prophets. We do not forget Jeremiah, but Jeremiah's literary and
religious influence is secondary compared with that of Isaiah.
Unfortunately we are reduced to inference and conjecture with regard
both to his life and to the extent of his literary activity. In the
heading (i. 1) of what we may call the occasional prophecies of Isaiah
(i.e. those which were called forth by passing events), the author is
called "the son of Amoz" and Rabbinical legend identifies this Amoz with
a brother of Amaziah, king of Judah; but this is evidently based on a
mere etymological fancy. We know from his works that (unlike Jeremiah)
he was married (viii. 3), and that he had at least two sons, whose
names he regarded as, together with his own, symbolic by divine
appointment of certain decisive events or religious truths--Isaiah
(Yesha'-yahu), meaning "Salvation--Yahweh"; Shear-Yashub, "a remnant
shall return"; and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, "swift (swiftly cometh) spoil,
speedy (speedily cometh) prey" (vii. 3, viii. 3, 4, 18). He lived at
Jerusalem, perhaps in the "middle" or "lower city" (2 Kings xx. 4),
exercised at one time great influence at court (chap. xxxvii.), and
could venture to address a king unbidden (vii. 4), and utter the most
unpleasant truths, unassailed, in the plainest fashion. Presumably
therefore his social rank was far above that of Amos and Micah;
certainly the high degree of rhetorical skill displayed in his
discourses implies a long course of literary discipline, not improbably
in the school of some older prophet (Amos vii. 14 suggests that
"schools" or companies "of the prophets" existed in the southern
kingdom). We know but little of Isaiah's predecessors and models in the
prophetic art (it were fanaticism to exclude the element of human
preparation); but certainly even the acknowledged prophecies of Isaiah
(and much more the disputed ones) could no more have come into existence
suddenly and without warning than the masterpieces of Shakespeare. In
the more recent commentaries (e.g. Cheyne's _Prophecies of Isaiah_, ii.
218) lists are generally given of the points of contact both in
phraseology and in ideas between Isaiah and the prophets nearly
contemporary with him. For Isaiah cannot be studied by himself.

The same heading already referred to gives us our only traditional
information as to the period during which Isaiah prophesied; it refers
to Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah as the contemporary kings. It is,
however, to say the least, doubtful whether any of the extant prophecies
are as early as the reign of Uzziah. Exegesis, the only safe basis of
criticism for the prophetic literature, is unfavourable to the view that
even chap. i. belongs to the reign of this king, and we must therefore
regard it as most probable that the heading in i. 1 is (like those of
the Psalms) the work of one or more of the Sopherim (or students and
editors of Scripture) in post-exilic times, apparently the same writer
(or company of writers) who prefixed the headings of Hosea and Micah,
and perhaps of some of the other books. Chronological study had already
begun in his time. But he would be a bold man who would profess to give
trustworthy dates either for the kings of Israel or for the prophetic
writers. (See BIBLE, _Old Testament_, Chronology; the article
"Chronology" in the _Encyclopaedia Bíblica_; and cf. H. P. Smith, _Old
Testament History_, Edin., 1903, p. 202, note 2.)

II. _Chronological Arrangement, how far possible._--Let us now briefly
sketch the progress of Isaiah's prophesying on the basis of philological
exegesis, and a comparison of the sound results of the study of the
inscriptions. If our results are imperfect and liable to correction,
that is only to be expected in the present position of the historical
study of the Bible. Chap. vi., which describes a vision of Isaiah "in
the death-year of King Uzziah" (740 or 734 B.C.?) may possibly have
arisen out of notes put down in the reign of Jotham; but for several
reasons it is not an acceptable view that, in its present form, this
striking chapter is earlier than the reign of Ahaz. It seems, in short,
to have originally formed the preface to the small group of prophecies
which now follows it, viz. vii. i.-ix. 7. The portions which may
represent discourses of Jotham's reign are chap. ii. and chap. ix. 8-x.
4--stern denunciations which remind us somewhat of Amos. But the
allusions in the greater part of chaps. ii.-v. correspond to no period
so closely as the reign of Ahaz, and the same remark applies still more
self-evidently to vii. 1-ix. 7.[1] Chap. xvii. 1-11 ought undoubtedly to
be read in immediate connexion with chap. vii.; it presupposes the
alliance of Syria and northern Israel, whose destruction it predicts,
though opening a door of hope for a remnant of Israel. The fatal siege
of Samaria (724-722 B.C.) seems to have given occasion to chap. xxviii.;
but the following prophecies (chaps. xxix.-xxxiii.) point in the main
to Sennacherib's invasion, 701 B.C., which evidently stirred Isaiah's
deepest feelings and was the occasion of some of his greatest
prophecies. It is, however, the vengeance taken by Sargon upon Ashdod
(711) which seems to be preserved in chap. xx., and the striking little
prophecy in xxi. 1-10, sometimes referred of late to a supposed invasion
of Judah by Sargon, rather belongs to some one of the many prophetic
personages who wrote, but did not speak like the greater prophets,
during and after the Exile. It is also an opinion largely held that the
prophetic epilogue in xvi. 13, 14, was attached by Isaiah to an oracle
on archaic style by another prophet (Isaiah's hand has, however, been
traced by some in xvi. 4b, 5). In fact no progress can be expected in
the accurate study of the prophets until the editorial activity both of
the great prophets themselves and of their more reflective and studious
successors is fully recognized.

Thus there were two great political events (the Syro-Israelitish
invasion under Ahaz, and the great Assyrian invasion of Sennacherib)
which called forth the spiritual and oratorical faculties of our
prophet, and quickened his faculty of insight into the future. The
Sennacherib prophecies must be taken in connexion with the historical
appendix, chaps, xxxvi.-xxxix. The beauty and incisiveness of the poetic
prophecy in xxxvii. 21-32 have, by some critics, been regarded as
evidence for its authenticity. This, however, is, on critical grounds,
most questionable.

A special reference seems needed at this point to the oracle on Egypt,
chap. xix. The comparative feebleness of the style has led to the
conjecture that, even if the basis of the prophecy be Isaianic, yet in
its present form it must have undergone the manipulation of a scribe.
More probably, however, it belongs to the early Persian period. It
should be added that the Isaianic origin of the appendix in xix. 18-24
is, if possible, even more doubtful, because of the precise,
circumstantial details of the prophecy which are not like Isaiah's work.
It is plausible to regard v. 18 as a fictitious prophecy in the
interests of Onias, the founder of the rival Egyptian temple to Yahweh
at Leontopolis in the name of Heliopolis (Josephus, _Ant._ xii. 9, 7).

III. _Disintegration Theories._--We must now enter more fully into the
question whether the whole of the so-called Book of Isaiah was really
written by that prophet. The question relates, at any rate, to
xiii.-xiv. 23, xxi. 1-10, xxiv.-xxvii., xxxiv., xxxv. and xl.-lxvi. The
father of the controversy may be said to be the Jewish rabbi, Aben Ezra,
who died A.D. 1167. We need not, however, spend much time on the
well-worn but inconclusive arguments of the older critics. The existence
of a tradition in the last three centuries before Christ as to the
authorship of any book is (to those acquainted with the habits of
thought of that age) of but little critical moment; the _Sopherim_, i.e.
students of Scripture, in those times were simply anxious for the
authority of the Scriptures, not for the ascertainment of their precise
historical origin. It was of the utmost importance to declare that
(especially) Isaiah xl.-lxvi. was a prophetic work of the highest order;
this was reason sufficient (apart from any presumed phraseological
affinities in xl.-lxvi.) for ascribing them to the royal prophet Isaiah.
When the view had once obtained currency, it would naturally become a
tradition. The question of the Isaianic or non-Isaianic origin of the
disputed prophecies (especially xl.-lxvi.) must be decided on grounds of
exegesis alone. It matters little, therefore, when the older critics
appeal to Ezra i. 2 (interpreted by Josephus, _Ant._ xi. 1, 1-2), to the
Septuagint version of the book (produced between 260 and 130 B.C.), in
which the disputed prophecies are already found, and to the Greek
translation of the Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach, which distinctly
refers to Isaiah as the comforter of those that mourned in Zion (Eccles.
xlviii. 24, 25).

The fault of the controversialists on both sides has been that each
party has only seen "one side of the shield." It will be admitted by
philological students that the exegetical data supplied by (at any rate)
Isa. xl.-lxvi. are conflicting, and therefore susceptible of no simple
solution. This remark applies, it is true, chiefly to the portion which
begins at lii. 13. The earlier part of Isa. xl.-lxvi. admits of a
perfectly consistent interpretation from first to last. There is
nothing in it to indicate that the author's standing-point is earlier
than the Babylonian captivity. His object is (as most scholars,
probably, believe) to warn, stimulate or console the captive Jews, some
full believers, some semi-believers, some unbelievers or idolaters. The
development of the prophet's message is full of contrasts and surprises:
the vanity of the idol-gods and the omnipotence of Israel's helper, the
sinfulness and infirmity of Israel and her high spiritual destiny, and
the selection (so offensive to patriotic Jews, xlv. 9, 10) of the
heathen Cyrus as the instrument of Yahweh's purposes, as in fact his
Messiah or Anointed One (xlv. 1), are brought successively before us.
Hence the semi-dramatic character of the style. Already in the opening
passage mysterious voices are heard crying, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my
people"; the plural indicates that there were other prophets among the
exiles besides the author of Isa. xl.-xlviii. Then the Jews and the
Asiatic nations in general are introduced trembling at the imminent
downfall of the Babylonian empire. The former are reasoned with and
exhorted to believe; the latter are contemptuously silenced by an
exhibition of the futility of their religion. Then another mysterious
form appears on the scene, bearing the honourable title of "Servant of
Yahweh," through whom God's gracious purposes for Israel and the world
are to be realized. The cycle of poetic passages on the character and
work of this "Servant," or commissioned agent of the Most High, may have
formed originally a separate collation which was somewhat later inserted
in the Prophecy of Restoration (i.e. chaps. xl.-xlviii., and its
appendix chaps. xlix.-lv.).

The new section which begins at chap. xlix. is written in much the same
delightfully flowing style. We are still among the exiles at the close
of the captivity, or, as others think, amidst a poor community in
Jerusalem, whose members have now been dispersed among the Gentiles. The
latter view is not so strange as it may at first appear, for the new
book has this peculiarity, that Babylon and Cyrus are not mentioned in
it at all. [True, there was not so much said about Babylon as we should
have expected even in the first book; the paucity of references to the
local characteristics of Babylonia is in fact one of the negative
arguments urged by older scholars in favour of the Isaianic origin of
the prophecy.] Israel himself, with all his inconsistent qualities,
becomes the absorbing subject of the prophet's meditations. The section
opens with a soliloquy of the "Servant of Yahweh," which leads on to a
glorious comforting discourse, "Can a woman forget her sucking child,"
&c. (xlix. 1, comp. li. 12, 13). Then his tone rises, Jerusalem can and
must be redeemed; he even seems to see the great divine act in process
of accomplishment. Is it possible, one cannot help asking, that the
abrupt description of the strange fortunes of the "Servant"--by this
time entirely personalized--was written to follow chap. lii. 1-12?

The whole difficulty seems to arise from the long prevalent assumption
that chaps. xl.-lxvi. form a whole in themselves. Natural as the feeling
against disintegration may be, the difficulties in the way of admitting
the unity of chaps. xl.-lxvi. are insurmountable. Even if, by a bold
assumption, we grant the unity of authorship, it is plain upon the face
of it that the chapters in question cannot have been composed at the
same time or under the same circumstances; literary and artistic unity
is wholly wanting. But once admit (as it is only reasonable to do) the
extension of Jewish editorial activity to the prophetic books and all
becomes clear. The record before us gives no information as to its
origin. It is without a heading, and by its abrupt transitions, and
honestly preserved variations of style, invites us to such a theory as
we are now indicating. It is only the inveterate habit of reading Isa.
xlix.-lxvi. as a part of a work relating to the close of the Exile that
prevents us from seeing how inconsistent are the tone and details with
this presupposition.

  The present article in its original form introduced here a survey of
  the portions of Isa. xl.-lxvi. which were plainly of Palestinian
  origin. It is needless to reproduce this here, because the information
  is now readily accessible elsewhere; in 1881 there was an originality
  in this survey, which gave promise of a still more radical treatment
  such as that of Bernhard Duhm, a fascinating commentary published in
  1892. See also Cheyne, _Jewish Quarterly Review_, July and October
  1891; _Introd. to Book of Isaiah_ (1895), which also point forward,
  like Stade's _Geschichte_ in Germany, to a bolder criticism of Isaiah.

IV. _Non-Isaianic Elements in Chaps. i.-xxxix._--We have said nothing
hitherto, except by way of allusion, of the disputed prophecies
scattered up and down the first half of the book of Isaiah. There is
only one of these prophecies which may, with any degree of apparent
plausibility, be referred to the age of Isaiah, and that is chaps.
xxiv.-xxvii. The grounds are (1) that according to xxv. 6 the author
dwells on Mount Zion; (2) that Moab is referred to as an enemy (xxv.
10); and (3) that at the close of the prophecy, Assyria and Egypt are
apparently mentioned as the principal foes of Israel (xxvii. 12, 13). A
careful and thorough exegesis will show the hollowness of this
justification. The tone and spirit of the prophecy as a whole point to
the same late apocalyptic period to which chap. xxxiv. and the book of
Joel; and also the last chapter (especially) of the book of Zechariah,
may unhesitatingly be referred.

A word or two may perhaps be expected on Isa. xiii., xiv. and xxxiv.,
xxxv. These two oracles agree in the elaborateness of their description
of the fearful fate of the enemies of Yahweh (Babylon and Edom are
merely representatives of a class), and also in their view of the
deliverance and restoration of Israel as an epoch for the whole human
race. There is also an unrelieved sternness, which pains us by its
contrast with Isa. xl.-lxvi. (except those passages of this portion
which are probably not homogeneous with the bulk of the prophecy). They
have also affinities with Jer. l. li., a prophecy (as most now agree) of
post-exilic origin.

There is only one passage which seems in some degree to make up for the
aesthetic drawbacks of the greater part of these late compositions. It
is the ode on the fall of the king of Babylon in chap. xiv. 4-21, which
is as brilliant with the glow of lyric enthusiasm as the stern prophecy
which precedes it is, from the same point of view, dull and uninspiring.
It is in fact worthy to be put by the side of the finest passages of
chaps. xl.-lxvi.--of those passages which irresistibly rise in the
memory when we think of "Isaiah."

V. _Prophetic Contrasts in Isaiah._--From a religious point of view
there is a wide difference, not only between the acknowledged and the
disputed prophecies of the book of Isaiah, but also between those of the
latter which occur in chaps. i.-xxxix., on the one hand, and the greater
and more striking part of chaps. xl.-lxvi. on the other. We may say,
upon the whole, with Duhm, that Isaiah represents a synthesis of Amos
and Hosea, though not without important additions of his own. And if we
cannot without much hesitation admit that Isaiah was really the first
preacher of a personal Messiah whose record has come down to us, yet his
editors certainly had good reason for thinking him capable of such a
lofty height of prophecy. It is not because Isaiah could not have
conceived of a personal Messiah, but because the Messiah-passages are
not plainly Isaiah's either in style or in thought. If Isaiah had had
those bright visions, they would have affected him more.

Perhaps the most characteristic religious peculiarities of the various
disputed prophecies are--(1) the emphasis laid on the uniqueness,
eternity, creatorship and predictive power of Yahweh (xl. 18, 25, xli.
4, xliv. 6, xlviii. 12, xlv. 5, 6, 18, 22, xlvi. 9, xlii. 5, xlv. 18,
xli. 26, xliii. 9, xliv. 7, xlv. 21, xlviii. 14); (2) the conception of
the "Servant of Yahweh"; (3) the ironical descriptions of idolatry
(Isaiah in the acknowledged prophecies only refers incidentally to
idolatry) xl. 19, 20, xli. 7, xliv. 9-17, xlvi. 6; (4) the personality
of the Spirit of Yahweh (mentioned no less than seven times, see
especially xl. 3, xlviii. 16, lxiii. 10, 14); (5) the influence of the
angelic powers (xxiv. 21); (6) the resurrection of the body (xxvi. 19);
(7) the everlasting punishment of the wicked (lxvi. 24); (8) vicarious
atonement (chap. liii.).

We cannot here do more than chronicle the attempts of a Jewish scholar,
the late Dr Kohut, in the _Z.D.M.G._ for 1876 to prove a Zoroastrian
influence on chaps. xl.-lxvi. The idea is not in itself inadmissible,
at least for post-exilic portions, for Zoroastrian ideas were in the
intellectual atmosphere of Jewish writers in the Persian age.

There is an equally striking difference among the disputed prophecies
themselves, and one of no small moment as a subsidiary indication of
their origin. We have already spoken of the difference of tone between
parts of the latter half of the book; and, when we compare the disputed
prophecies of the former half with the Prophecy of Israel's Restoration,
how inferior (with all reverence be it said) do they appear! Truly "in
many parts and many manners did God speak" in this composite book of
Isaiah! To the Prophecy of Restoration we may fitly apply the words, too
gracious and too subtly chosen to be translated, of Renan, "ce second
Isaïe, dont l'âme lumineuse semble comme imprégnée, six cent ans
d'avance, de toutes les rosées, de tous les parfums de l'avenir"
(_L'Antéchrist_, p. 464); though, indeed, the common verdict of
sympathetic readers sums up the sentence in a single phrase--"the
Evangelical Prophet." The freedom and the inexhaustibleness of the
undeserved grace of God is a subject to which this gifted son constantly
returns with "a monotony which is never monotonous." The defect of the
disputed prophecies in the former part of the book (a defect, as long as
we regard them in isolation, and not as supplemented by those which come
after) is that they emphasize too much for the Christian sentiment the
stern, destructive side of the series of divine interpositions in the
latter days.

VI. _The Cyrus Inscriptions._--Perhaps one of the most important
contributions to the study of II. Isaiah has been the discovery of two
cuneiform texts relative to the fall of Babylon and the religious policy
of Cyrus. The results are not favourable to a mechanical view of
prophecy as involving absolute accuracy of statement. Cyrus appears in
the unassailably authentic cylinder inscription "as a complete religious
indifferentist, willing to go through any amount of ceremonies to soothe
the prejudices of a susceptible population." He preserves a strange and
significant silence with regard to Ahura-mazda, the supreme God of
Zoroastrianism, and in fact can hardly have been a Zoroastrian believer
at all. On the historical and religious bearings of these two
inscriptions the reader may be referred to the article "Cyrus" in the
_Encyclopaedia Biblica_ and the essay on "II. Isaiah and the
Inscriptions" in Cheyne's _Prophecies of Isaiah_, vol. ii. It may, with
all reverence, be added that our estimate of prophecy must be brought
into harmony with facts, not facts with our preconceived theory of
inspiration.

  AUTHORITIES.--Lowth, _Isaiah: a new translation, with a preliminary
  dissertation and notes_ (1778); Gesenius, _Der Proph. Jes._ (1821);
  Hitzig, _Der Proph. Jes._ (1833); Delitzsch, _Der Pr. Jes._ (4th ed.,
  1889); Dillmann-Kittel, _Isaiah_ (1898); Duhm (1892; 2nd ed., 1902);
  Marti (1900); Cheyne, _The Prophecies of Isaiah_ (2 vols., 1880-1881);
  _Introd. to Book of Isaiah_ (1898); "The Book of the Prophet Isaiah,"
  in Paul Haupt's _Polychrome Bible_ (1898); S. R. Driver, _Isaiah, his
  life and times_ (1888); J. Skinner, "The Book of Isaiah," in
  _Cambridge Bible_ (2 vols., 1896, 1898); G. A. Smith, in _Expositor's
  Bible_ (2 vols., 1888, 1890); Condamin (Rom. Cath.) (1905); G. H. Box
  (1908); Article on Isaiah in _Ency. Bib._ by Cheyne; in Hastings'
  _Dict. of the Bible_ by Prof. G. A. Smith. R. H. Kennett's Schweich
  Lecture (1909), _The Composition of the Book of Isaiah in the Light of
  Archaeology and History_, an interesting attempt at a synthesis of
  results, is a brightly written but scholarly sketch of the growth of
  the book of Isaiah, which went on till the great success of the Jews
  under Judas Maccabaeus. The outbursts of triumph (e.g. Isa. ix. 2-7)
  are assigned to this period. The most original statement is perhaps
  the view that the words of Isaiah were preserved orally by his
  disciples, and did not see the light (in a revised form) till a
  considerable time after the crystallization of the reforms of Josiah
  into laws.     (T. K. C.)


FOOTNOTE:

  [1] On the question of the Isaianic origin of the prophecy, ix. 1-6,
    and the companion passage, xi. 1-8, see Cheyne _Introd. to the Book
    of Isaiah_, 1895, pp. 44, 45 and 62-66. Cf., however, J. Skinner
    "Isaiah i.-xxxix." in _Cambridge Bible_.




ISAIAH, ASCENSION OF, an apocryphal book of the Old Testament. The
_Ascension of Isaiah_ is a composite work of very great interest. In its
present form it is probably not older than the latter half of the 2nd
century of our era. Its various constituents, however, and of these
there were three--the _Martyrdom of Isaiah_, the _Testament of Hezekiah_
and the _Vision of Isaiah_--circulated independently as early as the 1st
century. The first of these was of Jewish origin, and is of less
interest than the other two, which were the work of Christian writers.
The _Vision of Isaiah_ is important for the knowledge it affords us of
1st-century beliefs in certain circles as to the doctrines of the
Trinity, the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Seven Heavens, &c. The
long lost _Testament of Hezekiah_, which is, in the opinion of R. H.
Charles, to be identified with iii. 13b-iv. 18, of our present work, is
unquestionably of great value owing to the insight it gives us into the
history of the Christian Church at the close of the 1st century. Its
descriptions of the worldliness and lawlessness which prevailed among
the elders and pastors, i.e. the bishops and priests, of the wide-spread
covetousness and vainglory as well as the growing heresies among
Christians generally, agree with similar accounts in 2 Peter, 2 Timothy
and Clement of Rome.

  _Various Titles._--Origen in his commentary on Matt. xiii. 57
  (Lommatzsch iii. 4, 9) calls it _Apocryph of Isaiah_--[Greek:
  Apokryphon Hêsaiou], Epiphanius (_Haer._ xl. 2) terms it the
  _Ascension of Isaiah_--[Greek: to anabatikon Hêsaiou], and similarly
  Jerome--_Ascensio Isaiae_. It was also known as the _Vision of Isaiah_
  and finally as the _Testament of Hezekiah_ (see Charles, _The
  Ascension of Isaiah_, pp. xii.-xv.).

  _The Greek Original and the Versions._--The book was written in Greek,
  though not improbably the middle portion, the _Testament of Hezekiah_,
  was originally composed in Semitic. The Greek in its original form,
  which we may denote by G, is lost. It has, however, been in part
  preserved to us in two of its recensions, G¹ and G². From G¹ the
  Ethiopic Version and the first Latin Version (consisting of ii.
  14-iii. 13, vii. 1-19) were translated, and of this recension the
  actual Greek has survived in a multitude of phrases in the _Greek
  Legend_. G² denotes the Greek text from which the Slavonic and the
  second Latin Version (consisting of vi.-xi.) were translated. Of this
  recension ii. 4-iv. 2 have been discovered by Grenfell and Hunt.[1]
  For complete details see Charles, _op. cit._ pp. xviii.-xxxiii.; also
  Flemming in Hennecke's _NTliche Apok_.

  _Latin Version._--The first Latin Version (L¹) is fragmentary (=ii.
  14-iii. 13, vii. 1-19). It was discovered and edited by Mai in 1828
  (Script. _vet. nova collectio_ III. ii. 238), and reprinted by
  Dillmann in his edition of 1877, and subsequently in a more correct
  form by Charles in his edition of 1900. The second version (L²), which
  consists of vi.-xi., was first printed at Venice in 1522, by Gieseler
  in 1832, Dillmann in 1877 and Charles in 1900.

  _Ethiopic Version._--There are three MSS. This version is on the whole
  a faithful reproduction of G¹. These were used by Dillmann and
  subsequently by Charles in their editions.

  _Different Elements in the Book._--The compositeness of this work is
  universally recognized. Dillmann's analysis is as follows, (i.)
  _Martyrdom of Isaiah_, of Jewish origin; ii. 1-iii. 12, v. 2-14. (ii.)
  The _Vision of Isaiah_, of Christian origin, vi. 1-xi. 1, 23-40.
  (iii.) The above two constituents were put together by a Christian
  writer, who prefixed i. 1, 2, 4b-13 and appended xi. 42, 43. (iv.)
  Finally a later Christian editor incorporated the two sections iii.
  13-v. 1 and xi. 2-22, and added i. 3, 4a, v. 15, 16, xi. 41.

  This analysis has on the whole been accepted by Harnack, Schürer,
  Deane and Beer. These scholars have been influenced by Gebhardt's
  statement that in the _Greek Legend_ there is not a trace of iii.
  13-v. 1, xi. 2-22, and that accordingly these sections were absent
  from the text when the _Greek Legend_ was composed. But this statement
  is wrong, for at least five phrases or clauses in the _Greek Legend_
  are derived from the sections in question. Hence R. H. Charles has
  examined (_op. cit._ pp. xxxviii.-xlvii.) the problem _de novo_, and
  arrived at the following conclusions. The book is highly composite,
  and arbitrariness and disorder are found in every section. There are
  three original documents at its base, (i.) The _Martyrdom of Isaiah_ =
  i. 1, 2a, 6b-13a, ii. 1-8, 10-iii. 12, v. 1b-14. This is but an
  imperfect survival of the original work. Part of the original work
  omitted by the final editor of our book is preserved in the _Opus
  imperfectum_, which goes back _not to our text, but to the original
  Martyrdom_, (ii.) The _Testament of Hezekiah_ = iii. 13b-iv. 18. This
  work is mutilated and without beginning or end. (iii.) The _Vision of
  Isaiah_ = vi.-xi. 1-40. The archetype of this section existed
  independently in Greek; for the second Latin and the Slavonic Versions
  presuppose an independent circulation of their Greek archetype in
  western and Slavonic countries. This archetype differs in many
  respects from the form in which it was republished by the editor of
  the entire work.

  We may, in short, put this complex matter as follows: The conditions
  of the problem are sufficiently satisfied by supposing a single
  editor, who had three works at his disposal, the _Martyrdom of
  Isaiah_, of Jewish origin, and the _Testament of Hezekiah_ and the
  _Vision of Isaiah_, of Christian origin. These he reduced or enlarged
  as it suited his purpose, and put them together as they stand in our
  text. Some of the editorial additions are obvious, as i. 2b-6a, 13a,
  ii. 9, iii. 13a, iv. 1a, 19-v. 1a, 15, 16, xi. 41-43.

  _Dates of the Various Constituents of the Ascension._--(a) The
  _Martyrdom_ is quoted by the _Opus Imperfectum_, Ambrose, Jerome,
  Origen, Tertullian and by Justin Martyr. It was probably known to the
  writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Thus we are brought back to the
  1st century A.D. if the last reference is trustworthy. And this is no
  doubt the right date, for works written by Jews in the 2nd century
  would not be likely to become current in the Christian Church. (b) The
  _Testament of Hezekiah_ was written between A.D. 88-100. The grounds
  for this date will be found in Charles, _op. cit._ pp. lxxi.-lxxii.
  and 30-31. (c) The _Vision of Isaiah_. The later recension of this
  Vision was used by Jerome, and a more primitive form of the text by
  the Archontici according to Epiphanius. It is still earlier attested
  by the _Actus Petri Vercellenses_. Since the Protevangel of James was
  apparently acquainted with it, and likewise Ignatius (_ad. Ephes._
  xix.), the composition of the primitive form of the Vision goes back
  to the close of the 1st century.

  The work of combining and editing these three independent writings may
  go back to early in the 3rd or even to the 2nd century.

  LITERATURE.--_Editions of the Ethiopic Text_: Laurence, _Ascensio
  Isaiae vatis_ (1819); Dillmann, _Ascensio Isaiae Aethiopice et Latine,
  cum prolegomenis, adnotationibus criticis et exegeticis, additis
  versionum Latinarum reliquiis edita_ (1877); Charles, _Ascension of
  Isaiah, translated from the Ethiopic Version, which, together with the
  new Greek Fragment, the Latin Versions and the Latin translation of
  the Slavonic, is here published in full, edited with Introduction,
  Notes and Indices_ (1900); Flemming, in Hennecke's _NTliche Apok._
  292-305; _NTliche Apok.-Handbuch_, 323-331. This translation is made
  from Charles's text, and his analysis of the text is in the main
  accepted by this scholar. _Translations_: In addition to the
  translations given in the preceding editions, Basset, _Les Apocryphes
  éthiopiens_, iii. "L'Ascension d'Isaïe" (1894); Beer, _Apok. und
  Pseud._ (1900) ii. 124-127. The latter is a German rendering of
  ii.-iii. 1-12, v. 2-14, of Dillmann's text. _Critical Inquiries_:
  Stokes, art. "Isaiah, Ascension of," in Smith's _Dict. of Christian
  Biography_ (1882), iii. 298-301; Robinson, "The Ascension of Isaiah"
  in Hastings' _Bible Dict._ ii. 499-501. For complete bibliography see
  Schürer,[3] _Gesch. des jüd. Volks_, iii. 280-285; Charles, _op. cit._
       (R. H. C.)


FOOTNOTE:

  [1] Published by them in the _Amherst Papyri_, an account of the
    Greek papyri in the collection of Lord Amherst (1900), and by Charles
    in his edition.




ISANDHLWANA, an isolated hill in Zululand, 8 m. S.E. of Rorke's Drift
across the Tugela river, and 105 m. N. by W. of Durban. On the 22nd of
January 1879 a British force encamped at the foot of the hill was
attacked by about 10,000 Zulus, the flower of Cetewayo's army, and
destroyed. Of eight hundred Europeans engaged about forty escaped (see
ZULULAND: _History_).




ISAR (identical with _Isère_, in Celtic "the rapid"), a river of
Bavaria. It rises in the Tirolese Alps N.E. from Innsbruck, at an
altitude of 5840 ft. It first winds in deep, narrow glens and gorges
through the Alps, and at Tölz (2100 ft.), due north from its source,
enters the Bavarian plain, which it traverses in a generally north and
north-east direction, and pours its waters into the Danube immediately
below Deggendorf after a course of 219 m. The area of its drainage basin
is 38,200 sq. m. Below Munich the stream is 140 to 350 yards wide, and
is studded with islands. It is not navigable, except for rafts. The
total fall of the river is 4816 ft. The Isar is essentially the national
stream of the Bavarians. It has belonged from the earliest times to the
Bavarian people and traverses the finest corn land in the kingdom. On
its banks lie the cities of Munich and Landshut, and the venerable
episcopal see of Freising, and the inhabitants of the district it waters
are reckoned the core of the Bavarian race.

  See C. Gruber, _Die Isar nach ihrer Entwickelung und ihren
  hydrologischen Verhältnissen_ (Munich, 1889); and _Die Bedeutung der
  Isar als Verkehrsstrasse_ (Munich, 1890).




ISATIN, C8H5NO2, in chemistry, a derivative of indol, interesting on
account of its relation to indigo; it may be regarded as the anhydride
of ortho-aminobenzoylformic or isatinic acid. It crystallizes in orange
red prisms which melt at 200-201° C. It may be prepared by oxidizing
indigo with nitric or chromic acid (O. L. Erdmann, _Jour. prak. Chem._,
1841, 24, p. 11); by boiling ortho-nitrophenylpropiolic acid with
alkalis (A. Baeyer, _Ber._, 1880, 13, p. 2259), or by oxidizing
carbostyril with alkaline potassium permanganate (P. Friedlander and H.
Ostermaier, _Ber._, 1881, 14, p. 1921). P. J. Meyer (German Patent 26736
(1883)) obtains substituted isatins by condensing para-toluidine with
dichloracetic acid, oxidizing the product with air and then hydrolysing
the oxidized product with hydrochloric acid. T. Sandmeyer (German
Patents 113981 and 119831 (1899)) obtained isatin-[alpha]-anilide by
condensing aniline with chloral hydrate and hydroxylamine, an
intermediate product isonitrosodiphenylacetamidine being obtained, which
is converted into isatin-[alpha]-anilide by sulphuric acid. This can be
converted into indigo by reduction with ammonium sulphide. Isatin
dissolved in concentrated sulphuric acid gives a blue coloration with
thiophene, due to the formation of indophenin (see _Abst. J.C.S._,
1907). Concentrated nitric acid oxidizes it to oxalic acid, and alkali
fusion yields aniline. It dissolves in soda forming a violet solution,
which soon becomes yellow, a change due to the transformation of sodium
N-isatin into sodium isatate, the _aci_-isatin salt being probably
formed intermediately (Heller, _Abst. J.C.S._, 1907, i. p. 442). Most
metallic salts are N-derivatives yielding N-methyl ethers; the silver
salt is, however, an O-derivative, yielding an O-methyl ether (A. v.
Baeyer, 1883; W. Peters, _Abst. J.C.S._, 1907, i. p. 239).

    /\   /CO         /\   /CO         /\   /CO           /\   /CO
   /  \ /   \       /  \ /    \      /  \ /   \         /  \ /   \
  |    |     \CO   |    |      \CO  |    |     \       |    |     \
  |    |     /     |    |      /    |    |    //C(OH)  |    |    //COAg.
   \  / \   /       \  / \    /      \  / \  //         \  / \  //
    \/   \NH         \/   \N(Na)      \/   \N            \/   \N

   Isatin([psi])     Sodium salt        Isatin           Silver salt




ISAURIA, in ancient geography, a district in the interior of Asia Minor,
of very different extent at different periods. The permanent nucleus of
it was that section of the Taurus which lies directly to south of
Iconium and Lystra. Lycaonia had all the Iconian plain; but Isauria
began as soon as the foothills were reached. Its two original towns,
Isaura Nea and Isaura Palaea, lay, one among these foothills (_Dorla_)
and the other on the watershed (Zengibar Kalé). When the Romans first
encountered the Isaurians (early in the 1st century B.C.), they regarded
Cilicia Trachea as part of Isauria, which thus extended to the sea; and
this extension of the name continued to be in common use for two
centuries. The whole basin of the Calycadnus was reckoned Isaurian, and
the cities in the valley of its southern branch formed what was known as
the Isaurian Decapolis. Towards the end of the 3rd century A.D.,
however, all Cilicia was detached for administrative purposes from the
northern slope of Taurus, and we find a province called at first
Isauria-Lycaonia, and later Isauria alone, extending up to the limits of
Galatia, but not passing Taurus on the south. Pisidia, part of which had
hitherto been included in one province with Isauria, was also detached,
and made to include Iconium. In compensation Isauria received the
eastern part of Pamphylia. Restricted again in the 4th century, Isauria
ended as it began by being just the wild district about Isaura Palaea
and the heads of the Calycadnus. Isaura Palaea was besieged by
Perdiccas, the Macedonian regent after Alexander's death; and to avoid
capture its citizens set the place alight and perished in the flames.
During the war of the Cilician and other pirates against Rome, the
Isaurians took so active a part that the proconsul P. Servilius deemed
it necessary to follow them into their fastnesses, and compel the whole
people to submission, an exploit for which he received the title of
Isauricus (75 B.C.). The Isaurians were afterwards placed for a time
under the rule of Amyntas, king of Galatia; but it is evident that they
continued to retain their predatory habits and virtual independence. In
the 3rd century they sheltered the rebel emperor, Trebellianus. In the
4th century they are still described by Ammianus Marcellinus as the
scourge of the neighbouring provinces of Asia Minor; but they are said
to have been effectually subdued in the reign of Justinian. In common
with all the eastern Taurus, Isauria passed into the hands of Turcomans
and Yuruks with the Seljuk conquest. Many of these have now coalesced
with the aboriginal population and form a settled element: but the
district is still lawless.

This comparatively obscure people had the honour of producing two
Byzantine emperors, Zeno, whose native name was Traskalisseus
Rousoumbladeotes, and Leo III., who ascended the throne of
Constantinople in 718, reigned till 741, and became the founder of a
dynasty of three generations. The ruins of Isaura Palaea are mainly
remarkable for their fine situation and their fortifications and tombs.
Those of Isaura Nea have disappeared, but numerous inscriptions and many
sculptured _stelae_, built into the houses of _Dorla_, prove the site.
It was the latter, and not the former town, that Servilius reduced by
cutting off the water supply. The site was identified by W. M. Ramsay
in 1901. The only modern exploration of highland Isauria was that made
by J. S. Sterrett in 1885; but it was not exhaustive.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY.--W. M. Ramsay, _Historical Geography of Asia Minor_
  (1890), and article "Nova Isaura" in _Journ. Hell. Studies_ (1905); A.
  M. Ramsay, ibid. (1904); J. R. S. Sterrett, "Wolfe Expedition to Asia
  Minor," _Papers Amer. Inst. of Arch._ iii. (1888); C. Ritter,
  _Erdkunde_, xix. (1859); E. J. Davis, _Life in As. Turkey_ (1879).
       (D. G. H.)




ISCHIA (Gr. [Greek: Pithêkousa], Lat. _Aenaria_, in poetry _Inarime_),
an island off the coast of Campania, Italy, 16 m. S.W. of Naples, to the
province of which it belongs, and 7 m. S.W. of the Capo Miseno, the
nearest point of the mainland. Pop. about 20,000. It is situated at the
W. extremity of the Gulf of Naples, and is the largest island near
Naples, measuring about 19 m. in circumference and 26 sq. m. in area. It
belongs to the same volcanic system as the mainland near it, and the
Monte Epomeo (anc. [Greek: Epôpeus], viewpoint), the highest point of
the island (2588 ft.), lies on the N. edge of the principal crater,
which is surrounded by twelve smaller cones. The island was perhaps
occupied by Greek settlers even before Cumae; its Eretrian and
Chalcidian inhabitants abandoned it about 500 B.C. owing to an eruption,
and it is said to have been deserted almost at once by the greater part
of the garrison which Hiero I. of Syracuse had placed there about 470
B.C., owing to the same cause. Later on it came into the possession of
Naples, but passed into Roman hands in 326, when Naples herself lost her
independence. The ancient town, traces of the fortifications of which
still exist, was situated near Lacco, at the N.W. corner of the island.
Augustus gave it back to Naples in exchange for Capri. After the fall of
Rome it suffered attacks and devastations from the successive masters of
Italy, until it was finally taken by the Neapolitans in 1299.

Several eruptions are recorded in Roman times. The last of which we have
any knowledge occurred in 1301, but the island was visited by
earthquakes in 1881 and 1883, 1700 lives being lost in the latter year,
when the town of Casamicciola on the north side of the island was almost
entirely destroyed. The hot springs here, which still survive from the
period of volcanic activity, rise at a temperature of 147° Fahr. and are
alkaline and saline; they are much visited by bathers, especially in
summer. They were known in Roman times, and many votive altars dedicated
to Apollo and the nymphs have been found. The whole island is
mountainous, and is remarkable for its beautiful scenery and its
fertility. Wine, corn, oil and fruit are produced, especially the
former, while the mountain slopes are clothed with woods. Tiles and
pottery are made in the island. Straw-plaiting is a considerable
industry at Lacco; and a certain amount of fishing is also done. The
potter's clay of Ischia served for the potteries of Cumae and Puteoli in
ancient times, and was indeed in considerable demand until the
catastrophe at Casamicciola in 1883.

The chief towns are Ischia on the E. coast, the capital and the seat of
a bishop (pop. in 1901, town, 2756; commune, 7012), with a 15th-century
castle, to which Vittoria Colonna retired after the death of her husband
in 1525; Casamicciola (pop. in 1901, town, 1085; commune, 3731) on the
north, and Forio on the west coast (pop. in 1901, town, 3640; commune,
7197). There is regular communication with Naples, both by steamer
direct, and also by steamer to Torregaveta, 2 m. W.S.W. of Baiae and 12½
m. W.S.W. of Naples, and thence by rail.

  See J. Beloch, _Campanien_ (Breslau, 1890), 202 sqq.     (T. As.)




ISCHL, a market-town and watering-place of Austria, in Upper Austria, 55
m. S.S.W. of Linz by rail. Pop. (1900) 9646. It is beautifully situated
on the peninsula formed by the junction of the rivers Ischl and Traun
and is surrounded by high mountains, presenting scenery of the finest
description. To the S. is the Siriuskogl or Hundskogl (1960 ft.), and to
the W. the Schafberg (5837 ft.), which is ascended from St Wolfgang by a
rack-and-pinion railway, built in 1893. It possesses a fine parish
church, built by Maria Theresa and renovated in 1877-1880, and the
Imperial Villa is surrounded by a magnificent park. Ischl is one of the
most fashionable spas of Europe, being the favourite summer residence
of the Austrian Imperial family and of the Austrian nobility since 1822.
It has saline and sulphureous drinking springs and numerous brine and
brine-vapour baths. The brine used at Ischl contains about 25% of salt
and there are also mud, sulphur and pine-cone baths. Ischl is situated
at an altitude of 1533 ft. above sea-level and has a very mild climate.
Its mean annual temperature is 49.4° F. and its mean summer temperature
is 63.5° F. Ischl is an important centre of the salt industry and 4 m.
to its W. is a celebrated salt mine, which has been worked as early as
the 12th century.




ISEO, LAKE OF (the _Lacus Sebinus_ of the Romans), a lake in Lombardy,
N. Italy, situated at the southern foot of the Alps, and between the
provinces of Bergamo and Brescia. It is formed by the Oglio river, which
enters the northern extremity of the lake of Lovere, and issues from the
southern end at Sarnico, on its way to join the Po. The area of the lake
is about 24 sq. m., it is 17½ m. in length, and 3 m. wide in the
broadest portion, while the greatest depth is said to be about 984 ft.
and the height of its surface above sea-level 607 ft. It contains one
large island, that of Siviano, which culminates in the Monte Isola (1965
ft.) that is crowned by a chapel, while to the south is the islet of San
Paolo, occupied by the buildings of a small Franciscan convent now
abandoned, and to the north the equally tiny island of Loreto, with a
ruined chapel containing frescoes. At the southern end of the lake are
the small towns of Iseo (15 m. by rail N.W. of Brescia) and of Sarnico.
From Paratico, opposite Sarnico, on the other or left bank of the Oglio,
a railway runs in 6¼ m. to Palazzolo, on the main Brescia-Bergamo line.
Towards the head of the lake, the deep wide valley of the Oglio is seen,
dominated by the glittering snows of the Adamello (11,661 ft.), a
glorious prospect. Along the east shore (the west shore is far more
rugged) a fine carriage road rims from Iseo to the considerable town of
Pisogne (13½ m.), situated at the northern end of the lake, and nearly
opposite that of Lovere, on the right bank of the Oglio. The portion of
this road some way S. of Pisogne is cleverly engineered, and is carried
through several tunnels. The lake's charms were celebrated by Lady Mary
Wortley-Montagu, who spent ten summers (1747-1757) in a villa at Lovere,
then much frequented by reason of an iron spring. The lake has several
sardine and eel fisheries.     (W. A. B. C.)




ISÈRE [anc. _Isara_], one of the chief rivers in France as well as of
those flowing down on the French side of the Alpine chain. Its total
length from its source to its junction with the Rhône is about 180 m.,
during which it descends a height of about 7550 ft. Its drainage area is
about 4725 sq. m. It flows through the departments of Savoie, Isère and
Drôme. This river rises in the Galise glaciers in the French Graian Alps
and flows, as a mountain torrent, through a narrow valley past Tignes in
a north-westerly direction to Bourg St Maurice, at the western foot of
the Little St Bernard Pass. It now bends S.W., as far as Moutiers, the
chief town of the Tarentaise, as the upper course of the Isère is named.
Here it again turns N.W. as far as Albertville, where after receiving
the Arly (right) it once more takes a south-westerly direction, and near
St Pierre d'Albigny receives its first important tributary, the Arc
(left), a wild mountain stream flowing through the Maurienne and past
the foot of the Mont Cenis Pass. A little way below, at Montmélian, it
becomes officially navigable (for about half of its course), though it
is but little used for that purpose owing to the irregular depth of its
bed and the rapidity of its current. Very probably, in ancient days, it
flowed from Montmélian N.W. and, after passing through or forming the
Lac du Bourget, joined the Rhône. But at present it continues from
Montmélian in a south-westerly direction, flowing through the broad and
fertile valley of the Graisivaudan, though receiving but a single
affluent of any importance, the Bréda (left). At Grenoble, the most
important town on its banks, it bends for a short distance again N.W.
But just below that town it receives by far its most important affluent
(left) the Drac, which itself drains the entire S. slope of the lofty
snow-clad Dauphiné Alps, and which, 11 m. above Grenoble, had received
the Romanche (right), a mountain stream which drains the entire central
and N. portion of the same Alps. Hence the Drac is, at its junction
with the Isère, a stream of nearly the same volume, while these two
rivers, with the Durance, drain practically the entire French slope of
the Alpine chain, the basins of the Arve and of the Var forming the sole
exceptions. A short distance below Moirans the Isère changes its
direction for the last time and now flows S.W. past Romans before
joining the Rhône on the left, as its principal affluent after the Saône
and the Durance, between Tournon and Valence. The Isère is remarkable
for the way in which it changes its direction, forming three great loops
of which the apex is respectively at Bourg St Maurice, Albertville and
Moirans. For some way after its junction with the Rhône the grey
troubled current of the Isère can be distinguished in the broad and
peaceful stream of the Rhône.     (W. A. B. C )




ISÈRE, a department of S.E. France, formed in 1790 out of the northern
part of the old province of Dauphiné. Pop. (1906) 562,315. It is bounded
N. by the department of the Ain, E. by that of Savoie, S. by those of
the Hautes Alpes and the Drôme and W. by those of the Loire and the
Rhône. Its area is 3179 sq. m. (surpassed only by 7 other departments),
while its greatest length is 93 m. and its greatest breadth 53 m. The
river Isère runs for nearly half its course through this department, to
which it gives its name. The southern portion of the department is very
mountainous, the loftiest summit being the Pic Lory (13,396 ft.) in the
extensive snow-clad Oisans group (drained by the Drac and Romanche, two
mighty mountain torrents), while minor groups are those of Belledonne,
of Allevard, of the Grandes Rousses, of the Dévoluy, of the Trièves, of
the Royannais, of the Vercors and, slightly to the north of the rest,
that of the Grande Chartreuse. The northern portion of the department is
composed of plateaux, low hills and plains, while on every side but the
south it is bounded by the course of the Rhône. It forms the bishopric
of Grenoble (dating from the 4th century), till 1790 in the
ecclesiastical province of Vienne, and now in that of Lyons. The
department is divided into four arrondissements (Grenoble, St Marcellin,
La Tour du Pin and Vienne), 45 cantons and 563 communes. Its capital is
Grenoble, while other important towns in it are the towns of Vienne, St
Marcellin and La Tour du Pin. It is well supplied with railways (total
length 342 m.), which give access to Gap, to Chambéry, to Lyons, to St
Rambert and to Valence, while it also possesses many tramways (total
length over 200 m.). It contains silver, lead, coal and iron mines, as
well as extensive slate, stone and marble quarries, besides several
mineral springs (Allevard, Uriage and La Motte). The forests cover much
ground, while among the most flourishing industries are those of glove
making, cement, silk weaving and paper making. The area devoted to
agriculture (largely in the fertile valley of the Graisivaudan, or
Isère, N.E. of Grenoble) is about 1211 sq. m.     (W. A. B. C.)




ISERLOHN, a town in the Prussian province of Westphalia, on the Baar, in
a bleak and hilly region, 17 m. W. of Arnsberg, and 30 m. E.N.E. from
Barmen by rail. Pop. (1900) 27,265. Iserlohn is one of the most
important manufacturing towns in Westphalia. Both in the town and
neighbourhood there are numerous foundries and works for iron, brass,
steel and bronze goods, while other manufactures include wire, needles
and pins, fish-hooks, machinery, umbrella-frames, thimbles, bits,
furniture, chemicals, coffee-mills, and pinchbeck and britannia-metal
goods. Iserlohn is a very old town, its gild of armourers being referred
to as "ancient" in 1443.




ISFAHAN (older form _Ispahan_), the name of a Persian province and town.
The province is situated in the centre of the country, and bounded S. by
Fars, E. by Yezd, N. by Kashan, Natanz and Irak, and W. by the Bakhtiari
district and Arabistan. It pays a yearly revenue of about £100,000, and
its population exceeds 500,000. It is divided into twenty-five
districts, its capital, the town of Isfahan, forming one of them. These
twenty-five districts, some very small and consisting of only a little
township and a few hamlets, are Isfahan, Jai, Barkhar, Kahab, Kararaj,
Baraan, Rudasht, Marbin, Lenjan, Kerven, Rar, Kiar, Mizdej, Ganduman,
Somairam, Jarkuyeh, Ardistan, Kuhpayeh, Najafabad, Komisheh, Chadugan,
Varzek, Tokhmaklu, Gurji, Chinarud. Most of these districts are very
fertile, and produce great quantities of wheat, barley, rice, cotton,
tobacco and opium. Lenjan, west of the city of Isfahan, is the greatest
rice-producing district; the finest cotton comes from Jarkuyeh; the best
opium and tobacco from the villages in the vicinity of the city.

The town of Isfahan or Ispahan, formerly the capital of Persia, now the
capital of the province, is situated on the Zayendeh river in 32° 39´ N.
and 51° 40´ E.[1] at an elevation of 5370 ft. Its population, excluding
that of the Armenian colony of Julfa on the right or south bank of the
river (about 4000), is estimated at 100,000 (73,654, including 5883
Jews, in 1882). The town is divided into thirty-seven _mahallehs_
(parishes) and has 210 mosques and colleges (many half ruined), 84
caravanserais, 150 public baths and 68 flour mills. The water supply is
principally from open canals led off from the river and from several
streams and canals which come down from the hills in the north-west. The
name of the Isfahan river was originally Zendeh (Pahlavi _zendek_) rud,
"the great river"; it was then modernized into Zindeh-rud, "the living
river," and is now called Zayendeh rud, "the life-giving river." Its
principal source is the Jananeh rud which rises on the eastern slope of
the Zardeh Kuh about 90 to 100 m. W. of Isfahan. After receiving the
Khursang river from Feridan on the north and the Zarin rud from
Chaharmahal on the south it is called Zendeh rud. It then waters the
Lenjan and Marbin districts, passes Isfahan as Zayendeh-rud and 70 m.
farther E. ends in the Gavkhani depression. From its entrance into
Lenjan to its end 105 canals are led off from it for purposes of
irrigation and 14 bridges cross it (5 at Isfahan). Its volume of water
at Isfahan during the spring season has been estimated at 60,000 cub.
ft. per second; in autumn the quantity is reduced to one-third, but
nearly all of it being then used for feeding the irrigation canals very
little is left for the river bed. The town covers about 20 sq. m., but
many parts of it are in ruins. The old city walls--a ruined mud
curtain--are about 5 m. in circumference.

Of the many fine public buildings constructed by the Sefavis and during
the reign of the present dynasty very little remains. There are still
standing in fairly good repair the two palaces named respectively Chehel
Situn, "the forty pillars," and Hasht Behesht, "the eight paradises,"
the former constructed by Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629), the latter by Shah
Soliman in 1670, and restored and renovated by Fath Ali Shah
(1797-1834). They are ornamented with gilding and mirrors in every
possible variety of Arabesque decoration, and large and brilliant
pictures, representing scenes of Persian history, cover the walls of
their principal apartments and have been ascribed in many instances to
Italian and Dutch artists who are known to have been in the service of
the Sefavis. Attached to these palaces were many other buildings such as
the Imaretino built by Amin ed-Dowleh (or Addaula) for Fath Ali Shah,
the Imaret i Ashref built by Ashref Khan, the Afghan usurper, the Talar
Tavileh, Guldasteh, Sarpushideh, &c., erected in the early part of the
19th century by wealthy courtiers for the convenience of the sovereign
and often occupied as residences of European ministers travelling
between Bushire and Teheran and by other distinguished travellers.
Perhaps the most agreeable residence of all was the Haft Dast, "the
seven courts," in the beautiful garden of Saadetabad on the southern
bank of the river, and 2 or 3 m. from the centre of the city. This
palace was built by Shah Abbas II. (1642-1667), and Fath Ali Shad Kajar
died there in 1834. Close to it was the Aineh Khaneh, "hall of mirrors"
and other elegant buildings in the Hazar jerib (1000 acre) garden. All
these palaces and buildings on both sides of the river were surrounded
by extensive gardens, traversed by avenues of tall trees, principally
planes, and intersected by paved canals of running water with tanks and
fountains. Since Fath Ali Shah's death, palaces and gardens have been
neglected. In 1902 an official was sent from Teheran to inspect the
crown buildings, to report on their condition, and repair and renovate
some, &c. The result was that all the above-mentioned buildings,
excepting the Chehel Situn and Hasht Behesht, were demolished and their
timber, bricks, stone, &c., sold to local builders. The gardens are
wildernesses. The garden of the Chehel Situn palace opens out through
the Ala Kapu ("highest gate, sublime porte") to the Maidan-i-Shah, which
is one of the most imposing piazzas in the world, a parallelogram of 560
yds. (N.-S.) by 174 yds. (E.-W.) surrounded by brick buildings divided
into two storeys of recessed arches, or arcades, one above the other. In
front of these arcades grow a few stunted planes and poplars. On the
south side of the maidan is the famous Masjed i Shah (the shah's mosque)
erected by Shah Abbas I. in 1612-1613. It is covered with glazed tiles
of great brilliancy and richly decorated with gold and silver ornaments
and cost over £175,000. It is in good repair, and plans of it were
published by C. Texier (_L'Arménie, la Perse_, &c., vol. i. pls. 70-72)
and P. Coste (_Monuments de la Perse_). On the eastern side of the
maidan stands the Masjed i Lutf Ullah with beautiful enamelled tiles and
in good repair. Opposite to it on the western side of the maidan is the
Ala Kapu, a lofty building in the form of an archway overlooking the
maidan and crowned in the fore part by an immense open throne-room
supported by wooden columns, while the hinder part is elevated three
storeys higher. On the north side of the maidan is the entrance gate to
the main bazaar surmounted by the Nekkareh-Khaneh, or drumhouse, where
is blared forth the appalling music saluting the rising and setting sun,
said to have been instituted by Jamshid many thousand years ago. West of
the Chehel Situn palace and conducting N.-S. from the centre of the city
to the great bridge of Allah Verdi Khan is the great avenue nearly a
mile in length called Chahar Bagh, "the four gardens," recalling the
fact that it was originally occupied by four vineyards which Shah Abbas
I. rented at £360 a year and converted into a splendid approach to his
capital.

  It was thus described by Lord Curzon of Kedleston in 1880: "Of all the
  sights of Isfahan, this in its present state is the most pathetic in
  the utter and pitiless decay of its beauty. Let me indicate what it
  was and what it is. At the upper extremity a two-storeyed pavilion,[2]
  connected by a corridor with the Seraglio of the palace, so as to
  enable the ladies of the harem to gaze unobserved upon the merry scene
  below, looked out upon the centre of the avenue. Water, conducted in
  stone channels, ran down the centre, falling in miniature cascades
  from terrace to terrace, and was occasionally collected in great
  square or octagonal basins where cross roads cut the avenue. On either
  side of the central channel was a row of oriental planes and a paved
  pathway for pedestrians. Then occurred a succession of open parterres,
  usually planted or sown. Next on either side was a second row of
  planes, between which and the flanking walls was a raised causeway for
  horsemen. The total breadth is now fifty-two yards. At intervals
  corresponding with the successive terraces and basins, arched doorways
  with recessed open chambers overhead conducted through these walls
  into the various royal or noble gardens that stretched on either side,
  and were known as the Gardens of the Throne, of the Nightingale, of
  Vines, of Mulberries, Dervishes, &c. Some of these pavilions were
  places of public resort and were used as coffee-houses, where when the
  business of the day was over, the good burghers of Isfahan assembled
  to sip that beverage and inhale their _kalians_ the while; as Fryer
  puts it: 'Night drawing on, all the pride of Spahaun was met in the
  Chaurbaug and the Grandees were Airing themselves, prancing about with
  their numerous Trains, striving to outvie each other in Pomp and
  Generosity.' At the bottom, quays lined the banks of the river, and
  were bordered with the mansions of the nobility."

  Such was the Chahar Bagh in the plenitude of its fame. But now what a
  tragical contrast! The channels are empty, their stone borders
  crumbled and shattered, the terraces are broken down, the parterres
  are unsightly bare patches, the trees, all lopped and pollarded, have
  been chipped and hollowed out or cut down for fuel by the soldiery of
  the Zil, the side pavilions are abandoned and tumbling to pieces and
  the gardens are wildernesses. Two centuries of decay could never make
  the Champs Élysées in Paris, the Unter den Linden in Berlin, or
  Rotten Row in London, look one half as miserable as does the ruined
  avenue of Shah Abbas. It is in itself an epitome of modern Iran."

Towards the upper end of the avenue on its eastern side stands the
medresseh (college) which Shah Hosain built in 1710. It still has a few
students, but is very much out of repair; Lord Curzon spoke of it in
1888 as "one of the stateliest ruins that he saw in Persia." South of
this college the avenue is altogether without trees, and the gardens on
both sides have been turned into barley fields. Among the other notable
buildings of Isfahan must be reckoned its five bridges, all fine
structures, and one of them, the bridge of Allah Verdi Kahn, 388 yds. in
length with a paved roadway of 30 ft. in breadth, is one of the
stateliest bridges in the world, and has suffered little by the march of
decay.

Another striking feature of Isfahan is the line of covered bazaars,
which extends for nearly 3 m. and divides the city from south to north.
The confluence of people in these bazaars is certainly very great, and
gives an exaggerated idea of the populousness of the city, the truth
being that while the inhabitants congregate for business in the bazaars,
the rest of the city is comparatively deserted. When surveyed from a
commanding height within the city, or in the immediate environs, the
enormous extent of mingled garden and building, about 30 m. in circuit,
gives an impression of populousness and busy life, but a closer scrutiny
reveals that the whole scene is nothing more than a gigantic sham. With
the exception of the bazaars and a few parishes there is really no
continuous inhabited area. Whole streets, whole quarters of the city
have fallen into utter ruin and are absolutely deserted, and the
traveller who is bent on visiting some of the remarkable sites in the
northern part of the city or in the western suburbs, such as the
minarets dating from the 12th century, the remains of the famous castle
of Tabarrak built by the Buyid Rukn addaula (d. 976), the ruins of the
old fire temple, the shaking minarets of Guladan, &c., has to pass
through miles of crumbling mud walls and roofless houses. It is believed
indeed that not a twentieth part of the area of the old city is at
present peopled, and the million or 600,000 inhabitants of Chardin's
time (middle of the 17th century) have now dwindled to about 85,000. The
Armenian suburb of Julfa, at any rate, which contained a population of
30,000 souls in the 17th century, has now only 4000, and the Christian
churches, which numbered thirteen and were maintained with splendour,
are now reduced to half a dozen edifices with bare walls and empty
benches. Much improvement has recently taken place in the education of
the young and also in their religious teaching, the wealthy Armenians of
India and Java having liberally contributed to the national schools, and
the Church Missionary Society of London having a church, schools and
hospitals there since 1869.

The people of Isfahan have a very poor reputation in Persia either for
courage or morals. They are regarded as a clever but at the same time
dissolute and disorderly community, whose government requires a strong
hand. The _lutis_ (hooligans) of Isfahan are proverbial as the most
turbulent and rowdy set of vagabonds in Persia. The priesthood of
Isfahan are much respected for their learning and high character, and
the merchants are a very respectable class. The commerce of Isfahan has
greatly fallen off from its former flourishing condition, and it is
doubtful whether the trade of former days can ever be restored.
     (A. H.-S.)

  _History._--The natural advantages of Isfahan--a genial climate, a
  fertile soil and abundance of water for irrigation--must have always
  made it a place of importance. In the most ancient cuneiform
  documents, referring to a period between 3000 and 2000 B.C., the
  province of _Anshan_, which certainly included Isfahan, was the limit
  of the geographical knowledge of the Babylonians, typifying the
  extreme east, as Syria (or _Martu-ki_) typified the west. The two
  provinces of _Anshan_ and _Subarta_, by which we must understand the
  country from Isfahan to Shuster, were ruled in those remote ages by
  the same king, who undoubtedly belonged to the great Turanian family;
  and from this first notice of Anshan down to the 7th century B.C. the
  region seems to have remained, more or less, dependent on the
  paramount power of Susa. With regard to the eastern frontier of
  Anshan, however, ethnic changes were probably in extensive operation
  during this interval of twenty centuries. The western Iranians, for
  instance, after separating from their eastern brethren on the Oxus, as
  early perhaps as 3000 B.C., must have followed the line of the Elburz
  mountains, and then bifurcating into two branches must have scattered,
  westward into Media and southward towards Persia. The first
  substantial settlement of the southern branch would seem then to have
  been at Isfahan, where _Jem_, the eponym of the Persian race, is said
  to have founded a famous castle, the remains of which were visible as
  late as the 10th century A.D. This castle is known in the Zoroastrian
  writings as _Jem-gird_, but its proper name was _Saru_ or _Saruk_
  (given in the Bundahish as _Sruwa_ or _Srobak_), and it was especially
  famous in early Mahommedan history as the building where the ancient
  records and tables of the Persians were discovered which proved of so
  much use to Albumazar and his contemporaries. A valuable tradition,
  proceeding from quite a different source, has also been preserved to
  the effect that Jem, who invented the original Persian character,
  "dwelt in Assan, a district of Shuster" (see Flügel's _Fihrist_, p.
  12, l. 21), which exactly accords with the Assyrian notices of Assan
  or Anshan classed as a dependency of Elymais. Now, it is well known
  that native legend represented the Persian race to have been held in
  bondage for a thousand years, after the reign of Jem, by the foreign
  usurper _Zohak_ or _Biverasp_, a period which may well represent the
  duration of Elymaean supremacy over the Aryans of Anshan. At the
  commencement of the 7th century B.C. Persia and Ansan are still found
  in the annals of Sennacherib amongst the tributaries of Elymais,
  confederated against Assyria; but shortly afterwards the great Susian
  monarchy, which had lasted for full 2000 years, crumbled away under
  continued pressure from the west, and the Aryans of Anshan recovered
  their independence, founding for the first time a national dynasty,
  and establishing their seat of government at Gabae on the site of the
  modern city of Isfahan.

  The royal city of Gabae was known as a foundation of the Achaemenidae
  as late as the time of Strabo, and the inscriptions show that
  Achaemenes and his successors did actually rule at Anshan until the
  great Cyrus set out on his career of western victory. Whether the
  _Kabi_ or _Kavi_ of tradition, the blacksmith of Isfahan, who is said
  to have headed the revolt against Zohak, took his name from the town
  of Gabae may be open to question; but it is at any rate remarkable
  that the national standard of the Persian race, named after the
  blacksmith, and supposed to have been first unfurled at this epoch,
  retained the title of _Darafsh-a Kavani_ (the banner of Kavi) to the
  time of the Arab conquest, and that the men of Isfahan were, moreover,
  throughout this long period, always especially charged with its
  protection. The provincial name of Anshan or Assan seems to have been
  disused in the country after the age of Cyrus, and to have been
  replaced by that of Gabene or Gabiane, which alone appears in the
  Greek accounts of the wars of Alexander and his successors, and in the
  geographical descriptions of Strabo. Gabae or Gavi became gradually
  corrupted to _Jai_ during the Sassanian period, and it was thus by the
  latter name that the old city of Isfahan was generally known at the
  time of the Arab invasion. Subsequently the title of Jai became
  replaced by _Sheheristan_ or _Medineh_, "the city" _par excellence_,
  while a suburb which had been founded in the immediate vicinity, and
  which took the name of _Yahudieh_, or the "Jews' town," from its
  original Jewish inhabitants, gradually rose into notice and superseded
  the old capital.[3]

  _Sheheristan_ and _Yahudieh_ are thus in the early ages of Islam
  described as independent cities, the former being the eastern and the
  latter the western division of the capital, each surrounded by a
  separate wall; but about the middle of the 10th century the famous
  Buyid king, known as the _Rukn-addaula_ (_al-Dowleh_), united the two
  suburbs and many of the adjoining villages in one general enclosure
  which was about 10 m. in circumference. The city, which had now
  resumed its old name of Isfahan, continued to flourish till the time
  of Timur (A.D. 1387), when in common with so many other cities of the
  empire it suffered grievously at the hands of the Tatar invaders.
  Timur indeed is said to have erected a _Kelleh Minar_ or "skull tower"
  of 70,000 heads at the gate of the city, as a warning to deter other
  communities from resisting his arms. The place, however, owing to its
  natural advantages, gradually recovered from the effects of this
  terrible visitation, and when the Safavid dynasty, who succeeded to
  power in the 16th century, transferred their place of residence to it
  from Kazvin, it rose rapidly in populousness and wealth. It was under
  Shah Abbas the first, the most illustrious sovereign of this house,
  that Isfahan attained its greatest prosperity. This monarch adopted
  every possible expedient, by stimulating commerce, encouraging arts
  and manufactures, and introducing luxurious habits, to attract
  visitors to his favourite capital. He built several magnificent
  palaces in the richest style of Oriental decoration, planted gardens
  and avenues, and distributed amongst them the waters of the Zendeh-rud
  in an endless series of reservoirs, fountains and cascades. The baths,
  the mosques, the colleges, the bazaars and the caravanserais of the
  city received an equal share of his attention, and European artificers
  and merchants were largely encouraged to settle in his capital.
  Ambassadors visited his court from many of the first states of Europe,
  and factories were permanently established for the merchants of
  England, France, Holland, the Hanseatic towns, Spain, Portugal and
  Moscow. The celebrated traveller Chardin, who passed a great portion
  of his life at Isfahan in the latter half of the 17th century, has
  left a detailed and most interesting account of the statistics of the
  city at that period. He himself estimated the population at 600,000,
  though in popular belief the number exceeded a million. There were
  1500 flourishing villages in the immediate neighbourhood; the enceinte
  of the city and suburbs was reckoned at 24 m., while the mud walls
  surrounding the city itself, probably nearly following the lines of
  the Buyid enclosure, measured 20,000 paces. In the interior were
  counted 162 mosques, 48 public colleges, 1802 caravanserais, 273 baths
  and 12 cemeteries. The adjoining suburb of Julfa was also a most
  flourishing place. Originally founded by Shah Abbas the Great, who
  transported to this locality 3400 Armenian families from the town of
  Julfa on the Arras, the colony increased rapidly under his fostering
  care, both in wealth and in numbers, the Christian population being
  estimated in 1685 at 30,000 souls. The first blow to the prosperity of
  modern Isfahan was given by the Afghan invasion at the beginning of
  the 18th century, since which date, although continuing for some time
  to be the nominal head of the empire, the city has gradually dwindled
  in importance, and now only ranks as a second or third rate provincial
  capital. When the Kajar dynasty indeed mounted the throne of Persia at
  the end of the 18th century the seat of government was at once
  transferred to Teheran, with a view to the support of the royal tribe,
  whose chief seat was in the neighbouring province of Mazenderan; and,
  although it has often been proposed, from considerations of state
  policy in reference to Russia, to re-establish the court at Isfahan,
  which is the true centre of Persia, the scheme has never commanded
  much attention. At the same time the government of Isfahan, owing to
  the wealth of the surrounding districts, has always been much sought
  after. Early in the 19th century the post was often conferred upon
  some powerful minister of the court, but in later times it has been
  usually the apanage of a favourite son or brother of the reigning
  sovereign.[4] Fath Ali Shah, who had a particular affection for
  Isfahan, died here in 1834, and it became a time-honoured custom for
  the monarch on the throne to seek relief from the heat of Teheran by
  forming a summer camp at the rich pastures of Ganduman, on the skirts
  of Zardeh-Kuh, to the west of Isfahan, for the exercise of his troops
  and the health and amusement of his courtiers, but in recent years the
  practice has been discontinued.     (H. C. R.)


FOOTNOTES:

  [1] These figures are approximate for the centre of the town north of
    the river. The result of astronomical observations taken by the
    German expedition for observing the transit of Venus in 1874 and by
    Sir O. St John in 1870 on the south bank of the river near, and in
    Julfa respectively was 51° 40´ 3.45´´ E., 32° 37´ 30´´ N. The stone
    slab commemorating the work of the expedition and placed on the spot
    where the observations were taken has been carried off and now serves
    as a door plinth of an Armenian house.

  [2] This pavilion was the Persian telegraph office of Isfahan for
    nearly forty years and was demolished in 1903.

  [3] The name of Yahudieh or "Jews' town" is derived by the early Arab
    geographers from a colony of Jews who are said to have migrated from
    Babylonia to Isfahan shortly after Nebuchadrezzar's conquest of
    Jerusalem, but this is pure fable. The Jewish settlement really dates
    from the 3rd century A.D. as is shown by a notice in the Armenian
    history of Moses of Chorene, lib. iii. cap. 35. The name _Isfahan_
    has been generally compared with the Aspadana of Ptolemy in the
    extreme north of Persis, and the identification is probably correct.
    At any rate the title is of great antiquity being found in the
    Bundahish, and being derived in all likelihood from the family name
    of the race of _Feridun_, the _Athviyan_ of romance, who were
    entitled _Aspiyan_ in Pahlavi, according to the phonetic rules of
    that language.

  [4] Zill es Sultan, elder brother of Muzafar ed d-n Shah, became
    governor-general of the Isfahan province in 1869.




ISHIM, a town of West Siberia, in the government of Tobolsk, 180 m. N.W.
of Omsk, on a river of the same name, tributary, on the left, of the
Irtysh. Pop. (1897) 7161. The town, which was founded in 1630, has
tallow-melting and carries on a large trade in rye and rye flour. The
fair is one of the most important in Siberia, its returns being
estimated at £500,000 annually.




ISHMAEL (a Hebrew name meaning "God hears"), in the Bible, the son of
Abraham by his Egyptian concubine Hagar, and the eponym of a number of
(probably) nomadic tribes living outside Palestine. Hagar in turn
personifies a people found to the east of Gilead (1 Chron. v. 10) and
Petra (Strabo).[1] Through the jealousy of Sarah, Abraham's wife, mother
and son were driven away, and they wandered in the district south of
Beersheba and Kadesh (Gen. xvi. J, xxi. E); see ABRAHAM. It had been
foretold to his mother before his birth that he should be "a wild ass
among men," and that he should dwell "before the face of" (that is, to
the eastward of) his brethren. It is subsequently stated that after
leaving his father's roof he "became an archer,[2] and dwelt in the
wilderness of Paran, and his mother took him a wife out of the land of
Egypt." But the genealogical relations were rather with the Edomites,
Midianites and other peoples of North Arabia and the eastern desert than
with Egypt proper, and this is indicated by the expressions that "they
dwelt from Havilah unto Shur that is east of Egypt, and he settled to
the eastward of his brethren" (see MIZRAIM). Like Jacob, the ancestor of
the Israelites, he had twelve sons (xxv. 12-18, P), of which only a few
have historical associations apart from the biblical records. Nebaioth
and Kedar suggest the Nabataei and Cedrei of Pliny (v. 12). the
first-mentioned of whom were an important Arab people after the time of
Alexander (see NABATAEANS). The names correspond to the Nabaitu and
Kidru of the Assyrian inscriptions occupying the desert east of the
Jordan and Dead Sea, whilst the Massa and Tema lay probably farther
south. Dumah may perhaps be the same as the Domata of Pliny (vi. 32) and
the [Greek: Doumetha] or [Greek: Doumaitha] of Ptolemy (v. 19, 7, viii.
22, 3)--Sennacherib conquered a fortress of "Aribi" named Adumu,--and
Jetur is obviously the Ituraea of classical geographers.[3]

  "Ishmael," therefore, is used in a wide sense of the wilder, roving
  peoples encircling Canaan from the north-east to the south, related to
  but on a lower rank than the "sons" of Isaac. It is practically
  identical with the term "Arabia" as used by the Assyrians. Nothing
  certain is known of the history of these mixed populations. They arc
  represented as warlike nomads and with a certain reputation for wisdom
  (Baruch iii. 23). Not improbably they spoke a dialect (or dialects)
  akin to Arabic or Aramaic.[4] According to the Mahommedans, Ishmael,
  who is recognized as their ancestor, lies buried with his mother in
  the Kaaba in Mecca. See further, T. Nöldeke, _Ency. Bib., s.v._, and
  the articles EDOM, MIDIAN.     (S. A. C.)


FOOTNOTES:

  [1] On Paul's use of the story of Hagar (Gal. iv. 24-26), see _Ency.
    Bib._ col. 1934; and H. St J. Thackeray, _Relation of St Paul to
    contemporary Jewish Thought_ (London, 1900), pp. 196 sqq.; Hagar
    typifies the old Sinaitic covenant, and Sarah represents the new
    covenant of freedom from bondage. The treatment of the concubine and
    her son in Gen. xvi. compared with ch. xxi. illustrates old Hebrew
    customs, on which see further S. A. Cook, _Laws of Moses, &c._
    (London, 1903), pp. 116 sqq., 140 sq.

  [2] The Ituraean archers were of Jetur, one of the "sons" of Ishmael
    (Gen. xxv. 15), and were Roman mercenaries, perhaps even in Great
    Britain (_Pal. Expl. Fund, Q.S._, 1909, p. 283).

  [3] With Adbeel (Gen. xxv. 13) may be identified Idibi'il (-ba'il) a
    tribe employed by Tiglath-Pileser IV. (733 B.C.) to watch the
    frontier of Musri (Sinaitic peninsula or N. Arabia?).

  [4] This is suggested by the fact that Ashurbanipal (7th century)
    mentions as the name of their deity Atar-Samain (i.e. "Ishtar of the
    heavens").




ISHPEMING, a city of Marquette county, Michigan, U.S.A., about 15 m. W.
by S. of Marquette, in the N. part of the upper peninsula. Pop. (1890)
11,197; (1900) 13,255, of whom 5970 were foreign-born; (1904) 11,623;
(1910) 12,448. It is served by the Chicago & North Western, the Duluth,
South Shore & Atlantic, and the Lake Superior and Ishpeming railways.
The city is 1400 ft. above sea-level (whence its name, from an Ojibway
Indian word, said to mean "high up"), in the centre of the Marquette
Range iron district, and has seven mines within its limits; the mining
of iron ore is its principal industry. Ishpeming was settled about 1854,
and was incorporated as a city in 1873.




ISHTAR, or ISTAR, the name of the chief goddess of Babylonia and
Assyria, the counterpart of the Phoenician Astarte (q.v.). The meaning
of the name is not known, though it is possible that the underlying stem
is the same as that of Assur (q.v.), which would thus make her the
"leading one" or "chief." At all events it is now generally recognized
that the name is Semitic in its origin. Where the name originated is
likewise uncertain, but the indications point to Erech where we find the
worship of a great mother-goddess independent of any association with a
male counterpart flourishing in the oldest period of Babylonian history.
She appears under various names, among which are Nana, Innanna, Nina and
Anunit. As early as the days of Khammurabi we find these various names
which represented originally different goddesses, though all manifest as
the chief trait the life-giving power united in Ishtar. Even when the
older names are employed it is always the great mother-goddess who is
meant. Ishtar is the one goddess in the pantheon who retains her
independent position despite and throughout all changes that the
Babylonian-Assyrian religion undergoes. In a certain sense she is the
only real goddess in the pantheon, the rest being mere reflections of
the gods with whom they are associated as consorts. Even when Ishtar is
viewed as the consort of some chief--of Marduk occasionally in the
south, of Assur more frequently in the north--the consciousness that she
has a personality of her own apart from this association is never lost
sight of.

We may reasonably assume that the analogy drawn from the process of
reproduction among men and animals led to the conception of a female
deity presiding over the life of the universe. The extension of the
scope of this goddess to life in general--to the growth of plants and
trees from the fructifying seed--was a natural outcome of a fundamental
idea; and so, whether we turn to incantations or hymns, in myths and in
epics, in votive inscriptions and in historical annals, Ishtar is
celebrated and invoked as the great mother, as the mistress of lands, as
clothed in splendour and power--one might almost say as the
personification of life itself.

But there are two aspects to this goddess of life. She brings forth, she
fertilizes the fields, she clothes nature in joy and gladness, but she
also withdraws her favours and when she does so the fields wither, and
men and animals cease to reproduce. In place of life, barrenness and
death ensue. She is thus also a grim goddess, at once cruel and
destructive. We can, therefore, understand that she was also invoked as
a goddess of war and battles and of the chase; and more particularly
among the warlike Assyrians she assumes this aspect. Before the battle
she appears to the army, clad in battle array and armed with bow and
arrow. In myths symbolizing the change of seasons she is portrayed in
this double character, as the life-giving and the life-depriving power.
The most noteworthy of these myths describes her as passing through
seven gates into the nether world. At each gate some of her clothing and
her ornaments are removed until at the last gate she is entirely naked.
While she remains in the nether world as a prisoner--whether voluntary
or involuntary it is hard to say--all fertility ceases on earth, but the
time comes when she again returns to earth, and as she passes each gate
the watchman restores to her what she had left there until she is again
clad in her full splendour, to the joy of mankind and of all nature.
Closely allied with this myth and personifying another view of the
change of seasons is the story of Ishtar's love for Tammuz--symbolizing
the spring time--but as midsummer approaches her husband is slain and,
according to one version, it is for the purpose of saving Tammuz from
the clutches of the goddess of the nether world that she enters upon her
journey to that region.

In all the great centres Ishtar had her temples, bearing such names as
E-anna, "heavenly house," in Erech; E-makh, "great house," in Babylon;
E-mash-mash, "house of offerings," in Nineveh. Of the details of her
cult we as yet know little, but there is no evidence that there were
obscene rites connected with it, though there may have been certain
mysteries introduced at certain centres which might easily impress the
uninitiated as having obscene aspects. She was served by priestesses as
well as by priests, and it would appear that the votaries of Ishtar were
in all cases virgins who, as long as they remained in the service of
Ishtar, were not permitted to marry.

  In the astral-theological system, Ishtar becomes the planet Venus, and
  the double aspect of the goddess is made to correspond to the
  strikingly different phases of Venus in the summer and winter seasons.
  On monuments and seal-cylinders she appears frequently with bow and
  arrow, though also simply clad in long robes with a crown on her head
  and an eight-rayed star as her symbol. Statuettes have been found in
  large numbers representing her as naked with her arms folded across
  her breast or holding a child. The art thus reflects the popular
  conceptions formed of the goddess. Together with Sin, the moon-god,
  and Shamash, the sun-god, she is the third figure in a triad
  personifying the three great forces of nature--moon, sun and earth, as
  the life-force. The doctrine involved illustrates the tendency of the
  Babylonian priests to centralize the manifestations of divine power in
  the universe, just as the triad Anu, Bel and Ea (q.v.)--the heavens,
  the earth and the watery deep--form another illustration of this same
  tendency.

  Naturally, as a member of a triad, Ishtar is dissociated from any
  local limitations, and similarly as the planet Venus--a conception
  which is essentially a product of theological speculation--no thought
  of any particular locality for her cult is present. It is because her
  cult, like that of Sin (q.v.) and Shamash (q.v.), is spread over all
  Babylonia and Assyria, that she becomes available for purposes of
  theological speculation.

  Cf. ASTARTE, ATARGATIS, GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS, and specially
  BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN RELIGION.     (M. Ja.)




ISHTIB, or Istib (anc. _Astibon_, Slav. _Shtipliye_ or _Shtip_), a town
of Macedonia, European Turkey, in the vilayet of Kossovo; 45 m. E.S.E.
of Uskub. Pop. (1905) about 10,000. Ishtib is built on a hill at the
confluence of the small river Ishtib with the Bregalnitza, a tributary
of the Vardar. It has a thriving agricultural trade, and possesses
several fine mosques, a number of fountains and a large bazaar. A hill
on the north-west is crowned by the ruins of an old castle.




ISIDORE OF ALEXANDRIA,[1] Greek philosopher and one of the last of the
Neoplatonists, lived in Athens and Alexandria towards the end of the 5th
century A.D. He became head of the school in Athens in succession to
Marinus who followed Proclus. His views alienated the chief members of
the school and he was compelled to resign his position to Hegias. He is
known principally as the preceptor of Damascius whose testimony to him
in the _Life of Isidorus_ presents him in a very favourable light as a
man and a thinker. It is generally admitted, however, that he was rather
an enthusiast than a thinker; reasoning with him was subsidiary to
inspiration, and he preferred the theories of Pythagoras and Plato to
the unimaginative logic and the practical ethics of the Stoics and the
Aristotelians. He seems to have given loose rein to a sort of
theosophical speculation and attached great importance to dreams and
waking visions on which he used to expatiate in his public discourses.

  Damascius' _Life_ is preserved by Photius in the _Bibliotheca_, and
  the fragments are printed in the Didot edition of Diogenes Laërtius.
  See Agathias, _Hist._ ii. 30; Photius, _Bibliotheca_, 181; and
  histories of Neoplatonism.


FOOTNOTE:

  [1] With Isidore of Alexandria has been confused an Isidore of Gaza,
    mentioned by Photius. Little is known of him except that he was one
    of those who accompanied Damascius to the Persian court when
    Justinian closed the schools in Athens in 529. Suidas, in speaking of
    Isidore of Alexandria, says that Hypatia was his wife, but there is
    no means of approximating the dates (see HYPATIA). Suetonius, in his
    _Life of Nero_, refers to a Cynic philosopher named Isidore, who is
    said to have jested publicly at the expense of Nero.




ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, or ISIDORUS HISPALENSIS (c. 560-636), Spanish
encyclopaedist and historian, was the son of Severianus, a distinguished
native of Cartagena, who came to Seville about the time of the birth of
Isidore. Leander, bishop of Seville, was his elder brother. Left an
orphan while still young, Isidore was educated in a monastery, and soon
distinguished himself in controversies with the Arians. In 599, on the
death of his brother, he was chosen archbishop of Seville, and acquired
high renown by his successful administration of the episcopal office, as
well as by his numerous theological, historical and scientific works. He
founded a school at Seville, and taught in it himself. In the provincial
and national councils he played an important part, notably at Toledo in
610, at Seville in 619 and in 633 at Toledo, which profoundly modified
the organization of the church in Spain. His great work, however, was in
another line. Profoundly versed in the Latin as well as in the Christian
literature, his indefatigable intellectual curiosity led him to condense
and reproduce in encyclopaedic form the fruit of his wide reading. His
works, which include all topics--science, canon law, history or
theology--are unsystematic and largely uncritical, merely reproducing at
second hand the substance of such sources as were available. Yet in
their inadequate way they served to keep alive throughout the dark ages
some little knowledge of the antique culture and learning. The most
elaborate of his writings is the _Originum sive etymologiarum libri XX_.
It was the last of his works, written between 622 and 633, and was
corrected by his friend and disciple Braulion. It is an encyclopaedia of
all the sciences, under the form of an explanation of the terms proper
to each of them. It was one of the capital books of the middle ages.

  On the _Libri differentiarum sive de proprietate sermonum_--of which
  the first book is a collection of synonyms, and the second of
  explanations of metaphysical and religious ideas--see A. Macé's
  doctoral dissertation, Rennes, 1900. Mommsen has edited the _Chronica
  majora_ or _Chronicon de sex aetatibus_ (from the creation to A.D.
  615) and the "Historia Gothorum, Wandalorum, Sueborum," in the
  _Monumenta Germaniae historica, auctores antiqitissimi: Chronica
  minora II_. The history of the Goths is a historical source of the
  first order. The _De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis_ or better _De viris
  illustribus_, was a continuation of the work of St Jerome and of
  Gennadius (cf. G. von Dzialowski in _Kirchengeschichtliche Studien_,
  iv. (1899). Especially interesting is the _De natura rerum ad
  Sisebutum regem_, a treatise on astronomy and meteorology, which
  contained the sum of physical philosophy during the early middle ages.
  The _Regula monachorum_ of Isidore was adopted by many of the
  monasteries in Spain during the 7th and 8th centuries. The collection
  of canons known as the _Isidoriana_ or _Hispalensis_ is not by him,
  and the following, attributed to him, are of doubtful authenticity:
  _De ortu ac obitu patrum qui in Scriptura laudibus efferuntur_;
  _Allegoriae scripturae sacrae et liber numerorum_; _De ordine
  creaturarum_.

  The edition of all of Isidore's works by F. Orevalo (Rome, 1797-1803,
  7 vols.), reproduced in Migne, _Patrologia Latina_, 81-84, is
  carefully edited. See also C. Canal, _San Isidoro, exposicion de sus
  obras e indicaciones a cerca de la influencia que han ejercido en la
  civilizacion española_ (Seville, 1897). A list of monographs is in the
  _Bibliographie_ of Ulysse Chevalier.




ISINGLASS (probably a corruption of the Dutch _huisenblas_, Ger.
_Hausenblase_, literally "sturgeon's bladder"), a pure form of
commercial gelatin obtained from the swimming bladder or sound of
several species of fish. The sturgeon is the most valuable, various
species of which, especially _Acipenser stellatus_ (the seuruga), _A.
ruthenus_ (the sterlet) and _A. güldenstädtii_ (the ossétr), flourish in
the Volga and other Russian rivers, in the Caspian and Black Seas, and
in the Arctic Ocean, and yield the "Russian isinglass"; a large fish,
_Silurus parkerii_, and probably some other fish, yield the "Brazilian
isinglass"; other less definitely characterized fish yield the "Penang"
product; while the common cod, the hake and other _Gadidae_ also yield a
variety of isinglass. The sounds, having been removed from the fish and
cleansed, undergo no other preparation than desiccation or drying, an
operation needing much care; but in this process the sounds are
subjected to several different treatments. If the sound be unopened the
product appears in commerce as "pipe," "purse" or "lump isinglass"; if
opened and unfolded, as "leaf" or "honeycomb"; if folded and dried, as
"book," and if rolled out, as "ribbon isinglass." Russian isinglass
generally appears in commerce as leaf, book, and long and short staple;
Brazilian isinglass, from Para and Maranham, as pipe, lump and
honeycomb; the latter product, and also the isinglass of Hudson's Bay,
Penang, Manila, &c., is darker in colour and less soluble than the
Russian product.

The finest isinglass, which comes from the Russian ports of Astrakhan
and Taganrog, is prepared by steeping the sounds in hot water in order
to remove mucus, &c.; they are then cut open and the inner membrane
exposed to the air; after drying, the outer membrane is removed by
rubbing and beating. As imported, isinglass is usually too tough and
hard to be directly used. To increase its availability, the raw material
is sorted, soaked in water till it becomes flexible and then trimmed;
the trimmings are sold as a lower grade. The trimmed sheets are
sometimes passed between steel rollers, which reduce them to the
thickness of paper; it then appears as a transparent ribbon, "shot" like
watered silk. The ribbon is dried, and, if necessary, cut into strips.

The principal use of isinglass is for clarifying wines, beers and other
liquids. This property is the more remarkable since it is not possessed
by ordinary gelatin; it has been ascribed to its fibrous structure,
which forms, as it were, a fine network in the liquid in which it is
disseminated, and thereby mechanically carries down all the minute
particles which occasion the turbidity. The cheaper varieties are more
commonly used; many brewers prefer the Penang product; Russian leaf,
however, is used by some Scottish brewers; and Russian long staple is
used in the Worcestershire cider industry. Of secondary importance is
its use for culinary and confectionery purposes, for example, in making
jellies, stiffening jams, &c. Here it is often replaced by the so-called
"patent isinglass," which is a very pure gelatin, and differs from
natural isinglass by being useless for clarifying liquids. It has few
other applications in the arts. Mixed with gum, it is employed to give a
lustre to ribbons and silk; incorporated with water, Spanish liquorice
and lamp black it forms an Indian ink; a solution, mixed with a little
tincture of benzoin, brushed over sarsenet and allowed to dry, forms the
well-known "court plaster." Another plaster is obtained by adding acetic
acid and a little otto of roses to a solution of fine glue. It also has
valuable agglutinating properties; by dissolving in two parts of pure
alcohol it forms a diamond cement, the solution cooling to a white,
opaque, hard solid; it also dissolves in strong acetic acid to form a
powerful cement, which is especially useful for repairing glass, pottery
and like substances.




ISIS (Egyptian _Ese_), the most famous of the Egyptian goddesses. She
was of human form, in early times distinguished only by the hieroglyph
of her name [symbol] upon her head. Later she commonly wore the horns of
a cow, and the cow was sacred to her; it is doubtful, however, whether
she had any animal representation in early times, nor had she possession
of any considerable locality until a late period, when Philae, Behbet
and other large temples were dedicated to her worship. Yet she was of
great importance in mythology, religion and magic, appearing constantly
in the very ancient Pyramid texts as the devoted sister-wife of Osiris
and mother of Horus. In the divine genealogies she is daughter of Keb
and Nut (earth and sky). She was supreme in magical power, cunning and
knowledge. A legend of the New Kingdom tells how she contrived to learn
the all-powerful hidden name of Re' which he had confided to no one. A
snake which she had fashioned for the purpose stung the god, who sent
for her as a last resort in his unendurable agony; whereupon she
represented to him that nothing but his own mysterious name could
overcome the venom of the snake. Much Egyptian magic turns on the
healing or protection of Horus by Isis, and it is chiefly from magical
texts that the myth of Isis and Osiris as given by Plutarch can be
illustrated. The Metternich stela (XXXth Dynasty), the finest example of
a class of prophylactic stelae generally known by the name of "Horus on
the crocodiles," is inscribed with a long text relating the adventures
of Isis and Horus in the marshes of the Delta. With her sister Nephthys,
Isis is frequently represented as watching the body of Osiris or
mourning his death.

Isis was identified with Demeter by Herodotus, and described as the
goddess who was held to be the greatest by the Egyptians; he states that
she and Osiris, unlike other deities, were worshipped throughout the
land. The importance of Isis had increased greatly since the end of the
New Kingdom. The great temple of Philae was begun under the XXXth
Dynasty; that of Behbet seems to have been built by Ptolemy II. The cult
of Isis spread into Greece with that of Serapis early in the 3rd century
B.C. In Egypt itself Isea, or shrines of Isis, swarmed. At Coptos Isis
became a leading divinity on a par with the early god Min. About 80 B.C.
Sulla founded an Isiac college in Rome, but their altars within the city
were overthrown by the consuls no less than four times in the decade
from 58 to 48 B.C., and the worship of Isis at Rome continued to be
limited or suppressed by a succession of enactments which were enforced
until the reign of Caligula. The Isiac mysteries were a representation
of the chief events in the myth of Isis and Osiris--the murder of
Osiris, the lamentations of Isis and her wanderings, followed by the
triumph of Horus over Seth and the resurrection of the slain
god--accompanied by music and an exposition of the inner meaning of the
spectacle. These were traditional in ancient Egypt, and in their later
development were no doubt affected by the Eleusinian mysteries of
Demeter. They appealed powerfully to the imagination and the religious
sense. The initiated went through rites of purification, and practised a
degree of asceticism; but for many the festival was believed to be an
occasion for dark orgies. Isis nursing the child Horus (Harpokhrates)
was a very common figure in the Deltaic period, and in these later days
was still a favourite representation. The Isis temples discovered at
Pompeii and in Rome show that ancient monuments as well as objects of
small size were brought from Egypt to Italy for dedication to her
worship, but the goddess absorbed the attributes of all female
divinities; she was goddess of the earth and its fruits, of the Nile, of
the sea, of the underworld, of love, healing and magic. From the time of
Vespasian onwards the worship of Isis, always popular with some
sections, had a great vogue throughout the western world, and is not
without traces in Britain. It proved the most successful of the pagan
cults in maintaining itself against Christianity, with which it had not
a little in common, both in doctrine and in emblems. But the destruction
of the Serapeum at Alexandria in A.D. 397 was a fatal blow to the
prestige of the Graeco-Egyptian divinities. The worship of Isis,
however, survived in Italy into the 5th century. At Philae her temple
was frequented by the barbarous Nobatae and Blemmyes until the middle of
the 6th century, when the last remaining shrine of Isis was finally
closed.

  See G. Lafaye, art. "Isis" in Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des
  antiquités_ (1900); _id. Hist. du culte des divinités d'Alexandrie
  hors de l'Égypte_ (1883); Meyer and Drexler, art. "Isis" in Röscher's
  _Lexicon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_ (1891-1892) (very
  elaborate); E. A. W. Budge, _Gods of the Egyptians_, vol. ii. ch.
  xiii.; Ad. Rusch, _De Serapide et Iside in Graecia cultis_
  (dissertation) (Berlin, 1906). (The author especially collects the
  evidence from Greek inscriptions earlier than the Roman conquest; he
  contends that the mysteries of Isis were not equated with the
  Eleusinian mysteries.)     (F. Ll. G.)




ISKELIB, the chief town of a _Caza_ (governed by a _kaimakam_) in the
vilayet of Angora in Asia Minor, altitude 2460 ft., near the left bank
of the Kizil Irmak (anc. _Halys_), 100 m. in an air-line N.E. of Angora
and 60 S.E. of Kastamuni (to which vilayet it belonged till 1894). Pop.
10,600 (Cuinet, _La Turquie d'Asie_, 1894). It lies several miles off
the road, now abandoned by wheeled traffic, between Changra and Amasia
in a picturesque _cul de sac_ amongst wooded hills, at the foot of a
limestone rock crowned by the ruins of an ancient fortress now filled
with houses (photograph in Anderson, _Studia Pontica_, p. 4). Its
ancient name is uncertain. Near the town (on S.) are saline springs,
whence salt is extracted.




ISLA, JOSÉ FRANCISCO DE (1703-1781), Spanish satirist, was born at
Villavidanes (León) on the 24th of March 1703. He joined the Jesuits in
1719, was banished from Spain with his brethren in 1767, and settled at
Bologna, where he died on the 2nd of November 1781. His earliest
publication, a _Carta de un residente en Roma_ (1725), is a panegyric of
trifling interest, and _La Juventud triunfante_ (1727) was written in
collaboration with Luis de Lovada. Isla's gifts were first shown in his
_Triunfo del amor y de la lealtad: Dia Grande de Navarra_, a satirical
description of the ceremonies at Pamplona in honour of Ferdinand VI.'s
accession; its sly humour so far escaped the victims that they thanked
the writer for his appreciation of their local efforts, but the true
significance of the work was discovered shortly afterwards, and the
protests were so violent that Isla was transferred by his superiors to
another district. He gained a great reputation as an effective preacher,
and his posthumous _Sermones morales_ (1792-1793) justify his fame in
this respect. But his position in the history of Spanish literature is
due to his _Historia del famoso predicador fray Gerundio de Campazas,
alias Zotes_ (1758), a novel which wittily caricatures the bombastic
eloquence of pulpit orators in Spain. Owing to the protests of the
Dominicans and other regulars, the book was prohibited in 1760, but the
second part was issued surreptitiously in 1768. He translated _Gil
Blas_, adopting more or less seriously Voltaire's unfounded suggestion
that Le Sage plagiarized from Espinel's _Marcos de Obregón_, and other
Spanish books; the text appeared in 1783, and in 1828 was greatly
modified by Evaristo Peña y Martín, whose arrangement is still widely
read.

  See Policarpo Mingote y Tarrazona, _Varones ilustres de la provincia
  de León_ (León, 1880), pp. 185-215; Bernard Gaudeau, _Les Prêcheurs
  burlesques en Espagne au XVIII^e siècle_ (Paris, 1891); V. Cian, _L'
  Immigrazione dei Gesuiti spagnuoli letterati in Italia_ (Torino,
  1895).     (J. F.-K.)




ISLAM, an Arabic word meaning "pious submission to the will of God," the
name of the religion of the orthodox Mahommedans, and hence used,
generically, for the whole body of Mahommedan peoples. _Salama_, from
which the word is derived appears in _salaam_, "peace be with you," the
greeting of the East, and in Moslem, and means to be "free" or "secure."
(See MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION, &c.)




ISLAMABAD, a town of India in the state of Kashmir, on the north bank of
the Jhelum. Pop. (1901) 9390. The town crowns the summit of a long low
ridge, extending from the mountains eastward. It is the second town in
Kashmir, and was originally the capital of the valley, but is now
decaying. It contains an old summer palace, overshadowed by plane trees,
with numerous springs, and a fine mosque and shrine. Below the town is a
reservoir containing a spring of clear water called the _Anant Nag_,
slightly sulphurous, from which volumes of gas continually arise; the
water swarms with sacred fish. There are manufactures of Kashmir shawls,
also of chintzes, cotton and woollen goods.




ISLAND (O.E. _ieg_ = isle, + land[1]), in physical geography, a term
generally definable as a piece of land surrounded by water. Islands may
be divided into two main classes, continental and oceanic. The former
are such as would result from the submergence of a coastal range, or a
coastal highland, until the mountain bases were cut off from the
mainland while their summits remained above water. The island may have
been formed by the sea cutting through the landward end of a peninsula,
or by the eating back of a bay or estuary until a portion of the
mainland is detached and becomes surrounded by water. In all cases where
the continental islands occur, they are connected with the mainland by a
continental shelf, and their structure is essentially that of the
mainland. The islands off the west coast of Scotland and the Isles of
Man and Wight have this relation to Britain, while Britain and Ireland
have a similar relation to the continent of Europe. The north-east coast
of Australia furnishes similar examples, but in addition to these in
that locality there are true oceanic islands near the mainland, formed
by the growth of the Great Barrier coral reef. Oceanic islands are due
to various causes. It is a question whether the numberless islands of
the Malay Archipelago should be regarded as continental or oceanic, but
there is no doubt that the South Sea islands scattered over a portion of
the Pacific belong to the oceanic group. The ocean floor is by no means
a level plain, but rises and falls in mounds, eminences and basins
towards the surface. When this configuration is emphasized in any
particular oceanic area, so that a peak rises above the surface, an
oceanic island is produced. Submarine volcanic activity may also raise
material above sea-level, or the buckling of the ocean-bed by earth
movements may have a similar result. Coral islands (see ATOLL) are
oceanic islands, and are frequently clustered upon plateaux where the
sea is of no great depth, or appear singly as the crown of some isolated
peak that rises from deep water.

Island life contains many features of peculiar interest. The sea forms a
barrier to some forms of life but acts as a carrier to other colonizing
forms that frequently develop new features in their isolated
surroundings where the struggle for existence is greater or less than
before. When a sea barrier has existed for a very long time there is a
marked difference between the fauna and flora even of adjacent islands.
In Bali and Borneo, for example, the flora and fauna are Asiatic, while
in Lombok and Celebes they are Australian, though the Bali Straits are
very narrow. In Java and Sumatra, though belonging to the same group,
there are marked developments of bird life, the peacock being found in
Java and the Argus pheasant in Sumatra, having become too specialized to
migrate. The Cocos, Keeling Islands and Christmas Island in the Indian
Ocean have been colonized by few animal forms, chiefly sea-birds and
insects, while they are clothed with abundant vegetation, the seeds of
which have been carried by currents and by other means, but the variety
of plants is by no means so great as on the mainland. Island life,
therefore, is a sure indication of the origin of the island, which may
be one of the remnants of a shattered or dissected continent, or may
have arisen independently from the sea and become afterwards colonized
by drift.

  The word "island" is sometimes used for a piece of land cut off by the
  tide or surrounded by marsh (e.g. Hayling Island).


FOOTNOTE:

  [1] The O.E. _ieg_, _ig_, still appearing in local names, e.g.
    Anglesey, Battersea, is cognate with Norw. _öy_, Icel. _ey_, and the
    first part of Ger. _Eiland_, &c.; it is referred to the original
    Teut. _ahwia_, a place in water, _ahwa_, water, cf. Lat. _aqua_; the
    same word is seen in English "eyot," "ait," an islet in a river. The
    spelling "island," accepted before 1700, is due to a false connexion
    with "isle," Fr. _île_, Lat. _insula_.




ISLAY, the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides, Argyllshire,
Scotland, 16 m. W. of Kintyre and ¾ m. S.W. of Jura, from which it is
separated by the Sound of Islay. Pop. (1901) 6857; area, 150,400 acres;
maximum breadth 19 m. and maximum length 25 m. The sea-lochs Gruinart
and Indaal cut into it so deeply as almost to convert the western
portion into a separate island. It is rich and productive, and has been
called the "Queen of the Hebrides." The surface generally is regular,
the highest summits being Ben Bheigeir (1609 ft.) and Sgorr nam
Faoileann (1407 ft.). There are several freshwater lakes and streams,
which provide good fishing. Islay was the ancient seat of the "lord of
the Isles," the first to adopt that title being John Macdonald of Isle
of Islay, who died about 1386; but the Macdonalds were ultimately ousted
by their rivals, the Campbells, about 1616. Islay House, the ancient
seat of the Campbells of Islay, stands at the head of Loch Indaal. The
island was formerly occupied by small crofters and tacksmen, but since
1831 it has been gradually developed into large sheep and arable farms
and considerable business is done in stock-raising. Dairy-farming is
largely followed, and oats, barley and various green crops are raised.
The chief difficulty in the way of reclamation is the great area of peat
(60 sq. m.), which, at its present rate of consumption, is calculated to
last 1500 years. The island contains several whisky distilleries,
producing about 400,000 gallons annually. Slate and marble are quarried,
and there is a little mining of iron, lead and silver. At Bowmore, the
chief town, there is a considerable shipping trade. Port Ellen, the
principal village, has a quay with lighthouse, a fishery and a
golf-course. Port Askaig is the ferry station for Faolin on Jura.
Regular communication with the Clyde is maintained by steamers, and a
cable was laid between Lagavulin and Kintyre in 1871.




ISLES OF THE BLEST, or FORTUNATE ISLANDS (Gr. [Greek: ai tôn makarôn
nêsoi]: Lat., Fortunatae Insulae), in Greek mythology a group of islands
near the edge of the Western Ocean, peopled not by the dead, but by
mortals upon whom the gods had conferred immortality. Like the islands
of the Phaeacians in Homer (_Od._ viii.) or the Celtic Avalon and St
Brendan's island, the Isles of the Blest are represented as a land of
perpetual summer and abundance of all good things. No reference is made
to them by Homer, who speaks instead of the Elysian Plain (_Od._ iv. and
ix.), but they are mentioned by Hesiod (_Works and Days_, 168) and
Pindar (_Ol._ ii.). A very old tradition suggests that the idea of such
an earthly paradise was a reminiscence of some unrecorded voyage to
Madeira and the Canaries, which are sometimes named Fortunatae Insulae
by medieval map-makers. (See ATLANTIS.)




ISLINGTON (in Domesday and later documents _Iseldon_, _Isendon_ and in
the 16th century _Hisselton_), a northern metropolitan borough of
London, England, bounded E. by Stoke Newington and Hackney, S. by
Shoreditch and Finsbury, and W. by St Pancras, and extending N. to the
boundary of the county of London. Pop. (1901) 334,991. The name is
commonly applied to the southern part of the borough, which, however,
includes the districts of Holloway in the north, Highbury in the east,
part of Kingsland in the south-east, and Barnsbury and Canonbury in the
south-central portion. The districts included preserve the names of
ancient manors, and in Canonbury, which belonged as early as the 13th
century to the priory of St Bartholomew, Smithfield, traces of the old
manor house remain. The fields and places of entertainment in Islington
were favourite places of resort for the citizens of London in the 17th
century and later; the modern Ball's Pond Road recalls the sport of
duck-hunting practised here and on other ponds in the parish, and the
popularity of the place was increased by the discovery of chalybeate
wells. At Copenhagen Fields, now covered by the great cattle market
(1855) adjoining Caledonian Road, a great meeting of labourers was held
in 1834. They were suspected of intending to impose their views on
parliament by violence, but a display of military force held them in
check. The most noteworthy modern institutions in Islington are the
Agricultural Hall, Liverpool Road, erected in 1862, and used for cattle
and horse shows and other exhibitions; Pentonville Prison, Caledonian
Road (1842), a vast pile of buildings radiating from a centre, and
Holloway Prison. The borough has only some 40 acres of public grounds,
the principal of which is Highbury Fields. Among its institutions are
the Great Northern Central Hospital, Holloway, the London Fever
Hospital, the Northern Polytechnic, and the London School of Divinity,
St John's Hall Highbury. Islington is a suffragan bishopric in the
diocese of London. The parliamentary borough of Islington has north,
south, east and west divisions, each returning one member. The borough
council consists of a mayor, 10 aldermen and 60 councillors. Area,
3091.5 acres.




ISLIP, a township of Suffolk county, New York, U.S.A., in the central
part of the S. side of Long Island. Pop. (1905, state census) 13,721;
(1910) 18,346. The township is 16 m. long from E. to W., and 8 m. wide
in its widest part. It is bounded on the S. by the Atlantic Ocean;
between the ocean and the Great South Bay, here 5-7 m. wide, is a long
narrow strip of beach, called Fire Island, at the W. end of which is
Fire Island Inlet. The "Island" beach and the Inlet, both very dangerous
for shipping, are protected by the Fire Island Lighthouse, the Fire
Island Lightship, and a Life Saving Station near the Lighthouse and
another at Point o' Woods. Near the Lighthouse there are a United States
Wireless Telegraph Station and a station of the Western Union Telegraph
Company, which announces to New York incoming steamships; and a little
farther E., on the site formerly occupied by the Surf House, a
well-known resort for hay-fever patients, is a state park. Along the
"Island" beach there is excellent surf-bathing. The township is served
by two parallel branches of the Long Island railroad about 4 m. apart.
On the main (northern) division are the villages of Brentwood (first
settled as Modern Times, a quasi free-love community), which now has the
Convent and School of St Joseph and a large private sanitarium; Central
Islip, the seat of the Central Islip State Hospital for the Insane; and
Ronkonkoma, on the edge of a lake of the same name (with no visible
outlet or inlet and suffering remarkable changes in area). On the S.
division of the Long Island railroad are the villages of Bay Shore (to
the W. of which is West Islip); Oakdale; West Sayville, originally a
Dutch settlement; Sayville and Bayport. The "South Country Road" of
crushed clam or oyster shells runs through these villages, which are
famous for oyster and clam fisheries. About one-half of the present
township was patented in 1684, 1686, 1688 and 1697 by William Nicolls
(1657-1723), the son of Matthias Nicolls, who came from Islip in
Oxfordshire, England; this large estate (on either side of the
Connetquot or Great river) was kept intact until 1786; the W. part of
Islip was mostly included in the Moubray patent of 1708; and the
township was incorporated in 1710.




ISLY, the name of a small river on the Moroccan-Algerian frontier, a
sub-tributary of the Tafna, famous as the scene of the greatest victory
of the French army in the Algerian wars. The intervention of Morocco on
the side of Abd-el-Kader led at once to the bombardment of Tangier by
the French fleet under the prince de Joinville, and the advance of the
French army of General Bugeaud (1844). The enemy, 45,000 strong, was
found to be encamped on the Isly river near Kudiat-el-Khodra. Bugeaud
disposed of some 6500 infantry and 1500 cavalry, with a few pieces of
artillery. In his own words, the formation adopted was "a boar's head."
With the army were Lamoricière, Pélissier and other officers destined to
achieve distinction. On the 14th of August the "boar's head" crossed the
river about 9 m. to the N.W. of Kudiat and advanced upon the Moorish
camp; it was immediately attacked on all sides by great masses of
cavalry; but the volleys of the steady French infantry broke the force
of every charge, and at the right moment the French cavalry in two
bodies, each of the strength of a brigade, broke out and charged. One
brigade stormed the Moorish camp (near Kudiat) in the face of artillery
fire, the other sustained a desperate conflict on the right wing with a
large body of Moorish horse which had not charged; and only the arrival
of infantry put an end to the resistance in this quarter. A general
rally of the Moorish forces was followed by another action in which
they endeavoured to retake the camp. Bugeaud's forces, which had
originally faced S. when crossing the river, had now changed direction
until they faced almost W. Near Kudiat-el-Khodra the Moors had rallied
in considerable force, and prepared to retake their camp. The French,
however, continued to attack in perfect combination, and after a
stubborn resistance the Moors once more gave way. For this great
victory, which was quickly followed by proposals of peace, Bugeaud was
made duc d'Isly.




ISMAIL (1830-1895), khedive of Egypt, was born at Cairo on the 31st of
December 1830, being the second of the three sons of Ibrahim and
grandson of Mehemet Ali. After receiving a European education at Paris,
where he attended the École d'État-Major, he returned home, and on the
death of his elder brother became heir to his uncle, Said Mohammed, the
Vali of Egypt. Said, who apparently conceived his own safety to lie in
ridding himself as much as possible of the presence of his nephew,
employed him in the next few years on missions abroad, notably to the
pope, the emperor Napoleon III. and the sultan of Turkey. In 1861 he was
despatched at the head of an army of 14,000 to quell an insurrection in
the Sudan, and this he successfully accomplished. On the death of Said,
on 18th January 1863, Ismail was proclaimed viceroy without opposition.
Being of an Orientally extravagant disposition, he found with
considerable gratification that the Egyptian revenue was vastly
increased by the rise in the value of cotton which resulted from the
American Civil War, the Egyptian crop being worth about £25,000,000
instead of £5,000,000. Besides acquiring luxurious tastes in his
sojourns abroad, Ismail had discovered that the civilized nations of
Europe made a free use of their credit for raising loans. He proceeded
at once to apply this idea to his own country by transferring his
private debts to the state and launching out on a grand scale of
expenditure. Egypt was in his eyes the ruler's estate which was to be
exploited for his benefit and his renown. His own position had to be
strengthened, and the country provided with institutions after European
models. To these objects Ismail applied himself with energy and
cleverness, but without any stint of expense. During the 'sixties and
'seventies Egypt became the happy hunting-ground of self-seeking
financiers, to whose schemes Ismail fell an easy and a willing prey. In
1866-1867 he obtained from the sultan of Turkey, in exchange for an
increase in the tribute, firmans giving him the title of khedive, and
changing the law of succession to direct descent from father to son; and
in 1873 he obtained a new firman making him to a large extent
independent. He projected vast schemes of internal reform, remodelling
the customs system and the post office, stimulating commercial progress,
creating a sugar industry, introducing European improvements into Cairo
and Alexandria, building palaces, entertaining lavishly and maintaining
an opera and a theatre. It has been calculated that, of the total amount
of debt incurred by Ismail for his projects, about 10% may have been
sunk in works of permanent utility--always excluding the Suez Canal.
Meanwhile the opening of the Canal had given him opportunities for
asserting himself in foreign courts. On his accession he refused to
ratify the concessions to the Canal company made by Said, and the
question was referred in 1864 to the arbitration of Napoleon III., who
awarded £3,800,000 to the company as compensation for the losses they
would incur by the changes which Ismail insisted upon in the original
grant. Ismail then used every available means, by his own undoubted
powers of fascination and by judicious expenditure, to bring his
personality before the foreign sovereigns and public, and he had no
little success. He was made G.C.B. in 1867, and in the same year visited
Paris and London, where he was received by Queen Victoria and welcomed
by the lord mayor; and in 1869 he again paid a visit to England. The
result was that the opening of the Canal in November 1869 enabled him to
claim to rank among European sovereigns, and to give and receive royal
honours: this excited the jealousy of the sultan, but Ismail was clever
enough to pacify his overlord. In 1876 the old system of consular
jurisdiction for foreigners was modified, and the system of mixed courts
introduced, by which European and native judges sat together to try all
civil cases without respect of nationality. In all these years Ismail
had governed with _éclat_ and profusion, spending, borrowing, raising
the taxes on the fellahin and combining his policy of independence with
dazzling visions of Egyptian aggrandizement. In 1874 he annexed Darfur,
and was only prevented from extending his dominion into Abyssinia by the
superior fighting power of the Abyssinians. But at length the inevitable
financial crisis came. A national debt of over one hundred millions
sterling (as opposed to three millions when he became viceroy) had been
incurred by the khedive, whose fundamental idea of liquidating his
borrowings was to borrow at increased interest. The bond-holders became
restive. Judgments were given against the khedive in the international
tribunals. When he could raise no more loans he sold his Suez Canal
shares (in 1875) to Great Britain for £3,976,582; and this was
immediately followed by the beginning of foreign intervention. In
December 1875 Mr Stephen Cave was sent out by the British government to
inquire into the finances of Egypt, and in April 1876 his report was
published, advising that in view of the waste and extravagance it was
necessary for foreign Powers to interfere in order to restore credit.
The result was the establishment of the Caisse de la Dette. In October
Mr (afterwards Lord) Goschen and M. Joubert made a further
investigation, which resulted in the establishment of Anglo-French
control. A further commission of inquiry by Major Baring (afterwards
Lord Cromer) and others in 1878 culminated in Ismail making over his
estates to the nation and accepting the position of a constitutional
sovereign, with Nubar as premier, Mr (afterwards Sir Charles) Rivers
Wilson as finance minister, and M. de Blignières as minister of public
works. Ismail professed to be quite pleased. "Egypt," he said, "is no
longer in Africa; it is part of Europe." The new régime, however, only
lasted six months, and then Ismail dismissed his ministers, an occasion
being deliberately prepared by his getting Arabi (q.v.) to foment a
military _pronunciamiento_. England and France took the matter
seriously, and insisted (May 1879) on the reinstatement of the British
and French ministers; but the situation was no longer a possible one;
the tribunals were still giving judgments for debt against the
government, and when Germany and Austria showed signs of intending to
enforce execution, the governments of Great Britain and France perceived
that the only chance of setting matters straight was to get rid of
Ismail altogether. He was first advised to abdicate, and a few days
afterwards (26th June), as he did not take the hint, he received a
telegram from the sultan (who had not forgotten the earlier history of
Mehemet Ali's dynasty), addressed to him as ex-khedive, and informing
him that his son Tewfik was his successor. He at once left Egypt for
Naples, but eventually was permitted by the sultan to retire to his
palace of Emirghian on the Bosporus. There he remained, more or less a
state prisoner, till his death on the 2nd of March 1895. Ismail was a
man of undoubted ability and remarkable powers. But beneath a veneer of
French manners and education he remained throughout a thorough Oriental,
though without any of the moral earnestness which characterizes the
better side of Mahommedanism. Some of his ambitions were not unworthy,
and though his attitude towards western civilization was essentially
cynical, he undoubtedly helped to make the Egyptian upper classes
realize the value of European education. Moreover, spendthrift as he
was, it needed--as is pointed out in Milner's _England in Egypt_--a
series of unfortunate conditions to render his personality as pernicious
to his country as it actually became. "It needed a nation of submissive
slaves, not only bereft of any vestige of liberal institutions, but
devoid of the slightest spark of the spirit of liberty. It needed a
bureaucracy which it would have been hard to equal for its combination
of cowardice and corruption. It needed the whole gang of
swindlers--mostly European--by whom Ismail was surrounded." It was his
early encouragement of Arabi, and his introduction of swarms of foreign
concession-hunters, which precipitated the "national movement" that led
to British occupation. His greatest title to remembrance in history must
be that he made European intervention in Egypt compulsory.     (H. Ch.)




ISMAIL HADJI MAULVI-MOHAMMED (1781-1831), Mussulman reformer, was born
at Pholah near Delhi. In co-operation with Syed Ahmed he attempted to
free Indian Mahommedanism from the influence of the native early Indian
faiths. The two men travelled extensively for many years and visited
Mecca. In the Wahhabite movement they found much that was akin to their
own views, and on returning to India preached the new doctrine of a pure
Islam, and gathered many adherents. The official Mahommedan leaders,
however, regarded their propaganda with disfavour, and the dispute led
to the reformers being interdicted by the British government in 1827.
The little company then moved to Punjab where, aided by an Afghan chief,
they declared war on the Sikhs and made Peshawar the capital of the
theocratic community which they wished to establish (1829). Deserted by
the Afghans they had to leave Peshawar, and Ismail Hadji fell in battle
against the Sikhs amid the Pakhli mountains (1831). The movement
survived him, and some adherents are still found in the mountains of the
north-west frontier.

  Ismail's book _Taqouaiyat el Iman_ was published in Hindustani and
  translated in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, xiii. 1852.




ISMAILIA, a town of Lower Egypt, the central station on the Suez Canal,
on the N.W. shore of Lake Timsa, about 50 m. from the Mediterranean and
the Red Sea, and 93 m. N.E. of Cairo by rail. Pop. (1907) 10,373. It was
laid out in 1863, in connexion with the construction of the canal, and
is named after the khedive Ismail. It is divided into two quarters by
the road leading from the landing-place to the railway station, and has
numerous public offices, warehouses and other buildings, including a
palace of the khedive, used as a hospital during the British military
operations in 1882, but subsequently allowed to fall into a dilapidated
condition. The broad macadamized streets and regular squares bordered
with trees give the town an attractive appearance; and it has the
advantage, a rare one in Egypt, of being surrounded on three sides by
flourishing gardens. The Quai Mehemet Ali, which lies along the canal
for upwards of a mile, contains the châlet occupied by Ferdinand de
Lesseps during the building of the canal. At the end of the quay are the
works for supplying Port Said with water. On the other side of the lake
are the so-called Quarries of the Hyenas, from which the building
material for the town was obtained.




ISMAY, THOMAS HENRY (1837-1899), British shipowner, was born at
Maryport, Cumberland, on the 7th of January 1837. He received his
education at Croft House School, Carlisle, and at the age of sixteen was
apprenticed to Messrs Imrie & Tomlinson, shipowners and brokers, of
Liverpool. He then travelled for a time, visiting the ports of South
America, and on returning to Liverpool started in business for himself.
In 1867 he took over the White Star line of Australian clippers, and in
1868, perceiving the great future which was open to steam navigation,
established, in conjunction with William Imrie, the Oceanic Steam
Navigation Company, which has since become famous as the White Star
Line. While continuing the Australian service, the firm determined to
engage in the American trade, and to that end ordered from Messrs
Harland & Wolff, of Belfast, the first _Oceanic_ (3807 tons), which was
launched in 1870. This vessel may fairly be said to have marked an era
in North Atlantic travel. The same is true of the successive types of
steamer which Ismay, with the co-operation of the Belfast shipbuilding
firm, subsequently provided for the American trade. To Ismay is mainly
due the credit of the arrangement by which some of the fastest ships of
the British mercantile marine are held at the disposal of the government
in case of war. The origin of this plan dates from the Russo-Turkish
war, when there seemed a likelihood of England being involved in
hostilities with Russia, and when, therefore, Ismay offered the
admiralty the use of the White Star fleet. In 1892 he retired from
partnership in the firm of Ismay, Imrie and Co., though he retained the
chairmanship of the White Star Company. He served on several important
committees and was a member of the royal commission in 1888 on army and
navy administration. He was always most generous in his contributions
to charities for the relief of sailors, and in 1887 he contributed
£20,000 towards a pension fund for Liverpool sailors. He died at
Birkenhead on the 23rd of November 1899.




ISMID, or ISNIKMID (anc. _Nicomedia_), the chief town of the Khoja Ili
sanjak of Constantinople, in Asia Minor, situated on rising ground near
the head of the gulf of Ismid. The sanjak has an area of 4650 sq. m. and
a population of 225,000 (Moslems 131,000). It is an agricultural
district, producing cocoons and tobacco, and there are large forests of
oak, beech and fir. Near Yalova there are hot mineral springs, much
frequented in summer. The town is connected by the lines of the
Anatolian railway company with Haidar Pasha, the western terminus, and
with Angora, Konia and Smyrna. It contains a fine 16th-century mosque,
built by the celebrated architect Sinan. Pop. 20,000 (Moslems 9500,
Christians 8000, Jews, 2500). As the seat of a mutessarif, a Greek
metropolitan and an Armenian archbishop, Ismid retains somewhat of its
ancient dignity, but the material condition of the town is little in
keeping with its rank. The head of the gulf of Ismid is gradually
silting up. The dockyard was closed in 1879, and the port of Ismid is
now at Darinje, 3¾ m. distant, where the Anatolian Railway Company have
established their workshops and have built docks and a quay.




ISNARD, MAXIMIN (1758-1825), French revolutionist, was a dealer in
perfumery at Draguignan when he was elected deputy for the department of
the Var to the Legislative Assembly, where he joined the Girondists.
Attacking the court, and the "Austrian committee" in the Tuileries, he
demanded the disbandment of the king's bodyguard, and reproached Louis
XVI. for infidelity to the constitution. But on the 20th of June 1792,
when the crowd invaded the palace, he was one of the deputies who went
to place themselves beside the king to protect him. After the 10th of
August 1792 he was sent to the army of the North to justify the
insurrection. Re-elected to the Convention, he voted the death of Louis
XVI. and was a member of the Committee of General Defence when it was
organized on the 4th of January 1793. The committee, consisting of 25
members, proved unwieldy, and on the 4th of April Isnard presented, on
behalf of the Girondist majority, the report recommending a smaller
committee of nine, which two days later was established as the Committee
of Public Safety. On the 25th of May, Isnard was presiding at the
Convention when a deputation of the commune of Paris came to demand that
J. R. Hébert should be set at liberty, and he made the famous reply: "If
by these insurrections, continually renewed, it should happen that the
principle of national representation should suffer, I declare to you in
the name of France that soon people will search the banks of the Seine
to see if Paris has ever existed." On the 2nd of June 1793 he offered
his resignation as representative of the people, but was not comprised
in the decree by which the Convention determined upon the arrest of
twenty-nine Girondists. On the 3rd of October, however, his arrest was
decreed along with that of several other Girondist deputies who had left
the Convention and were fomenting civil war in the departments. He
escaped, and on the 8th of March 1795 was recalled to the Convention,
where he supported all the measures of reaction. He was elected deputy
for the Var to the Council of Five Hundred, where he played a very
insignificant rôle. In 1797 he retired to Draguignan. In 1800 he
published a pamphlet _De l'immortalité de l'âme_, in which he praised
Catholicism; in 1804 _Réflexions relatives au senatus-consulte du 28
floréal an XII._, which is an enthusiastic apology for the Empire. Upon
the restoration he professed such royalist sentiments that he was not
disturbed, in spite of the law of 1816 proscribing regicide ex-members
of the Convention.

  See F. A. Aulard, _Les Orateurs de la Législative et de la Convention_
  (Paris, 2nd ed., 1906).




ISOBAR (from Gr. [Greek: isos], equal, and [Greek: baros], weight), a
line upon a meteorological map or pressure chart connecting points where
the atmospheric pressure is the same at sea-level, or upon the earth's
surface. A general pressure map will indicate, by these lines, the
average pressure for any month or season over large areas. The daily
weather charts for more confined regions indicate the presence of a
cyclonic or anticyclonic system by means of lines, which connect all
places having the same barometric pressure at the same time. It is to be
noted that isobaric lines are the intersections of inclined isobaric
surfaces with the surface of the earth.




ISOCLINIC LINES (Gr. [Greek: isos], equal, and [Greek: klinein], to
bend), lines connecting those parts of the earth's surface where the
magnetic inclination is the same in amount. (See MAGNETISM,
TERRESTRIAL.)




ISOCRATES (436-338 B.C.), Attic orator, was the son of Theodorus, an
Athenian citizen of the deme of Erchia--the same in which, about 431
B.C., Xenophon was born--who was sufficiently wealthy to have served the
state as choregus. The fact that he possessed slaves skilled in the
trade of flute-making perhaps lends point to a passage in which his son
is mentioned by the comic poet Strattis.[1] Several popular "sophists"
are named as teachers of the young Isocrates. Like other sons of
prosperous parents, he may have been trained in such grammatical
subtleties as were taught by Protagoras or Prodicus, and initiated by
Theramenes into the florid rhetoric of Gorgias, with whom at a later
time (about 390 B.C.) he was in personal intercourse. He tells us that
his father had been careful to provide for him the best education which
Athens could afford. A fact of greater interest is disclosed by Plato's
_Phaedrus_ (278 E). "Isocrates is still young, Phaedrus," says the
Socrates of that dialogue, "but I do not mind telling you what I
prophesy of him.... It would not surprise me if, as years go on, he
should make all his predecessors seem like children in the kind of
oratory to which he is now addressing himself, or if--supposing this
should not content him--some divine impulse should lead him to greater
things. My dear Phaedrus, a certain philosophy is inborn in him." This
conversation is dramatically supposed to take place about 410 B.C. It is
unnecessary to discuss here the date at which the _Phaedrus_ was
actually composed. From the passage just cited it is at least clear that
there had been a time--while Isocrates could still be called "young"--at
which Plato had formed a high estimate of his powers.

Isocrates took no active part in the public life of Athens; he was not
fitted, as he tells us, for the contests of the popular assembly or of
the law-courts. He lacked strength of voice--a fatal defect in the
ecclesia, when an audience of many thousands was to be addressed in the
open air; he was also deficient in "boldness." He was, in short, the
physical opposite of the successful Athenian demagogue in the generation
after that of Pericles; by temperament as well as taste he was more in
sympathy with the sedate decorum of an older school. Two ancient
biographers have, however, preserved a story which, if true, would show
that this lack of voice and nerve did not involve any want of moral
courage. During the rule of the Thirty Tyrants, Critias denounced
Theramenes, who sprang for safety to the sacred hearth of the council
chamber. Isocrates alone, it is said, dared at that moment to plead for
the life of his friend.[2] Whatever may be the worth of the story, it
would scarcely have connected itself with the name of a man to whose
traditional character it was repugnant. While the Thirty were still in
power, Isocrates withdrew from Athens to Chios.[3] He has mentioned
that, in the course of the Peloponnesian War--doubtless in the troubles
which attended on its close--he lost the whole of that private fortune
which had enabled his father to serve the state, and that he then
adopted the profession of a teacher. The proscription of the "art of
words" by the Thirty would thus have given him a special motive for
withdrawing from Athens. He returned thither, apparently, either soon
before or soon after the restoration of the democracy in 403 B.C.

For ten years from this date he was occupied--at least occasionally--as
a writer of speeches for the Athenian law-courts. Six of these speeches
are extant. The earliest (_Or._ xxi.) may be referred to 403 B.C.; the
latest (_Or._ xix.) to 394-393 B.C. This was a department of his own
work which Isocrates afterwards preferred to ignore. Nowhere, indeed,
does he say that he had not written forensic speeches. But he frequently
uses a tone from which that inference might be drawn. He loves to
contrast such petty concerns as engage the forensic writer with those
larger and nobler themes which are treated by the politician. This helps
to explain how it could be asserted--by his adopted son, Aphareus--that
he had written nothing for the law-courts. Whether the assertion was due
to false shame or merely to ignorance, Dionysius of Halicarnassus
decisively disposes of it. Aristotle had, indeed, he says, exaggerated
the number of forensic speeches written by Isocrates; but some of those
which bore his name were unquestionably genuine, as was attested by one
of the orator's own pupils, Cephisodorus. The real vocation of Isocrates
was discovered from the moment that he devoted himself to the work of
teaching and writing. The instruction which Isocrates undertook to
impart was based on rhetorical composition, but it was by no means
merely rhetorical. That "inborn philosophy," of which Plato recognized
the germ, still shows itself. In many of his works--notably in the
_Panegyricus_--we see a really remarkable power of grasping a complex
subject, of articulating it distinctly, of treating it, not merely with
effect but luminously, at once in its widest bearings and in its most
intricate details. Young men could learn more from Isocrates than the
graces of style; nor would his success have been what it was if his
skill had been confined to the art of expression.

It was about 392 B.C.--when he was forty-four--that he opened his school
at Athens near the Lyceum. In 339 B.C. he describes himself as revising
the _Panathenaicus_ with some of his pupils; he was then ninety-seven.
The celebrity enjoyed by the school of Isocrates is strikingly attested
by ancient writers. Cicero describes it as that school in which the
eloquence of all Greece was trained and perfected: its disciples were
"brilliant in pageant or in battle,"[4] foremost among the accomplished
writers or powerful debaters of their time. The phrase of Cicero is
neither vague nor exaggerated. Among the literary pupils of Isocrates
might be named the historians Ephorus and Theopompus, the Attic
archaelogist Androtion, and Isocrates of Apollonia, who succeeded his
master in the school. Among the practical orators we have, in the
forensic kind, Isaeus; in the political, Leodamas of Acharnae, Lycurgus
and Hypereides. Hermippus of Smyrna (mentioned by Athenaeus) wrote a
monograph on the "Disciples of Isocrates." And scanty as are now the
sources for such a catalogue, a modern scholar[5] has still been able to
recover forty-one names. At the time when the school of Isocrates was in
the zenith of its fame it drew disciples, not only from the shores and
islands of the Aegean, but from the cities of Sicily and the distant
colonies of the Euxine. As became the image of its master's spirit, it
was truly Panhellenic. When Mausolus, prince of Caria, died in 351 B.C.,
his widow Artemisia instituted a contest of panegyrical eloquence in
honour of his memory. Among all the competitors there was not one--if
tradition may be trusted--who had not been the pupil of Isocrates.

Meanwhile the teacher who had won this great reputation had also been
active as a public writer. The most interesting and most characteristic
works of Isocrates are those in which he deals with the public questions
of his own day. The influence which he thus exercised throughout Hellas
might be compared to that of an earnest political essayist gifted with a
popular and attractive style. And Isocrates had a dominant idea which
gained strength with his years, until its realization had become, we
might say, the main purpose of his life. This idea was the invasion of
Asia by the united forces of Greece. The Greek cities were at feud with
each other, and were severally torn by intestine faction. Political
morality was become a rare and a somewhat despised distinction. Men who
were notoriously ready to sell their cities for their private gain were,
as Demosthenes says, rather admired than otherwise.[6] The social
condition of Greece was becoming very unhappy. The wealth of the country
had ceased to grow; the gulf between rich and poor was becoming wider;
party strife was constantly adding to the number of homeless paupers;
and Greece was full of men who were ready to take service with any
captain of mercenaries, or, failing that, with any leader of
desperadoes. Isocrates draws a vivid and terrible picture of these
evils. The cure for them, he firmly believed, was to unite the Greeks in
a cause which would excite a generous enthusiasm. Now was the time, he
thought, for that enterprise in which Xenophon's comrades had virtually
succeeded, when the headlong rashness of young Cyrus threw away their
reward with his own life.[7] The Persian empire was unsound to the
core--witness the retreat of the Ten Thousand: let united Greece attack
it and it must go down at the first onset. Then new wealth would flow
into Greece; and the hungry pariahs of Greek society would be drafted
into fertile homes beyond the Aegean.

A bright vision; but where was the power whose spell was first to unite
discordant Greece, and, having united it, to direct its strength against
Asia? That was the problem. The first attempt of Isocrates to solve it
is set forth in his splendid _Panegyricus_ (380 B.C.). Let Athens and
Sparta lay aside their jealousies. Let them assume, jointly, a
leadership which might be difficult for either, but which would be
assured to both. That eloquent pleading failed. The next hope was to
find some one man equal to the task. Jason of Pherae, Dionysius I. of
Syracuse, Archidamus III., son of Agesilaus--each in turn rose as a
possible leader of Greece before the imagination of the old man who was
still young in his enthusiastic hope, and one after another they failed
him. But now a greater than any of these was appearing on the Hellenic
horizon, and to this new luminary the eyes of Isocrates were turned with
eager anticipation. Who could lead united Greece against Asia so fitly
as the veritable representative of the Heracleidae, the royal descendant
of the Argive line--a king of half-barbarians it is true, but by race,
as in spirit, a pure Hellene--Philip of Macedon? We can still read the
words in which this fond faith clothed itself; the ardent appeal of
Isocrates to Philip is extant; and another letter shows that the belief
of Isocrates in Philip lasted at any rate down to the eve of
Chaeronea.[8] Whether it survived that event is a doubtful point. The
popular account of the orator's death ascribed it to the mental shock
which he received from the news of Philip's victory. He was at Athens,
in the palaestra of Hippocrates, when the tidings came. He repeated
three verses in which Euripides names three foreign Conquerors of
Greece--Danaus, Pelops, Cadmus--and four days later he died of voluntary
starvation. Milton (perhaps thinking of Eli) seems to conceive the death
of Isocrates as instantaneous:--

      "As that dishonest victory
  At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty,
  Killed with report that old man eloquent."

Now the third of the letters which bears the name of Isocrates is
addressed to Philip, and appears to congratulate him on his victory at
Chaeronea, as being an event which will enable him to assume the
leadership of Greece in a war against Persia. Is the letter genuine?
There is no evidence, external or internal, against its authenticity,
except its supposed inconsistency with the views of Isocrates and with
the tradition of his suicide. As to his views, those who have studied
them in his own writings will be disposed to question whether he would
have regarded Philip's victory at Chaeronea as an irreparable disaster
for Greece. Undoubtedly he would have deplored the conflict between
Philip and Athens; but he would have divided the blame between the
combatants. And, with his old belief in Philip, he would probably have
hoped, even after Chaeronea, that the new position won by Philip would
eventually prove compatible with the independence of the Greek cities,
while it would certainly promote the project on which, as he was
profoundly convinced, the ultimate welfare of Greece depended,--a
Panhellenic expedition against Persia. As to the tradition of his
suicide, the only rational mode of reconciling it with that letter is to
suppose that Isocrates destroyed himself, not because Philip had
conquered, but because, after that event, he saw Athens still resolved
to resist. We should be rather disposed to ask how much weight is to be
given to the tradition. The earliest authority for it--Dionysius of
Halicarnassus in the age of Augustus--may have had older sources;
granting, however, that these may have remounted even to the end of the
4th century B.C., that would not prove much. Suppose that
Isocrates--being then ninety-eight and an invalid--had happened to die
from natural causes a few days after the battle of Chaeronea. Nothing
could have originated more easily than a story that he killed himself
from intense chagrin. Every one knew that Isocrates had believed in
Philip; and most people would have thought that Chaeronea was a crushing
refutation of that belief. Once started, the legend would have been sure
to live, not merely because it was picturesque, but also because it
served to accentuate the contrast between the false prophet and the
true--between Isocrates and Demosthenes; and Demosthenes was very justly
the national idol of the age which followed the loss of Greek
independence.[9]

Isocrates is said to have taught his Athenian pupils gratuitously, and
to have taken money only from aliens; but, as might have been expected,
the fame of his school exposed him to attacks on the ground of his
gains, which his enemies studiously exaggerated. After the financial
reform of 378 B.C. he was one of those 1200 richest citizens who
constituted the twenty unions ([Greek: symmoriai]) for the assessment of
the war-tax ([Greek: eisphora]). He had discharged several public
services ([Greek: leitourgiai]); in particular, he had thrice served as
trierarch. He married Plathane, the widow of the "sophist" Hippias of
Elis, and then adopted her son Aphareus, afterwards eminent as a
rhetorician and a tragic poet. In 355 B.C. he had his first and only
lawsuit. A certain Megaclides (introduced into the speech under the
fictitious name of Lysimachus) challenged him to undertake the
trierarchy or exchange properties. This was the lawsuit which suggested
the form of the discourse which he calls the _Antidosis_ ("exchange of
properties"--353 B.C.)--his defence of his professional life.

He was buried on a rising ground near the Cynosarges--a temenos of
Heracles, with a gymnasion, on the east side of Athens, outside the
Diomeian gate. His tomb was surmounted by a column some 45 ft. high,
crowned with the figure of a siren, the symbol of persuasion and of
death. A tablet of stone, near the column, represented a group of which
Gorgias was the centre; his pupil Isocrates stood at his side. Aphareus
erected a statue to his adopted father near the Olympieum. Timotheus,
the illustrious son of Conon, dedicated another in the temple of
Eleusis.

It was a wonderful century which the life of one man had thus all but
spanned. Isocrates had reached early manhood when the long struggle of
the Peloponnesian War--begun in his childhood--ended with the overthrow
of Athens. The middle period of his career was passed under the
supremacy of Sparta. His more advanced age saw that brief ascendancy
which the genius of Epameinondas secured to Thebes. And he lived to urge
on Philip of Macedon a greater enterprise than any which the Hellenic
world could offer. His early promise had won a glowing tribute from
Plato, and the rhetoric of his maturity furnished matter to the analysis
of Aristotle; he had composed his imaginary picture of that Hellenic
host which should move through Asia in a pageant of sacred triumph, just
as Xenophon was publishing his plain narrative of the retreat of the Ten
Thousand; and, in the next generation, his literary eloquence was still
demonstrating the weakness of Persia when Demosthenes was striving to
make men feel the deadly peril of Greece. This long life has an element
of pathos not unlike that of Greek tragedy; a power above man was
compelling events in a direction which Isocrates could not see; but his
own agency was the ally of that power, though in a sense which he knew
not; his vision was of Greece triumphant over Asia, while he was the
unconscious prophet of an age in which Asia should be transformed by the
diffusion of Hellenism.[10]

  His character should be viewed in both its main aspects--the political
  and the literary.

  With regard to the first, two questions have to be asked: (1) How far
  were the political views of Isocrates peculiar to himself, and
  different from those of the clearest minds contemporary with him? (2)
  How far were those views falsified by the event?

  1. The whole tone of Greek thought in that age had taken a bent
  towards monarchy in some form. This tendency may be traced alike in
  the practical common sense of Xenophon and in the lofty idealism of
  Plato. There could be no better instance of it than a well-known
  passage in the _Politics_ of Aristotle. He is speaking of the gifts
  which meet in the Greek race--a race warlike, like the Europeans, but
  more subtle--keen, like the Asiatics, but braver. Here, he says, is a
  race which "might rule all men, if it were brought under a single
  government."[11] It is unnecessary to suppose a special allusion to
  Alexander; but it is probable that Aristotle had in his mind a
  possible union of the Greek cities under a strong constitutional
  monarchy. His advice to Alexander (as reported by Plutarch) was to
  treat the Greeks in the spirit of a leader ([Greek: hêgemonikôs]) and
  the barbarians in the spirit of a master ([Greek: despotikôs]).[12]
  Aristotle conceived the central power as political and permanent;
  Isocrates conceived it as, in the first place, military, having for
  its immediate aim the conduct of an expedition against Asia. The
  general views of Isocrates as to the largest good possible for the
  Greek race were thus in accord with the prevailing tendency of the
  best Greek thought in that age.

  2. The vision of the Greek race "brought under one polity" was not,
  indeed, fulfilled in the sense of Aristotle or of Isocrates. But the
  invasion of Asia by Alexander, as captain-general of Greece, became
  the event which actually opened new and larger destinies to the Greek
  race. The old political life of the Greek cities was worn out; in the
  new fields which were now opened, the empire of Greek civilization
  entered on a career of world-wide conquest, until Greece became to
  East and West more than all that Athens had been to Greece. Athens,
  Sparta, Thebes, ceased indeed to be the chief centres of Greek life;
  but the mission of the Greek mind could scarcely have been
  accomplished with such expansive and penetrating power if its
  influence had not radiated over the East from Pergamum, Antioch and
  Alexandria.

  Panhellenic politics had the foremost interest for Isocrates. But in
  two of his works--the oration _On the Peace_ and the _Areopagiticus_
  (both of 355 B.C.)--he deals specially with the politics of Athens.
  The speech _On the Peace_ relates chiefly to foreign affairs. It is an
  eloquent appeal to his fellow-citizens to abandon the dream of
  supremacy, and to treat their allies as equals, not as subjects. The
  fervid orator personifies that empire, that false mistress which has
  lured Athens, then Sparta, then Athens once more, to the verge of
  destruction. "Is she not worthy of detestation?" Leadership passes
  into empire; empire begets insolence; insolence brings ruin. The
  _Areopagiticus_ breathes a kindred spirit in regard to home policy.
  Athenian life had lost its old tone. Apathy to public interests,
  dissolute frivolity, tawdry display and real poverty--these are the
  features on which Isocrates dwells. With this picture he contrasts the
  elder democracy of Solon and Cleisthenes, and, as a first step towards
  reform, would restore to the Areopagus its general censorship of
  morals. It is here, and here alone--in his comments on Athenian
  affairs at home and abroad--that we can distinctly recognize the man
  to whom the Athens of Pericles was something more than a tradition. We
  are carried back to the age in which his long life began. We find it
  difficult to realize that the voice to which we listen is the same
  which we hear in the letter to Philip.

  Turning from the political to the literary aspect of his work, we are
  at once upon ground where the question of his merits will now provoke
  comparatively little controversy. Perhaps the most serious prejudice
  with which his reputation has had to contend in modern times has been
  due to an accident of verbal usage. He repeatedly describes that art
  which he professed to teach as his [Greek: philosophia]. His use of
  this word--joined to the fact that in a few passages he appears to
  allude slightingly to Plato or to the Socratics--has exposed him to a
  groundless imputation. It cannot be too distinctly understood that,
  when Isocrates speaks of his [Greek: philosophia], he means simply his
  theory or method of "culture"--to use the only modern term which is
  really equivalent in latitude to the Greek word as then current.[13]

  The [Greek: philosophia], or practical culture, of Isocrates was not
  in conflict, because it had nothing in common, with the Socratic or
  Platonic philosophy. The personal influence of Socrates may, indeed,
  be traced in his work. He constantly desires to make his teaching bear
  on the practical life. His maxims of homely moral wisdom frequently
  recall Xenophon's _Memorabilia_. But there the relation ends. Plato
  alludes to Isocrates in perhaps three places. The glowing prophecy in
  the _Phaedrus_ has been quoted; in the _Gorgias_ a phrase of Isocrates
  is wittily parodied; and in the _Euthydemus_ Isocrates is probably
  meant by the person who dwells "on the borderland between philosophy
  and statesmanship."[14] The writings of Isocrates contain a few more
  or less distinct allusions to Plato's doctrines or works, to the
  general effect that they are barren of practical result.[15] But
  Isocrates nowhere assails Plato's philosophy as such. When he declares
  "knowledge" ([Greek: epistêmê]) to be unattainable, he means an exact
  "knowledge" of the contingencies which may arise in practical life.
  "Since it is impossible for human nature to acquire any science
  ([Greek: epistêmên]) by which we should know what to do or to say, in
  the next resort I deem those wise who, as a rule, can hit what is best
  by their opinions" ([Greek: doxas]).[16]

  Isocrates should be compared with the practical teachers of his day.
  In his essay _Against the Sophists_, and in his speech on the
  _Antidosis_, which belong respectively to the beginning and the close
  of his professional career, he has clearly marked the points which
  distinguish him from "the sophists of the herd" ([Greek: agelaioi
  sophistai]). First, then, he claims, and justly, greater breadth of
  view. The ordinary teacher confined himself to the narrow scope of
  local interests--training the young citizen to plead in the Athenian
  law courts, or to speak on Athenian affairs in the ecclesia. Isocrates
  sought to enlarge the mental horizon of his disciples by accustoming
  them to deal with subjects which were not merely Athenian, but, in his
  own phrase, Hellenic. Secondly, though he did not claim to have found
  a philosophical basis for morals, it has been well said of him that
  "he reflects the human spirit always on its nobler side,"[17] and
  that, in an age of corrupt and impudent selfishness, he always strove
  to raise the minds of his hearers into a higher and purer air.
  Thirdly, his method of teaching was thorough. Technical exposition
  came first. The learner was then required to apply the rules in actual
  composition, which the master revised. The ordinary teachers of
  rhetoric (as Aristotle says) employed their pupils in committing model
  pieces to memory, but neglected to train the learner's own faculty
  through his own efforts. Lastly, Isocrates stands apart from most
  writers of that day in his steady effort to produce results of
  permanent value. While rhetorical skill was largely engaged in the
  intermittent journalism of political pamphlets, Isocrates set a higher
  ambition before his school. His own essays on contemporary questions
  received that finished form which has preserved them to this day. The
  impulse to solid and lasting work, communicated by the example of the
  master, was seen in such monuments as the _Atthis_ of Androtion, the
  _Hellenics_ of Theopompus and the _Philippica_ of Ephorus.

  In one of his letters to Atticus, Cicero says that he has used "all
  the fragrant essences of Isocrates, and all the little stores of his
  disciples."[18] The phrase has a point of which the writer himself was
  perhaps scarcely conscious: the style of Isocrates had come to Cicero
  through the school of Rhodes; and the Rhodian imitators had more of
  Asiatic splendour than of Attic elegance. But, with this allowance
  made, the passage may serve to indicate the real place of Isocrates in
  the history of literary style. The old Greek critics consider him as
  representing what they call the "smooth" or "florid" mode of
  composition ([Greek: glaphyra, anthêra harmonia]) as distinguished
  from the "harsh" ([Greek: austêra]) style of Antiphon and the perfect
  "mean" ([Greek: mesê]) of Demosthenes. Tried by a modern standard, the
  language of Isocrates is certainly not "florid." The only sense in
  which he merits the epithet is that (especially in his earlier work)
  he delights in elaborate antitheses. Isocrates is an "orator" in the
  larger sense of the Greek word _rhetor_; but his real distinction
  consists in the fact that he was the first Greek who gave an artistic
  finish to literary rhetoric. The practical oratory of the day had
  already two clearly separated branches--the forensic, represented by
  Isaeus, and the deliberative, in which Callistratus was the forerunner
  of Demosthenes. Meanwhile Isocrates was giving form and rhythm to a
  standard literary prose. Through the influence of his school, this
  normal prose style was transmitted--with the addition of some florid
  embellishments--to the first generation of Romans who studied rhetoric
  in the Greek schools. The distinctive feature in the composition of
  Isocrates is his structure of the periodic sentence. This, with him,
  is no longer rigid or monotonous, as with Antiphon--no longer terse
  and compact, as with Lysias--but ample, luxuriant, unfolding itself
  (to use a Greek critic's image) like the soft beauties of a winding
  river. Isocrates was the first Greek who worked out the idea of a
  prose rhythm. He saw clearly both its powers and its limits; poetry
  has its strict rhythms and precise metres; prose has its metres and
  rhythms, not bound by a rigid framework, yet capable of being brought
  under certain general laws which a good ear can recognize, and which a
  speaker or writer may apply in the most various combinations. This
  fundamental idea of prose rhythm, or number, is that which the style
  of Isocrates has imparted to the style of Cicero. When Quintilian (x.
  1. 108) says, somewhat hyperbolically, that Cicero has artistically
  reproduced (_effinxisse_) "the force of Demosthenes, the wealth of
  Plato, the charm of Isocrates," he means principally this smooth and
  harmonious rhythm. Cicero himself expressly recognizes this original
  and distinctive merit of Isocrates.[19] Thus, through Rome, and
  especially through Cicero, the influence of Isocrates, as the founder
  of a literary prose, has passed into the literatures of modern Europe.
  It is to the eloquence of the preacher that we may perhaps look for
  the nearest modern analogue of that kind in which Isocrates
  excelled--especially, perhaps, to that of the great French preachers.
  Isocrates was one of the three Greek authors, Demosthenes and Plato
  being the others, who contributed most to form the style of Bossuet.

  WORKS.--The extant works of Isocrates consist of twenty-one speeches
  or discourses and nine letters.[20] Among these, the six forensic
  speeches represent the first period of his literary life--belonging to
  the years 403-393 B.C. All six concern private causes. They may be
  classed as follows: 1. _Action for Assault_ ([Greek: dikê aikias]),
  Or. xx., _Against Lochites_, 394 B.C. 2. _Claim to an Inheritance_
  ([Greek: epidikasia]), Or. xix., _Aegineticus_, end of 394 or early in
  393 B.C. 3. _Actions to Recover a Deposit_: (1) Or. xxi., _Against
  Euthynus_, 403 B.C.; (2) Or. xvii., _Trapeziticus_, end of 394 or
  early in 393 B.C. 4. _Action for Damage_ ([Greek: dikê blabês]), Or.
  xvi., _Concerning the Team of Horses_, 397 B.C. 5. _Special Plea_
  ([Greek: paragraphê]), Or. xviii., _Against Callimachus_, 402 B.C. Two
  of these have been regarded as spurious by G. E. Benseler, viz. Or.
  xxi., on account of the frequent hiatus and the short compact periods,
  and Or. xvii., on the first of these grounds. But we are not warranted
  in applying to the early work of Isocrates those canons which his
  mature style observed. The genuineness of the speech against Euthynus
  is recognized by Philostratus; while the _Trapeziticus_--thrice named
  without suspicion by Harpocration--is treated by Dionysius, not only
  as authentic, but as the typical forensic work of its author. The
  speech against Lochites--where "a man of the people" ([Greek: tou
  plêthous eis]) is the speaker--exhibits much rhetorical skill. The
  speech [Greek: Peri tou zeugous] ("concerning the team of horses") has
  a curious interest. An Athenian citizen had complained that Alcibiades
  had robbed him of a team of four horses, and sues the statesman's son
  and namesake (who is the speaker) for their value. This is not the
  only place in which Isocrates has marked his admiration for the genius
  of Alcibiades; it appears also in the _Philippus_ and in the
  _Busiris_. But, among the forensic speeches, we must, on the whole,
  give the palm to the _Aegineticus_--a graphic picture of ordinary
  Greek life in the islands of the Aegean. Here--especially in the
  narrative--Isocrates makes a near approach to the best manner of
  Lysias.

  The remaining fifteen orations or discourses do not easily lend
  themselves to the ordinary classification under the heads of
  "deliberative" and "epideictic." Both terms must be strained; and
  neither is strictly applicable to all the pieces which it is required
  to cover. The work of Isocrates travelled out of the grooves in which
  the rhetorical industry of the age had hitherto moved. His position
  among contemporary writers was determined by ideas peculiar to
  himself; and his compositions, besides having a style of their own,
  are in several instances of a new kind. The only adequate principle of
  classification is one which considers them in respect to their
  subject-matter. Thus viewed, they form two clearly separated
  groups--the scholastic and the political.

  _Scholastic Writings._--Under this head we have, first, three letters
  or essays of a hortatory character. (1) The letter to the young
  Demonicus[21]--once a favourite subject in the schools--contains a
  series of precepts neither below nor much above the average practical
  morality of Greece. (2) The letter to Nicocles--the young king of the
  Cyprian Salamis--sets forth the duty of a monarch to his subjects. (3)
  In the third piece, it is Nicocles who speaks, and impresses on the
  Salaminians their duty to their king--a piece remarkable as containing
  a popular plea for monarchy, composed by a citizen of Athens. These
  three letters may be referred to the years 374-372 B.C.

  Next may be placed four pieces which are "displays" ([Greek:
  epideixeis]) in the proper Greek sense. The _Busiris_ (Or. xi.,
  390-391 B.C.) is an attempt to show how the ill-famed king of Egypt
  might be praised. The _Encomium on Helen_ (Or. x., 370 B.C.), a piece
  greatly superior to the last, contains the celebrated passage on the
  power of beauty. These two compositions serve to illustrate their
  author's view that "encomia" of the hackneyed type might be elevated
  by combining the mythical matter with some topic of practical
  interest--as, in the case of _Busiris_, with the institutions of
  Egypt, or, in that of Helen, with the reforms of Theseus. The
  _Evagoras_ (Or. ix., 365 B.C.?), the earliest known biography, is a
  laudatory epitaph on a really able man--the Greek king of the Cyprian
  Salamis. A passage of singular interest describes how, under his rule,
  the influences of Hellenic civilization had prevailed over the
  surrounding barbarism. The _Panathenaicus_ (Or. xii.), intended for
  the great Panathenaea of 342 B.C., but not completed till 339 B.C.,
  contains a recital of the services rendered by Athens to Greece, but
  digresses into personal defence against critics; his last work,
  written in extreme old age, it bears the plainest marks of failing
  powers.

  The third subdivision of the scholastic writings is formed by two most
  interesting essays on education--that entitled _Against the Sophists_
  (Or. xiii., 391-390 B.C.), and the _Antidosis_ (Or. xv., 353 B.C.).
  The first of these is a manifesto put forth by Isocrates at the outset
  of his professional career of teaching, in which he seeks to
  distinguish his aims from those of other "sophists." These "sophists"
  are (1) the "eristics" ([Greek: hoi peri tas eridas]), by whom he
  seems to intend the minor Socratics, especially Euclides; (2) the
  teachers of practical rhetoric, who had made exaggerated claims for
  the efficacy of mere instruction, independently of natural faculty or
  experience; (3) the writers of "arts" of rhetoric, who virtually
  devoted themselves (as Aristotle also complains) to the lowest, or
  forensic, branch of their subject (see also E. Holzner, _Platos
  Phaedrus und die Sophistenrede des Isokrates_, Prague, 1894). As this
  piece is the prelude to his career, its epilogue is the speech on the
  "Antidosis"--so called because it has the form of a speech made in
  court in answer to a challenge to undertake the burden of the
  trierarchy, or else exchange properties with the challenger. The
  discourse "Against the Sophists" had stated what his art was not; this
  speech defines what it is. His own account of his [Greek:
  philosophia]--"the discipline of discourse" ([Greek: hê tôn logôn
  paideia])--has been embodied in the sketch of it given above.

  _Political Writings._--These, again, fall into two classes--those
  which concern (1) the relations of Greece with Persia, (2) the
  internal affairs of Greece. The first class consist of the
  _Panegyricus_ (Or. iv., 380 B.C.) and the _Philippus_ (Or. v., 346
  B.C.). The _Panegyricus_ takes its name from the fact that it was
  given to the Greek public at the time of the Olympic
  festivals--probably by means of copies circulated there. The orator
  urges that Athens and Sparta should unite in leading the Greeks
  against Persia. The feeling of antiquity that this noble discourse is
  a masterpiece of careful work finds expression in the tradition that
  it had occupied its author for more than ten years. Its excellence is
  not merely that of language, but also--and perhaps even more
  conspicuously--that of lucid arrangement. The _Philippus_ is an appeal
  to the king of Macedon to assume that initiative in the war on Persia
  which Isocrates had ceased to expect from any Greek city. In the view
  of Demosthenes, Philip was the representative barbarian; in that of
  Isocrates, he is the first of Hellenes, and the natural champion of
  their cause.

  Of those discourses which concern the internal affairs of Greece, two
  have already been noticed,--that _On the Peace_ (Or. viii.), and the
  _Areopagiticus_ (Or. vii.)--both of 355 B.C.--as dealing respectively
  with the foreign and the home affairs of Athens. The _Plataicus_ (Or.
  xiv.) is supposed to be spoken by a Plataean before the Athenian
  ecclesia in 373 B.C. In that year Plataea had for the second time in
  its history been destroyed by Thebes. The oration--an appeal to Athens
  to restore the unhappy town--is remarkable both for the power with
  which Theban cruelty is denounced, and for the genuine pathos of the
  peroration. The _Archidamus_ (Or. vi.) is a speech purporting to be
  delivered by Archidamus III., son of Agesilaus, in a debate at Sparta
  on conditions of peace offered by Thebes in 366 B.C. It was demanded
  that Sparta should recognize the independence of Messene, which had
  lately been restored by Epameinondas (370 B.C.). The oration gives
  brilliant expression to the feeling which such a demand was calculated
  to excite in Spartans who knew the history of their own city. Xenophon
  witnesses that the attitude of Sparta on this occasion was actually
  such as the _Archidamus_ assumes (_Hellen._ vii. 4. 8-11).

  _Letters._--The first letter--to Dionysius I.--is fragmentary; but a
  passage in the _Philippus_ leaves no doubt as to its object. Isocrates
  was anxious that the ruler of Syracuse should undertake the command of
  Greece against Persia. The date is probably 368 B.C. Next in
  chronological order stands the letter "To the Children of Jason"
  (vi.). Jason, tyrant of Pherae, had been assassinated in 370 B.C.; and
  no fewer than three of his successors had shared the same fate.
  Isocrates now urges Thebe, the daughter of Jason, and her
  half-brothers to set up a popular government. The date is 359 B.C.[22]
  The letter to Archidamus III. (ix.)--the same person who is the
  imaginary speaker of Oration vi.--urges him to execute the writer's
  favourite idea,--"to deliver the Greeks from their feuds, and to crush
  barbarian insolence." It is remarkable for a vivid picture of the
  state of Greece; the date is about 356 B.C. The letter to Timotheus
  (vii., 345 B.C.), ruler of Heraclea on the Euxine, introduces an
  Athenian friend who is going thither, and at the same time offers some
  good counsels to the benevolent despot. The letter "to the government
  of Mytilene" (viii., 350 B.C.) is a petition to a newly established
  oligarchy, begging them to permit the return of a democratic exile, a
  distinguished musician named Agenor. The first of the two letters to
  Philip of Macedon (ii.) remonstrates with him on the personal danger
  to which he had recklessly exposed himself, and alludes to his
  beneficent intervention in the affairs of Thessaly; the date is
  probably the end of 342 B.C. The letter to Alexander (v.), then a boy
  of fourteen, is a brief greeting sent along with the last, and
  congratulates him on preferring "practical" to "eristic" studies--a
  distinction which is explained by the sketch of the author's [Greek:
  philosophia], and of his essay "Against the Sophists," given above. It
  was just at this time, probably, that Alexander was beginning to
  receive the lessons of Aristotle (342 B.C.). The letter to Antipater
  (iv.) introduces a friend who wished to enter the military service of
  Philip. Antipater was then acting as regent in Macedonia during
  Philip's absence in Thrace (340-339 B.C.). The later of the two
  letters to Philip (iii.) appears to be written shortly after the
  battle of Chaeronea in 338 B.C. The questions raised by it have
  already been discussed.

  No lost work of Isocrates is known from a definite quotation, except
  an "Art of Rhetoric," from which some scattered precepts are cited.
  Quintilian, indeed, and Photius, who had seen this "Art," felt a doubt
  as to whether it was genuine. Only twenty-five discourses--out of an
  ascriptive total of some sixty--were admitted as authentic by
  Dionysius; Photius (_circ._ A.D. 850) knew only the number now
  extant--twenty-one.

  With the exception of defects at the end of Or. xiii., at the
  beginning of Or. xvi., and probably at the end of Letters i., vi.,
  ix., the existing text is free from serious mutilations. It is also
  unusually pure. The smooth and clear style of Isocrates gave few
  opportunities for the mistakes of copyists. On the other hand, he was
  a favourite author of the schools. Numerous glosses crept into his
  text through the comments or conjectures of rhetoricians. This was
  already the case before the 6th century, as is attested by the
  citations of Priscian and Stobaeus. Jerome Wolf and Koraes
  successively accomplished much for the text. But a more decided
  advance was made by Immanuel Bekker. He used five MSS., viz. (1) Codex
  Urbinas III., [Gamma] (this, the best, was his principal guide); (2)
  Vaticanus 936, [Delta]; (3) Laurentianus 87, 14, [Theta] (13th
  century); (4) Vaticanus 65, [Lambda]; and (5) Marcianus 415, [Xi]. The
  first three, of the same family, have Or. xv. entire; the last two are
  from the same original, and have Or. xv. incomplete.

  J. G. Baiter and H. Sauppe in their edition (1850) follow [Gamma]
  "even more constantly than Bekker." Their apparatus is enriched,
  however, by a MS. to which he had not access--Ambrosianus O. 144,
  [Epsilon], which in some cases, as they recognize, has alone preserved
  the true reading. The readings of this MS. were given in full by G. E.
  Benseler in his second edition (1854-1855). The distinctive
  characteristic of Benseler's textual criticism was a tendency to
  correct the text against even the best MS., where the MS. conflicted
  with the usage of Isocrates as inferred from his recorded precepts or
  from the statements of ancient writers. Thus, on the strength of the
  rule ascribed to Isocrates--[Greek: phônêenta mê sympiptein]--Benseler
  would remove from the text every example of hiatus (on the MSS. of
  Isocrates, see H. Bürmann, _Die handschriftliche Überlieferung des
  Isocrates_, Berlin, 1885-1886, and E. Drerup, in _Leipziger Studien_,
  xvii., 1895).     (R. C. J.)

  EDITIONS.--In _Oratores Attici_, ed. Imm. Bekker (1823, 1828); W. S.
  Dobson (1828); J. G. Baiter and Hermann Sauppe (1850). Separately
  _Ausgewählte Reden, Panegyrikos und Areopagitikos_, by Rudolf
  Rauchenstein, 6th ed., Karl Münscher (1908); in Teubner's series, by
  G. E. Benseler (new ed., by F. Blass, 1886-1895) and by E. Drerup
  (1906-   ); _Ad Demonicum et Panegyricus_, ed. J. E. Sandys (1868);
  _Evagoras_, ed. H. Clarke (1885). Extracts from Orations iii., iv.,
  vi., vii., viii., ix., xiii., xiv., xv., xix., and Letters iii., v.,
  edited with revised text and commentary, in _Selections from the Attic
  Orators_, by R. C. Jebb (1880); vol. i. of an English prose
  translation, with introduction and notes by J. H. Freese, has been
  published in Bohn's _Classical Library_ (1894). See generally Jebb's
  _Attic Orators_ (where a list of authorities is given) and F. Blass,
  Die attische Beredsamkeit (2nd ed., 1887-1898), and the latter's _Die
  Rhythmen der attischen Kunstprosa_ (1901). There is a special lexicon
  by S. Preuss (1904). On the philosophy of Isocrates and his relation
  to the Socratic schools, see Thompson's ed. of Plato's _Phaedrus_,
  Appendix 2.


FOOTNOTES:

  [1] [Greek: Hatalantê], fr. 1, Meineke, Poëtarum comicorum Graecorum
    frag. (1855), p. 292.

  [2] [Plut.] _Vita Isocr._, and the anonymous biographer. Dionysius
    does not mention the story, though he makes Isocrates a pupil of
    Theramenes.

  [3] Some would refer the sojourn of Isocrates at Chios to the years
    398-395 B.C., others to 393-388 B.C. The reasons which support the
    view given in the text will be found in Jebb's _Attic Orators_, vol.
    ii. (1893), p. 6, note 2.

  [4] Partim in pompa, partim in acie illustres (_De orat._ ii. 24).

  [5] P. Sanneg, _De schola Isocratea_ (Halle, 1867).

  [6] _De falsa legat._ p. 426 [Greek: ouch opôs ôrgizonto ê kolazein
    êxioun tous tauta poiountas, all' apeblepon, ezêloun, etimôn, andras
    hêgounto.]

  [7] [Greek: ekeinous gar homologeitai ... êdê egkrateis dokountas
    einai tôn pragmatôn dia tên Kyrou propeteian atychêsai] (_Philippus_,
    90; cp. _Panegyr._ 149).

  [8] _Philippus_, 346 B.C.; _Epist._ ii. end of 342 B.C. (?).

  [9] The views of several modern critics on the tradition of the
    suicide are brought together in the _Attic Orators_, ii. (1893) p.
    31, note 1.

  [10] Isocrates, a loyal and genuine Hellene, can yet conceive of
    Hellenic culture as shared by men not of Hellenic blood (_Panegyr._
    50). He is thus, as Ernst Curtius has ably shown, a forerunner of
    Hellenism--analogous, in the literary province, to Epameinondas and
    Timotheus in the political (_History of Greece_, v. 116, 204, tr.
    Ward).

  [11] [Greek: to tôn Hellênôn genos ... dunamenon archein pantôn, mias
    tugchanon politeias] (_Polit._ iv. [vii.] 6, 7).

  [12] _De Alex. virt._ i. 6.

  [13] The word [Greek: philosophia] seems to have come into Athenian
    use not much before the time of Socrates; and, till long after the
    time of Isocrates, it was commonly used, not in the sense of
    "philosophy," but in that of "literary taste and study--culture
    generally" (see Thompson on _Phaedrus_, 278 D). Aristeides, ii. 407
    [Greek: philokalia tis kai diatribê peri logous, kai ouch ho nun
    tropos houtos, alla paideia koinôs]. And so writers of the 4th
    century B.C. use [Greek: philosopheîn] as simply = "to study"; as
    e.g. an invalid "studies" the means of relief from pain, Lys. _Or._
    xxiv. 10; cf. Isocr. _Or._ iv. 6, &c.

  [14] Plato, _Gorg._ p. 463; _Euthyd._ 304-306.

  [15] These allusions are discussed in the _Attic Orators_, vol. ii.
    ch. 13.

  [16] Isocr. _Or._ xv. 271.

  [17] A. Cartelier, _Le Discours d'Isocrate sur lui-même_, p. lxii.
    (1862).

  [18] Totum Isocratis [Greek: myrothêkion] atque omnes ejus
    discipulorum arculas (_Ad Att._ ii. 1).

  [19] Idque princeps Isocrates instituisse fertur, ... ut inconditam
    antiquorum dicendi consuetudinem ... numeris astringeret (_De or._
    iii. 44, 173).

  [20] The dates here given differ to some extent from those in F.
    Blass, _Die attische Beredsamkeit_ (2nd ed., 1887-1898).

  [21] Some authorities consider the _Ad Demonicum_ spurious.

  [22] This was shown by R. C. Jebb in a paper on "The Sixth Letter of
    Isocrates," _Journal of Philology_, v. 266 (1874). The fact that
    Thebe, widow of Alexander of Pherae, was the daughter of Jason is
    incidentally noticed by Plutarch in his life of Pelopidas, c. 28. It
    is this fact which gives the clue to the occasion of the letter; cf.
    Diod. Sic. xvi. 14.




ISODYNAMIC LINES (Gr. [Greek: isodynamos], equal in power), lines
connecting those parts of the earth's surface where the magnetic force
has the same intensity (see MAGNETISM, TERRESTRIAL).




ISOGONIC LINES (Gr. [Greek: isogônios], equiangular), lines connecting
those parts of the earth's surface where the magnetic declination is the
same in amount (see MAGNETISM, TERRESTRIAL).




ISOLA DEL LIRI, a town of Campania, in the province of Caserta, Italy,
15 m. by rail N.N.W. of Roccasecca, which is on the main line from Rome
to Naples, 10 m. N.W. of Cassino. Pop. (1901), town, 2384; commune,
8244. The town consists of two parts, Isola Superiore and Isola
Inferiore; as its name implies it is situated between two arms of the
Liri. The many waterfalls of this river and of the Fibreno afford motive
power for several important paper-mills. Two of the falls, 80 ft. in
height, are especially fine. About 1 m. to the N. is the church of San
Domenico, erected in the 12th century, which probably marks the site of
the villa of Cicero (see ARPINO).




ISOMERISM, in chemistry. When Wöhler, in 1825, analysed his cyanic acid,
and Liebig his quite different fulminic acid in 1824, the composition of
both compounds proved to be absolutely the same, containing each in
round numbers 28% of carbon, 33% of nitrogen, 37% of oxygen and 2% of
hydrogen. This fact, inconsistent with the then dominating conception
that difference in qualities was due to difference in chemical
composition, was soon corroborated by others of analogous nature, and so
Berzelius introduced the term _isomerism_ (Gr. [Greek: isomerês],
composed of equal parts) to denominate the existence of the property of
substances having different qualities, in chemical behaviour as well as
physical, notwithstanding identity in chemical composition. These
phenomena were quite in accordance with the atomic conception of matter,
since a compound containing the same number of atoms of carbon,
nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen as another in the same weight might differ
in internal structure by different arrangements of those atoms. Even in
the time of Berzelius the newly introduced conception proved to include
two different groups of facts. The one group included those isomers
where the identity in composition was accompanied by identity in
molecular weight, i.e. the vapour densities of the isomers were the
same, as in butylene and isobutylene, to take the most simple case; here
the molecular conception admits that the isolated groups in which the
atoms are united, i.e. the molecules, are identical, and so the molecule
of both butylene and isobutylene is indicated by the same chemical
symbol C4H8, expressing that each molecule contains, in both cases, four
atoms of carbon (C) and eight of hydrogen (H). This group of isomers was
denominated metamers by Berzelius, and now often "isomers" (in the
restricted sense), whereas the term _polymerism_ (Gr. [Greek: polys],
many) was chosen for compounds like butylene, C4H8, and ethylene, C2H4,
corresponding to the same composition in weight but differing in
molecular formula, and having different densities in gas or vapour, a
litre of butylene and isobutylene weighing, for instance, under ordinary
temperature and pressure, about 2.5 gr., ethylene only one-half as much,
since density is proportional to molecular weight.

A further distinction is necessary to a survey of the subdivisions of
isomerism regarded in its widest sense. There are subtle and more subtle
differences causing isomerism. In the case of metamerism we can imagine
that the atoms are differently linked, say in the case of butylene that
the atoms of carbon are joined together as a continuous chain, expressed
by --C--C--C--C--, _normally_ as it is called, whereas in isobutylene the
fourth atom of carbon is not attached to the third but to the second
carbon atom, i.e.

         C--
        /
  --C--C    .
        \
         C--

Now there are cases in which analogy of internal structure goes so far
as to exclude even that difference in linking, the only remaining
possibility then being the difference in relative position. This kind
of isomerism has been denominated _stereoisomerism_ (q.v.) often
stereomerism. But there is a last group belonging here in which identity
of structure goes farthest. There are substances such as sulphur,
showing difference of modification in crystalline state--the ordinary
rhombic form in which sulphur occurs as a mineral, while, after melting
and cooling, long needles appear which belong to the monosymmetric
system. These differences, which go hand in hand with those in other
properties, e.g. specific heat and specific gravity, are absolutely
confined to the crystalline state, disappearing with it when both
modifications of sulphur are melted, or dissolved in carbon disulphide
or evaporated. So it is natural to admit that here we have to deal with
identical molecules, but that only the internal arrangement differs from
case to case as identical balls may be grouped in different ways. This
case of difference in properties combined with identical composition is
therefore called _polymorphism_.

To summarize, we have to deal with polymerism, metamerism,
stereoisomerism, polymorphism; whereas phenomena denominated
tautomerism, pseudomerism and desmotropism form different particular
features of metamerism, as well as the phenomena of allotropy, which is
merely the difference of properties which an element may show, and can
be due to polymerism, as in oxygen, where by the side of the ordinary
form with molecules O2 we have the more active ozone with O3.
Polymorphism in the case of an element is illustrated in the case of
sulphur, whereas metamerism in the case of elements has so far as yet
not been observed; and is hardly probable, as most elements are built
up, like the metals, from molecules containing only one atom per
molecule; here metamerism is absolutely excluded, and a considerable
number of the rest, having diatomic molecules, are about in the same
condition. It is only in cases like sulphur with octatomic molecules,
where a difference of internal structure might play a part.

Before entering into detail it may be useful to consider the nature of
isomerism from a general standpoint. It is probable that the whole
phenomenon of isomerism is due to the possibility that compounds or
systems which in reality are unstable yet persist, or so slowly change
that practically one can speak of their stability; for instance, such
systems as explosives and a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, where the
stable form is water, and in which, according to some, a slow but until
now undetected change takes place even at ordinary temperatures.
Consequently, of each pair of isomers we may establish beforehand which
is the more stable; either in particular circumstances, a direct change
taking place, as, for instance, with maleic acid, which when exposed to
sunlight in presence of a trace of bromine, yields the isomeric fumaric
acid almost at once, or, indirectly, one may conclude that the isomer
which forms under greater heat-development is the more stable, at least
at lower temperatures. Now, whether a real, though undetected, change
occurs is a question to be determined from case to case; it is certain,
however, that a substance like aragonite (a mineral form of calcium
carbonate) has sensibly persisted in geological periods, though the
polymorphous calcite is the more stable form. Nevertheless, the
theoretical possibility, and its realization in many cases, has brought
considerations to the front which have recently become of predominant
interest; consequently the possible transformations of isomers and
polymers will be considered later under the denomination of reversible
or dynamical isomerisms.

Especially prominent is the fact that polymerism and metamerism are
mainly reserved to the domain of organic chemistry, or the chemistry of
carbon, both being discovered there; and, more especially, the
phenomenon of metamerism in organic chemistry has largely developed our
notions concerning the structure of matter. That this particular feature
belongs to carbon compounds is due to a property of carbon which
characterizes the whole of organic chemistry, i.e. that atoms attached
to carbon, to express it in the atomic style, cling more intensely to it
than, for instance, when combined with oxygen. This explains a good
deal of the possible instability; and, from a practical point of view,
it coincides with the fact that such a large amount of energy can be
stored in our most intense explosives such as dynamite, the explanation
being that hydrogen is attached to carbon distant from oxygen in the
same molecule, and that only the characteristic resistance of the carbon
linkage prevents the hydrogen from burning, which is the main occurrence
in the explosion of dynamite. The possession of this peculiar property
by carbon seems to be related to its high valency, amounting to four;
and, generally, when we consider the most primitive expression of
isomerism, viz. the allotropy of elements, we meet this increasing
resistance with increasing valency. The monovalent iodine, for instance,
is transformed by heating into an allotropic form, corresponding to the
formula I, whereas ordinary iodine answers to I2. Now these
modifications show hardly any tendency to persist, the one stable at
high temperatures being formed at elevated temperatures, but changing in
the reverse sense on cooling. In the divalent oxygen we meet with the
modification called ozone, which, although unstable, changes but slowly
into oxygen. Similarly the trivalent phosphorus in the ordinary white
form shows such resistance as if it were practically stable; on the
other hand the red modification is in reality also stable, being formed,
for instance, under the influence of light. In the case of the
quadrivalent carbon, diamond seems to be the stable form at ordinary
temperatures, but one may wait long before it is formed from graphite.

This connexion of isomerism with resistant linking, and of this with
high valency, explains, in considerable measure, why inorganic compounds
afforded, as a rule, no phenomena of this kind until the systematic
investigation of metallic compounds by Werner brought to light many
instances of isomerism in inorganic compounds. Whereas carbon renders
isomerism possible in organic compounds, cobalt and platinum are the
determining elements in inorganic chemistry, the phenomena being
exhibited especially by complex ammoniacal derivatives. The constitution
of these inorganic isomers is still somewhat questionable; and in
addition it seems that polymerism, metamerism and stereoisomerism play a
part here, but the general feature is that cobalt and platinum act in
them with high valency, probably exceeding four. The most simple case is
presented by the two platinum compounds PtCl2(NH3)2, the
platosemidiammine chloride of Peyrone, and the platosammine chloride of
Jules Reiset, the first formed according to the equation PtCl4K2 + 2NH3
= PtCl2(NH3)2 + 2KCl, the second according to Pt(NH3)4Cl2 = PtCl2(NH3)2
+ 2NH3, these compounds differing in solubility, the one dissolving in
33, the other in 160 parts of boiling water. With cobalt the most simple
case was discovered in 1892 by S. Jörgensen in the second
dinitrotetramminecobalt chloride, [Co(NO2)2(NH3)4]Cl, designated as
flavo--whereas the older isomer of Gibbs was distinguished as
croceo-salt. An interesting lecture on the subject was delivered by A.
Werner before the German chemical society (_Ber._, 1907, 40, p. 15).
(See COBALT; PLATINUM.)

Dealing with organic compounds, it is metamerism that deserves chief
attention, as it has largely developed our notions as to molecular
structure. Polymerism required no particular explanation, since this was
given by the difference in molecular magnitude. One general remark,
however, may be made here. There are polymers which have hardly any
inter-relations other than identity in composition; on the other hand,
there are others which are related by the possibility of mutual
transformation; examples of this kind are cyanic acid (CNOH) and
cyanuric acid (CNOH)3, the latter being a solid which readily transforms
into the former on heating as an easily condensable vapour; the reverse
transformation may also be realized; and the polymers methylene oxide
(CH2O) and trioxymethylene (CH2O)3. In the first group we may mention
the homologous series of hydrocarbons derived from ethylene, given by
the general formula C_nH_(2n), and the two compounds methylene-oxide and
honey-sugar C6H12O6. The cases of mutual transformation are generally
characterized by the fact that in the compound of higher molecular
weight no new links of carbon with carbon are introduced, the
trioxymethylene being probably

    CH2--O
   /       \
  O        CH2,
   \       /
    CH2--O

whereas honey-sugar corresponds to CH2OH·CHOH·CHOH·CHOH·CHOH·CHO, each
point representing a linking of the carbon atom to the next. This
observation is closely related to the above-mentioned resistivity of the
carbon-link, and corroborates it in a special case. As carbon tends to
hold the atom attached to it, one may presume that this property
expresses itself in a predominant way where the other element is carbon
also, and so the linkage represented by --C--C-- is one of the most
difficult to loosen.

The conception of metamerism, or isomerism in restricted sense, has been
of the highest value for the development of our notions concerning
molecular structure, i.e. the conception as to the order in which the
atoms composing a molecule are linked together. In this article we shall
confine ourselves to the fatty compounds, from which the fundamental
notions were first obtained; reference may be made to the article
CHEMISTRY: _Organic_, for the general structural relations of organic
compounds, both fatty and aromatic.

A general philosophical interest is attached to the phenomena of
isomerism. By Wilhelm Ostwald especially, attempts have been made to
substitute the notion of atoms and molecular structure by less
hypothetical conceptions; these ideas may some day receive thorough
confirmation, and when this occurs science will receive a striking
impetus. The phenomenon of isomerism will probably supply the crucial
test, at least for the chemist, and the question will be whether the
Ostwaldian conception, while substituting the Daltonian hypothesis, will
also explain isomerism. An early step accomplished by Ostwald in this
direction is to define ozone in its relation to oxygen, considering the
former as differing from the latter by an excess of energy, measurable
as heat of transformation, instead of defining the difference as
diatomic molecules in oxygen, and triatomic in ozone. Now, in this case,
the first definition expresses much better the whole chemical behaviour
of ozone, which is that of "energetic" oxygen, while the second only
includes the fact of higher vapour-density; but in applying the first
definition to organic compounds and calling isobutylene "butylene with
somewhat more energy" hardly anything is indicated, and all the
advantages of the atomic conception--the possibility of exactly
predicting how many isomers a given formula includes and how you may get
them--are lost.

To Kekulé is due the credit of taking the decisive step in introducing
the notion of tetravalent carbon in a clear way, i.e. in the property of
carbon to combine with four different monatomic elements at once,
whereas nitrogen can only hold three (or in some cases five), oxygen two
(in some cases four), hydrogen one. This conception has rendered
possible a clear idea of the linking or internal structure of the
molecule, for example, in the most simple case, methane, CH4, is
expressed by

     H
     ¦
  H--C--H
     ¦
     H

It is by this conception that possible and impossible compounds are at
once fixed. Considering the hydrocarbons given by the general formula
C_xH_y, the internal linkages of the carbon atoms need at least x - 1
bonds, using up 2(x - 1) valencies of the 4x to be accounted for, and
thus leaving no more than 2(x + 1) for binding hydrogen: a compound C3H9
is therefore impossible, and indeed has never been met. The second
prediction is the possibility of metamerism, and the number of metamers,
in a given case among compounds, which are realizable. Considering the
predicted series of compounds C_nH_(2n + 2), which is the well-known
homologous series of methane, the first member, the possible of
isomerism lies in that of a different linking of the carbon atoms. This
first presents itself when four are present, i.e. in the difference
between C--C--C--C and

  C--C--C
     |   .
     C

With this compound C4H10, named butane, isomerism is actually observed,
being limited to a pair, whereas the former members ethane, C2H6, and
propane, C3H8, showed no isomerism. Similarly, pentane, C5H12, and
hexane, C6H14, may exist in three and five theoretically isomeric forms
respectively; confirmation of this theory is supplied by the fact that
all these compounds have been obtained, but no more. The third most
valuable indication which molecular structure gives about these isomers
is how to prepare them, for instance, that normal hexane, represented by
CH3·CH2·CH2·CH2·CH2·CH3, may be obtained by action of sodium on propyl
iodide, CH3·CH2·CH2I, the atoms of iodine being removed from two
molecules of propyl iodide, with the resulting fusion of the two systems
of three carbon atoms into a chain of six carbon atoms. But it is not
only the formation of different isomers which is included in their
constitution, but also the different ways in which they will decompose
or give other products. As an example another series of organic
compounds may be taken, viz. that of the alcohols, which only differ
from the hydrocarbons by having a group OH, called hydroxyl, instead of
H, hydrogen; these compounds, when derived from the above methane series
of hydrocarbons, are expressed by the general formula C_nH_(2n + 1)OH.
In this case it is readily seen that isomerism introduces itself in the
three carbon atom derivative: the propyl alcohols, expressed by the
formulae CH3·CH2·CH2OH and CH3·CHOH·CH3, are known as propyl and
isopropyl alcohol respectively. Now in oxidizing, or introducing more
oxygen, for instance, by means of a mixture of sulphuric acid and
potassium bichromate, and admitting that oxygen acts on both compounds
in analogous ways, the two alcohols may give (as they lose two atoms of
hydrogen) CH3·CH2·COH and CH3CO·CH3. The first compound, containing a
group COH, or more explicitly O = C - H, is an _aldehyde_, having a
pronounced reducing power, producing silver from the oxide, and is
therefore called propylaldehyde; the second compound containing the
group --C·CO·C-- behaves differently but just as characteristically, and
is a _ketone_, it is therefore denominated propylketone (also acetone or
dimethyl ketone). And so, as a rule, from isomeric alcohols, those
containing a group --CH2·OH, yield by oxidation aldehydes and are
distinguished by the name primary; whereas those containing CH·OH,
called secondary, produce ketones. (Compare CHEMISTRY: _Organic_.)

The above examples may illustrate how, in a general way, chemical
properties of isomers, their formation as well as transformation, may be
read in the structure formula. It is different, however, with physical
properties, density, &c.; at present we have no fixed rules which enable
us to predict quantitatively the differences in physical properties
corresponding to a given difference in structure, the only general rule
being that those differences are not large.

  Perhaps a satisfactory point of view may be here obtained by applying
  the van der Waals' equation A(P + a/V²)(V - b) = 2T, which connects
  volume V, pressure P and temperature T (see CONDENSATION OF GASES). In
  this equation a relates to molecular attraction; and it is not
  improbable that in isomeric molecules, containing in sum the same
  amount of the same atoms, those mutual attractions are approximately
  the same, whereas the chief difference lies in the value of b, that
  is, the volume occupied by the molecule itself. For what reason this
  volume may differ from case to case lies close at hand; in connexion
  with the notion of negative and positive atoms, like chlorine and
  hydrogen, experience tends to show that the former, as well as the
  latter, have a mutual repulsive power, but the former acts on the
  latter in the opposite sense; the necessary consequence is that, when
  those negative and positive groups are distributed in the molecule,
  its volume will be smaller than if the negative elements are heaped
  together. An example may prove this, but before quoting it, the
  question of determining b must be decided; this results immediately
  from the above quotation, b being the volume V at the absolute zero (T
  = 0); so the volume of isomers ought to be compared at the absolute
  zero. Since this has not been done we must adopt the approximate rule
  that the volume at absolute zero is proportional to that at the
  boiling-point. Now taking the isomers H3C·CCl3(M_v = 108) and
  ClH2·CHCl2(M_v = 103), we see the negative chlorine atoms heaped up in
  the left hand formula, but distributed in the second; the former
  therefore may be presumed to occupy a larger space, the molecular
  volume, that is, the volume in cubic centimetres occupied by the
  molecular weight in grams, actually being 108 in the former, and 103
  in the latter case (compare CHEMISTRY: _Physical_). An analogous
  remark applies to the boiling-point of isomers. According to the above
  formula the critical temperature is given by 8aA/54b, and as the
  critical temperature is approximately proportional to the
  boiling-point, both being estimated on the absolute scale of
  temperature, we may conclude that the larger value of b corresponds to
  the lower boiling-point, and indeed the isomer corresponding to the
  left-hand formula boils at 74°, the other at 114°. Other physical
  properties might be considered; as a general rule they depend upon the
  distribution of negative and positive elements in the molecule.

_Reversible (dynamical) Isomerism._--Certain investigations on isomerism
which have become especially prominent in recent times bear on the
possibility of the mutual transformation of isomers. As soon as this
reversibility is introduced, general laws related to thermodynamics are
applicable (see CHEMICAL ACTION; ENERGETICS). These laws have the
advantage of being applicable to the mutual transformations of isomers,
whatever be the nature of the deeper origin, and so bring polymerism,
metamerism and polymorphism together. As they are pursued furthest in the
last case, this may be used as an example. The study of polymorphism has
been especially pursued by Otto Lehmann, who proved that it is an almost
general property; the variety of forms which a given substance may show
is often great, ammonium nitrate, for instance, showing at least four of
them before melting. The general rule which correlates this polymorphic
change is that its direction changes at a given temperature. For example,
sulphur is stable in the rhombic form till 95.4°, from then upwards it
tends to change over into the prismatic form. The phenomenon absolutely
corresponds to that of fusion and solidification, only that it generally
takes place less quickly; consequently we may have prismatic sulphur at
ordinary temperature for some time, as well as rhombic sulphur at 100°.
This may be expressed in the chosen case by a symbol; "rhombic sulphur
<--95.4°--> prismatic sulphur," indicating that there is equilibrium at
the so-called "transition-point," 95.4°, and opposite change below and
above.

This comparison with fusion introduces a second notion, that of the
"triple-point," this being in the melting-phenomenon the only
temperature at which solid, liquid and vapour are in equilibrium, in
other words, where three phases of one substance are co-existent. This
temperature is somewhat different from the ordinary melting-point, the
latter corresponding to atmospheric pressure, the former to the maximum
vapour-pressure; and so we come to a third relation for polymorphism.
Just as the melting-point changes with pressure, the transition-point
also changes; even the same quantitative relation holds for both, as L.
J. Reicher proved with sulphur: aT/aP = AvT/q, v being the change in
volume which accompanies the change from rhombic to prismatic sulphur,
and q the heat absorbed. Both formula and experiment proved that an
increase of pressure of one atmosphere elevated the transition point for
about 0.04°. The same laws apply to cases of more complicated nature,
and one of them, which deserves to be pursued further, is the mutual
transformation of cyanuric acid, C3H3N3O3, cyanic acid, CHNO, and
cyamelide (CHNO)_x; the first corresponding to prismatic sulphur, stable
at higher temperatures, the last to rhombic, the equilibrium-symbol
being: cyamelide <--150°--> cyanuric acid; the cyanic acid corresponds
to sulphur vapour, being in equilibrium with either cyamelide or cyanuric
acid at a maximum pressure, definite for each temperature.

A second law for these mutual transformations is that when they take
place without loss of homogeneity, for example, in the liquid state, the
definite transition point disappears and the change is gradual. This
seems to be the case with molten sulphur, which, when heated, becomes
dark-coloured and plastic; and also in the case of metals, which obtain
or lose magnetic properties without loss of continuous structure. At the
same time, however, the transition point sometimes reappears even in the
liquid state; in such cases two layers are formed, as has been recently
observed with sulphur, and by F. M. Jäger in complicated organic
compounds. Thus the introduction of heterogeneity, or the appearance of
a new phase, demands the existence of a fixed temperature of
transformation.

On the basis of the relation between physical phenomena and
thermodynamical laws, properties of the polymorphous compounds may be
predicted. The chief consideration here is that the stable form must
have the lower vapour pressure, otherwise, by distillation, it would
transform in opposite sense. From this it follows that the stable form
must have the higher melting-point, since at the melting-point the
vapour of the solid and of the liquid have the same pressure. Thus
prismatic sulphur has a higher melting-point (120°) than the rhombic
form (116°), and it is even possible to calculate the difference
theoretically from the thermodynamic relations. A third consequence is
that the stable form must have the smaller solubility: J. Meyer and J.
N. Brönstedt found that at 25°, 10 c.c. of benzene dissolved 0.25 and
0.18 gr. of prismatic and rhombic sulphur respectively. It can be easily
seen that this ratio, according to Henry's law, must correspond to that
of vapour-pressures, and so be independent of the solvent; in fact, in
alcohol the figures are 0.0066 and 0.0052. Recently Hermann Walther
Nernst has been able to deduce the transition-point in the case of
sulphur from the specific heat and the heat developed in the transition
only. This best studied case shows that a number of mutual relations are
to be found between the properties of two modifications when once the
phenomenon of mutual transformation is accessible.

In ordinary isomers indications of mutual transformation often occur;
and among these the predominant fact is that denoted as tautomerism or
pseudomerism. It exhibits itself in the peculiar behaviour of some
organic compounds containing the group --C·CO·C--, e.g.
CH3CO·CHX·CO2C2H5, derivatives of acetoacetic ester. These compounds
generally behave as ketones; but at the same time they may act as
alcohols, i.e. as if containing the OH group; this leads to the formula
H3C·C(OH):CX·CO2C2H5. In reality such tautomeric compounds are
apparently a mixture of two isomers in equilibrium, and indeed in some
cases both forms have been isolated; then one speaks of _desmotropy_
(Gr. [Greek: desmos], a bond or link, and [Greek: tropê], a turn or
change). Nevertheless, the relations obtained in reversible cases such
as sulphur have not yet found application in the highly interesting
cases of ordinary irreversible isomerism.

A further step in this direction has been effected by the introduction
of reversibility into a non-reversible case by means of a catalytic
agent. The substance investigated was acetaldehyde, C2H4O, in its
relation to paraldehyde, a polymeric modification. The phenomena were
first observed without mutual transformation, aldehyde melting at -118°,
paraldehyde at 13°, the only mutual influence being a lowering of
melting-point, with a minimum at -120° in the eutectic point. When a
catalytic agent, such as sulphurous acid, is added, which produces a
mutual change, the whole behaviour is different; only one melting-point,
viz. 7°, is observed for all mixtures; this has been called the "natural
melting-point." It corresponds to one of the melting-points in the
series without catalytic agents, viz. in that mixture which contains 88%
of paraldehyde and 12% of acetaldehyde, which the catalytic agent leaves
unaffected. Such an introduction of reversibility is also possible by
allowing sufficient time to permit the transformation to be produced by
itself. By R. Rothe and Alexander Smith's interesting observations on
sulphur, results have been obtained which tend to prove that the
melting-point, as well as the appearance of two layers in the liquid
state, correspond to unstable conditions.     (J. H. van't H.)




ISOTHERM (Gr. [Greek: isos], equal, and [Greek: thermê], heat), a line
upon a map connecting places where the temperature is the same at
sea-level on the earth's surface. These isothermal lines will be found
to vary from month to month over the two hemispheres, or over local
areas, during summer and winter, and their position is modified by
continental or oceanic conditions.




ISOXAZOLES, monazole chemical compounds corresponding to furfurane, in
which the [-=]CH group adjacent to the oxygen atom is replaced by a
nitrogen atom, and therefore they contain the ring system

  HC = N
   ¦     \
   ¦      O.
   ¦     /
  HC = CH

They may be prepared by the elimination of water from the monoximes of
[beta]-diketones, [beta]-ketone aldehydes or oxymethylene ketones (L.
Claisen, _Ber._, 1891, 24, p. 3906), the general reaction proceeding
according to the equation

  R·CO·CH2·CO·R + H2N·OH = 2H2O + R·C = N
                                    ¦    \
                                    ¦     O.
                                    ¦    /
                                   HC = C--R

W. Dunstan and T. S. Dymond (_Jour. Chem. Soc._, 1891, 49, p. 410) have
also prepared isoxazoles by the action of alkalis on nitroparaffins, but
have not been able to obtain the parent substance. Those isoxazoles in
which the carbon atom adjacent to nitrogen is substituted are stable
compounds, but if this is not the case, rearrangement of the molecule
takes place and nitriles are formed. The isoxazoles are feebly basic.

  The _isoxazolones_ are the keto derivatives of the as yet unknown
  dihydroisoxazole, and are compounds of strongly acid nature,
  decomposing the carbonates of the alkaline earth metals and forming
  salts with metals and with ammonia. Their constitution is not yet
  definitely fixed and they may be regarded as derived from one of the
  three types

  CH2--C      HC--CO     HC = C(OH)
   ¦     \      ¦¦  \     ¦       \
   ¦      O;    ¦¦   O;   ¦        O.
   ¦     /      ¦¦  /     ¦       /
   CH = N     HC--NH     HC = N---

  By the action of nitrous acid on the oxime of o-aminobenzophenone as
  [alpha]-phenyl indoxazene,

          C--C6H5
        /  \\
    C6H4     N,
        \  /
          O

  is obtained; this is a derivative of benzisoxazole.




ISRAEL (Hebrew for "God strives" or "rules"; see Gen. xxxii. 28; and the
allusion in Hosea xii. 4), the national designation of the Jews. Israel
was a name borne by their ancestor Jacob the father of the twelve
tribes. For some centuries the term was applied to the northern kingdom,
as distinct from Judah, although the feeling of national unity extended
it so as to include both. It emphasizes more particularly the position
of the Hebrews as a religious community, bound together by common aims
and by their covenant-relation with the national God, Yahweh.

  See further JACOB, HEBREW LANGUAGE, HEBREW RELIGION, JEWS: _History_
  and _Palestine_.




ISRAELI, ISAAC BEN SOLOMON (9th-10th centuries), Jewish physician and
philosopher. A contemporary of Seadiah (q.v.), he was born and passed
his life in North Africa. He died c. 950. At Kairawan, Israeli was court
physician; he wrote several medical works in Arabic, and these were
afterwards translated into Latin. Similarly his philosophical writings
were translated, but his chief renown was in the circle of Moslem
authors.




ISRAËLS, JOSEF (1824-   ), Dutch painter, was born at Groningen, of
Hebrew parents, on the 27th of January 1824. His father intended him to
be a man of business, and it was only after a determined struggle that
he was allowed to enter on an artistic career. However, the attempts he
made under the guidance of two second-rate painters in his native
town--Buÿs and van Wicheren--while still working under his father as a
stockbroker's clerk, led to his being sent to Amsterdam, where he became
a pupil of Jan Kruseman and attended the drawing class at the academy.
He then spent two years in Paris, working in Picot's studio, and
returned to Amsterdam. There he remained till 1870, when he moved to The
Hague for good. Israëls is justly regarded as one of the greatest of
Dutch painters. He has often been compared to J. F. Millet. As artists,
even more than as painters in the strict sense of the word, they both,
in fact, saw in the life of the poor and humble a motive for expressing
with peculiar intensity their wide human sympathy; but Millet was the
poet of placid rural life, while in almost all Israëls' pictures we find
some piercing note of woe. Duranty said of them that "they were painted
with gloom and suffering." He began with historical and dramatic
subjects in the romantic style of the day. By chance, after an illness,
he went to recruit his strength at the fishing-town of Zandvoort near
Haarlem, and there he was struck by the daily tragedy of life.
Thenceforth he was possessed by a new vein of artistic expression,
sincerely realistic, full of emotion and pity. Among his more important
subsequent works are "The Zandvoort Fisherman" (in the Amsterdam
gallery), "The Silent House" (which gained a gold medal at the Brussels
Salon, 1858) and "Village Poor" (a prize at Manchester). In 1862 he
achieved great success in London with his "Shipwrecked," purchased by Mr
Young, and "The Cradle," two pictures of which the _Athenaeum_ spoke as
"the most touching pictures of the exhibition." We may also mention
among his maturer works "The Widower" (in the Mesdag collection), "When
we grow Old" and "Alone in the World" (Amsterdam gallery), "An Interior"
(Dordrecht gallery), "A Frugal Meal" (Glasgow museum), "Toilers of the
Sea," "A Speechless Dialogue," "Between the Fields and the Seashore,"
"The Bric-à-brac Seller" (which gained medals of honour at the great
Paris Exhibition of 1900). "David Singing before Saul," one of his
latest works, seems to hint at a return on the part of the venerable
artist to the Rembrandtesque note of his youth. As a water-colour
painter and etcher he produced a vast number of works, which, like his
oil paintings, are full of deep feeling. They are generally treated in
broad masses of light and shade, which give prominence to the principal
subject without any neglect of detail.

  See Jan Veth, _Mannen of Beteckenis: Jozef Israëls_; Chesneau,
  _Peintres français et étrangers_; Ph. Zilcken, _Peintres hollandais
  modernes_ (1893); Dumas, _Illustrated Biographies of Modern Artists_
  (1882-1884); J. de Meester, in Max Rooses' _Dutch Painters of the
  Nineteenth Century_ (1898); Jozef Israëls, _Spain: the Story of a
  Journey_ (1900).




ISSACHAR (a Hebrew name meaning apparently "there is a hire," or
"reward"), Jacob's ninth "son," his fifth by Leah; also the name of a
tribe of Israel. Slightly differing explanations of the reference in the
name are given in Gen. xxx. 16 (J) and v. 18 (E).[1] The territory of
the tribe (Joshua xix. 17-23) lay to the south of that allotted to
Zebulun, Naphtali, Asher and Dan, and included the whole of the great
plain of Esdraelon, and the hills to the east of it, the boundary in
that direction extending from Tabor to the Jordan, apparently along the
deep gorge of Wadi el Bireh. In the rich territory of Issachar,
traversed by the great commercial highway from the Mediterranean and
Egypt to Bethshean and the Jordan, were several important towns which
remained in the hands of the Canaanites for some time (Judges i. 27),
separating the tribe from Manasseh. Although Issachar is mentioned as
having taken some part in the war of freedom under Deborah (Judges v.
15), it is impossible to misunderstand the reference to its tributary
condition in the blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix. 14 seq.), or the fact
that the name of this tribe is omitted from the list given in Judges i.
of those who bestirred themselves against the earlier inhabitants of the
country. In the "blessing upon Zebulun and Issachar" in Deut. xxxiii. 18
seq., reference is made to its agricultural life in terms suggesting
that along with its younger, but more successful "brother," it was the
guardian of a sacred mountain (Carmel, Tabor?) visited periodically for
sacrificial feasts.


FOOTNOTE:

  [1] On the origin of the name, see the article by H. W. Hogg, _Ency.
    Bib._ col. 2290; E. Meyer, _Israeliten_, p. 536 seq.




ISSEDONES, an ancient people of Central Asia at the end of the trade
route leading north-east from Scythia (q.v.), described by Herodotus
(iv. 26). The position of their country is fixed as the Tarym basin by
the more precise indications of Ptolemy, who tells how a Syrian merchant
penetrated as far as Issedon. They had their wives in common and were
accustomed to slay the old people, eat their flesh and make cups of
their skulls. Such usages survived among Tibetan tribes and make it
likely that the Issedones were of Tibetan race. Some of the Issedones
seem to have invaded the country of the Massagetae to the west, and
similar customs are assigned to a section of these.     (E. H. M.)




ISSERLEIN, ISRAEL (d. 1460), German Talmudist. His fame attracted many
students to Neustadt, and his profound learning did much to revive the
study of the original Rabbinic authorities. After the publication of the
Code of Joseph Qaro (q.v.) the decisions of Isserlein in legal matters
were added in notes to that code by Moses Isserles. His chief works were
_Terumath ha-Deshen_ (354 decisions) and _Peasqim u-kethahim_ (267
decisions) largely on points of the marriage law.




ISSERLES, MOSES BEN ISRAEL (c. 1520-1572), known as REMA, was born at
Cracow and died there in 1572. He wrote commentaries on the _Zohar_, the
"Bible of the Kabbalists," but is best known as the critic and expander
of the _Shulhan Aruch_ of Joseph Qaro (Caro)(q.v.). His chief halakhic
(legal) works were _Darke Moshe_ and _Mappah_. Qaro, a Sephardic
(Spanish) Jew, in his Code neglected Ashkenazic (German) customs. These
deficiencies Isserles supplied, and the notes of Rema are now included
in all editions of Qaro's Code.




ISSOIRE, a town of central France, capital of an arrondissement in the
department of Puy-de-Dôme, on the Couze, near its junction with the
Allier, 22 m. S.S.E. of Clermont-Ferrand on the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée
railway to Nîmes. Pop. (1906) 5274. Issoire is situated in the fertile
plain of Limagne. The streets in the older part of the town are narrow
and crooked, but in the newer part there are several fine tree-shaded
promenades, while a handsome boulevard encircles the town. The church of
St Paul or St Austremoine built on the site of an older chapel raised
over the tomb of St Austremoine (Stremonius) affords an excellent
specimen of the Romanesque architecture of Auvergne. Issoire is the seat
of a sub-prefect; its public institutions include tribunals of first
instance and commerce and a communal college. Brewing, wool-carding and
the manufacture of passementerie, candles, straw hats and woollen goods
are carried on. There is trade in lentils and other agricultural
products, in fruit and in wine.

Issoire (_Iciodurum_) is said to have been founded by the Arverni, and
in Roman times rose to some reputation for its schools. In the 5th
century the Christian community established there by Stremonius in the
3rd century was overthrown by the fury of the Vandals. During the
religious wars of the Reformation, Issoire suffered very severely.
Merle, the leader of the Protestants, captured the town in 1574, and
treated the inhabitants with great cruelty. The Roman Catholics retook
it in 1577, and the ferocity of their retaliation may be inferred from
the inscription "_Ici fut Issoire_" carved on a pillar which was raised
on the site of the town. In the contest between the Leaguers and Henry
IV., Issoire sustained further sieges, and never wholly regained its
early prosperity.




ISSOUDUN, a town of central France, capital of an arrondissement in the
department of Indre, on the right bank of the Théols, 17 m. N.E. of
Châteauroux by rail. Pop. (1906) 10,566. Among the interesting buildings
are the church of St Cyr, combining various architectural styles, with a
fine porch and window, and the chapel of the Hôtel Dieu of the early
16th century. Of the fortifications with which the town was formerly
surrounded, a town-gate of the 16th century and the White Tower, a lofty
cylindrical building of the reign of Philip Augustus, survive. Issoudun
is the seat of a sub-prefecture, and has tribunals of first instance and
of commerce, a chamber of arts and manufactures and a communal college.
The industries, of which the most important is leather-dressing, also
include malting and brewing and the manufacture of bristles for brushes
and parchment. Trade is in grain, live-stock, leather and wine.

Issoudun, in Latin _Exoldunum_ or _Uxellodunum_, existed in and before
Roman times. In 1195 it was stoutly and successfully defended by the
partizans of Richard Coeur-de-Lion against Philip Augustus, king of
France. It has suffered severely from fires. A very destructive one in
1651 was the result of an attack on the town in the war of Fronde; Louis
XIV. rewarded its fidelity to him during that struggle by the grant of
several privileges.




ISSYK-KUL, also called TUZ-KUL, and by the Mongols _Temurtu-nor_, a lake
of Central Asia, lying in a deep basin (5400 ft. above sea-level),
between the Kunghei Ala-tau and the Terskei Ala-tau, westward
continuations of the Tian-shan mountains, and extending from 76° 10´ to
78° 20´ E. The length from W.S.W. to E.N.E. is 115 m. and the breadth 38
m., the area being estimated at 2230 sq. m. The name is Kirghiz for
"warm lake," and, like the Chinese synonym She-hai, has reference to the
fact that the lake is never entirely frozen over. On the south the
Terskei Ala-tau do not come down so close to the shore as the mountains
on the north, but leave a strip 5 to 13 m. broad. The margins of the
lake are overgrown with reeds. The water is brackish. Fish are
remarkably abundant, the principal species being carp.

It was by the route beside this lake that the tribes (e.g. Yue-chi)
driven from China by the Huns found their way into the Aralo-Caspian
basin in the end of the 2nd century. The Ussuns or Uzuns settled on the
lake and built the town of Chi-gu, which still existed in the 5th
century. It is to Hsüan-tsang, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, that we are
indebted for the first account of Issyk-kul based on personal
observation. In the beginning of the 14th century Nestorian Christians
reached the lake and founded a monastery on the northern shore,
indicated on the Catalan map of 1374. It was not till 1856 that the
Russians made acquaintance with the district.




ISTAHBANÁT, a town and district of Persia in the province of Fars. The
district, which is very fertile, extends for nearly 50 m. east and west
along the southern shore of the Bakhtegán lake and produces much grain,
cotton, good tobacco and excellent fruit, particularly pomegranates and
grapes, walnuts and figs. The town is situated in the midst of a plain
12 m. from the eastern corner of the lake and about 100 m. S.E. of
Shiraz, and has a population of about 10,000. It occupies the site of
the ancient city of Ij, the capital of the old province of Shabánkáreh,
which was captured and partly destroyed by Mubariz ed-din, the founder
of the Muzaffarid dynasty, in 1355. When rebuilt it became known by its
present name. Of the old period a ruined mosque and two colleges remain;
other mosques and colleges are of recent construction. At the entrance
of the town stands a noble chinar (oriental plane), measuring 45 ft. in
circumference at 2 ft. from the ground.




ISTHMUS (Gr. [Greek: isthmos], neck), a narrow neck of land connecting
two larger portions of land that are otherwise separated by the sea.




ISTRIA (Ger. _Istrien_), a margraviate and crownland of Austria, bounded
N. by the Triestine territory, Görz and Gradisca, and Carniola, E. by
Croatia and S. and W. by the Adriatic; area 1908 sq. m. It comprises the
peninsula of the same name (area 1545 sq. m.), which stretches into the
Adriatic Sea between the Gulf of Trieste and the Gulf of Quarnero, and
the islands of Veglia, Cherso, Lussino and others. The coast line of
Istria extends for 267 m., including Trieste, and presents many good
bays and harbours. Besides the great Gulf of Trieste, the coast is
indented on the W. by the bays of Muggia, Capodistria, Pirano, Porto
Quieto and Pola, and on the E. by those of Medolino, Arsa, Fianona and
Volosca. A great portion of Istria belongs to the Karst region, and is
occupied by the so-called Istrian plateau, flanked on the north and east
by high mountains, which attain in the Monte Maggiore an altitude of
4573 ft. In the south and west the surface gradually slopes down in
undulating terraces towards the Adriatic. The Quieto in the west and the
Arsa in the east, neither navigable, are the principal streams. The
climate of Istria, although it varies with the varieties of surface, is
on the whole warm and dry. The coasts are exposed to the prevailing
winds, namely the _Sirocco_ from the south-south-east, and the _Bora_
from the north-east. Of the total area 33.21% is occupied by forests,
32.09% by pastures, 11.2% by arable land, 9.5% by vineyards, 7.21% by
meadows and 3.26% by gardens. The principal agricultural products are
wheat, maize, rye, oats and fruit, namely olives, figs and melons.
Viticulture is well developed, and the best sorts of wine are produced
near Capodistria, Muggia, Isola, Parenzo and Dignano, while well-known
red wines are made near Refosco and Terrano. The oil of Istria was
already famous in Roman times. Cattle-breeding is another great source
of revenue, and the exploitation of the forests gives beech and oak
timber (good for shipbuilding), gall-nuts, oak-bark and cork. Fishing,
the recovery of salt from the sea-water, and shipbuilding constitute the
other principal occupations of the population. Istria had in 1900 a
population of 344,173, equivalent to 180 inhabitants per square mile.
Two-thirds of the population were Slavs and the remainder Italians,
while nearly the whole of the inhabitants (99.6%) were Roman Catholics,
under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of three bishops. The local Diet,
which meets at Parenzo, and of which the three bishops are members
_ex-officio_, is composed of 33 members, and Istria sends 5 deputies to
the Reichsrat at Vienna. For administrative purposes the province is
divided into 6 districts and an autonomous municipality, Rovigno (pop.
10,205). Other important places are Pola (45,052), Capodistria (10,711),
Pinguente (15,827), Albona (10,968), Isola (7500), Parenzo (9962),
Dignano (9684), Castua (17,988), Pirano (13,339) and Mitterburg
(16,056).

The modern Istria occupies the same position as the ancient Istria or
Histria, known to the Romans as the abode of a fierce tribe of Illyrian
pirates. It owed its name to an old belief that the Danube (Ister, in
Greek) discharged some of its water by an arm entering the Adriatic in
that region. The Istrians, protected by the difficult navigation of
their rocky coasts, were only subdued by the Romans in 177 B.C. after
two wars. Under Augustus the greater part of the peninsula was added to
Italy, and, when the seat of empire was removed to Ravenna, Istria
reaped many benefits from the proximity of the capital. After the fall
of the Western empire it was pillaged by the Longobardi and the Goths;
it was annexed to the Frankish kingdom by Pippin in 789; and about the
middle of the 10th century it fell into the hands of the dukes of
Carinthia. Fortune after that, however, led it successively through the
hands of the dukes of Meran, the duke of Bavaria and the patriarch of
Aquileia, to the republic of Venice. Under this rule it remained till
the peace of Campo Formio in 1797, when Austria acquired it, and added
it to the north-eastern part which had fallen to her share so early as
1374. By the peace of Pressburg, Austria was in 1805 compelled to cede
Istria to France, and the department of Istria was formed; but in 1813
Austria again seized it, and has retained it ever since.

  See T. G. Jackson, _Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria_ (Oxford, 1887).




ISYLLUS, a Greek poet, whose name was rediscovered in the course of
excavations on the site of the temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus. An
inscription was found engraved on stone, consisting of 72 lines of verse
(trochaic tetrameters, hexameters, ionics), mainly in the Doric dialect.
It is preceded by two lines of prose stating that the author was
Isyllus, an Epidaurian, and that it was dedicated to Asclepius and
Apollo of Malea. It contains a few political remarks, showing general
sympathy with an aristocratic form of government; a self-congratulatory
notice of the resolution, passed at the poet's instigation, to arrange a
solemn procession in honour of the two gods; a paean (no doubt for use
in the procession), chiefly occupied with the genealogical relations of
Apollo and Asclepius; a poem of thanks for the assistance rendered to
Sparta by Asclepius against Philip, when he led an army against Sparta
to put down the monarchy. The offer of assistance was made by the god
himself to the youthful poet, who had entered the Asclepieum to pray for
recovery from illness, and communicated the good news to the Spartans.
The Philip referred to is identified with (a) Philip II. of Macedon, who
invaded Peloponnesus after the battle of Chaeronea in 338, or (b) with
Philip III., who undertook a similar campaign in 218.

  Wilamowitz-Möllendorff, who characterizes Isyllus as a "poetaster
  without talent and a farcical politician," has written an elaborate
  treatise on him (Kiessling and Möllendorff, _Philosophische
  Untersuchungen_, Heft 9, 1886), containing the text with notes, and
  essays on the political condition of Peloponnesus and the cult of
  Asclepius. The inscription was first edited by P. Kavvadias (1885),
  and by J. F. Baunack in _Studien auf dem Gebiete der griechischen und
  der arischen Sprachen_ (1886).




ITACOLUMITE, the name given to a variety of porous yellow sandstone or
quartzose schist, which occurs at Itacolumi, in the southern portion of
Minas Geraes, Brazil. This rock is of interest for two reasons; it is
believed to be the source of the diamonds which are found in great
numbers in the district, and it is the best and most widely known
example of a flexible sandstone. Itacolumite is yellow or pale-brown,
and splits readily into thin flat slabs. It is a member of a metamorphic
series, being accompanied by clay-slate, mica schist, hornblende schist
and various types of ferriferous schists. In many places itacolumite is
really a coarse grit or fine conglomerate. Other quartzites occur in the
district, and there is some doubt whether the diamantiferous sandstones
are always itacolumites and also as to the exact manner in which the
presence of diamond in these rocks is to be accounted for. Some
authorities hold that the diamond has been formed in certain quartz
veins which traverse the itacolumite. It is clear, however, that the
diamonds are found only in those streams which contain the detritus of
this rock.

  On the split faces of the slabs, scales of greenish mica are visible,
  but in other respects the rock seems to be remarkably pure. If a piece
  which is a foot or two long and half an inch thick be supported at its
  ends it will gradually bend by its own weight. If it then be turned
  over it will straighten and bend in the opposite direction. Flakes a
  millimetre or two thick can be bent between the fingers and are said
  to give out a creaking sound. It should be noted that specimens
  showing this property form only a small part of the whole mass of the
  rock. Flexible rocks have also been reported and described from North
  and South Carolina, Georgia, Delhi, and from the north of England
  (Durham). They are mostly sandstones or quartzites, but the Durham
  rock is a variety of the magnesian limestone of that district.

  Some discussion has taken place regarding the cause of the
  flexibility. At one time it was ascribed to the presence of thin
  scales of mica which were believed to permit a certain amount of
  motion between adjacent grains of quartz. More probably, however it is
  due to the porous character of the rock together with the interlocking
  junctions between the sand grains. The porosity allows interstitial
  movement, while the hinge-like joints by which the particles are
  connected hold them together in spite of the displacement. These
  features are dependent to some extent on weathering, as the rocks
  contain perishable constituents which are removed and leave open
  cavities in their place, while at the same time additional silica may
  have been deposited on the quartz grains fitting their irregular
  surfaces more perfectly together. Most of the known flexible rocks are
  also fine-grained; in some cases they are said to lose their
  flexibility after being dried for some time, probably because of the
  hardening of some interstitial substance, but many specimens kept in a
  dry atmosphere for years retain this property in a high degree.
       (J. S. F.)




ITAGAKI, TAISUKE, COUNT (1837-   ), Japanese statesman, was born in Tosa
in 1837. He distinguished himself originally as one of the soldier
politicians who contributed so much to the overthrow of feudalism and
the restoration of the administrative power to the throne. After taking
a prominent part in subduing the resistance offered by a section of the
_shogun's_ feudatories to those changes, he received cabinet rank in the
newly organized system. But in 1873 he resigned his portfolio as a
protest against the ministry's resolve to refrain from warlike action
against Korea. This incident inspired Itagaki with an apprehension that
the country was about to pass under the yoke of a bureaucratic
government. He became thenceforth a warm advocate of constitutional
systems, though at the outset he does not seem to have contemplated
anything like a popular assembly in the English sense of the term, his
ideas being limited to the enfranchisement of the _samurai_ class.
Failing to obtain currency for his radical propaganda, he retired to his
native province, and there established a school (the _Risshi-sha_) for
teaching the principles of government by the people, thus earning for
himself the epithet of "the Rousseau of Japan." His example found
imitators. Not only did pupils flock to Tosa from many quarters,
attracted alike by the novelty of Itagaki's doctrines, by his eloquence
and by his transparent sincerity, but also similar schools sprang up
among the former vassals of other fiefs, who saw themselves excluded
from the government. In 1875 no less than seven of these schools sent
deputies to hold a convention in Osaka, and for a moment an appeal to
force seemed possible. But the statesmen in power were not less
favourable to constitutional institutions than the members of the
_Aikoku Ko-to_ (public party of patriots), as Itagaki and his followers
called themselves. A conference attended by Kido, Okubo, Inouye, Ito,
Itagaki and others entered into an agreement by which they pledged
themselves to the principle of a constitutional monarchy and a
legislative assembly. Itagaki now accepted office once more. Finding,
however, that his colleagues in the administration favoured a much more
leisurely rate of progress than he himself advocated, he once more
retired into private life (1876) and renewed his liberal propagandism.
It is in the nature of such movements to develop violent phases, and the
leaders of the _Aikoku-sha_ (patriotic association), as the agitators
now called themselves, not infrequently showed disregard for the
preservation of peace and order. Itagaki made the mistake of
memorializing the government at the moment when its very existence was
imperilled by the Satsuma rebellion (1877), and this evident disposition
to take advantage of a great public peril went far to alienate the
sympathies of the cabinet. Recourse was had to legislation in restraint
of free speech and public meeting. But repression served only to provoke
opposition. Throughout 1879 and 1880 Itagaki's followers evinced no
little skill in employing the weapons of local association, public
meetings and platform tours, and in November 1881 the first genuine
political party was formed in Japan under the name of _Jiyu-to_, with
Itagaki for declared leader. A year later the emperor announced that a
parliamentary system should be inaugurated in 1891, and Itagaki's task
might be said to have been accomplished. Thenceforth he devoted himself
to consolidating his party. In the spring of 1882, he was stabbed by a
fanatic during the reception given in the public park at Gifu. The words
he addressed to his would-be assassin were: "Itagaki may perish, but
liberty will survive." Once afterwards (1898) he held office as minister
of home affairs, and in 1900 he stepped down from the leadership of the
_Jiyu-to_ in order that the latter might form the nucleus of the
_Seiyu-kai_ organized by Count Ito. Itagaki was raised to the nobility
with the title of "count" in 1887. From the year 1900 he retired into
private life, devoting himself to the solution of socialistic problems.
His countrymen justly ascribe to him the fame of having been the first
to organize and lead a political party in Japan.




ITALIAN LANGUAGE.[1] The Italian language is the language of culture in
the whole of the present kingdom of Italy, in some parts of Switzerland
(the canton of Ticino and part of the Grisons), in some parts of the
Austrian territory (the districts of Trent and Görz, Istria along with
Trieste, and the Dalmatian coast), and in the islands of Corsica[2] and
Malta. In the Ionian Islands, likewise, in the maritime cities of the
Levant, in Egypt, and more particularly in Tunis, this literary language
is extensively maintained through the numerous Italian colonies and the
ancient traditions of trade.

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.

In the present rapid sketch of the forms of speech which occur in modern
Italy, before considering the Tuscan or Italian _par excellence_, the
language which has come to be the noble organ of modern national
culture, it will be convenient to discuss (A) dialects connected in a
greater or less degree with Neo-Latin systems that are not peculiar to
Italy;[3] (B) dialects which are detached from the true and proper
Italian system, but form no integral part of any foreign Neo-Latin
system; and (C) dialects which diverge more or less from the true
Italian and Tuscan type, but which at the same time can be conjoined
with the Tuscan as forming part of a special system of Neo-Latin
dialects.

A. _Dialects which depend in a greater or less degree on Neo-Latin
systems not peculiar to Italy._

  1. _Franco-Provençal and Provençal Dialects._--(a) _Franco-Provençal_
  (see Ascoli, _Arch. glott._ iii. 61-120; Suchier, in _Grundriss der
  romanischen Philologie_, 2nd ed., i. 755, &c.; Nigra, _Arch. glott._
  iii. 1 sqq.; Salvioni, _Rendic. istit. lomb._, s. ii. vol. xxxvii.
  1043 sqq.; Cerlogne, _Dictionnaire du patois valdôtain_ (Aosta, 1907).
  These occupy at the present time very limited areas at the extreme
  north-west of the kingdom of Italy. The system stretches from the
  borders of Savoy and Valais into the upper basin of the Dora Baltea
  and into the head-valleys of the Orco, of the northern Stura, and of
  the Dora Riparia. As this portion is cut off by the Alps from the rest
  of the system, the type is badly preserved; in the valleys of the
  Stura and the Dora Riparia, indeed, it is passing away and everywhere
  yielding to the Piedmontese. The most salient characteristic of the
  Franco-Provençal is the phonetic phenomenon by which the Latin _a_,
  whether as an accented or as an unaccented final, is reduced to a thin
  vowel (_e_, _i_) when it follows a sound which is or has been palatal,
  but on the contrary is kept intact when it follows a sound of another
  sort. The following are examples from the Italian side of these Alps:
  AOSTA: _travaljí_, Fr. travailler; _zarzí_, Fr. charger; _enteruzí_,
  Fr. interroger; _zevra_, Fr. chèvre; _zir_, Fr. cher; _gljáçe_, Fr.
  glace; _vázze_, Fr. vache; alongside of _sa_, Fr. sel; _man_, Fr.
  main; _epóusa_, Fr. épouse; _erba_, Fr. herbe. VAL. SOANA: _taljér_,
  Fr. tailler; _cocí-sse_, Fr. se coucher; _cin_, Fr. chien; _cívra_,
  Fr. chèvre; _vacci_, Fr. vache; _mángi_, Fr. manche; alongside of
  _alár_, Fr. aller; _porta_, Fr. porté; _amára_, Fr. amère; _néva_, Fr.
  neuve. CHIAMORIO (Val di Lanzo): _la spranssi dla vendeta_, sperantia
  de illa vindicta. VIÙ: _pansci_, pancia. USSEGLIO: _la müragli_,
  muraille. A morphological characteristic is the preservation of that
  paradigm which is legitimately traced back to the Latin pluperfect
  indicative, although possibly it may arise from a fusion of this
  pluperfect with the imperfect subjunctive (amaram, amarem, alongside
  of habueram, haberem), having in Franco-Provençal as well as in
  Provençal and in the continental Italian dialects in which it will be
  met with further on (C. 3, b; cf. B. 2) the function of the
  conditional. VAL SOANA: _portáro_, _portáre_, _portáret_; _portáront_;
  AOSTA: _ávre_ = Prov. _agra_, haberet (see _Arch._ iii. 31 _n_). The
  final _t_ in the third persons of this paradigm in the Val Soana
  dialect is, or was, constant in the whole conjugation, and becomes in
  its turn a particular characteristic in this section of the
  Franco-Provençal. VAL SOANA: _éret_, Lat. erat; _sejt_, sit; _pórtet_,
  _portávet_; _portont_, _portávont_; CHIAMORIO: _jéret_, erat; _ant
  dit_, habent dictum; _èjssount fêt_, habuissent factum; VIU: _che
  s'mínget_, Ital. che si mangi: GRAVERE (Val di Susa): _at pensá_, ha
  pensato; _avát_, habebat; GIAGLIONE (sources of the Dora Riparia);
  _maciávont_, mangiavano.--From the valleys, where, as has just been
  said, the type is disappearing, a few examples of what is still
  genuine Franco-Provençal may be subjoined: _Civreri_ (the name of a
  mountain between the Stura and the Dora Riparia), which, according to
  the regular course of evolution, presupposes a Latin _Capraria_ (cf.
  _maneri_, maniera, even in the Chiamorio dialect); _carastí_
  (_ciarastì_), carestia, in the Viu dialect; and _cintá_, cantare, in
  that of Usseglio. From CHIAMORIO, _li téns_, i tempi, and _chejches
  birbes_, alcune (qualche) birbe, are worthy of mention on account of
  the final _s_. [In this connexion should also be mentioned the
  Franco-Provençal colonies of Transalpine origin, Faeto and Celle, in
  Apulia (_v._ Morosi, _Archivio glottologico_, xii. 33-75), the
  linguistic relations of which are clearly shown by such examples as
  _talíj_, Ital. tagliare; _bañíj_, Ital. bagnare; side by side with
  _canta_, Ital. cantare; _lua_, Ital. levare.]

  (b) _Provençal_ (see _La Lettura_ i. 716-717, _Romanische Forschungen_
  xxiii. 525-539).--Farther south, but still in the same western
  extremity of Piedmont, phenomena continuous with those of the Maritime
  Alps supply the means of passing from the Franco-Provençal to the
  Provençal proper, precisely as the same transition takes place beyond
  the Cottian Alps in Dauphiné almost in the same latitude. On the
  Italian side of the Cottian and the Maritime Alps the Franco-Provençal
  and the Provençal are connected with each other by the continuity of
  the phenomenon _c_ (a pure explosive) from the Latin _c_ before _a_.
  At OULX (sources of the Dora Riparia), which seems, however, to have a
  rather mixed dialect, there also occurs the important Franco-Provençal
  phenomenon of the surd interdental (English _th_ in _thief_) instead
  of the surd sibilant (for example _ithí_ = Fr. ici). At the same time
  _agü_ = avuto, takes us to the Provençal. [If, in addition to the
  Provençal characteristic of which _agü_ is an example, we consider
  those characteristics also Provençal, such as the _o_ for _a_ final
  unaccented, the preservation of the Latin diphthong _au_, _p_ between
  vowels preserved as _b_, we shall find that they occur, together or
  separately, in all the Alpine varieties of Piedmont, from the upper
  valleys of the Dora Riparia and Clusone to the Colle di Tenda. Thus at
  FENESTRELLE (upper valley of the Clusone): _agü_, _vengü_, Ital.
  venuto; _pauc_, Lat. _paucu_, Ital. poco; _aribá_ (Lat. _ripa)_, Ital.
  arrivare; _trubá_, Ital. trovare; _ciabrin_, Ital. capretto; at OULX
  (source of the Dora Riparia): _agü_, _vengü_; _üno gran famino è
  venüo_, Ital. una gran fame è venuta; at GIAGLIONE: _auvou_, Ital. odo
  (Lat. _audio_); _arribá_, _resebü_, Ital. ricevuto (Lat. _recipere_);
  at ONCINO (source of the Po): _agü_, _vengü_; _ero en campagno_, Ital.
  "era in campagna"; _donavo_, Ital. dava; _paure_, Lat. _pauper_, Ital.
  povero; _trubá_, _ciabrí_; at SANPEYRE (valley of the Varaita): _agü_,
  _volgü_, Ital. voluto; _pressioso_, Ital. preziosa; _fasio_, Ital.
  faceva; _trobar_; at ACCEGLIO (valley of the Macra): _venghess_, Ital.
  venisse; _virro_, Ital. ghiera; _chesto allegrio_, Ital. questa
  allegria; _ero_, Ital. era; _trobá_; at CASTELMAGNO (valley of the
  Grana): _gü_, _vengü_; _rabbio_, Ital. rabbia; _trubar_; at VINADIO
  (valley of the southern Stura); _agü_, _beigü_, Ital. bevuto;
  _cadëno_, Ital. catena; _manggo_, Ital. manica; _canto_, Ital. canta;
  _pau_, _auvì_, Ital. udito; _sabe_, Ital. sapete; _trobar_; at
  VALDIERI and ROASCHIA (valley of the Gesso): _purgü_, Ital. potuto;
  _pjagü_, Ital. piaciuto; _corrogü_, Ital. corso; _pau_; _arribá_,
  _ciabri_; at LIMONE (Colle di Tenda): _agü_, _vengü_; _saber_, Ital.
  sapere; _arübá_, _trubava_. Provençal also, though of a character
  rather Transalpine (like that of Dauphiné) than native, are the
  dialects of the Vaudois population above Pinerolo (_v._ Morosi, _Arch.
  glott._ xi. 309-416), and their colonies of Guardia in Calabria (ib.
  xi. 381-393) and of Neu-Hengstett and Pinache-Serres in Württemberg
  (ib. xi. 393-398). The Vaudois literary language, in which is written
  the _Nobla Leyczon_, has, however, no direct connexion with any of the
  spoken dialects; it is a literary language, and is connected with
  literary Provençal, the language of the _troubadours_; see W.
  Foerster, _Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen_ (1888) Nos. 20-21.]

  2. _Ladin Dialects_ (Ascoli, _Arch. glott._ i., iv. 342 sqq., vii. 406
  sqq.; Gartner, _Rätoromanische Grammatik_ (Heilbronn, 1883), and in
  _Grundriss der romanischen Philologie_, 2nd ed., i. 608 sqq.;
  Salvioni, _Arch. glott._ xvi. 219 sqq.).--The purest of the Ladin
  dialects occur on the northern versant of the Alps in the Grisons
  (Switzerland), and they form the western section of the system. To
  this section also belongs both politically and in the matter of
  dialect the valley of Münster (Monastero); it sends its waters to the
  Adige, and might indeed consequently be geographically considered
  Italian, but it slopes towards the north. In the central section of
  the Ladin zone there are two other valleys which likewise drain into
  tributaries of the Adige, but are also turned towards the north,--the
  valleys of the Gardena and Gadera, in which occurs the purest Ladin
  now extant in the central section. The valleys of Münster, the Gardena
  and the Gadera may thus be regarded as inter-Alpine, and the question
  may be left open whether or not they should be included even
  geographically in Italy. There remain, however, within what are
  strictly Italian limits, the valleys of the Noce, the Avisio, the
  Cordevole, and the Boite, and the upper basin of the Piave (Comelico),
  in which are preserved Ladin dialects, more or less pure, belonging to
  the central section of the Ladin zone or belt. To Italy belongs,
  further, the whole eastern section of the zone composed of the
  Friulian territories. It is by far the most populous, containing about
  500,000 inhabitants. The Friulian region is bounded on the north by
  the Carnic Alps, south by the Adriatic, and west by the eastern rim of
  the upper basin of the Piave and the Livenza; while on the east it
  stretches into the eastern versant of the basin of the Isonzo, and,
  further the ancient dialect of Trieste was itself Ladin (_Arch.
  glott._ x. 447 et seq.). The Ladin element is further found in greater
  or less degree throughout an altogether Cis-Alpine "amphizone," which
  begins at the western slopes of Monte Rosa, and is to be noticed more
  particularly in the upper valley of the Ticino and the upper valley of
  the Liro and of the Mera on the Lombardy versant, and in the Val
  Fiorentina and central Cadore on the Venetian versant. The Ladin
  element is clearly observable in the most ancient examples of the
  dialects of the Venetian estuary (_Arch._ i. 448-473). The main
  characteristics by which the Ladin type is determined may be
  summarized as follows: (1) the guttural of the formulae _c_ + _a_ and
  _g_ + _a_ passes into a palatal; (2) the _l_ of the formulae _pl_,
  _cl_, &c., is preserved; (3) the _s_ of the ancient terminations is
  preserved; (4) the accented _e_ in position breaks into a diphthong;
  (5) the accented _o_ in position breaks into a diphthong; (6) the form
  of the diphthong which comes from short accented _o_ or from the _o_
  of position is _ue_ (whence _üe_, _ö_); (7) long accented _e_ and
  short accented _i_ break into a diphthong, the purest form of which is
  sounded _ei_; (8) the accented _a_ tends, within certain limits, to
  change into _e_, especially if preceded by a palatal sound; (9) the
  long accented _u_ is represented by _ü_. These characteristics are all
  foreign to true and genuine Italian. _Cárn_, carne; _spelunca_,
  spelunca; _clefs_, claves; _fuormas_, formae; _infiern_, infernu;
  _ördi_, hordeu; _möd_, modu; _plain_, plenu; _pail_, pilu; _quael_,
  quale; _pür_, puru--may be taken as examples from the Upper Engadine
  (western section of the zone). The following are examples from the
  central and eastern sections on the Italian versant:--

  a. _Central Section_.--BASIN OF THE NOCE: examples of the dialect of
  Fondo: _cavél_, capillu; _pescadór_, piscatore; _pluévia_, pluvia
  (plovia); _pluma_ (dial. of Val de Rumo: _plövia_, _plümo_); _vécla_,
  vetula; _cántes_, cantas. The dialects of this basin are
  disappearing.--BASIN OF THE AVISIO: examples of the dialect of the Val
  di Fassa: _carn_, carne; _cézer_, cadere (cad-jere); _váca_, vacca;
  _fórca_, furca; _glézia_ (_gézia_), ecclesia; _oeglje_ (_oeje_),
  oculi; _cans_, canes; _rámes_, rami; _teila_, tela; _néif_, nive;
  _coessa_, coxa. The dialects of this basin which are farther west than
  Fassa are gradually being merged in the Veneto-Tridentine
  dialects.--BASIN OF THE CORDEVOLE: here the district of Livinal-Lungo
  (Buchenstein) is Austrian politically, and that of Rocca d' Agordo and
  Laste is Italian. Examples of the dialect of Livinal-Lungo: _carié_,
  Ital. caricare; _canté_, cantatus; _ógle_, oculu; _cans_, canes;
  _cavéis_, capilli; _viérm_, verme; _fuóc_, focu; _avéi_, habere;
  _néi_, nive.--BASIN OF THE BOITE: here the district of Ampezzo
  (Heiden) is politically Austrian, that of Oltrechiusa Italian.
  Examples of the dialect of Ampezzo are _casa_, casa; _candéra_,
  candela; _fórces_, furcae, pl.; _séntes_, sentis. It is a decadent
  form.--UPPER BASIN OF THE PIAVE: dialect of the Comelico: _césa_,
  casa; _cen_ (can), cane; _caljé_, caligariu; _bos_, boves; _noevo_,
  novu; _loego_, locu.

  b. _Eastern Section or Friulian Region_.--Here there still exists a
  flourishing "Ladinity," but at the same time it tends towards Italian,
  particularly in the want both of the _e_ from _á_ and of the _ü_ (and
  consequently of the _ö_). Examples of the Udine variety: _carr_,
  carro; _cavál_, caballu; _castiél_, castellu; _fórce_, furca; _clar_,
  claru; _glaç_, glacie; _plan_, planu; _colors_, colores; _lungs_,
  longi, pl.; _dévis_, debes; _vidiél_, vitello; _fiéste_, festa;
  _puéss_, possum; _cuétt_, coctu; _uárdi_, hordeu.--The most ancient
  specimens of the Friulian dialect belong to the 14th century (see
  _Arch._ iv. 188 sqq.).

B. _Dialects which are detached from the true and proper Italian system,
but form no integral part of any foreign Neo-Latin system. _

  1. Here first of all is the extensive system of the dialects usually
  called _Gallo-Italian_, although that designation cannot be considered
  sufficiently distinctive, since it would be equally applicable to the
  Franco-Provençal (A. 1) and the Ladin (A. 2). The system is subdivided
  into four great groups--(a) the _Ligurian_, (b) the _Piedmontese_, (c)
  the _Lombard_ and (d) the _Emilian_--the name furnishing on the whole
  sufficient indication of the localization and limits.--These groups,
  considered more particularly in their more pronounced varieties,
  differ greatly from each other; and, in regard to the Ligurian, it was
  even denied that it belongs to this system at all (see _Arch._ ii. III
  sqq.).--Characteristic of the Piedmontese, the Lombard and the Emilian
  is the continual elision of the unaccented final vowels except _a_
  (e.g. Turinese _öj_, oculu; Milanese _voç_, voce; Bolognese _vîd_,
  Ital. vite), but the Ligurian does not keep them company (e.g. Genoese
  _öggu_, oculu; _voze_, voce). In the Piedmontese and Emilian there is
  further a tendency to eliminate the protonic vowels--a tendency much
  more pronounced in the second of these groups than in the first (e.g.
  Pied, _dné_, danaro; _vsin_, vicino; _fnôc_, finocchio; Bolognese
  _cprà_, disperato). This phenomenon involves in large measure that of
  the prothesis of _a_; as, e.g. in Piedmontese and Emilian _armor_,
  rumore; Emilian _alvär_, levare, &c. U for the long accented Latin _u_
  and _ö_ for the short accented Latin _o_ (and even within certain
  limits the short Latin _ó_ of position) are common to the Piedmontese,
  the Ligurian, the Lombard and the northernmost section of the Emilian:
  e.g., Turinese, Milanese and Piacentine _dür_, and Genoese _düu_,
  duro; Turinese and Genoese _möve_, Parmigiane _möver_, and Milanese
  _möf_, muovere; Piedmontese _dörm_, dorme; Milanese _völta_, volta.
  _Ei_ for the long accented Latin _e_ and for the short accented Latin
  _i_ is common to the Piedmontese and the Ligurian, and even extends
  over a large part of Emilia: e.g. Turinese and Genoese _avéi_, habere,
  Bolognese _avéir_; Turinese and Genoese _beive_, bibere, Bolognese
  _neiv_, neve. In Emilia and part of Piedmont _ei_ occurs also in the
  formulae _en_, _ent_, _emp_; e.g. Bolognese and Modenese _bein_,
  _solaméint_. In connexion with these examples, there is also the
  Bolognese _fein_, Ital. fine, representing the series in which _e_ is
  derived from an _í_ followed by _n_, a phenomenon which occurs, to a
  greater or less extent throughout the Emilian dialects; in them also
  is found, parallel with the _ei_ from _e_, the _ou_ from _o_:
  Bolognese _udóur_, Ital. odore; _famóus_, Ital. famoso; _lóuv_, lupu.
  The system shows a repugnance throughout to _ie_ for the short
  accented Latin _e_ (as it occurs in Italian _piede_, &c.); in other
  words, this diphthong has died out, but in various fashions;
  Piedmontese and Lombard _deç_, dieci; Genoese _deze_ (in some corners
  of Liguria, however, occurs _dieze_); Bolognese _diç_, old Bolognese,
  _diese_. The greater part of the phenomena indicated above have
  "Gallic" counterparts too evident to require to be specially pointed
  out. One of the most important traces of Gallic or Celtic reaction is
  the reduction of the Latin accented _a_ into _e_ (_ä_, &c.), of which
  phenomenon, however, no certain indications have as yet been found in
  the Ligurian group. On the other hand it remains, in the case of very
  many of the Piedmontese dialects, in the _é_ of the infinitives of the
  first conjugation: _porté_, portare, &c.; and numerous vestiges of it
  are still found in Lombardy (e.g. in Bassa Brianza: _andae_, andato;
  _guardae_, guardato; _sae_, sale; see _Arch._ i. 296-298, 536). Emilia
  also preserves it in very extensive use: Modenese _andér_, andare;
  _arivéda_, arrivata; _peç_, pace; Faenzan _parlé_, parlare and
  parlato; _parléda_, parlata; _ches_, caso; &c. The phenomenon, in
  company with other Gallo-Italian and more specially Emilian
  characteristics extends to the valley of the Metauro, and even passes
  to the opposite side of the Apennines, spreading on both banks of the
  head stream of the Tiber and through the valley of the Chiane: hence
  the types _artrovér_, ritrovare, _portéto_, portato, &c., of the
  Perugian and Aretine dialects (see _infra_ C. 3, b). In the phenomenon
  of _á_ passing into _e_ (as indeed, the Gallo-Italic evolution of
  other Latin vowels) special distinctions would require to be drawn
  between bases in which a (not standing in position) precedes a
  non-nasal consonant (e.g. _amáto_), and those which have a before a
  nasal: and in the latter case there would be a non-positional
  subdivision (e.g. _fáme_, _páne_) and a positional one (e.g. _quánto_,
  _amándo_, _cámpo_); see _Arch._ i. 293 sqq. This leads us to the
  nasals, a category of sounds comprising other Gallo-Italic
  characteristics. There occurs more or less widely, throughout all the
  sections of the system, and in different gradations, that "velar"
  nasal in the end of a syllable (_pan, man_; _cánta, mont_)[4] which
  may be weakened into a simple nasalizing of a vowel (_pa_, &c.) or
  even grow completely inaudible (Bergamese _pa_, pane; _padrú_,
  padrone; _tep_, tempo; _met_, mente; _mut_, monte; _pût_, ponte;
  _púca_, punta, i.e. "puncta"), where Celtic and especially Irish
  analogies and even the frequent use of _t_ for _nt_, &c., in ancient
  Umbrian orthography occur to the mind. Then we have the faucal n by
  which the Ligurian and the Piedmontese (_lana lüna_, &c.) are
  connected with the group which we call Franco-Provençal (A. 1).--We
  pass on to the "Gallic" resolution of the nexus ct (e.g. _facto_,
  fajto, fajtjo. _fait, fac_; _tecto_, tejto, tejtjo, _teit_, _tec_)
  which invariably occurs in the Piedmontese, the Ligurian and the
  Lombard: Pied, _fáit_, Lig. _fajtu_, _faetu_, Lombard _fac_; Pied.
  _téit_, Lig. _téitu_, Lom. _tec_; &c. Here it is to be observed that
  besides the Celtic analogy the Umbrian also helps us (_adveitu_ =
  ad-vecto; &c.). The Piedmontese and Ligurian come close to each other,
  more especially by a curious resolution of the secondary hiatus (Gen.
  _réize_, Piedm. _réjs_ = _*ra-íce_, Ital. radice) by the regular
  dropping of the d both primary and secondary, a phenomenon common in
  French (as Piedmontese and Ligurian _ríe_, ridere; Piedmontese _pué_,
  potare; Genoese _naeghe_ = náighe. nátiche, &c.). The Lombard type, or
  more correctly the type which has become the dominant one in Lombardy
  (_Arch._ i. 305-306, 310-311), is more sparing in this respect; and
  still more so is the Emilian. In the Piedmontese and in the Alpine
  dialects of Lombardy is also found that other purely Gallic resolution
  of the guttural between two vowels by which we have the types _brája_,
  _mánia_, over against the Ligurian _brága_, _mánega_, braca, manica.
  Among the phonetic phenomena peculiar to the Ligurian is a continual
  reduction (as also in Lombardy and part of Piedmont) of _l_ between
  vowels into _r_ and the subsequent dropping of this _r_ at the end of
  words in the modern Genoese; just as happens also with the primary
  _r_: thus _du_ = durúr = dolore, &c. Characteristic of the Ligurian,
  but not without analogies in Upper Italy even (_Arch._, ii. 157-158,
  ix. 209, 255), is the resolution of _pj_, _bj_, _fj_ into _c, g, s_:
  _cü_, più, plus; _ragga_, rabbia, rabies; _sû_, fiore. Finally, the
  sounds _s_ and _z_ have a very wide range in Ligurian (_Arch._ ii.
  158-159), but are, however, etymologically, of different origin from
  the sounds _s_ and _z_ in Lombard. The reduction of _s_ into _h_
  occurs in the Bergamo dialects: _hira_, sera; _groh_, grosso;
  _cahtél_, castello (see also B.2).--A general phenomenon in
  Gallo-Italic phonetics which also comes to have an inflexional
  importance is that by which the unaccented final _i_ has an influence
  on the accented vowel. This enters into a series of phenomena which
  even extends into southern Italy; but in the Gallo-Italic there are
  particular resolutions which agree well with the general connexions of
  this system. [We may briefly recall the following forms in the plural
  and 2nd person singular: old Piedmontese _drayp_ pl. of _drap_, Ital.
  drappo; _man_, _meyn_, Ital. mano, -i; _long_, _loyng_, Ital. lungo,
  -ghi; Genoese, _kán_, _ken_, Ital. cane, -i; _bun_, _buín_, Ital.
  buono, -i; Bolognese, _fär_, _fîr_, Ital. ferro, -i; _peir_, _pîr_,
  Ital. pero, -i. _zôp_, _zûp_, Ital. zoppo, -i; _louv_, _lûv_, Ital.
  lupo, -i; _vedd_, _vî_, Ital. io vedo, tu vedi; _vojj_, _vû_, Ital. io
  voglio, tu vuoi; Milanese _quest_, _quist_, Ital. questo, -i, and, in
  the Alps of Lombardy, _pal_, _pel_, Ital. palo, -i; _red_, _rid_,
  Ital. rete, -i; _cor_, _cör_, Ital. cuore, -i; _ors_, _ürs_, Ital.
  orso, -i; _law_, _lew_, Ital. io lavo, tu lavi; _met_, _mit_, Ital. io
  metto, tu metti; _mow möw_, Ital. io muovo, tu muovi; _cor_, _cür_,
  Ital. io corro, tu corri. [Vicentine _pomo_, _pumi_, Ital. pomo, -i;
  _pero_, _piéri = *píri_, Ital. pero, -i; v. _Arch._ i. 540-541; ix.
  235 et seq., xiv. 329-330].--Among morphological peculiarities the
  first place may be given to the Bolognese _sipa (seppa)_, because,
  thanks to Dante and others, it has acquired great literary celebrity.
  It really signifies "sia" (sim, sit), and is an analogical form
  fashioned on _aepa_, a legitimate continuation of the corresponding
  forms of the other auxiliary (habeam, habeat), which is still heard in
  _ch'me aepa purtae, ch'lu aepa purtae_, ch'io abbia portato, ch'egli
  abbia portato. Next may be noted the 3rd person singular in _-p_ of
  the perfect of _esse_ and of the first conjugation in the Forlì
  dialect (_fop_, fu; _mandép_, mandò; &c.). This also must be
  analogical, and due to a legitimate _ep_, ebbe (see _Arch._ ii. 401;
  and compare _fobbe_, fu, in the dialect of Camerino, in the province
  of Macerata, as well as the Spanish analogy of _tuve estuve_ formed
  after _hube_). Characteristic of the Lombard dialect is the ending
  _-i_ in the 1st person sing. pres. indic. (_mi a porti_, Ital. io
  porto); and of Piedmontese, the _-éjça_, as indicating the subjunctive
  imperfect (_portejça_, Ital. portassi) the origin of which is to be
  sought in imperfects of the type _staésse_, _faésse_ reduced normally
  to _stéjç_-, _féjç_-. Lastly, in the domain of syntax, may be added
  the tendency to repeat the pronoun (e.g. _ti te cántet_ of the
  Milanese, which really is _tu tu cántas-tu_, equivalent merely to
  "cantas"), a tendency at work in the Emilian and Lombard, but more
  particularly pronounced in the Piedmontese. With this the
  corresponding tendency of the Celtic languages has been more than once
  and with justice compared; here it may be added that the Milanese
  _nün_, apparently a single form for "noi," is really a compound or
  reduplication in the manner of the _ni-ni_, its exact counterpart in
  the Celtic tongues. [From Lombardy, or more precisely, from the
  Lombardo-Alpine region extending from the western slopes of Monte Rosa
  to the St Gotthard, are derived the Gallo-Italian dialects, now
  largely, though not all to the same extent, Sicilianized, from the
  Sicilian communes of Sanfratello, Piazza-Armerina, Nicosia, Aidone,
  Novara and Sperlinga (v. _Arch. glott._ viii. 304-316, 406-422, xiv.
  436-452; _Romania_, xxviii. 409-420; _Memorie dell' Istituto
  lombardo_, xxi. 255 et seq.). The dialects of Gombitelli and Sillano
  in the Tuscan Apennines are connected with Emilia (_Arch. glott._ xii.
  309-354). And from Liguria come those of Carloforte in Sardinia, as
  also those of Monaco, and of Mons, Escragnolles and Biot in the French
  departments of Var and Alpes Maritimes (_Revue de linguistique_, xiii.
  308)]. The literary records for this group go back as far as the 12th
  century, if we are right in considering as Piedmontese the
  Gallo-Italian Sermons published and annotated by Foerster (_Romanische
  Studien_, iv. 1-92). But the documents published by A. Gaudenzi
  (_Dial. di Bologna_, 168-172) are certainly Piedmontese, or more
  precisely Canavese, and seem to belong to the 13th century. The Chieri
  texts date from 1321 (_Miscellanea di filol. e linguistica_, 345-355),
  and to the 14th century also belongs the _Grisostomo_ (_Arch. glott._
  vii. 1-120), which represents the old Piedmontese dialect of Pavia
  (_Bollett. della Soc. pav. di Storia Patria_, ii. 193 et seq.). The
  oldest Ligurian texts, if we except the "contrasto" in two languages
  of Rambaud de Vaqueiras (12th century _v._ Crescini, _Manualetto
  provenzale_, 2nd ed., 287-291), belong to the first decades of the
  14th century (_Arch. glott._ xiv. 22 et seq., ii. 161-312, x. 109-140,
  viii. 1-97). Emilia has manuscripts going back to the first or second
  half of the 13th century, the _Parlamenti_ of Guido Fava (see
  Gaudenzi, _op. cit._ 127-160) and the _Regola dei servi_ published by
  G. Ferraro (Leghorn, 1875). An important Emilian text, published only
  in part, is the Mantuan version of the _De proprietatibus rerum_ of
  Bartol. Anglico, made by Vivaldo Belcalzer in the early years of the
  14th century (v. Cian. _Giorn. stor. della letteratura italiana_,
  supplement, No. 5, and cf. _Rendiconti Istituto Lombardo_, series ii.
  vol. xxxv. p. 957 et seq.). For Modena also there are numerous
  documents, starting from 1327. For western Lombardy the most ancient
  texts (13th century, second half) are the poetical compositions of
  Bonvesin de la Riva and Pietro da Bescapè, which have reached us only
  in the 14th-century copies. For eastern Lombardy we have, preserved in
  Venetian or Tuscan versions, and in MSS. of a later date, the works of
  Gerardo Patecchio, who lived at Cremona in the first half of the 13th
  century. Bergamasc literature is plentiful, but not before the 14th
  century (_v. Studi medievali_, i. 281-292; _Giorn. stor. della lett.
  ital._ xlvi. 351 et seq.).

  2. _Sardinian Dialects._[5]--These are three--the Logudorese or
  central, the Campidanese or southern and the Gallurese or northern.
  The third certainly indicates a Sardinian basis, but is strangely
  disturbed by the intrusion of other elements, among which the Southern
  Corsican (Sartene) is by far the most copious. The other two are
  homogeneous, and have great affinity with each other; the Logudorese
  comes more particularly under consideration here.--The pure Sardinian
  vocalism has this peculiarity that each accented vowel of the Latin
  appears to be retained without alteration. Consequently there are no
  diphthongs representing simple Latin vowels; nor does the rule hold
  good which is true for so great a proportion of the Romance languages,
  that the representatives of the _e_ and the _í_ on the one hand and
  those of the _o_ and the _u_ on the other are normally coincident.
  Hence _plenu_ (_e_); _deghe_, decem (_e_); _binu_, vino (_i_); _pilu_
  (_i_); _flore_ (_o_); _roda_, rota (_o_); _duru_ (_u_); _nughe_, nuce
  (_u_). The unaccented vowels keep their ground well, as has already
  been seen in the case of the finals by the examples adduced.--The _s_
  and _t_ of the ancient termination are preserved, though not
  constantly: _tres_, _onus_, _passados annos_, _plantas_, _faghes_,
  facis, _tenemus_; _mulghet_, _mulghent_.--The formulae _ce_, _ci_,
  _ge_, _gi_ may be represented by _che_ (_ke_), &c.; but this
  appearance of special antiquity is really illusory (see _Arch._ ii.
  143-144). The nexus _cl_, &c., may be maintained in the beginning of
  words (_claru_, _plus_); but if they are in the body of the word they
  usually undergo resolutions which, closely related though they be to
  those of Italian, sometimes bring about very singular results (e.g.
  _usare_, which by the intermediate forms _uscare_, _usjare_ leads back
  to _usclare_ = _ustlare_ = _ustulare_). _Nz_ is the representative of
  _nj_ (_testimónzu_, &c.); and _lj_ is reduced to _z_ alone (e.g.
  _mézus_, melius; Campidanese _mellus_). For _ll_ a frequent substitute
  is _dd_: _massidda_, maxilla, &c. Quite characteristic is the
  continual labialization of the formulae _qua_, _gua_, _cu_, _gu_, &c.;
  e.g. _ebba_, equa; _sambene_, sanguine (see _Arch._ ii. 143). The
  dropping of the primary d (_roere_, rodere, &c.) but not of the
  secondary (_finidu_, _sanidade_, _maduru_) is frequent. Characteristic
  also is the Logudorese prothesis of _i_ before the initial _s_
  followed by a consonant (_iscamnu_, _istella_, _ispada_), like the
  prothesis of _e_ in Spain and in France (see _Arch._ iii. 447
  sqq.).--In the order of the present discussion it is in connexion with
  this territory that we are for the first time led to consider those
  phonetic changes in words of which the cause is merely syntactical of
  transitory, and chiefly those passing accidents which occur to the
  initial consonant through the historically legitimate or the merely
  analogical action of the final sound that precedes it. The general
  explanation of such phenomena reduces itself to this, that, given the
  intimate syntactic relation of two words, the initial consonant of the
  second retains or modifies its character as it would retain or modify
  it if the two words were one. The Celtic languages are especially
  distinguished by this peculiarity; and among the dialects of Upper
  Italy the Bergamasc offers a clear example. This dialect is accustomed
  to drop the _v_, whether primary or secondary, between vowels in the
  individual vocables (_caá_, cavare; _fáa_, fava, &c.), but to preserve
  it if it is preceded by a consonant (_serva_, &c.).--And similarly in
  syntactic combination we have, for example, _de i_, di vino; but _ol
  vi_, il vino. Insular, southern and central Italy furnish a large
  number of such phenomena; for Sardinia we shall simply cite a single
  class, which is at once obvious and easily explained, viz. that
  represented by _su oe_, il bove, alongside of _sos boes_, i. buoi (cf.
  _bíere_, bibere; _erba_).--The article is derived from _ipse_ instead
  of from _ille_: _su sos_, _sa sas_,--again a geographical anticipation
  of Spain, which in the Catalan of the Balearic islands still preserves
  the article from _ipse_.--A special connexion with Spain exists
  besides in the _nomine_ type of inflexion, which is constant among the
  Sardinians (Span. _nomne_, &c., whence _nombre_, &c.), _nomen_,
  _nomene_, _rámine_, aeramine, _legumene_, &c. (see _Arch._ ii. 429
  sqq.).--Especially noteworthy in the conjugation of the verb is the
  paradigm _cantére_, _cantéres_, &c., _timére_, _timéres_, &c.,
  precisely in the sense of the imperfect subjunctive (cf. A. 1; cf. C.
  3 b). Next comes the analogical and almost corrupt diffusion of the
  -_si_ of the ancient strong perfects (such as _posi_, _rosi_) by
  which _cantesi_, _timesi_ (cantavi, timui), _dolfesi_, dolui, are
  reached. Proof of the use and even the abuse of the strong perfects is
  afforded, however, by the participles and the infinitives of the
  category to which belong the following examples: _ténnidu_, tenuto;
  _párfidu_, parso; _bálfidu_, valso; _ténnere_, _bálere_, &c. (_Arch._
  ii. 432-433). The future, finally, shows the unagglutinated
  periphrasis: _hapo a mandigare_ (ho a mangiare = manger-ó); as indeed
  the unagglutinated forms of the future and the conditional occur in
  ancient vernacular texts of other Italian districts. [The Campidanese
  manuscript, in Greek characters, published by Blancard and Wescher
  (_Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, xxxv. 256-257), goes back as
  far as the last years of the 11th century. Next come the Cagliari MSS.
  published by Solmi (_Le Carte volgari dell' Archivio arcivescovile di
  Cagliari_, Florence, 1905; cf. Guarnerio in _Studi romanzi_, fascicolo
  iv. 189 et seq.), the most ancient of which in its original form dates
  from 1114-1120. For Logoduro, the _Condaghe di S. Pietro di Silchi_
  (§§ xii.-xiii.), published by G. Bonazzi (Sassari-Cagliari, 1900; cf.
  Meyer-Lübke, _Zur Kenntnis des Altlogudoresischen_, Vienna, 1902), is
  of the highest importance.]

  [3. _Vegliote_ (_Veglioto_).--Perhaps we may not be considered to be
  departing from Ascoli's original plan if we insert here as a third
  member of the group B the neo-Latin dialect which found its last
  refuge in the island of Veglia (Gulf of Quarnero), where it came
  definitively to an end in 1898. The Vegliote dialect is the last
  remnant of a language which some long time ago extended from thence
  along the Dalmatian coast, whence it gained the name of _Dalmatico_, a
  language which should be carefully distinguished from the Venetian
  dialect spoken to this day in the towns of the Dalmatian littoral. Its
  character reminds us in many ways of Rumanian, and of that type of
  Romano-Balkan dialect which is represented by the Latin elements of
  Albanian, but to a certain extent also, and especially with regard to
  the vowel sounds, of the south-eastern dialects of Italy, while it has
  also affinities with Friuli, Istria and Venetia. These characteristics
  taken altogether seem to suggest that _Dalmatico_ differs as much as
  does Sardinian from the purely Italian type. It rejects the -s, it is
  true, retaining instead the nominative form in the plural; but here
  these facts are no longer a criterion, since in this point Italian and
  Rumanian are in agreement. A tendency which we have already noted, and
  shall have further cause to note hereafter, and which connects in a
  striking way the Vegliote and Abruzzo-Apulian dialects, consists in
  reducing the accented vowels to diphthongs: examples of this are:
  spuota, Ital. spada; _buarka_, Ital. barca; _fiar_, Ital. ferro;
  _nuat_, Ital. notte; _kataina_, Ital. catena; _paira_, Ital. pero;
  Lat. _piru_; _jaura_, Ital. ora; _nauk_, Ital. noce; Lat. _nuce_;
  _ortaika_, Ital. ortica; _joiva_, Ital. uova. Other vowel phenomena
  should also be noted, for example those exemplified in _prut_, Ital.
  prato; _dik_, Ital. dieci, Lat. _decem_; _luk_, Ital. luogo, Lat.
  _locu_; _krask_, Ital. crescere; _cenk_, Ital. cinque, Lat. _quinque_;
  _buka_, Ital. bocca, Lat. _bcca_. With regard to the consonants, we
  should first notice the invariable persistence of the explosive surds
  (as in Rumanian and the southern dialects) for which several of the
  words just cited will serve as examples, with the addition of _kuosa_,
  Ital. casa; _praiza_, Ital. presa; _struota_, Ital. strada; _rosuota_,
  Ital. rugiada; _latri_, Ital. ladro; _raipa_, Ital. riva. The _c_ in
  the formula _ce_, whether primary or secondary, is represented by _k_:
  _kaina_, Ital. cena; _kanaisa_, Ital. cinigia; _akait_, Ital. aceto;
  _plakár_, Ital. piacere; _dik_, Ital. dieci; _mukna_, Ital. macina;
  _dotko_, Ital. dodici; and similarly the _g_ in the formula _ge_ is
  represented by the corresponding guttural: _ghelút_, Ital. gelato;
  _jongár_, Ital. giungere; _plungre_, Ital. piangere, &c. On the
  contrary, the guttural of the primitive formula _cu_ becomes _c_
  (_col_, Ital. culo); this phenomenon is also noteworthy as seeming to
  justify the inference that the _u_ was pronounced _ü_. _Pt_ is
  preserved, as in Rumanian (_sapto_, Lat. _septem_), and often, again
  as in Rumanian, _ct_ is also reduced to _pt_ (_guapto_, Lat. _octo_).
  As to morphology, a characteristic point is the preservation of the
  Lat. _cantavero_, Ital. avrò cantato, in the function of a simple
  future. _Cantaverum_ also occurs as a conditional. For Vegliote and
  Dalmatico in general, see M. G. Bartoli's fundamental work, _Das
  Dalmatische_ (2 vols., Vienna, 1906), and _Zeitschrift für roman.
  Philologie_, xxxii. 1 sqq.; Merlo, _Rivista di filologia e
  d'istruzione class_, xxxv. 472 sqq. A short document written about
  1280 in the Dalmatic dialect of Ragusa is to be found in _Archeografo
  Triestino_, new series, vol. i. pp. 85-86.]

C. _Dialects which diverge more or less from the genuine Italian or
Tuscan type, but which at the same time can be conjoined with the Tuscan
as forming part of a special system of Neo-Latin dialects_.

  1. _Venetian._--Between "Venetian" and "Venetic" several distinctions
  must be drawn (_Arch._ i. 391 sqq.). At the present day the population
  of the Venetian cities is "Venetian" in language, but the country
  districts are in various ways Venetic.[6] The ancient language of
  Venice itself and of its estuary was not a little different from that
  of the present time; and the Ladin vein was particularly evident (see
  A. 2). A more purely Italian vein--the historical explanation of which
  presents an attractive problem--has ultimately gained the mastery and
  determined the "Venetian" type which has since diffused itself so
  vigorously.--In the Venetian, then, we do not find the most
  distinctive characteristics of the dialects of Upper Italy comprised
  under the denomination Gallo-Italic (see B. 1),--neither the _ü_ nor
  the _ö_, nor the velar[7] and faucal nasals, nor the Gallic resolution
  of the _ct_, nor the frequent elision of unaccented vowels, nor the
  great redundancy of pronouns. On the contrary, the pure Italian
  diphthong of _o_ (e.g. _cuór_) is heard, and the diphthong of _e_ is
  in full currency (_diése_, dieci, &c.). Nevertheless the Venetian
  approaches the type of Northern Italy, or diverges notably from that
  of Central Italy, by the following phonetic phenomena: the ready
  elision of primary or secondary _d_ (_crúo_, crudo; _séa_, seta, &c.);
  the regular reduction of the surd into the sonant guttural (e.g.
  _cuogo_, Ital. cuoco, coquus); the pure _c_ in the resolution of _cl_
  (e.g. _cave_, clave; _oréca_, auricula); the _s_ for _g_ (_sóvene_,
  Ital. giovane); _ç_ for _s_ and _c_ (_péçe_, Ital. pesce; _çiél_,
  Ital. cielo). _Lj_ preceded by any vowel, primary or secondary, except
  _i_, gives _g_: _faméga_, familia. No Italian dialect is more averse
  than the Venetian to the doubling of consonants.--In the morphology
  the use of the 3rd singular for the 3rd plural also, the analogical
  participle in _esto_ (_tasesto_, Ital. taciuto, &c.; see _Arch._ iv.
  393, sqq.) and _se_, Lat. _est_, are particularly noteworthy. A
  curious double relic of Ladin influence is the interrogative type
  represented by the example _crédis-tu_, credis tu,--where apart from
  the interrogation _ti credi_ would be used. For other ancient sources
  relating to Venice, the estuary of Venice, Verona and Padua, see
  _Arch._ i. 448, 465, 421-422; iii. 245-247. [Closely akin to Venetian,
  though differing from it in about the same degree that the various
  Gallo-Italian dialects differ among one another, is the indigenous
  dialect of ISTRIA, now almost entirely ousted by Venetian, and found
  in a few localities only (Rovigno, Dignano). The most salient
  characteristics of Istrian can be recognized in the treatment of the
  accented vowels, and are of a character which recalls, to a certain
  extent at least, the Vegliote dialect. Thus we have in Istrian _i_ for
  _é_ (_bivi_, Ital. bevi, Lat. _bibis_; _tila_, Ital. tela; _viro_,
  Ital. vero and vetro, Lat. _veru_, _vitru_; _nito_, Ital. netto, Lat.
  _nitidu_, &c.) and analogously _u_ for _o_ (_fiur_, Ital. fiore, Lat.
  _flore_; _bus_, Ital. voce, Lat. _voce_, &c.); _ei_ and _ou_ from the
  Lat. _i_ and _u_ respectively (_ameigo_, Lat. _amicu_, _feil_, Lat.
  _filu_, &c.; _mour_, Lat. _muru_; _noudu_, Lat. _nudu_; _frouto_,
  Ital. frutto, Lat. _fructu_, &c.); _ie_ and _uo_ from _e_ and _o_
  respectively in position (_piel_, Lat. _pelle_, _mierlo_, Ital. merlo,
  Lat. _merula_; _kuorno_, Lat. _cornu_; _puorta_, Lat. _porta_), a
  phenomenon in which Istrian resembles not only Vegliote but also
  Friulian. The resemblance with Verona, in the reduction of final
  unaccented -_e_ to _o_ should also be noted (_nuoto_, Ital. notte,
  &c., _bivo_, Ital. _beve_; _malamentro_, Ital. malamente, &c.), and
  that with Belluno and Treviso in the treatment of -_óni_, -_áni_
  (_barbói_, -_oin_, Ital. barboni), though it is peculiar to Istrian
  that -_ain_ should give -_en_ (_kan_, _ken_, Ital. cane -i). With
  regard to consonants, we should point out the _n_ for _gn_ (_líno_,
  Ital. legno); and as to morphology, we should note certain survivals
  of the inflexional type, _amita_, -_ánis_ (sing. _sía_, Ital. zia, pl.
  _sianne_).] The most ancient Venetian documents take us back to the
  first half of the 13th century (v. E. Bertanza and V. Lazzarini, _Il
  Dialetto veneziano fino alla morte di Dante Alighieri_, Venice, 1891),
  and to the second half of the same century seems to belong the
  Saibante MS. For Verona we have also documents of the 13th century (v.
  Cipolla, in _Archivio storico italiano_, 1881 and 1882); and to the
  end of the same century perhaps belongs the MS. which has preserved
  for us the writings of Giacomino da Verona. See also _Archivio
  glottologico_, i. 448, 465, 421-422, iii. 245-247.

  2. _Corsican_[8]--If the "Venetian," in spite of its peculiar
  "Italianity," has naturally special points of contact with the other
  dialects of Upper Italy (B. 1), the Corsican in like manner,
  particularly in its southern varieties, has special points of contact
  with Sardinian proper (B. 2). In general, it is in the southern
  section of the island, which, geographically even, is farthest removed
  from Tuscany, that the most characteristic forms of speech are found.
  The unaccented vowels are undisturbed; but _u_ for the Tuscan _o_ is
  common to almost all the island,--an insular phenomenon _par
  excellence_ which connects Corsica with Sardinia and with Sicily, and
  indeed with Liguria also. So also -_i_ for the Tuscan -_e_ (_latti_,
  latte; _li cateni_, le catene), which prevails chiefly in the southern
  section, is also found in Northern and Southern Sardinian, and is
  common to Sicily. It is needless to add that this tendency to _u_ and
  _i_ manifests itself, more or less decidedly, also within the words.
  Corsican, too, avoids the diphthongs of _e_ and _o_ (_pe_, _eri_;
  _cori_, _fora_): but, unlike Sardinian, it treats _i_ and _u_ in the
  Italian fashion: _beju_, bibo; _péveru_, piper; _pesci_; _noci_,
  nuces.[9]--It is one of its characteristics to reduce a to e in the
  formula _ar_ + a consonant (_chérne_, _bérba_, &c.), which should be
  compared particularly with the Piedmontese examples of the same
  phenomenon (_Arch._ ii. 133, 144-150). But the gerund in _-endu_ of
  the first conjugation (_turnendu_, _lagrimendu_, &c.) must on the
  contrary be considered as a phenomenon of analogy, as it is especially
  recognized in the Sardinian dialects, to all of which it is common
  (see _Arch._ ii. 133). And the same is most probably the case with
  forms of the present participle like _merchente_, mercante, in spite
  of _enzi_ and _innenzi_ (anzi, innanzi), in which latter forms there
  may probably be traced the effect of the Neo-Latin _i_ which availed
  to reduce the _t_ of the Latin _ante_; alongside of them we find also
  _anzi_ and _nantu_. But cf. also, _grendi_, Ital. grande. In Southern
  Corsican _dr_ for _ll_ is conspicuous--a phenomenon which also
  connects Corsica with Sardinia, Sicily and a good part of Southern
  Italy (see C. 2; and _Arch._ ii. 135, &c.), also with the northern
  coast of Tuscany, since examples such as _beddu_ belong also to
  Carrara and Montignoso. In the Ultramontane variety occur besides, the
  phenomena of _rn_ changed to r (= _rr_) and of _nd_ becoming _nn_
  (_furu_, Ital. forno; _koru_, Ital. corno; _kuannu_, Ital. quando;
  _vidennu_, Ital. vedendo). The former of these would connect Corsican
  with Sardinian (_corru_, cornu; _carre_, carne, &c.); the latter more
  especially with Sicily, &c. A particular connexion with the central
  dialects is given by the change of _ld_ into _ll_ (_kallu_, Ital.
  caldo).--As to phonetic phenomena connected with syntax, already
  noticed in B. 2, space admits the following examples only: Cors, _na
  vella_, una bella, _e bella_ (_ebbélla_, et bella); _lu jallu_, lo
  gallo, _gran ghiallu_; cf. _Arch._ ii. 136 (135, 150), xiv. 185. As
  Tommaseo has already noted, _-one_ is for the Corsicans not less than
  for the Sicilians, Calabrians and the French a termination of
  diminution: e.g. _fratedronu_, fratellino.--In the first person of the
  conditional the _b_ is maintained (e.g. _farebe_, farei), as even at
  Rome and elsewhere. Lastly, the series of Corsican verbs of the
  derivative order which run alongside of the Italian series of the
  original order, and may be represented by the example _dissipeghja_,
  dissipa (Falcucci), is to be compared with the Sicilian series
  represented by _cuadiari_, riscaldare, _curpiári_, colpire (_Arch._
  ii. 151).

  3. _Dialects of Sicily and of the Neapolitan Provinces._--Here the
  territories on both sides of the Strait of Messina will first be
  treated together, chiefly with the view of noting their common
  linguistic peculiarities.--Characteristic then of these parts, as
  compared with Upper Italy and even with Sardinia, is, generally
  speaking, the tenacity of the explosive elements of the Latin bases
  (cf. _Arch._ ii. 154, &c.). Not that these consonants are constantly
  preserved uninjured; their degradations, and especially the Neapolitan
  degradation of the surd into the sonant, are even more frequent than
  is shown by the dialect as written, but their disappearance is
  comparatively rather rare; and even the degradations, whether regard
  be had to the conjunctures in which they occur or to their specific
  quality, are very different from those of the dialects of Upper Italy.
  Thus, the t between vowels ordinarily remains intact in Sicilian and
  Neapolitan (e.g. Sicil. _sita_, Neap. _seta_, seta, where in the
  dialects of Upper Italy we should have _seda_, _sea_); and in the
  Neapolitan dialects it is reduced to _d_ when it is preceded by _n_ or
  _r_ (e.g._ viende_, vento), which is precisely a collocation in which
  the _t_ would be maintained intact in Upper Italy. The _d_, on the
  other hand, is not resolved by elision, but by its reduction to _r_
  (e.g. Sicil. _víriri_, Neap. dialects _veré_, vedere), a phenomenon
  which has been frequently compared, perhaps with too little caution,
  with the _d_ passing into _rs_ (_d_) in the Umbrian inscriptions. The
  Neapolitan reduction of _nt_ into _nd_ has its analogies in the
  reduction of _nc_ (_nk_) into _ng_, and of _mp_ into _mb_, which is
  also a feature of the Neapolitan dialects, and in that of _ns_ into
  _nz_; and here and there we even find a reduction of _nf_ into _mb_
  (_nf_, _nv_, _nb_, _mb_), both in Sicilian and Neapolitan (e.g. at
  Casteltermini in Sicily _'mbiernu_, inferno, and in the Abruzzi
  _cumbonn'_, _'mbonn'_, confondere, infondere). Here we find ourselves
  in a series of phenomena to which it may seem that some special
  contributions were furnished by Oscan and Umbrian (_nt_, _mp_, _nc_
  into _nd_, &c.), but for which more secure and general, and so to say
  "isothermal," analogies are found in modern Greek and Albanian. The
  Sicilian does not appear to fit in here as far as the formulae _nt_
  and _mp_ are concerned; and it may even be said to go counter to this
  tendency by reducing _ng_ and _nz_ to _nc_, _nz_ (e.g. _púnciri_,
  pungere; _menzu_, Ital. mezzo; _sponza_, Ital. spugna, Ven.
  _sponza_).[10] Nay, even in the passing of the sonant into the surd,
  the Neapolitan dialects would yield special and important
  contributions (nor is even the Sicilian limited to the case just
  specified), among which we will only mention the change of _d_ between
  vowels into _t_ in the last syllable of proparoxytones (e.g. _úmmeto_,
  Sicil. _úmitu_, umido), and in the formula _dr_ (Sicil. and Neap.
  _quatro_, Ital. quadro, &c.). From these series of sonants changing
  into surds comes a peculiar feature of the southern dialects.--A
  pretty common characteristic is the regular progressive assimilation
  by which _nd_ is reduced to _nn_, _ng_ to _nn_, _mb_ to _mm_, and even
  _nv_ also to _mm_ (_nv_, _nb_, _mb_, _mm_), e.g. Sicil. _sínniri_,
  Neap. _sénnere_, scendere; Sicil. _chiummu_, Neap. _chiumme_, piombo;
  Sicil. and Neap. _'mmidia_, invidia; Sicil. _sánnu_, sangue. As
  belonging to this class of phenomena the Palaeo-Italic analogy (_nd_
  into _nn_, _n_), of which the Umbrian furnishes special evidence,
  readily suggests itself. Another important common characteristic is
  the reduction of secondary _pj fj_ into _kj_ (_chianu_ -_e_, Sicil.,
  Neap., &c., Ital. piano), _s_ (Sicil. _súmi_, Neap. _súmme_, fiume),
  of secondary _bj_ to _j_ (which may be strengthened to _ghj_) if
  initial (Sicil. _jancu_, Neap. _janche_, bianco; Sicil.
  _agghianchiari_, imbiancare), to _l_ if between vowels (Neap.
  _neglia_, nebbia, Sicil. _nigliu_, nibbio); of primary _pj_ and _bj_
  into _c_ (Sicil. _sícca_, Neap. _sécca_, seppia) or _g_ respectively
  (Sicil. _ragga_, Neap. _arragga_, rabbia), for which phenomena see
  also Genoese (B. 1). Further is to be noted the tendency to the
  sibilation of _cj_, for which Sicil. _jazzu_, ghiaccio, may serve as
  an example (_Arch._ ii. 149),--a tendency more particularly betrayed
  in Upper Italy, but Abruzzan departs from it (cf. Abr. _jacce_,
  ghiaccio, _vracce_, braccio, &c.). There is a common inclination also
  to elide the initial unaccented palatal vowel, and to prefix _a_,
  especially before _r_ (this second tendency is found likewise in
  Southern Sardinian, &c.; see _Arch._ ii. 138); e.g. Sicil.
  _'nténniri_, Neap. _'ndénnere_, intendere; Sicil. _arriccamári_, Neap.
  _arragamare_, ricamare (see _Arch._ ii. 150). Throughout the whole
  district, and the adjacent territories in Central Italy, a tendency
  also prevails towards resolving certain combinations of consonants by
  the insertion of a vowel; thus combinations in which occur _r_ or _l_,
  _w_ or _j_ (Sicil. _kiruci_, Ital. croce, _filágutu_, Ital. flauto,
  _salivari_, salvare, _váriva_, Ital. barba; Abr. _cálechene_, Ital.
  ganghero, _Salevèstre_, Silvestro, _feulemenánde_, fulminante,
  _jèreve_, Ital. erba, &c.; Avellinese _garamegna_, gramigna; Neap.
  _ávotro_ = _*áwtro_, Ital. áltro, _cèvoza_ = _*céwza_, Ital. gelso,
  _ajetá_ side by side with _ajtá_, Ital. età, _ódejo_ = _ódjo_, Ital.
  odio, &c.; Abr. _'nníveje_, indiva, _nébbeje_, nebbia, &c.);
  _cattájeve_ = _cattájve_, cattivo, _goúele_ = _*gowle_, gola, &c. &c.,
  are examples from Molfetta, where is also normal the resolution of
  _sk_ by _sek_ (_mésekere_, maschera, _sekátele_, scatola, &c.); cf.
  _seddegno_, sdegno, in some dialects of the province of Avellino. In
  complete contrast to the tendency to get rid of double consonants
  which has been particularly noted in Venetian (C. 1), we here come to
  the great division of Italy where the tendency grows strong to
  gemination (or the doubling of consonants), especially in
  proparoxytones; and the Neapolitan in this respect goes farther than
  the Sicilian (e.g. Sicil. _sóggiru_, suocero, _cínniri_, cenere,
  _doppu_, dopo; _'nsemmula_, insieme, in-simul; Neap. _dellecato_,
  dilicato; _úmmeto_, umido; _débbole_).--As to the phonetic phenomena
  connected with the syntax (see B. 2), it is sufficient to cite such
  Sicilian examples as _nisuna ronna_, nesuna donna, alongside of _c' é
  donni_, c' è donne; _cincu jorna_, cinque giorni, alongside of _chiú
  ghiorna_, più giorni; and the Neapolitan _la vocca_, la bocca,
  alongside of _a bocca_, ad buccam, &c.

  We now proceed to the special consideration, first, of the Sicilian
  and, secondly, of the dialects of the mainland.

  (a) _Sicilian._--The Sicilian vocalism is conspicuously etymological.
  Though differing in colour from the Tuscan, it is not less noble, and
  between the two there are remarkable points of contact. The dominant
  variety, represented in the literary dialect, ignores the diphthongs
  of _e_ and of _o_, as it has been seen that they are ignored in
  Sardinia (B. 2), and here also the _i_ and the _u_ appear intact; but
  the _e_ and the _o_ are fittingly represented by _i_ and _u_; and with
  equal symmetry unaccented _e_ and _o_ are reproduced by _i_ and _u_.
  Examples: _téni_, tiene; _nóvu_, nuovo; _pilu_, pelo; _minnitta_,
  Ital. vendetta; _jugu_, giogo; _agustu_, Ital. agosto; _crídiri_,
  credere; _vínniri_, Ital. vendere; _sira_, sera; _vina_, vena; _suli_,
  Ital. sole; _ura_, ora; _furma_, Ital. forma. In the evolution of the
  consonants it is enough to add here the change of _lj_ into _ghj_
  (e.g. _fígghiu_, Ital. figlio) and of _ll_ into _dd_ (e.g. _gaddu_,
  Ital. gallo). As to morphology, we will confine ourselves to pointing
  out the masculine plurals of neuter form (_li pastura_, _li
  marinara_). For the Sicilian dialect we have a few fragments going
  back to the 13th century, but the documents are scanty until we come
  to the 14th century.

  (b) _Dialects of the Neapolitan Mainland._--The Calabrian (by which is
  to be understood more particularly the vernacular group of the two
  Further Calabrias) may be fairly considered as a continuation of the
  Sicilian type, as is seen from the following examples:--_cori_,
  cuore; _petra_; _fímmina_, femina; _vuce_, voce; _unure_, onore;
  _figghiu_, figlio; _spadde_, spalle; _trizza_, treccia. Both Sicilian
  and Calabrian is the reducing of _rl_ to _rr_ (Sicil. _parrari_, Cal.
  _parrare_, parlare, &c.). The final vowel -_e_ is reduced to -_i_, but
  is preserved in the more southern part, as is seen from the above
  examples. Even the _h_ for _s_ = _fj_, as in _huri_ (Sicil. _suri_,
  fiore), which is characteristic in Calabrian, has its forerunners in
  the island (see _Arch._ ii. 456). And, in the same way, though the
  dominant varieties of Calabria seem to cling to the _mb_ (it sometimes
  happens that _mm_ takes the form of _mb_: _imbiscare_ = Sicil.
  '_mmiscari_ 'immischiare', &c.) and _nd_, as opposed to the _mm_,
  _nn_, of the whole of Southern Italy and Sicily, we must remember,
  firstly, that certain other varieties have, e.g. _granne_, Ital.
  grande, and _chiummu_, Ital. piombo; and secondly, that even in Sicily
  (at Milazzo, Barcelona, and as far as Messina) districts are to be
  found in which _nd_ is used. Along the coast of the extreme south of
  Italy, when once we have passed the interruptions caused by the
  Basilisco type (so called from the Basilicata), the Sicilian vocalism
  again presents itself in the Otrantine, especially in the seaboard of
  Capo di Leuca. In the Lecce variety of the Otrantine the vocalism
  which has just been described as Sicilian also keeps its ground in the
  main (cf. Morosi, _Arch._ iv.): _sira_, sera; _leítu_, oliveto;
  _pilu_; _ura_, ora; _dulure_. Nay more, the Sicilian phenomenon of
  _lj_ into _ghj_ (_figghiu_, figlio, &c.) is well marked in Terra d'
  Otranto and also in Terra di Bari, and even extends through the
  Capitanata and the Basilicata (cf. D' Ovidio, _Arch._ iv. 159-160). As
  strongly marked in the Terra d'Otranto is the insular phenomenon of
  _ll_ into _dd_ (_dr_), which is also very widely distributed through
  the Neapolitan territories on the eastern side of the Apennines,
  sending outshoots even to the Abruzzo. But in Terra d'Otranto we are
  already in the midst of the diphthongs of _e_ and of _o_, both
  non-positional and positional, the development or permanence of which
  is determined by the quality of the unaccented final vowel,--as
  generally happens in the dialects of the south. The diphthongs of _e_
  and _o_, determined by final -_i_ and -_u_, are also characteristic of
  central and northern Calabria (_viecchiu_ -_i_, vecchio -a, _vecchia_
  -_e_, vecchia -e; _buonu_ -_i_, _bona_ -_e_, &c. &c.). Thus there
  comes to be a treatment of the vowels, peculiar to the two peninsulas
  of Calabria and Salent. The diphthongal product of the _o_ is here
  _ue_. The following are examples from the Lecce variety of the
  dialect: _core_, pl. _cueri_; _metu_, _mieti_, _mete_, mieto, mieti,
  miete (Lat. metere); _sentu_, _sienti_, _sente_; _olu_, _uéli_, _ola_,
  volo, voli, vola; _mordu_, _muerdi_, _morde_. The _ue_ recalls the
  fundamental reduction which belongs to the Gallic (not to speak of the
  Spanish) regions, and stretches through the north of the Terra di
  Bari, where there are other diphthongs curiously suggestive of the
  Gallic: e.g. at Bitonto alongside of _lueche_, luogo, _suenne_, sonno,
  we have the _oi_ and the _ai_ from _i_ or _e_ of the previous phase
  (_vecoine_, vicino), and the _au_ from _o_ of the previous phase
  (_anaure_, onore), besides a diphthongal disturbance of the _á_. Here
  also occurs the change of _á_ into an _e_ more or less pure (thus, at
  Cisternino, _scunsulête_, sconsolata; at Canosa di Puglia, _arruête_,
  arrivata; _n-ghèpe_, "in capa," that is, in capo); to which may be
  added the continual weakening or elision of the unaccented vowels not
  only at the end but in the body of the word (thus, at Bitonto,
  _vendett_, _spranz_). A similar type meets us as we cross into
  Capitanata (Cerignola: _graite_ and _grei_-, creta (but also _peite_,
  piede, &c.), _coute_, coda (but also _foure_, fuorí, &c.); _voine_,
  vino, and similarly _poile_, pelo (Neap. _pilo_), &c.; _fueke_, fuoco;
  _caretäte_, carità, _parlä_, parlare, &c.); such forms being
  apparently the outposts of the Abruzzan, which, however, is only
  reached through the Molise--a district not very populous even now, and
  still more thinly peopled in bygone days--whose prevailing forms of
  speech in some measure interrupt the historical continuity of the
  dialects of the Adriatic versant, presenting, as it were, an irruption
  from the other side of the Apennines. In the head valley of the
  Molise, at Agnone, the legitimate precursors of the Abruzzan
  vernaculars reappear (_feáfa_, fava, _stufeáte_ and -_uote_, stufo,
  annojato, _feá_, fare; _chiezza_, piazza, _chiegne_, piangere,
  _cuene_, cane; _puole_, palo, _pruote_, prato, _cuone_, cane; _veire_
  and _vaire_, vero, _moile_, melo, and similarly voive and veive, vivo;
  _deune_, dono, _deuva_, doga; _minaure_, minore; _cuerpe_, corpo, but
  _cuolle_). The following are pure Abruzzan examples. (1) From
  Bucchianico (Abruzzo Citeriore): _veive_, vivo; _rraje_, re;
  _allaure_, allora; _craune_, corona; _circhê_, cercare; _mêle_, male;
  _grênne_, grande; _quênne_; but _'nsultate_, insultata; _strade_,
  strada (where again it is seen that the reduction of the _á_ depends
  on the quality of the final unaccented vowel, and that it is not
  produced exclusively by _i_, which would give rise to a further
  reduction: _scillarite_, scellerati; _ampire_, impári). (2) From
  Pratola Peligna (Abruzzo Ulteriore II.); _maje_, mia; _'naure_, onore;
  _'njuriéte_, inguriata; _desperéte_, disperata ( alongside of
  _vennecá_, vendicare). It almost appears that a continuity with
  Emilian[11] ought to be established across the Marches (where another
  irruption of greater "Italianity" has taken place; a third of more
  dubious origin has been indicated for Venice, C. 1); see _Arch._ ii.,
  445. A negative characteristic for Abruzzan is the absence of the
  change in the third syllable of the combinations _pl_, _bl_, _fl_
  (into _kj_, _j-_, _s_) and the reason seems evident. Here the _pj_,
  _bj_ and _fj_ themselves appear to be modern or of recent
  reduction--the ancient formulae sometimes occurring intact (as in the
  Bergamasc for Upper Italy), e.g. _plánje_ and _pránje_ alongside of
  _piánje_, piagnere, _branghe_ alongside of _bianghe_, bianco (Fr.
  _blanc_), _flume_ and _frume_ alongside _fiume_, fiume. To the south
  of the Abruzzi begins and in the Abruzzi grows prominent that contrast
  in regard to the formulae _alt ald_ (resolved in the Neapolitan and
  Sicilian into _aut_, &c., just as in the Piedmontese, &c.), by which
  the types _aldare_, altare, and _calle_, caldo, are reached.[12] For
  the rest, when the condition and connexions of the vowel system still
  retained by so large a proportion of the dialects of the eastern
  versant of the Neapolitan Apennines, and the difference which exists
  in regard to the preservation of the unaccented vowels between the
  Ligurian and the Gallo-Italic forms of speech on the other versant of
  the northern Apennines, are considered, one cannot fail to see how
  much justice there is in the longitudinal or Apenninian partition of
  the Italian dialects indicated by Dante.--But, to continue, in the
  Basilicata, which drains into the Gulf of Taranto, and may be said to
  lie within the Apennines, not only is the elision of final unaccented
  vowels a prevailing characteristic; there are also frequent elisions
  of the unaccented vowels within the word. Thus at Matera: _sintenn la
  femn chessa côs_, sentendo la femina questa cosa; _disprât_,
  disperata; at Saponara di Grumento: _uomnn' scilrati_, uomini
  scellerati; _mnetta_, vendetta.--But even if we return to the
  Mediterranean versant and, leaving the Sicilian type of the Calabrias,
  retrace our steps till we pass into the Neapolitan pure and simple, we
  find that even in Naples the unaccented final vowels behave badly, the
  labial turning to _e_ (_bielle_, bello) and even the _a_ (_bella_)
  being greatly weakened. And here occurs a Palaeo-Italic instance which
  is worth mention: while Latin was accustomed to drop the u of its
  nominative only in presence of _r_ (_gener_ from *gener-u-s, _vir_
  from *vir-u-s; cf. the Tuscan or Italian apocopated forms _véner_ =
  vénere, _venner_ = vennero, &c.), Oscan and Umbrian go much farther:
  Oscan, hurz = *hort-u-s, Lat. hortus; Umbr. _pihaz_, piatus; _emps_,
  emptus, &c. In Umbrian inscriptions we find _u_ alternating with the
  _a_ of the nom. sing. fem. and plur. neut. In complete contrast with
  the Sicilian vocalism is the Neapolitan _e_ for unaccented and
  particularly final _i_ of the Latin and Neo-Latin or Italian phases
  (e.g. _viene_, vieni; cf. _infra_), to say nothing further of the
  regular diphthongization, within certain limits, of accented _e_ or
  _o_ in position (_apierte_, aperto, fem. _aperta_; _muorte_, morto,
  fem. _morta_, &c.).--In the quasi-morphological domain it is to be
  noted how the Siculo-Calabrian _u_ for the ancient _o_ and _u_, and
  the Siculo-Calabrian _i_ for the ancient _e_, _i_, are also still
  found in the Neapolitan, and, in particular, that they alternate with
  _o_ and _e_ in a manner that is determined by the difference of
  termination. Thus _cosetore_, cucitore, pl. _coseture_ (i.e.
  _coseturi_, the _-i_ passing into _e_ in keeping with the Neapolitan
  characteristic already mentioned); _russe_, Ital. rosso, _-i_; _rossa_
  _-e_, Ital. rossa -e; _noce_, _noce_, pl. _nuce_; _crede_, io credo;
  _cride_ (*cridi), tu credi; _crede_, egli crede; _nigre_, but _negra_.

  Passing now to a cursory mention of purely morphological phenomena, we
  begin with that form which is referred to the Latin pluperfect (see A.
  1, B. 2), but which here too performs the functions of the
  conditional. Examples from the living dialects of (1) Calabria
  Citeriore are _faceru_, farei (Castrovillari); _tu te la collerre_, tu
  te l'acolleresti (Cosenza); _l'accettéra_, l'accetterebbe (Grimaldi);
  and from those of (2) the Abruzzi, _vulér'_, vorrei (Castelli);
  _dére_, darei (Atessa); _candére_, canterei. For the dialects of the
  Abruzzi, we can check our observations by examples from the oldest
  chronicle of Aquila, as _non habéra lassato_, non avrebbe lasciato
  (str. 180) (cf. _negara_, Ital. negherei, in old MS. of the Marches).
  There are some interesting remains (more or less corrupted both in
  form and usage) of ancient consonantal terminations which have not yet
  been sufficiently studied: _s' incaricaviti_, s' incaricava, -abat
  (Basilicata, Senise); ebbiti, ebbe (ib.); _avíadi_, aveva (Calabria,
  Grimaldi); _arrivaudi_, arrivò (ib.). The last example also gives the
  _-au_ of the 3rd pers. sing. perf. of the first conjugation, which
  still occurs in Sicily and between the horns of the Neapolitan
  mainland. In the Abruzzi (and in the Ascolan district) the 3rd person
  of the plural is in process of disappearing (the _-no_ having fallen
  away and the preceding vowel being obscured), and its function is
  assumed by the 3rd person singular; cf. C. 1.[13] The explanation of
  the Neapolitan forms _songhe_, io sono, essi sono, _donghe_, io do,
  stonghe, io sto, as also of the enclitic of the 2nd person plural
  which exists, e.g. in the Sicil. _avíssivu_, Neap. _avísteve_, aveste,
  has been correctly given more than once. It may be remarked in
  conclusion that this Neo-Latin region keeps company with the Rumanian
  in maintaining in large use the -ora derived from the ancient neuter
  plurals of the type _tempora_; Sicil. _jócura_, giuochi; Calabr.
  _nídura_, Abruzz. _nídere_, nidi, Neap. _órtola_ (= -_ra_), orti,
  Capitanata _ácure_, aghi, Apulian _acéddere_ (Tarantine _acéddiri_),
  uccelli, &c. It is in this region, and more particularly in Capua,
  that we can trace the first appearance of what can definitely be
  called Italian, as shown in a Latin legal document of the year 960
  (_sao co kelle terre per kelle fini qui ki contene trenta anni le
  possette parte Sancti Benedicti_, Ital. "so che quelle terre per quei
  confini che qui contiene trent 'anni le possedette la parte di S.
  Benedetto"), and belongs more precisely to Capua. The so-called _Carta
  Rossanese_ (Calabria), written in a mixture of Latin and vulgar
  tongue, belongs to the first decades of the 12th century; while a
  document of Fondi (Campania) in the vulgar tongue goes back to the
  last decades of the same century. Neapolitan documents do not become
  abundant till the 14th century. The same is true of the Abruzzi and of
  Apulia; in the case of the latter the date should perhaps be put even
  later.

  4. _Dialects of Umbria, the Marches and the Province of Rome._--The
  phenomena characteristic of the Gallo-Italian dialects can be traced
  in the northern Marches in the dialects not only of the provinces of
  Pesaro and Urbino (_Arch. glott._ ii. 444), where we note also the
  constant dropping of the final vowels, strong elisions of accented and
  unaccented vowels, the suffix -_ariu_ becoming -_ér_, &c., but also as
  far as Ancona and beyond. As in Ancona, the double consonants are
  reduced to single ones; there are strong elisions (_breta_, Ital.
  berretta; _blin_, Ital. bellino; _figurte_, Ital. "figúrati";
  _vermne_, Ital. verme, "vermine," &c.); the -_k_- becomes _g_; the
  _s_, _s_. At Jesi -_t_- and -_k_- become _d_ and _g_, and the _g_ is
  also found at Fabriano, though here it is modified in the Southern
  fashion (_spia_ = _spiga_, Ital. spica). Examples are also found of
  the dropping of -_d_- primary between vowels: Pesaran _ráica_, Ital.
  radica; Fabr. _peo_; Ital. piede, which are noteworthy in that they
  indicate an isolated Gallo-Italian phenomenon, which is further
  traceable in Umbria (_peacchia_ = ped-, Ital. orma; _ráica_ and
  _raíce_, Ital. radice; _trúbio_, Ital. torbido; _frácio_, Ital.
  fracido; at Rieti also the dropping of the -_d_- is normal: _veo_,
  Ital. vedo; _fiátu_, Ital. fidato, &c.; and here too is found the
  dropping of initial _d_ for syntactical reasons: _ènte_, Ital. dente,
  from _lu [d]ènte)_. According to some scholars of the Marches, the _é_
  for _a_ also extends as far as Ancona; and it is certainly continued
  from the north, though it is precisely in the territory of the Marches
  that Gallo-Italian and Abruzzan come into contact. The southern part
  of the Marches (the basin of the Tronto), after all, is Abruzzan in
  character. But the Abruzzan or Southern phenomena in general are
  widely diffused throughout the whole of the region comprising the
  Marches, Umbria, Latium and Aquila (for the territory of Aquila,
  belonging as it does both geographically and politically to the
  Abruzzi, is also attached linguistically to this group), which with
  regard to certain phenomena includes also that part of Tuscany lying
  to the south of the southern Ombrone. Further, the Tuscan dialect
  strictly so called sends into the Marches a few of its
  characteristics, and thus at Arcevia we have the pronunciation of
  -_c_- between vowels as _s_ (_fórmesce_, Ital. forbici),[14] and
  Ancona has no changes of tonic vowels determined by the final vowel.
  Again, Umbria and the Sabine territory, and some parts of the Roman
  territory, are connected with Tuscany by the phenomenon of -_ajo_ for
  -_ariu_ (_molinajo_, Ital. mugnaio, &c.). But, to come to the Abruzzan
  Southern phenomena, we should note that the Abruzzan _ll_ for _ld_
  extends into the central region (Norcia: _callu_, caldo; Rome:
  _ariscalla_, riscalda; the phenomenon, however, occurs also in
  Corsica); and the assimilation of _nd_ into _nn_, and of _mb_ into
  _mm_ stretches through Umbria, the Marches and Rome, and even crosses
  from the Roman province into southern Tuscany (Rieti: _quanno_,
  quando; Spoleto: _comannava_, comandava; Assisi: _piagnenno_,
  piangendo; Sanseverino Marches: _piagnenne_, '_mmece_, invece
  (imbece); Fabriano: _vennecasse_, vendicarsi; Osimo: _monno_, mondo;
  Rome: _fronna_, fronda; _piommo_, piombo; Pitigliano (Tuscany):
  _quanno_, _piagnenno_). It is curious to note, side by side with this
  phenomenon, in the same districts, that of _nd_ for _nn_, which we
  still find and which was more common in the past (_affando_, affanno,
  &c., see _Zeitschrift für roman. Philol._ xxii. 510). Even the
  diphthongs of the _e_ and the _o_ in position are largely represented.
  Examples are--at Norcia, _tiempi_, _uocchi_, _stuortu_; Assisi and
  Fabriano: _tiempo_; Orvieto: _tiempo_, _tierra_, _le tuorte_, li
  torti, and even _duonna_. The change of preconsonantal _l_ into _r_,
  so frequent throughout this region, and particularly characteristic of
  Rome, is a phenomenon common to the Aquilan dialect. Similar facts
  might be adduced in abundance. And it is to be noted that the features
  common to Umbro-Roman and the Neapolitan dialects must have been more
  numerous in the past, as this was the region where the Tuscan current
  met the southern, and by reason of its superior culture gradually
  gained the ascendancy.[15] Typical for the whole district (except the
  Marches) is the reduction to _t_ (and later to _j_) of _ll_ and of _l_
  initial, when followed by _i_ or _u_ (Velletri, _tuna_, _tuce_; Sora,
  _juna_, Ital. luna, _jima_, Ital. lima; melica. Ital. mollica, _béte_,
  Ital. belli, bello, in vulgar Latin _bellu_; but _bella_, bella, &c.).
  The phonological connexions between the Northern Umbrian, the Aretine,
  and the Gallo-Italic type have already been indicated (B. 2). In what
  relates to morphology, the -_orno_ of the 3rd pers. plur. of the
  perfect of the first conjugation has been pointed out as an essential
  peculiarity of the Umbro-Roman territory; but even this it shares with
  the Aquila vernaculars, which, moreover, extend it to the other
  conjugations (_amórno_, _timórono_, &c.), exactly like the -_ó_ of the
  3rd person singular. Further, this termination is found also in the
  Tuscan dialects.

  Throughout almost the whole district should be noted the distinction
  between the masculine and neuter substantive, expressed by means of
  the article, the distinction being that the neuter substantive has an
  abstract and indeterminate signification; e.g. at S. Ginesio, in the
  Marches, _lu pesce_, but _lo pesce_, of fish in general, as food, &c.;
  at Sora _te wétre_, the sheet of glass, but _le wétre_, glass, the
  material, original substance.[16] As to the inflection of verbs, there
  is in the ancient texts of the region a notable prevalence of perfect
  form in the formation of the imperfect conjunctive; _tolzesse_, Ital.
  togliesse; _sostenesse_, Ital. sostenesse; _conubbessero_, Ital.
  conoscessero, &c. In the northern Marches, we should note the
  preposition sa, Ital. con (_sa lia_, Ital. con lei), going back to a
  type similar to that of the Ital. "con-esso."

  In a large part of Umbria an _m_ or _t_ is prefixed to the sign of the
  dative: _t-a lu_, a lui; _m-al re_, al re;[17] which must be the
  remains of the auxiliary prepositions _int(us)_, _a(m)pud_, cf. Prov.
  _amb_, _am_ (cf. _Arch._ ii. 444-446). By means of the series of
  Perugine texts this group of dialects may be traced back with
  confidence to the 13th century; and to this region should also belong
  a "Confession," half Latin half vernacular, dating from about the 11th
  century, edited and annotated by Flechia (_Arch._ vii. 121 sqq.). The
  "chronicle" of Monaldeschi has been already mentioned. The MSS. of the
  Marches go back to the beginning of the 13th century and perhaps still
  further back. For Roman (see Monaci, _Rendic. dell' Accad. dei
  Lincei_, xvi. 103 sqq.) there is a short inscription of the 11th
  century. To the 13th century belongs the _Liber historiarum Romanorum_
  (Monaci, _Archivio della Società rom. di storia patria_, xii.; and
  also, _Rendic. dei Lincei_, i. 94 sqq.), and to the first half of the
  same century the _Formole volgari_ of Raineri da Perugia (Monaci, ib.,
  xiv. 268 sqq.). There are more abundant texts for all parts of this
  district in the 14th century, to which also belongs the _Cronica
  Aquilana_ of Buccio di Ranallo, republished by De Bartholomaeis (Rome,
  1907).

D. _Tuscan, and the Literary Language of the Italians._

We have now only to deal with the Tuscan territory. It is bounded on the
W. by the sea. To the north it terminates with the Apennines; for
Romagna Toscana, the strip of country on the Adriatic versant which
belongs to it administratively, is assigned to Emilia as regards
dialect. In the north-west also the Emilian presses on the Tuscan,
extending as it does down the Mediterranean slope of the Apennines in
Lunigiana and Garfagnana. Intrusions which may be called Emilian have
also been noted to the west of the Apennines in the district where the
Arno and the Tiber take their rise (Aretine dialects); and it has been
seen how thence to the sea the Umbrian and Roman dialects surround the
Tuscan. Such are the narrow limits of the "promised land" of the
language which has succeeded and was worthy to succeed Latin in the
history of Italian culture and civilization,--the land which comprises
Florence, Siena, Lucca and Pisa. The Tuscan type may be best described
by the negative method. There do not exist in it, on the one hand, any
of those phenomena by which the other dialectal types of Italy mainly
differ from the Latin base (such as _ü_ = _u_; frequent elision of
unaccented vowels; _ba = gua_; _s_ = _fl_; _nn_ = _nd_, &c.), nor, on
the other hand, is there any series of alterations of the Latin base
peculiar to the Tuscan. This twofold negative description may further
serve for the Tuscan or literary Italian as contrasted with all the
other Neo-Latin languages; indeed, even where the Tuscan has a tendency
to alterations common to other types of the family, it shows itself more
sober and self-denying--as may be seen in the reduction of the _t_
between vowels into _d_ or of _c_ (_k_) between vowels into _g_, which
in Italian affects only a small part of the lexical series, while in
Provençal or Spanish it may be said to pervade the whole (e.g. Prov. and
Span. _mudar_, Ital. _mutare_; Prov. _segur_, Span. _seguro_, Ital.
_sicuro_). It may consequently be affirmed without any partiality that,
in respect to historical nobility, the Italian not only holds the first
rank among Neo-Latin languages, but almost constitutes an intermediate
grade between the ancient or Latin and the modern or Romance. What has
just been said about the Tuscan, as compared with the other dialectal
types of Italy, does not, however, preclude the fact that in the various
Tuscan veins, and especially in the plebeian forms of speech, there
occur particular instances of phonetic decay; but these must of
necessity be ignored in so brief a sketch as the present. We shall
confine ourselves to noting--what has a wide territorial diffusion--the
reduction of _c_ (_k_) between vowels to a mere breathing (e.g. _fuóho_,
fuoco, but _porco_), or even its complete elision; the same phenomenon
occurs also between word and word (e.g. _la hasa_, but _in casa_), thus
illustrating anew that syntactic class of phonetic alterations, either
qualitative or quantitative, conspicuous in this region, also, which has
been already discussed for insular and southern Italy (B. 2; C. 2, 3),
and could be exemplified for the Roman region as well (C. 4). As regards
one or two individual phenomena, it must also be confessed that the
Tuscan or literary Italian is not so well preserved as some other
Neo-Latin tongues. Thus, French always keeps in the beginning of words
the Latin formulae _cl_, _pl_, _fl_ (_clef_, _plaisir_, _fleur_, in
contrast with the Italian _chiave_, _piacere_, _fiore_); but the Italian
makes up for this by the greater vigour with which it is wont to resolve
the same formula within the words, and by the greater symmetry thus
produced between the two series (in opposition to the French _clef_,
clave, we have, for example, the French _oeil_, oclo; whereas, in the
Italian, _chiave_ and _occhio_ correspond to each other). The Italian as
well as the Rumanian has lost the ancient sibilant at the end (-_s_ of
the plurals, of the nominative singular, of the 2nd persons, &c.), which
throughout the rest of the Romance area has been preserved more or less
tenaciously; and consequently it stands lower than old Provençal and old
French, as far as true declension or, more precisely, the functional
distinction between the forms of the _casus rectus_ and the _casus
obliquus_ is concerned. But even in this respect the superiority of
French and Provençal has proved merely transitory, and in their modern
condition all the Neo-Latin forms of speech are generally surpassed by
Italian even as regards the pure grammatical consistency of the noun. In
conjugation Tuscan has lost that tense which for the sake of brevity we
shall continue to call the pluperfect indicative; though it still
survives outside of Italy and in other dialectal types of Italy itself
(C. 3b; cf. B. 2). It has also lost the _futurum exactum_, or perfect
subjunctive, which is found in Spanish and Rumanian. But no one would on
that account maintain that the Italian conjugation is less truly Latin
than the Spanish, the Rumanian, or that of any other Neo-Latin language.
It is, on the contrary, by far the most distinctively Latin as regards
the tradition both of form and function, although many effects of the
principle of analogy are to be observed, sometimes common to Italian
with the other Neo-Latin languages and sometimes peculiar to itself.

Those who find it hard to believe in the ethnological explanation of
linguistic varieties ought to be convinced by any example so clear as
that which Italy presents in the difference between the Tuscan or purely
Italian type on the one side and the Gallo-Italic on the other. The
names in this instance correspond exactly to the facts of the case. For
the Gallo-Italic on either side of the Alps is evidently nothing else
than a modification--varying in degree, but always very great--of the
vulgar Latin, due to the reaction of the language or rather the oral
tendencies of the Celts who succumbed to the Roman civilization. In
other words, the case is one of new ethnic individualities arising from
the fusion of two national entities, one of which, numerically more or
less weak, is so far victorious that its speech is adopted, while the
other succeeds in adapting that speech to its own habits of utterance.
Genuine Italian, on the other hand, is not the result of the combination
or conflict of the vulgar Latin with other tongues, but is the pure
development of this alone. In other words, the case is that of an
ancient national fusion in which vulgar Latin itself originated. Here
that is native which in the other case was intrusive. This greater
purity of constitution gives the language a persistency which approaches
permanent stability. There is no Old Italian to oppose to Modern Italian
in the same sense as we have an Old French to oppose to a Modern French.
It is true that in the old French writers, and even in the writers who
used the dialects of Upper Italy, there was a tendency to bring back the
popular forms to their ancient dignity; and it is true also that the
Tuscan or literary Italian has suffered from the changes of centuries;
but nevertheless it remains undoubted that in the former cases we have
to deal with general transformations between old and new, while in the
latter it is evident that the language of Dante continues to be the
Italian of modern speech and literature. This character of invariability
has thus been in direct proportion to the purity of its Latin origin,
while, on the contrary, where popular Latin has been adopted by peoples
of foreign speech, the elaboration which it has undergone along the
lines of their oral tendencies becomes always the greater the farther we
get away from the point at which the Latin reached them,--in proportion,
that is, to the time and space through which it has been transmitted in
these foreign mouths.[18]

As for the primitive seat of the literary language of Italy, not only
must it be regarded as confined within the limits of that narrower
Tuscany already described; strictly speaking, it must be identified with
the city of Florence alone. Leaving out of account, therefore, a small
number of words borrowed from other Italian dialects, as a certain
number have naturally been borrowed from foreign tongues, it may be said
that all that was not Tuscan was eliminated from the literary form of
speech. If we go back to the time of Dante, we find, throughout almost
all the dialects of the mainland with the exception of Tuscan, the
change of vowels between singular and plural seen in _paese_, _paisi_;
_quello_, _quilli_; _amore_, _amuri_ (see B. 1; C. 3 b); but the
literary language knows nothing at all of such a phenomenon, because it
was unknown to the Tuscan region. But in Tuscan itself there were
differences between Florentine and non-Florentine; in Florentine, e.g.
it was and is usual to say _unto_, _giunto_, _punto_, while the
non-Florentine had it _onto_, _gionto_, _ponto_, (Lat. _unctu_, &c.); at
Florence they say _piazza_, _mezzo_, while elsewhere (at Lucca, Pisa)
they say or used to say, _piassa_, _messo_. Now, it is precisely the
Florentine forms which alone have currency in the literary language.

In the ancient compositions in the vulgar tongue, especially in poetry,
non-Tuscan authors on the one hand accommodated their own dialect to the
analogy of that which they felt to be the purest representative of the
language of ancient Roman culture, while the Tuscan authors in their
turn did not refuse to adopt the forms which had received the rights of
citizenship from the literary celebrities of other parts of Italy. It
was this state of matters which gave rise in past times to the numerous
disputes about the true fatherland and origin of the literary language
of the Italians. But these have been deprived of all right to exist by
the scientific investigation of the history of that language. If the
older Italian poetry assumed or maintained forms alien to Tuscan speech,
these forms were afterwards gradually eliminated, and the field was left
to those which were purely Tuscan and indeed purely Florentine. And thus
it remains absolutely true that, so far as phonetics, morphology,
rudimental syntax, and in short the whole character and material of
words and sentences are concerned, there is no literary language of
Europe that is more thoroughly characterized by homogeneity and oneness,
as if it had come forth in a single cast from the furnace, than the
Italian.

But on the other hand it remains equally true that, so far as concerns a
living confidence and uniformity in the use and style of the literary
language--that is, of this Tuscan or Florentine material called to
nourish the civilization and culture of all the Italians--the case is
not a little altered, and the Italian nation appears to enjoy less
fortunate conditions than other nations of Europe. Modern Italy had no
glowing centre for the life of the whole nation into which and out of
which the collective thought and language could be poured in ceaseless
current for all and by all. Florence has not been Paris. Territorial
contiguity and the little difference of the local dialect facilitated in
the modern Rome the elevation of the language of conversation to a level
with the literary language that came from Tuscany. A form of speech was
thus produced which, though certainly destitute of the grace and the
abundant flexibility of the Florentine, gives a good idea of what the
dialect of a city becomes when it makes itself the language of a nation
that is ripening its civilization in many and dissimilar centres. In
such a case the dialect loses its slang and petty localisms, and at the
same time also somewhat of its freshness; but it learns to express with
more conscious sobriety and with more assured dignity the thought and
the feeling of the various peoples which are fused in one national life.
But what took place readily in Rome could not with equal ease happen in
districts whose dialects were far removed from the Tuscan. In Piedmont,
for example, or in Lombardy, the language of conversation did not
correspond with the language of books, and the latter accordingly became
artificial and laboured. Poetry was least affected by these unfortunate
conditions; for poetry may work well with a multiform language, where
the need and the stimulus of the author's individuality assert
themselves more strongly. But prose suffered immensely, and the Italians
had good cause to envy the spontaneity and confidence of foreign
literatures--of the French more particularly. In this reasonable envy
lay the justification and the strength of the Manzoni school, which
aimed at that absolute naturalness of the literary language, that
absolute identity between the language of conversation and that of
books, which the bulk of the Italians could reach and maintain only by
naturalizing themselves in the living speech of modern Florence. The
revolt of Manzoni against artificiality and mannerism in language and
style was worthy of his genius, and has been largely fruitful. But the
historical difference between the case of France (with the colloquial
language of Paris) and that of Italy (with the colloquial language of
Florence) implies more than one difficulty of principle; in the latter
case there is sought to be produced by deliberate effort of the
_literati_ what in the former has been and remains the necessary and
spontaneous product of the entire civilization. Manzoni's theories too
easily lent themselves to deplorable exaggerations; men fell into a new
artificiality, a manner of writing which might be called vulgar and
almost slangy. The remedy for this must lie in the regulating power of
the labour of the now regenerate Italian intellect,--a labour ever
growing wider in its scope, more assiduous and more thoroughly united.

The most ancient document in the Tuscan dialect is a very short fragment
of a jongleur's song (12th century; see Monaci, _Crestomazia_, 9-10).
After that there is nothing till the 13th century. P. Santini has
published the important and fairly numerous fragments of a book of
notes of some Florentine bankers, of the year 1211. About the middle of
the century, our attention is arrested by the _Memoriali_ of the Sienese
Matasala di Spinello. To 1278 belongs the MS. in which is preserved the
Pistojan version of the _Trattati morali_ of Albertano, which we owe to
Sofredi del Grathia. The Riccardian _Tristano_, published and annotated
by E. G. Parodi, seems to belong to the end of the 13th and beginning of
the 14th centuries. For other 13th-century writings see Monaci, _op.
cit._ 31-32, 40, and Parodi, _Giornale storico della letteratura
italiana_, x. 178-179. For the question concerning language, see Ascoli,
_Arch. glott._ i. v. et seq.; D' Ovidio, _Le Correzioni ai Promessi
Sposi e la questione della lingua_, 4th ed. Naples, 1895.

  _Literature._--K. L. Fernow in the third volume of his _Römische
  Studien_ (Zurich, 1806-1808) gave a good survey of the dialects of
  Italy. The dawn of rigorously scientific methods had not then
  appeared; but Fernow's view is wide and genial. Similar praise is due
  to Biondelli's work _Sui dialetti gallo-italici_ (Milan, 1853), which,
  however, is still ignorant of Diez. August Fuchs, between Fernow and
  Biondelli, had made himself so far acquainted with the new methods;
  but his exploration (_Über die sogenannten unregelmässigen Zeitwörter
  in den romanischen Sprachen, nebst Andeutungen über die wichtigsten
  romanischen Mundarten_, Berlin, 1840), though certainly of utility,
  was not very successful. Nor can the rapid survey of the Italian
  dialects given by Friedrich Diez be ranked among the happiest portions
  of his great masterpiece. Among the followers of Diez who
  distinguished themselves in this department the first outside of Italy
  were certainly Mussafia, a cautious and clear continuator of the
  master, and the singularly acute Hugo Schuchardt. Next came the
  _Archivio glottologico italiano_ (Turin, 1873 and onwards. Up to 1897
  there were published 16 vols.), the lead in which was taken by Ascoli
  and G. Flechia (d. 1892), who, together with the Dalmatian Adolf
  Mussafia (d. 1906), may be looked upon as the founders of the study of
  Italian dialects, and who have applied to their writings a rigidly
  methodical procedure and a historical and comparative standard, which
  have borne the best fruit. For historical studies dealing specially
  with the literary language, Nannucci, with his good judgment and
  breadth of view, led the way; we need only mention here his _Analisi
  critica dei verbi italiani_ (Florence, 1844). But the new method was
  to show how much more it was to and did effect. When this movement on
  the part of the scholars mentioned above became known, other
  enthusiasts soon joined them, and the _Arch. glottologico_ developed
  into a school, which began to produce many prominent works on language
  [among the first in order of date and merit may be mentioned "Gli
  Allotropi italiani," by U. A. Canello (1887), _Arch. glott._ iii.
  285-419; and _Le Origini della lingua poetica italiana_, by N. Caix
  (d. 1882), (Florence, 1880)], and studies on the dialects. We shall
  here enumerate those of them which appear for one reason or another to
  have been the most notable. But, so far as works of a more general
  nature are concerned, we should first state that there have been other
  theories as to the classification of the Italian dialects (see also
  above the various notes on B. 1, 2 and C. 2) put forward by W.
  Meyer-Lübke (_Einführung in das Studium der romanischen
  Sprachwissenschaft_, Heidelberg, 1901; pp. 21-22), and M. Bartoli
  (_Altitalienische Chrestomathie, von P. Savj-Lopez und M. Bartoli_,
  Strassburg, 1903, pp. 171 et seq. 193 et seq., and the table at the
  end of the volume). W. Meyer-Lübke afterwards filled in details of the
  system which he had sketched in Gröber's _Grundriss der romanischen
  Philologie_, i., 2nd ed. (1904), pp. 696 et seq. And from the same
  author comes that masterly work, the _Italienische Grammatik_
  (Leipzig, 1890), where the language and its dialects are set out in
  one organic whole, just as they are placed together in the concise
  chapter devoted to Italian in the above-mentioned _Grundriss_ (pp. 637
  et seq.). We will now give the list, from which we omit, however, the
  works quoted incidentally throughout the text: B. 1 a: Parodi, _Arch.
  glott._ xiv. 1 sqq., xv. 1 sqq., xvi. 105 sqq. 333 sqq.; _Poesie in
  dial. tabbiese del sec. XVII. illustrate da E. G. Parodi_ (Spezia,
  1904); Schädel, _Die Mundart von Ormea_ (Halle, 1903); Parodi, _Studj
  romanzi_, fascic. v.; b: Giacomino, _Arch. glott._ xv. 403 sqq.;
  Toppino, ib. xvi. 517 sqq.; Flechia, ib. xiv. 111 sqq.; Nigra,
  _Miscell. Ascoli_ (Turin, 1901), 247 sqq.; Renier, _Il Gelindo_
  (Turin, 1896); Salvioni, _Rendiconti Istituto lombardo_, s. ii., vol.
  xxxvii. 522, sqq.; c: Salvioni, _Fonetica del dialetto di Milano_
  (Turin, 1884); _Studi di filol. romanza_, viii. 1 sqq.; _Arch. glott._
  ix. 188 sqq. xiii. 355 sqq.; _Rendic. Ist. lomb._ s. ii., vol. xxxv.
  905 sqq.; xxxix. 477 sqq.; 505 sqq. 569 sqq. 603 sqq., xl. 719 sqq.;
  _Bollettino storico della Svizzera italiana_, xvii. and xviii.;
  Michael, _Der Dialekt des Poschiavotals_ (Halle, 1905); v. Ettmayer,
  _Bergamaskische Alpenmundarten_ (Leipzig, 1903); _Romanische
  Forschungen_, xiii. 321 sqq.; d: Mussafia, _Darstellung der
  romagnolischen Mundart_ (Vienna, 1871); Gaudenzi, _I Suoni ecc. della
  città di Bologna_ (Turin, 1889); Ungarelli, _Vocab. del dial. bologn.
  con una introduzione di A. Trauzzi sulla fonetica e sulla morfologia
  del dialetto_ (Bologna, 1901); Bertoni, _Il Dialetto di Modena_
  (Turin, 1905); Pullé, "Schizzo dei dialetti del Frignano" in _L'
  Apennino modenese_. 673 sqq. (Rocca S. Casciano, 1895); Piagnoli,
  _Fonetica parmigiana_ (Turin, 1904); Restori, _Note fonetiche sui
  parlari dell' alta valle di Macra_ (Leghorn, 1892); Gorra,
  _Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie_, xvi. 372 sqq.; xiv. 133 sqq.;
  Nicoli, _Studi di filologia romanza_, viii. 197 sqq. B. 2: Hofmann,
  _Die logudoresische und campidanesische Mundart_ (Marburg, 1885);
  Wagner, _Lautlehre der südsardischen Mundarten_ (Malle a. S., 1907);
  Campus, _Fonetica del dialetto logudorese_ (Turin, 1901); Guarnerio,
  _Arch. glott._ xiii. 125 sqq., xiv. 131 sqq., 385 sqq. C. 1: Rossi,
  _Le Lettere di Messer Andrea Calmo_ (Turin, 1888); Wendriner, _Die
  paduanische Mundart bei Ruzante_ (Breslau, 1889); _Le Rime di
  Bartolomeo Cavassico notaio bellunese della prima metà del sec. xvi.
  con illustraz. e note di v. Cian, e con illustrazioni linguistiche e
  lessico a cura di C. Salvioni_ (2 vols., Bologna, 1893-1894); Gartner,
  _Zeitschr. für roman. Philol._ xvi. 183 sqq., 306 sqq.; Salvioni,
  _Arch. glott._ xvi. 245 sqq.; Vidossich, _Studi sul dialetto
  triestino_ (Triest, 1901); _Zeitschr. für rom. Phil._ xxvii. 749 sqq.;
  Ascoli, _Arch. glott._ xiv. 325 sqq.; Schneller, _Die romanischen
  Volksmundarten in Südtirol_, i. (Gera, 1870); von Slop, _Die
  tridentinische Mundart_ (Klagenfurt, 1888); Ive, _I Dialetti
  ladino-veneti dell' Istria_ (Strassburg, 1900). C. 2: Guarnerio,
  _Arch. glott._ xiii. 125 sqq., xiv. 131 sqq., 385 sqq. C. 3 a:
  Wentrup-Pitré, in Pitré, _Fiabe, novelle e racconti popolari
  siciliani_, vol. i., pp. cxviii. sqq.; Schneegans, _Laute und
  Lautentwickelung des sicil. Dialektes_ (Strassburg, 1888); De
  Gregorio, _Saggio di fonetica siciliana_ (Palermo, 1890); Pirandello,
  _Laute und Lautentwickelung der Mundart von Girgenti_ (Halle, 1891);
  Cremona, _Fonetica del Caltagironese_ (Acireale, 1895); Santangelo,
  Arch. glott. xvi. 479 sqq.; La Rosa, _Saggi di morfologia siciliana_,
  i. _Sostantivi_ (Noto, 1901); Salvioni, _Rendic. Ist. lomb._ s. ii.,
  vol. xl. 1046 sqq., 1106 sqq., 1145 sqq.; b: Scerbo, _Sul dialetto
  calabro_ (Florence, 1886); Accattati's, _Vocabolario del dial.
  calabrese_ (Castrovillari, 1895); Gentili, _Fonetica del dialetto
  cosentino_ (Milan, 1897); Wentrup, _Beiträge zur Kenntniss der
  neapolitanischen Mundart_ (Wittenberg, 1855); Subak, _Die Konjugation
  im Neapolitanischen_ (Vienna, 1897); Morosi, _Arch. glott._ iv. 117
  sqq.; De Noto, _Appunti di fonetica sul dial. di Taranto_ (Trani,
  1897); Subak, _Das Zeitwort in der Mundart von Tarent_ (Brünn, 1897);
  Panareo, _Fonetica del dial. di Maglie d' Otranto_ (Milan, 1903);
  Nitti di Vito, _Il Dial. di Bari_, part 1, "Vocalismo moderno" (Milan,
  1896); Abbatescianni, _Fonologia del dial. barese_ (Avellino, 1896);
  Zingarelli, _Arch. glott._ xv. 83 sqq., 226 sqq.; Ziccardi, _Studi
  glottologici_, iv. 171 sqq.; D' Ovidio, _Arch. glott._ iv. 145 sqq.,
  403 sqq.; Finamore, _Vocabolario dell' uso abruzzese_ (2nd ed., Città
  di Castello, 1893); Rollin, _Mitteilung XIV. der Gesellschaft zur
  Förderung deutscher Wissenschaft, Kunst und Literatur in Böhmen_
  (Prague, 1901); De Lollis, _Arch. glott._ xii. 1 sqq., 187 sqq.;
  _Miscell. Ascoli_, 275 sqq.; Savini, _La Grammatica e il lessico del
  dial. teramano_ (Turin, 1881). C. 4: Merlo, _Zeitschr. f. roman.
  Phil._, xxx. 11 sqq., 438 sqq., xxxi. 157 sqq.; E. Monaci (notes on
  old Roman), _Rendic. dei Lincei_, Feb. 21st, 1892, p. 94 sqq.;
  Rossi-Casè, _Bollett. di stor. patria degli Abruzzi_, vi.; Crocioni,
  _Miscell. Monaci_, pp. 429 sqq.; Ceci, _Arch. glott._ x. 167 sqq.;
  Parodi, ib. xiii. 299 sqq.; Campanelli, _Fonetica del dial. reatino_
  (Turin, 1896); Verga, _Sonetti e altre poesie di R. Torelli in dial.
  perugino_ (Milan, 1895); Bianchi, _Il Dialetto e la etnografia di
  Città di Castello_ (Città di Castello, 1888); Neumann-Spallart,
  _Zeitschrift für roman. Phil._ xxviii. 273 sqq., 450 sqq.; _Weitere
  Beiträge zur Charakteristik des Dialektes der Marche_ (Halle a. S.,
  1907); Crocioni, _Studi di fil. rom._, ix. 617 sqq.; _Studi romanzi_,
  fasc. 3°, 113 sqq., _Il Dial. di Arcevia_ (Rome, 1906); Lindsstrom,
  _Studi romanzi_, fasc. 5°, 237 sqq.; Crocioni, ib. 27 sqq. D.: Parodi,
  _Romania_, xviii.; Schwenke, _De dialecto quae carminibus popularibus
  tuscanicis a Tigrio editis continetur_ (Leipzig, 1872); Pieri, _Arch.
  glott._ xii. 107 sqq., 141 sqq., 161 sqq.; _Miscell. Caix-Canello_,
  305 sqq.; _Note sul dialetto aretino_ (Pisa, 1886); _Zeitschr. für
  rom. Philol._ xxviii. 161 sqq.; Salvioni, _Arch. glott._ xvi. 395
  sqq.; Hirsch, _Zeitschrift f. rom. Philol._ ix. 513 sqq., x. 56 sqq.,
  411 sqq. For researches on the etymology of all the Italian dialects,
  but chiefly of those of Northern Italy, the _Beitrag zur Kunde der
  norditalienischen Mundarten im XV. Jahrhundert_ of Ad. Mussafia
  (Vienna, 1873) and the _Postille etimologiche_ of Giov. Flechia
  (_Arch. glott._ ii., iii.) are of the greatest importance. Biondelli's
  book is of no small service also for the numerous translations which
  it contains of the Prodigal Son into Lombard, Piedmontese and Emilian
  dialects. A dialogue translated into the vernaculars of all parts of
  Italy will be found in Zuccagni Orlandini's _Raccolta di dialetti
  italiani con illustrazioni etnologiche_ (Florence, 1864). And every
  dialectal division is abundantly represented in a series of versions
  of a short novel of Boccaccio, which Papanti has published under the
  title _I Parlari italiani in Certaldo_, &c. (Leghorn, 1875).

  [A very valuable and rich collection of dialectal essays on the most
  ancient documents for all parts of Italy is to be found in the
  _Crestomazia italiana dei primi secoli_ of E. Monaci (Città di
  Castello, 1889-1897); see also in the _Altitalienische Chrestomathie_
  of P. Savj-Lopez and M. Bartoli (Strassburg, 1903).]
       (G. I. A.; C. S.*)


FOOTNOTES:

  [1] The article by G. I. Ascoli in the 9th edition of the
    _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, which has been recognized as a classic
    account of the Italian language, was reproduced by him, with slight
    modifications, in _Arch. glott._ viii. 98-128. The author proposed to
    revise his article for the present edition of the _Encyclopaedia_,
    but his death on the 21st of January 1907 prevented his carrying out
    this work, and the task was undertaken by Professor C. Salvioni. In
    the circumstances it was considered best to confine the revision to
    bringing Ascoli's article up to date, while preserving its form and
    main ideas, together with the addition of bibliographical notes, and
    occasional corrections and substitutions, in order that the results
    of more recent research might be embodied. The new matter is
    principally in the form of notes or insertions within square
    brackets.

  [2] [In Corsica the present position of Italian as a language of
    culture is as follows. Italian is only used for preaching in the
    country churches. In all the other relations of public and civil life
    (schools, law courts, meetings, newspapers, correspondence, &c.), its
    place is taken by French. As the elementary schools no longer teach
    Italian but French, an educated Corsican nowadays knows only his own
    dialect for everyday use, and French for public occasions.]

  [3] [It may be asked whether we ought not to include under this
    section the Vegliote dialect (Veglioto), since under this form the
    Dalmatian dialect (Dalmatico) is spoken in Italy. But it should be
    remembered that in the present generation the Dalmatian dialect has
    only been heard as a living language at Veglia.]

  [4] As a matter of fact the "velar" at the end of a word, when
    preceded by an accented vowel, is found also in Venetia and Istria.
    This fact, together with others (v. _Kritischer Jahresbericht über
    die Fortschritte der roman. Philol._ vii. part i. 130), suggests that
    we ought to assume an earlier group in which Venetian and
    Gallo-Italian formed part of one and the same group. In this
    connexion too should be noted the atonic pronoun _ghe_ (Ital. _ci_-a
    lui, a lei, a loro), which is found in Venetian, Lombard,
    North-Emilian and Ligurian.

  [5] [The latest authorities for the Sardinian dialects are W.
    Meyer-Lübke and M. Bartoli, in the passages quoted by Guarnerio in
    his "Il sardo e il côrso in una nuova classificazione delle lingue
    romanze" (_Arch. glott._ xvi. 491-516). These scholars entirely
    dissociate Sardinian from the Italian system, considering it as
    forming in itself a Romance language, independent of the others; a
    view in which they are correct. The chief discriminating criterion is
    supplied by the treatment of the Latin -_s_, which is preserved in
    Sardinian, the Latin accusative form prevailing in the declension of
    the plural, as opposed to the nominative, which prevails in the
    Italian system. In this respect the Gallo-Italian dialects adhere to
    the latter system, rejecting the -_s_ and retaining the nominative
    form. On the other hand, these facts form an important link between
    Sardinian and the Western Romance dialects, such as the Iberian,
    Gallic and Ladin; it is not, however, to be identified with any of
    them, but is distinguished from them by many strongly-marked
    characteristics peculiar to itself, chief among which is the
    treatment of the Latin accented vowels, for which see Ascoli in the
    text. As to the internal classification of the Sardinian dialects,
    Guarnerio assumes four types, the Campidanese, Logudorese, Gallurese
    and Sassarese. The separate individuality of the last of these is
    indicated chiefly by the treatment of the accented vowels (_dezi_,
    Ital. dieci; _tela_, Ital. tela; _pelu_, Ital. pelo; _nobu_, Ital.
    nuovo; _fiori_, Ital. fiore; _nozi_, Ital. noce, as compared, e.g.
    with Gallurese _deci_, _tela_, _pilu_, _nou_, _fiori_, _nuci_). Both
    Gallura and Sassari, however, reject the -_s_, and adopt the
    nominative form in the plural, thus proving that they are not
    entirely distinct from the Italian system.]

  [6] On this point see the chapter, "La terra ferma veneta considerata
    in ispecie ne' suoi rapporti con la sezione centrale della zona
    ladina," in _Arch._ i. 406-447.

  [7] [There are also examples of Istrian variants, such as _lanna_,
    Ital. lana; _kadenna_, Ital. catena.]

  [8] [There have been of late years many different opinions concerning
    the classification of Corsican. Meyer-Lübke dissociates it from
    Italian, and connects it with Sardinian, making of the languages of
    the two islands a unit independent of the Romance system. But even he
    (in Gröber's _Grundriss_, 2nd ed., vol. i. p. 698) recognized that
    there were a number of characteristics, among them the participle in
    -_utu_ and the article _illu_, closely connecting Sassari and Corsica
    with the mainland. The matter has since then been put in its true
    light by Guarnerio (_Arch. glott._ xvi. 510 et seq.), who points out
    that there are two varieties of language in Corsica, the
    _Ultramontane_ or southern, and the _Cismontane_, by far the most
    widely spread, in the rest of the island. The former is, it is true,
    connected with Sardinian, but with that variety, precisely, which, as
    we have already seen, ought to be separated from the general
    Sardinian type. Here we might legitimately assume a North-Sardinian
    and South-Corsican type, having practically the same relation to
    Italian as have the Gallo-Italian dialects. As to the Cismontane, it
    has the Tuscan accented vowel-system, does not alter _ll_ or _rn_,
    turns _lj_ into _i_ (Ital. _gli_), and shares with Tuscan the
    peculiar pronunciation of _c_ between vowels, while, together with
    many of the Tuscan and central dialects, it reduces _rr_ to a single
    consonant. For these reasons, Guarnerio is right in placing the
    Cismontane, as Ascoli does for all the Corsican dialects, on the same
    plane as Umbrian, &c.]

  [9] The Ultramontane variety has, however, _tela_, _pilu_, _iddu_,
    _boci_, _gula_, _furu_, corresponding exactly to the Gallurese
    _tela_, _pilu_, Ital. _pelo_, _iddu_; Ital. "ello," Lat. _illu_;
    _boci_, Ital. voce; _gula_, Ital. gole.

  [10] [Traces are not lacking on the mainland of _ng_ becoming _nc_,
    not only in Calabria, where at Cosenza are found, e.g. _chiáncere_,
    Ital. piangere, _manciare_, but also in Sannio and Apulia: _chiance_,
    _monce_, Ital. mungere, in the province of Avellino, _púnci_, Ital.
    (tu) pungi, at Brindisi. In Sicily, on the other hand, can be traced
    examples of _nc_ _nk_ _nt_ _mp_ becoming _ng_ _ng_ _nd_ _mb_.]

  [11] It should, however, be noticed that there seem to be examples of
    the é from á in the southern dialects on the Tyrrhenian side; texts
    of Serrara d'Ischia give: _mancete_, mangiata, _maretete_, maritata,
    _manneto_, mandato; also _tenno_ = Neap. _tanno_, allora. As to the
    diphthongs, we should not omit to mention that some of them are
    obviously of comparatively recent formation. Thus, examples from
    Cerignola, such as _levoite_, oliveto, come from _*olivítu_ (cf.
    Lecc. _leítu_, &c.), that is to say, they are posterior to the
    phenomenon of vowel change by which the formula _e-u_ became _í-u_.
    And, still in the same dialect, in an example like _gréjte_, creta,
    the _ej_ seems perhaps to be recent, for the reason that another _é_,
    derived from an original _é_ (Lat. _e_), is treated in the same way
    (_péjte_, piede, &c.). As to examples from Agnone like _puole_, palo,
    there still exists a plural _pjéle_ which points to the phase
    _*palo_.

  [12] We should here mention that _callu_ is also found in the
    _Vocabolario Siciliano_, and further occurs in Capitanata.

  [13] This is derived in reality from the Latin termination _-unt_,
    which is reduced phonetically to _-u_, a phenomenon not confined to
    the Abruzzi; cf. _facciu_, Ital. fanno, Lat. _faciunt_, at Norcia;
    _crisciu_, Ital. crescono, Lat. _crescunt_, &c., at Rieti. And
    examples are also to be found in ancient Tuscan.

  [14] [This resolution of -_c_- by _s_, or by a sound very near to
    _s_, is, however, a Roman phenomenon, found in some parts of Apulia
    (Molfettese _lausce_, luce, &c.), and also heard in parts of Sicily.]

  [15] There is therefore nothing surprising in the fact that, for
    example, the chronicle of Monaldeschi of Orvieto (14th century)
    should indicate a form of speech of which Muratori remarks: "Romanis
    tunc familiaris, nimirum quae in nonnullis accedabat ad Neapolitanam
    seu vocibus seu pronuntiatione." The _alt_ into _ait_, &c. (_aitro_,
    _moito_), which occur in the well-known _Vita di Cola di Rienzo_,
    examples of which can also be found in some corners of the Marches,
    and of which there are also a few traces in Latium, also shows
    Abruzzan affinity. The phenomenon occurs also, however, in Emilian
    and Tuscan.

  [16] A distinction between the masculine and the neuter article can
    also be noticed at Naples and elsewhere in the southern region, where
    it sometimes occurs that the initial consonant of the substantive is
    differently determined according as the substantive itself is
    conceived as masculine or neuter; thus at Naples, neut. _lo bero_,
    masc. _lo vero_, "il vero," &c.; at Cerignola (Capitanata), _u
    mmegghie_, "il meglio," side by side with _u moise_ "il mese." The
    difference is evidently to be explained by the fact that the neuter
    article originally ended in a consonant (-_d_ or -_c_?; see Merlo,
    _Zeitschrift für roman. Philol._ xxx. 449), which was then
    assimilated to the initial letter of the substantive, while the
    masculine article ended in a vowel.

  [17] This second prefix is common to the opposite valley of the
    Metauro, and appears farther south in the form of _me_,--Camerino:
    _me lu pettu_, nel petto, _me lu Seppurgru_, al Sepolcro.

  [18] A complete analogy is afforded by the history of the Aryan or
    Sanskrit language in India, which in space and time shows always more
    and more strongly the reaction of the oral tendencies of the
    aboriginal races on whom it has been imposed. Thus the Pali presents
    the ancient Aryan organism in a condition analogous to that of the
    oldest French, and the Prakrit of the Dramas, on the other hand, in a
    condition like that of modern French.




ITALIAN LITERATURE. 1. _Origins._--One characteristic fact distinguishes
the Italy of the middle ages with regard to its intellectual
conditions--the tenacity with which the Latin tradition clung to life
(see LATIN). At the end of the 5th century the northern conquerors
invaded Italy. The Roman world crumbled to pieces. A new kingdom arose
at Ravenna under Theodoric, and there learning was not extinguished. The
liberal arts flourished, the very Gothic kings surrounded themselves
with masters of rhetoric and of grammar. The names of Cassiodorus, of
Boetius, of Symmachus, are enough to show how Latin thought maintained
its power amidst the political effacement of the Roman empire. And this
thought held its ground throughout the subsequent ages and events. Thus,
while elsewhere all culture had died out, there still remained in Italy
some schools of laymen,[1] and some really extraordinary men were
educated in them, such as Ennodius, a poet more pagan than Christian,
Arator, Fortunatus, Venantius Jovannicius, Felix the grammarian, Peter
of Pisa, Paulinus of Aquileia and many others, in all of whom we notice
a contrast between the barbarous age they lived in and their aspiration
towards a culture that should reunite them to the classical literature
of Rome. The Italians never had much love for theological studies, and
those who were addicted to them preferred Paris to Italy. It was
something more practical, more positive, that had attraction for the
Italians, and especially the study of Roman law. This zeal for the study
of jurisprudence furthered the establishment of the medieval
universities of Bologna, Padua, Vicenza, Naples, Salerno, Modena and
Parma; and these, in their turn, helped to spread culture, and to
prepare the ground in which the new vernacular literature was afterwards
to be developed. The tenacity of classical traditions, the affection for
the memories of Rome, the preoccupation with political interests,
particularly shown in the wars of the Lombard communes against the
empire of the Hohenstaufens, a spirit more naturally inclined to
practice than to theory--all this had a powerful influence on the fate
of Italian literature. Italy was wanting in that combination of
conditions from which the spontaneous life of a people springs. This was
chiefly owing to the fact that the history of the Italians never
underwent interruption,--no foreign nation having come in to change them
and make them young again. That childlike state of mind and heart, which
in other Latin races, as well as in the Germanic, was such a deep source
of poetic inspiration, was almost utterly wanting in the Italians, who
were always much drawn to history and very little to nature; so, while
legends, tales, epic poems, satires, were appearing and spreading on all
sides, Italy was either quite a stranger to this movement or took a
peculiar part in it. We know, for example, what the Trojan traditions
were in the middle ages; and we should have thought that in Italy--in
the country of Rome, retaining the memory of Aeneas and Virgil--they
would have been specially developed, for it was from Virgil that the
medieval sympathy for the conquered of Troy was derived. In fact,
however, it was not so. A strange book made its appearance in Europe, no
one quite knows when, the _Historia de excidio Trojae_, which purported
to have been written by a certain Dares the Phrygian, an eye-witness of
the Trojan war. In the middle ages this book was the basis of many
literary labours. Benoît de Sainte-More composed an interminable French
poem founded on it, which afterwards in its turn became a source for
other poets to draw from, such as Herbort of Fritzlar and Conrad of
Würzburg. Now for the curious phenomenon displayed by Italy. Whilst
Benoît de Sainte-More wrote his poem in French, taking his material from
a Latin history, whilst the two German writers, from a French source,
made an almost original work in their own language--an Italian, on the
other hand, taking Benoît for his model, composed in Latin the _Historia
destructionis Trojae_; and this Italian was Guido delle Colonne of
Messina, one of the vernacular poets of the Sicilian school, who must
accordingly have known well how to use his own language. Guido was an
imitator of the Provençals; he understood French, and yet wrote his own
book in Latin, nay, changed the romance of the Troubadour into serious
history. Much the same thing occurred with the other great legends. That
of Alexander the Great (q.v.) gave rise to many French, German and
Spanish poems,--in Italy, only to the Latin distichs of Qualichino of
Arezzo. The whole of Europe was full of the legend of Arthur (q.v.). The
Italians contented themselves with translating and with abridging the
French romances, without adding anything of their own. The Italian
writer could neither appropriate the legend nor colour it with his own
tints. Even religious legend, so widely spread in the middle ages, and
springing up so naturally as it did from the heart of that society, only
put out a few roots in Italy. Jacopo di Voragine, while collecting his
lives of the saints, remained only an historian, a man of learning,
almost a critic who seemed doubtful about the things he related. Italy
had none of those books in which the middle age, whether in its ascetic
or its chivalrous character, is so strangely depicted. The intellectual
life of Italy showed itself in an altogether special, positive, almost
scientific, form, in the study of Roman law, in the chronicles of Farfa,
of Marsicano and of many others, in translations from Aristotle, in the
precepts of the school of Salerno, in the travels of Marco Polo--in
short, in a long series of facts which seem to detach themselves from
the surroundings of the middle age, and to be united on the one side
with classical Rome and on the other with the Renaissance.


  Provençal and French preparatory periods.

The necessary consequence of all this was that the Latin language was
most tenacious in Italy, and that the elaboration of the new vulgar
tongue was very slow,--being in fact preceded by two periods of Italian
literature in foreign languages. That is to say, there were many
Italians who wrote Provençal poems, such as the Marchese Alberto
Malaspina (12th century), Maestro Ferrari of Ferrara, Cigala of Genoa,
Zorzi of Venice, Sordello of Mantua, Buvarello of Bologna, Nicoletto of
Turin and others, who sang of love and of war, who haunted the courts,
or lived in the midst of the people, accustoming them to new sounds and
new harmonies. At the same time there was other poetry of an epic kind,
written in a mixed language, of which French was the basis, but in which
forms and words belonging to the Italian dialects were continually
mingling. We find in it hybrid words exhibiting a treatment of sounds
according to the rules of both languages,--French words with Italian
terminations, a system of vocalization within the words approaching the
Italo-Latin usage,--in short, something belonging at once to both
tongues, as it were an attempt at interpenetration, at fusion. Such were
the _Chansons de Geste_, _Macaire_, the _Entrée en Espagne_ written by
Niccola of Padua, the _Prise de Pampelune_ and some others. All this
preceded the appearance of a purely Italian literature.


  Dialect.

In the Franco-Italian poems there was, as it were, a clashing, a
struggle between the two languages, the French, however, gaining the
upper hand. This supremacy became gradually less and less. As the
struggle continued between French and Italian, the former by degrees
lost as much as the latter gained. The hybridism recurred, but it no
longer predominated. In the _Bovo d' Antona_ and the _Rainardo e
Lesengrino_ the Venetian dialect makes itself clearly felt, although the
language is influenced by French forms. Thus these writings, which G. I.
Ascoli has called "miste" (mixed), immediately preceded the appearance
of purely Italian works.


  North Italy.

It is now an established historical fact that there existed no writing
in Italian before the 13th century. It was in the course of that
century, and especially from 1250 onwards, that the new literature
largely unfolded and developed itself. This development was simultaneous
in the whole peninsula, only there was a difference in the
subject-matter of the art. In the north, the poems of Giacomino of
Verona and Bonvecino of Riva were specially religious, and were intended
to be recited to the people. They were written in a dialect partaking of
the Milanese and the Venetian; and in their style they strongly bore the
mark of the influence of French narrative poetry. They may be considered
as belonging to the popular kind of poetry, taking the word, however, in
a broad sense. Perhaps this sort of composition was encouraged by the
old custom in the north of Italy of listening in the piazzas and on the
highways to the songs of the jongleurs. To the very same crowds who had
been delighted with the stories of romance, and who had listened to the
story of the wickedness of _Macaire_ and the misfortunes of
_Blanciflor_, another jongleur would sing of the terrors of the
_Babilonia Infernale_ and the blessedness of the _Gerusalemme celeste_,
and the singers of religious poetry vied with those of the _Chansons de
Geste_.


  South Italy.

In the south of Italy, on the other hand, the love-song prevailed, of
which we have an interesting specimen in the Contrasto attributed to
Ciullo d' Alcamo, about which modern Italian critics have much exercised
themselves. This "contrasto" (dispute) between a man and a woman in
Sicilian dialect certainly must not be considered as the most ancient or
as the only southern poem of a popular kind. It belongs without doubt to
the time of the emperor Frederick II., and is important as a proof that
there existed a popular poetry independent of literary poetry. The
_Contrasto_ of Ciullo d'Alcamo is the most remarkable relic of a kind of
poetry that has perished or which perhaps was smothered by the ancient
Sicilian literature. Its distinguishing point was its possessing all the
opposite qualities to the poetry of the rhymers of what we shall call
the Sicilian school. Vigorous in the expression of feelings, it seems to
come from a real sentiment. The conceits, which are sometimes most bold
and very coarse, show that it proceeded from the lowest grades of
society. Everything is original in Ciullo's _Contrasto_. Conventionality
has no place in it. It is marked by the sensuality characteristic of the
people of the South.


  Siculo-Provençal School.

The reverse of all this happened in the Siculo-Provençal school, at the
head of which was Frederick II. Imitation was the fundamental
characteristic of this school, to which belonged Enzio, king of
Sardinia, Pier delle Vigne, Inghilfredi, Guido and Odo delle Colonne,
Jacopo d' Aquino, Rugieri Pugliese, Giacomo da Lentino, Arrigo Testa and
others. These rhymers never moved a step beyond the ideas of chivalry;
they had no originality; they did not sing of what they felt in their
heart; they abhorred the true and the real. They only aimed at copying
as closely as they could the poetry of the Provençal troubadours.[2] The
art of the Siculo-Provençal school was born decrepit, and there were
many reasons for this--first, because the chivalrous spirit, from which
the poetry of the troubadours was derived, was now old and on its
death-bed; next, because the Provençal art itself, which the Sicilians
took as their model, was in its decadence. It may seem strange, but it
is true, that when the emperor Frederick II., a philosopher, a
statesman, a very original legislator, took to writing poetry, he could
only copy and amuse himself with absolute puerilities. His art, like
that of all the other poets of his court, was wholly conventional,
mechanical, affected. It was completely wanting in what constitutes
poetry--ideality, feeling, sentiment, inspiration. The Italians have had
great disputes among themselves about the original form of the poems of
the Sicilian school, that is to say, whether they were written in
Sicilian dialect, or in that language which Dante called "volgare,
illustre, aulico, cortigiano." But the critics of most authority hold
that the primitive form of these poems was the Sicilian dialect,
modified for literary purposes with the help of Provençal and Latin; the
theory of the "lingua illustre" has been almost entirely rejected, since
we cannot say on what rules it could have been founded, when literature
was in its infancy trying its feet, and lisping its first words. The
Sicilian certainly, in accordance with a tendency common to all
dialects, in passing from the spoken to the written form, must have
gained in dignity; but this was not enough to create the so-called
"lingua illustre," which was upheld by Perticari and others on grounds
rather political than literary.


  Religious lyric poetry in Umbria.

In the 13th century a mighty religious movement took place in Italy, of
which the rise of the two great orders of Saint Francis and Saint
Dominic was at once the cause and the effect. Around Francis of Assisi a
legend has grown up in which naturally the imaginative element prevails.
Yet from some points in it we seem to be able to infer that its hero had
a strong feeling for nature, and a heart open to the most lively
impressions. Many poems are attributed to him. The legend relates that
in the eighteenth year of his penance, when almost rapt in ecstasy, he
dictated the _Cantico del Sole_. Even if this hymn be really his, it
cannot be considered as a poetical work, being written in a kind of
prose simply marked by assonances. As for the other poems, which for a
long time were believed to be by Saint Francis, their spuriousness is
now generally recognized. The true poet who represented in all its
strength and breadth the religious feeling that had made special
progress in Umbria was Jacopo dei Benedetti of Todi, known as Jacopone.
The story is that sorrow at the sudden death of his wife had disordered
his mind, and that, having sold all he possessed and given it to the
poor, he covered himself with rags, and took pleasure in being laughed
at, and followed by a crowd of people who mocked him and called after
him "Jacopone, Jacopone." We do not know whether this be true. What we
do know is that a vehement passion must have stirred his heart and
maintained a despotic hold over him, the passion of divine love. Under
its influence Jacopone went on raving for years and years, subjecting
himself to the severest sufferings, and giving vent to his religious
intoxication in his poems. There is no art in him, there is not the
slightest indication of deliberate effort; there is only feeling, a
feeling that absorbed him, fascinated him, penetrated him through and
through. His poetry was all inside him, and burst out, not so much in
words as in sighs, in groans, in cries that often seem really to come
from a monomaniac. But Jacopone was a mystic, who from his hermit's cell
looked out into the world and specially watched the papacy, scourging
with his words Celestine V. and Boniface VIII. He was put in prison and
laden with chains, but his spirit lifted itself up to God, and that was
enough for him. The same feeling that prompted him to pour out in song
ecstasies of divine love, and to despise and trample on himself, moved
him to reprove those who forsook the heavenly road, whether they were
popes, prelates or monks. In Jacopone there was a strong originality,
and in the period of the origins of Italian literature he was one of the
most characteristic writers.


  The religious drama.

The religious movement in Umbria was followed by another literary
phenomenon, that of the religious drama. In 1258 an old hermit, Raniero
Fasani, leaving the cavern in which he had lived for many years,
suddenly appeared at Perugia. These were very sad times for Italy. The
quarrels in the cities, the factions of the Ghibellines and the Guelphs,
the interdicts and excommunications issued by the popes, the reprisals
of the imperial party, the cruelty and tyranny of the nobles, the
plagues and famines, kept the people in constant agitation, and spread
abroad mysterious fears. The commotion was increased in Perugia by
Fasani, who represented himself as sent by God to disclose mysterious
visions, and to announce to the world terrible visitations. Under the
influence of fear there were formed "Compagnie di Disciplinanti," who,
for a penance, scourged themselves till they drew blood, and sang
"Laudi" in dialogue in their confraternities. These "Laudi," closely
connected with the liturgy, were the first example of the drama in the
vulgar tongue of Italy. They were written in the Umbrian dialect, in
verses of eight syllables, and of course they have not any artistic
value. Their development, however, was rapid. As early as the end of the
same 13th century we have the _Devozioni del Giovedì e Venerdì Santo_,
which have some dramatic elements in them, though they are still
connected with the liturgical office. Then we have the representation
_di un Monaco che andò al servizio di Dio_ ("of a monk who entered the
service of God"), in which there is already an approach to the definite
form which this kind of literary work assumed in the following
centuries.


  Tuscan poetry.

In the 13th century Tuscany was peculiarly circumstanced both as regards
its literary condition and its political life. The Tuscans spoke a
dialect which most closely resembled the mother-tongue, Latin--one which
afterwards became almost exclusively the language of literature, and
which was already regarded at the end of the 13th century as surpassing
the others; "Lingua Tusca magis apta est ad literam sive literaturam":
thus writes Antonio da Tempo of Padua, born about 1275. Being very
little or not at all affected by the Germanic invasion, Tuscany was
never subjected to the feudal system. It had fierce internal struggles,
but they did not weaken its life; on the contrary, they rather gave it
fresh vigour and strengthened it, and (especially after the final fall
of the Hohenstaufens at the battle of Benevento in 1266) made it the
first province of Italy. From 1266 onwards Florence was in a position to
begin that movement of political reform which in 1282 resulted in the
appointment of the Priori delle Arti, and the establishment of the Arti
Minori. This was afterwards copied by Siena with the Magistrato dei
Nove, by Lucca, by Pistoia, and by other Guelph cities in Tuscany with
similar popular institutions. In this way the gilds had taken the
government into their hands, and it was a time of both social and
political prosperity. It was no wonder that literature also rose to an
unlooked-for height. In Tuscany, too, there was some popular love
poetry; there was a school of imitators of the Sicilians, their chief
being Dante of Majano; but its literary originality took another
line--that of humorous and satirical poetry. The entirely democratic
form of government created a style of poetry which stood in the
strongest antithesis to the medieval mystic and chivalrous style. Devout
invocation of God or of a lady came from the cloister and the castle; in
the streets of the cities everything that had gone before was treated
with ridicule or biting sarcasm. Folgore of San Gimignano laughs when in
his sonnets he tells a party of Sienese youths what are the occupations
of every month in the year, or when he teaches a party of Florentine
lads the pleasures of every day in the week. Cene della Chitarra laughs
when he parodies Folgore's sonnets. The sonnets of Rustico di Filippo
are half fun and half satire; laughing and crying, joking and satire,
are all to be found in Cecco Angiolieri of Siena, the oldest "humorist"
we know, a far-off precursor of Rabelais, of Montaigne, of Jean Paul
Richter, of Sydney Smith. But another kind of poetry also began in
Tuscany. Guittone d' Arezzo made art quit chivalrous for national
motives, Provençal forms for Latin. He attempted political poetry, and,
although his work is full of the strangest obscurities, he prepared the
way for the Bolognese school. In the 13th century Bologna was the city
of science, and philosophical poetry appeared there. Guido Guinicelli
was the poet after the new fashion of the art. In him the ideas of
chivalry are changed and enlarged; he sings of love and, together with
it, of the nobility of the mind. The reigning thought in Guinicelli's
Canzoni is nothing external to his own subjectivity. His speculative
mind, accustomed to wandering in the field of philosophy, transfuses its
lucubrations into his art. Guinicelli's poetry has some of the faults of
the school of Guittone d'Arezzo: he reasons too much; he is wanting in
imagination; his poetry is a product of the intellect rather than of the
fancy and the heart. Nevertheless he marks a great development in the
history of Italian art, especially because of his close connexion with
Dante's lyric poetry.


  Allegorical poetry.

But before we come to Dante, certain other facts, not, however,
unconnected with his history, must be noticed. In the 13th century,
there were several poems in the allegorical style. One of these is by
Brunetto Latini, who, it is well known, was attached by ties of strong
affection to Alighieri. His _Tesoretto_ is a short poem, in
seven-syllable verses, rhyming in couplets, in which the author
professes to be lost in a wilderness and to meet with a lady, who is
Nature, from whom he receives much instruction. We see here the vision,
the allegory, the instruction with a moral object--three elements which
we shall find again in the _Divina Commedia_. Francesco da Barberino, a
learned lawyer who was secretary to bishops, a judge, a notary, wrote
two little allegorical poems--the _Documenti d' amore_ and _Del
reggimento e dei costumi delle donne_. Like the _Tesoretto_, these poems
are of no value as works of art, but are, on the other hand, of
importance in the history of manners. A fourth allegorical work was the
_Intelligenza_, by some attributed to Dino Compagni, but probably not
his, and only a version of French poems.


  Prose in 13th century.

While the production of Italian poetry in the 13th century was abundant
and varied, that of prose was scanty. The oldest specimen dates from
1231, and consists of short notices of entries and expenses by Mattasalà
di Spinello dei Lambertini of Siena. In 1253 and 1260 there are some
commercial letters of other Sienese. But there is no sign of literary
prose. Before we come to any, we meet with a phenomenon like that we
noticed in regard to poetry. Here again we find a period of Italian
literature in French. Halfway on in the century a certain Aldobrando or
Aldobrandino (it is not known whether he was of Florence or of Siena)
wrote a book for Beatrice of Savoy, countess of Provence, called _Le
Régime du corps_. In 1267 Martino da Canale wrote in the same "langue
d'oil" a chronicle of Venice. Rusticiano of Pisa, who was for a long
while at the court of Edward I. of England, composed many chivalrous
romances, derived from the Arthurian cycle, and subsequently wrote the
travels of Marco Polo, which may perhaps have been dictated by the great
traveller himself. And finally Brunetto Latini wrote his _Tesoro_ in
French.

Next in order to the original compositions in the langue d'oil come the
translations or adaptations from the same. There are some moral
narratives taken from religious legends; a romance of Julius Caesar;
some short histories of ancient knights; the _Tavola rotonda_;
translations of the _Viaggi_ of Marco Polo and of the _Tesoro_ of
Latini. At the same time there appeared translations from Latin of moral
and ascetic works, of histories and of treatises on rhetoric and
oratory. Up to very recent times it was still possible to reckon as the
most ancient works in Italian prose the _Cronaca_ of Matteo Spinello da
Giovenazzo, and the _Cronaca_ of Ricordano Malespini. But now both of
them have been shown to be forgeries of a much later time. Therefore the
oldest prose writing is a scientific book--the _Composizione del mondo_
by Ristoro d' Arezzo, who lived about the middle of the 13th century.
This work is a copious treatise on astronomy and geography. Ristoro was
superior to the other writers of the time on these subjects, because he
seems to have been a careful observer of natural phenomena, and
consequently many of the things he relates were the result of his
personal investigations. There is also another short treatise, _De
regimine rectoris_, by Fra Paolino, a Minorite friar of Venice, who was
probably bishop of Pozzuoli, and who also wrote a Latin chronicle. His
treatise stands in close relation to that of Egidio Colonna, _De
regimine principum_. It is written in the Venetian dialect.

The 13th century was very rich in tales. There is a collection called
the _Cento Novelle antiche_, which contains stories drawn from Oriental,
Greek and Trojan traditions, from ancient and medieval history, from the
legends of Brittany, Provence and Italy, and from the Bible, from the
local tradition of Italy as well as from histories of animals and old
mythology. This book has a distant resemblance to the Spanish collection
known as _El Conde Lucanor_. The peculiarity of the Italian book is that
the stories are very short, and that they seem to be mere outlines to be
filled in by the narrator as he goes along. Other prose novels were
inserted by Francesco Barberino in his work _Del reggimento e dei
costumi delle donne_, but they are of much less importance than the
others. On the whole the Italian novels of the 13th century have little
originality, and are only a faint reflection of the very rich legendary
literature of France. Some attention should be paid to the _Lettere_ of
Fra Guittone d'Arezzo, who wrote many poems and also some letters in
prose, the subjects of which are moral and religious. Love of antiquity,
of the traditions of Rome and of its language, was so strong in Guittone
that he tried to write Italian in a Latin style, and it turned out
obscure, involved and altogether barbarous. He took as his special model
Seneca, and hence his prose assumed a bombastic style, which, according
to his views, was very artistic, but which in fact was alien to the true
spirit of art, and resulted in the extravagant and grotesque.


  New Tuscan School of lyric poetry.

2. _The Spontaneous Development of Italian Literature._--In the year
1282, the year in which the new Florentine constitution of the "Arti
minori" was completed, a period of literature began that does not belong
to the age of first beginnings, but to that of development. With the
school of Lapo Gianni, of Guido Cavalcanti, of Cino da Pistoia and Dante
Alighieri, lyric poetry became exclusively Tuscan. The whole novelty and
poetic power of this school, which really was the beginning of Italian
art, consist in what Dante expresses so happily--

                            "Quando
  Amore spira, noto, ed a quel modo
  Ch' ei detta dentro, vo significando"--

that is to say, in a power of expressing the feelings of the soul in the
way in which love inspires them, in an appropriate and graceful manner,
fitting form to matter, and by art fusing one with the other. The Tuscan
lyric poetry, the first true Italian art, is pre-eminent in this
artistic fusion, in the spontaneous and at the same time deliberate
action of the mind. In Lapo Gianni the new style is not free from some
admixture of the old associations of the Siculo-Provençal school. He
wavered as it were between two manners. The empty and involved
phraseology of the Sicilians is absent, but the poet does not always rid
himself of their influence. Sometimes, however, he draws freely from his
own heart, and then the subtleties and obscurities disappear, and his
verse becomes clear, flowing and elegant.


  Guido Cavalcanti.

Guido Cavalcanti was a learned man with a high conception of his art. He
felt the value of it, and adapted his learning to it. Cavalcanti was
already a good deal out of sympathy with the medieval spirit; he
reflected deeply on his own work, and from this reflection he derived
his poetical conception. His poems may be divided into two
classes--those which portray the philosopher, "il sottilissimo
dialettico," as Lorenzo the Magnificent called him, and those which are
more directly the product of his poetic nature imbued with mysticism and
metaphysics. To the first set belongs the famous poem _Sulla natura
d'amore_, which in fact is a treatise on amorous metaphysics, and was
annotated later in a learned way by the most renowned Platonic
philosophers of the 15th century, such as Marsilius Ficinus and others.
In other poems of Cavalcanti's besides this we see a tendency to
subtilize and to stifle the poetic imagery under a dead weight of
philosophy. But there are many of his sonnets in which the truth of the
images and the elegance and simplicity of the style are admirable, and
make us feel that we are in quite a new period of art. This is
particularly felt in Cavalcanti's _Ballate_, for in them he pours
himself out ingenuously and without affectation, but with an invariable
and profound consciousness of his art. Far above all the others for the
reality of the sorrow and the love displayed, for the melancholy longing
expressed for the distant home, for the calm and solemn yearning of his
heart for the lady of his love, for a deep subjectivity which is never
troubled by metaphysical subtleties, is the ballata composed by
Cavalcanti when he was banished from Florence with the party of the
Bianchi in 1300, and took refuge at Sarzana.


  Cino da Pistoia.

The third poet among the followers of the new school was Cino da
Pistoia, of the family of the Sinibuldi. His love poems are so sweet, so
mellow and so musical that they are only surpassed by Dante. The pains
of love are described by him with vigorous touches; it is easy to see
that they are not feigned but real. The psychology of love and of sorrow
nearly reaches perfection.


  Dante (1265-1321).

As the author of the _Vita nuova_, the greatest of all Italian poets,
Dante also belongs to the same lyric school. In the lyrics of the _Vita
nuova_ (so called by its author to indicate that his first meeting with
Beatrice was the beginning for him of a life entirely different from
that he had hitherto led) there is a high idealization of love. It seems
as if there were in it nothing earthly or human, and that the poet had
his eyes constantly fixed on heaven while singing of his lady.
Everything is supersensual, aerial, heavenly, and the real Beatrice is
always gradually melting more and more into the symbolical one--passing
out of her human nature and into the divine. Several of the lyrics of
the _Canzoniere_ deal with the theme of the "new life"; but all the
love poems do not refer to Beatrice, while other pieces are
philosophical and bridge over to the _Convito_.

The work which made Dante immortal, and raised him above all other men
of genius in Italy, was his _Divina Commedia_. An allegorical meaning is
hidden under the literal one of this great epic. Dante travelling
through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, is a symbol of mankind aiming at
the double object of temporal and eternal happiness. By the forest in
which the poet loses himself is meant the civil and religious confusion
of society, deprived of its two guides, the emperor and the pope. The
mountain illuminated by the sun is universal monarchy. The three beasts
are the three vices and the three powers which offered the greatest
obstacles to Dante's designs: envy is Florence, light, fickle and
divided by the Bianchi and Neri; pride is the house of France; avarice
is the papal court; Virgil represents reason and the empire. Beatrice is
the symbol of the supernatural aid without which man cannot attain the
supreme end, which is God.

But the merit of the poem does not lie in the allegory, which still
connects it with medieval literature. What is new in it is the
individual art of the poet, the classic art transfused for the first
time into a Romance form. Dante is above all a great artist. Whether he
describes nature, analyzes passions, curses the vices or sings hymns to
the virtues, he is always wonderful for the grandeur and delicacy of his
art. Out of the rude medieval vision he has made the greatest work of
art of modern times. He took the materials for his poem from theology,
from philosophy, from history, from mythology--but more especially from
his own passions, from hatred and love; and he has breathed the breath
of genius into all these materials. Under the pen of the poet, the dead
come to life again; they become men again, and speak the language of
their time, of their passions. Farinata degli Uberti, Boniface VIII.,
Count Ugolino, Manfred, Sordello, Hugh Capet, St Thomas Aquinas,
Cacciaguida, St Benedict, St Peter, are all so many objective creations;
they stand before us in all the life of their characters, their
feelings, their habits.

Yet this world of fancy in which the poet moves is not only made living
by the power of his genius, but it is changed by his consciousness. The
real chastizer of the sins, the rewarder of the virtues, is Dante
himself. The personal interest which he brings to bear on the historical
representation of the three worlds is what most interests us and stirs
us. Dante remakes history after his own passions. Thus the _Divina
Commedia_ can fairly be called, not only the most life-like drama of the
thoughts and feelings that moved men at that time, but also the most
clear and spontaneous reflection of the individual feelings of the poet,
from the indignation of the citizen and the exile to the faith of the
believer and the ardour of the philosopher. The _Divina Commedia_ fixed
and clearly defined the destiny of Italian literature, to give artistic
lustre, and hence immortality, to all the forms of literature which the
middle ages had produced. Dante begins the great era of the Renaissance.


  Petrarch (1304-1374).

Two facts characterize the literary life of Petrarch--classical research
and the new human feeling introduced into his lyric poetry. Nor are
these two facts separate; rather is the one the result of the other. The
Petrarch who travelled about unearthing the works of the great Latin
writers helps us to understand the Petrarch who, having completely
detached himself from the middle ages, loved a real lady with a human
love, and celebrated her in her life and after her death in poems full
of studied elegance. Petrarch was the first humanist, and he was at the
same time the first lyric poet of the modern school. His career was long
and tempestuous. He lived for many years at Avignon, cursing the
corruption of the papal court; he travelled through nearly the whole of
Europe; he corresponded with emperors and popes; he was considered the
first man of letters of his time; he had honours and riches; and he
always bore about within him discontent, melancholy and incapacity for
satisfaction--three characteristics of the modern man.

His _Canzoniere_ is divided into three parts--the first containing the
poems written during Laura's lifetime, the second the poems written
after her death, the third the _Trionfi_. The one and only subject of
these poems is love; but the treatment is full of variety in conception,
in imagery and in sentiment, derived from the most varied impressions of
nature. Petrarch's love is real and deep, and to this is due the merit
of his lyric verse, which is quite different, not only from that of the
Provençal troubadours and of the Italian poets before him, but also from
the lyrics of Dante. Petrarch is a psychological poet, who dives down
into his own soul, examines all his feelings, and knows how to render
them with an art of exquisite sweetness. The lyrics of Petrarch are no
longer transcendental like Dante's, but on the contrary keep entirely
within human limits. In struggles, in doubts, in fears, in
disappointments, in griefs, in joys, in fact in everything, the poet
finds material for his poetry. The second part of the _Canzoniere_ is
the more passionate. The _Trionfi_ are inferior; it is clear that in
them Petrarch tried to imitate the _Divina Commedia_, but never came
near it. The _Canzoniere_ includes also a few political poems--a canzone
to Italy, one supposed to be addressed to Cola di Rienzi and several
sonnets against the court of Avignon. These are remarkable for their
vigour of feeling, and also for showing that Petrarch had formed the
idea of _Italianità_ better even than Alighieri. The Italy which he
wooed was different from any conceived by the men of the middle ages,
and in this also he was a precursor of modern times and of modern
aspirations. Petrarch had no decided political idea. He exalted Cola di
Rienzi, invoked the emperor Charles IV., praised the Visconti; in fact,
his politics were affected more by impressions than by principles; but
above all this reigned constantly the love of Italy, his ancient and
glorious country, which in his mind is reunited with Rome, the great
city of his heroes Cicero and Scipio.


  Boccaccio (1313-1375).

Boccaccio had the same enthusiastic love of antiquity and the same
worship for the new Italian literature as Petrarch. He was the first,
with the help of a Greek born in Calabria, to put together a Latin
translation of the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_. His vast classical
learning was shown specially in the work _De genealogia deorum_, in
which he enumerates the gods according to genealogical trees constructed
on the authority of the various authors who wrote about the pagan
divinities. This work marked an era in studies preparatory to the
revival of classical learning. And at the same time it opened the way
for the modern criticism, because Boccaccio in his researches, and in
his own judgment was always independent of the authors whom he most
esteemed. The _Genealogia deorum_ is, as A. H. Heeren said, an
encyclopaedia of mythological knowledge; and it was the precursor of the
great humanistic movement which was developed in the 15th century.
Boccaccio was also the first historian of women in his _De claris
mulieribus_, and the first to undertake to tell the story of the great
unfortunate in his _De casibus virorum illustrium_. He continued and
perfected former geographical investigations in his interesting book _De
montibus, silvis, fontibus, lacubus, fluminibus, stagnis, et paludibus,
et de nominibus maris_, for which he made use of Vibius Sequester, but
which contains also many new and valuable observations. Of his Italian
works his lyrics do not come anywhere near to the perfection of
Petrarch's. His sonnets, mostly about love, are quite mediocre. His
narrative poetry is better. Although now he can no longer claim the
distinction long conceded to him of having invented the octave stanza
(which afterwards became the metre of the poems of Boiardo, of Ariosto
and of Tasso), yet he was certainly the first to use it in a work of
some length and written with artistic skill, such as is his _Teseide_,
the oldest Italian romantic poem. The _Filostrato_ relates the loves of
Troiolo and Griseida (Troilus and Cressida). It may be that Boccaccio
knew the French poem of the Trojan war by Benoît de Sainte-More; but the
interest of the Italian work lies in the analysis of the passion of
love, which is treated with a masterly hand. The _Ninfale fiesolano_
tells the love story of the nymph Mesola and the shepherd Africo. The
_Amorosa Visione_, a poem in triplets, doubtless owed its origin to the
_Divina Commedia_. The _Ameto_ is a mixture of prose and poetry, and is
the first Italian pastoral romance.

The _Filocopo_ takes the earliest place among prose romances. In it
Boccaccio tells in a laborious style, and in the most prolix way, the
loves of Florio and Biancafiore. Probably for this work he drew
materials from a popular source or from a Byzantine romance, which
Leonzio Pilato may have mentioned to him. In the _Filocopo_ there is a
remarkable exuberance in the mythological part, which damages the
romance as an artistic work, but which contributes to the history of
Boccaccio's mind. The _Fiammetta_ is another romance, about the loves of
Boccaccio and Maria d'Aquino, a supposed natural daughter of King
Robert, whom he always called by this name of Fiammetta.

The Italian work which principally made Boccaccio famous was the
_Decamerone_, a collection of a hundred novels, related by a party of
men and women, who had retired to a villa near Florence to escape from
the plague in 1348. Novel-writing, so abundant in the preceding
centuries, especially in France, now for the first time assumed an
artistic shape. The style of Boccaccio tends to the imitation of Latin,
but in him prose first took the form of elaborated art. The rudeness of
the old _fabliaux_ gives place to the careful and conscientious work of
a mind that has a feeling for what is beautiful, that has studied the
classic authors, and that strives to imitate them as much as possible.
Over and above this, in the _Decamerone_, Boccaccio is a delineator of
character and an observer of passions. In this lies his novelty. Much
has been written about the sources of the novels of the _Decamerone_.
Probably Boccaccio made use both of written and of oral sources. Popular
tradition must have furnished him with the materials of many stories,
as, for example, that of Griselda.

Unlike Petrarch, who was always discontented, preoccupied, wearied with
life, disturbed by disappointments, we find Boccaccio calm, serene,
satisfied with himself and with his surroundings. Notwithstanding these
fundamental differences in their characters, the two great authors were
old and warm friends. But their affection for Dante was not equal.
Petrarch, who says that he saw him once in his childhood, did not
preserve a pleasant recollection of him, and it would be useless to deny
that he was jealous of his renown. The _Divina Commedia_ was sent him by
Boccaccio, when he was an old man, and he confessed that he never read
it. On the other hand, Boccaccio felt for Dante something more than
love--enthusiasm. He wrote a biography of him, of which the accuracy is
now unfairly depreciated by some critics, and he gave public critical
lectures on the poem in Santa Maria del Fiore at Florence.


  Imitators of the Commedia.

Fazio degli Uberti and Federigo Frezzi were imitators of the _Divina
Commedia_, but only in its external form. The former wrote the
_Dittamondo_, a long poem, in which the author supposes that he was
taken by the geographer Solinus into different parts of the world, and
that his guide related the history of them. The legends of the rise of
the different Italian cities have some importance historically. Frezzi,
bishop of his native town Foligno, wrote the _Quadriregio_, a poem of
the four kingdoms--Love, Satan, the Vices and the Virtues. This poem has
many points of resemblance with the _Divina Commedia_. Frezzi pictures
the condition of man who rises from a state of vice to one of virtue,
and describes hell, the limbo, purgatory and heaven. The poet has Pallas
for a companion.


  Novelists.

Ser Giovanni Fiorentino wrote, under the title of _Pecorone_, a
collection of tales, which are supposed to have been related by a monk
and a nun in the parlour of the monastery of Forlì. He closely imitated
Boccaccio, and drew on Villani's chronicle for his historical stories.
Franco Sacchetti wrote tales too, for the most part on subjects taken
from Florentine history. His book gives a life-like picture of
Florentine society at the end of the 14th century. The subjects are
almost always improper; but it is evident that Sacchetti collected all
these anecdotes in order to draw from them his own conclusions and moral
reflections, which are to be found at the end of every story. From this
point of view Sacchetti's work comes near to the _Monalisationes_ of
the middle ages. A third novelist was Giovanni Sercambi of Lucca, who
after 1374 wrote a book, in imitation of Boccaccio, about a party of
people who were supposed to fly from a plague and to go travelling about
in different Italian cities, stopping here and there telling stories.
Later, but important, names are those of Massuccio Salernitano (Tommaso
Guardato), who wrote the _Novellino_, and Antonio Cornazzano whose
_Proverbii_ became extremely popular.


  The chroniclers.

It has already been said that the Chronicles formerly believed to have
been of the 13th century are now regarded as forgeries of later times.
At the end of the 13th century, however, we find a _chronicle_ by Dino
Compagni, which, notwithstanding the unfavourable opinion of it
entertained especially by some German writers, is in all probability
authentic. Little is known about the life of Compagni. Noble by birth,
he was democratic in feeling, and was a supporter of the new ordinances
of Giano della Bella. As prior and gonfalonier of justice he always had
the public welfare at heart. When Charles of Valois, the nominee of
Boniface VIII., was expected in Florence, Compagni, foreseeing the evils
of civil discord, assembled a number of citizens in the church of San
Giovanni, and tried to quiet their excited spirits. His chronicle
relates the events that came under his own notice from 1280 to 1312. It
bears the stamp of a strong subjectivity. The narrative is constantly
personal. It often rises to the finest dramatic style. A strong
patriotic feeling and an exalted desire for what is right pervade the
book. Compagni is more an historian than a chronicler, because he looks
for the reasons of events, and makes profound reflections on them.
According to our judgment he is one of the most important authorities
for that period of Florentine history, notwithstanding the not
insignificant mistakes in fact which are to be found in his writings. On
the contrary, Giovanni Villani, born in 1300, was more of a chronicler
than an historian. He relates the events up to 1347. The journeys that
he made in Italy and France, and the information thus acquired, account
for the fact that his chronicle, called by him _Istorie fiorentine_,
comprises events that occurred all over Europe. What specially
distinguishes the work of Villani is that he speaks at length, not only
of events in politics and war, but also of the stipends of public
officials, of the sums of money used for paying soldiers and for public
festivals, and of many other things of which the knowledge is very
valuable. With such an abundance of information it is not to be wondered
at that Villani's narrative is often encumbered with fables and errors,
particularly when he speaks of things that happened before his own time.
Matteo was the brother of Giovanni Villani, and continued the chronicle
up to 1363. It was again continued by Filippo Villani. Gino Capponi,
author of the _Commentari dell' acquisto di Pisa_ and of the narration
of the _Tumulto dei ciompi_, belonged to both the 14th and the 15th
centuries.


  Ascetic writers.

The _Divina Commedia_ is ascetic in its conception, and in a good many
points of its execution. To a large extent similar is the genius of
Petrarch; yet neither Petrarch nor Dante could be classified among the
pure ascetics of their time. But many other writers come under this
head. St Catherine of Siena's mysticism was political. She was a really
extraordinary woman, who aspired to bring back the Church of Rome to
evangelical virtue, and who has left a collection of letters written in
a high and lofty tone to all kinds of people, including popes. She joins
hands on the one side with Jacopone of Todi, on the other with
Savonarola. Hers is the strongest, clearest, most exalted religious
utterance that made itself heard in Italy in the 14th century. It is not
to be thought that precise ideas of reformation entered into her head,
but the want of a great moral reform was felt in her heart. And she
spoke indeed _ex abundantia cordis_. Anyhow the daughter of Jacopo
Benincasa must take her place among those who from afar off prepared the
way for the religious movement which took effect, especially in Germany
and England, in the 16th century.

Another Sienese, Giovanni Colombini, founder of the order of Jesuati,
preached poverty by precept and example, going back to the religious
idea of St Francis of Assisi. His letters are among the most remarkable
in the category of ascetic works in the 14th century. Passavanti, in his
_Specchio della vera penitenza_, attached instruction to narrative.
Cavalca translated from the Latin the _Vite dei santi padri_. Rivalta
left behind him many sermons, and Franco Sacchetti (the famous novelist)
many discourses. On the whole, there is no doubt that one of the most
important productions of the Italian spirit of the 14th century was the
religious literature.


  Comic poetry.

In direct antithesis with this is a kind of literature which has a
strong popular element. Humorous poetry, the poetry of laughter and
jest, which as we saw was largely developed in the 13th century, was
carried on in the 14th by Bindo Bonichi, Arrigo di Castruccio, Cecco
Nuccoli, Andrea Orgagna, Filippo de' Bardi, Adriano de' Rossi, Antonio
Pucci and other lesser writers. Orgagna was specially comic; Bonichi was
comic with a satirical and moral purpose. Antonio Pucci was superior to
all of them for the variety of his production. He put into triplets the
_chronicle_ of Giovanni Villani (_Centiloquio_), and wrote many
historical poems called _Serventesi_, many comic poems, and not a few
epico-popular compositions on various subjects. A little poem of his in
seven cantos treats of the war between the Florentines and the Pisans
from 1362 to 1365. Other poems drawn from a legendary source celebrate
the _Reina d' Oriente_, _Apollonio di Tiro_, the _Bel Gherardino_, &c.
These poems, meant to be recited to the people, are the remote ancestors
of the romantic epic, which was developed in the 16th century, and the
first representatives of which were Boiardo and Ariosto.


  Political and amatory poetry.

  Histories in verse.

Many poets of the 14th century have left us political works. Of these
Fazio degli Uberti, the author of _Dittamondo_, who wrote a _Serventese_
to the lords and people of Italy, a poem on Rome, a fierce invective
against Charles IV. of Luxemburg, deserves notice, and Francesco di
Vannozzo, Frate Stoppa and Matteo Frescobaldi. It may be said in general
that following the example of Petrarch many writers devoted themselves
to patriotic poetry. From this period also dates that literary
phenomenon known under the name of Petrarchism. The Petrarchists, or
those who sang of love, imitating Petrarch's manner, were found already
in the 14th century. But others treated the same subject with more
originality, in a manner that might be called semi-popular. Such were
the _Ballate_ of Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, of Franco Sacchetti, of
Niccolò Soldanieri, of Guido and Bindo Donati. Ballate were poems sung
to dancing, and we have very many songs for music of the 14th century.
We have already stated that Antonio Pucci versified Villani's
_Chronicle_. This instance of versified history is not unique, and it is
evidently connected with the precisely similar phenomenon offered by the
"vulgar Latin" literature. It is enough to notice a chronicle of Arezzo
in terza rima by Gorello de' Sinigardi, and the history, also in terza
rima, of the journey of Pope Alexander III. to Venice by Pier de'
Natali. Besides this, every kind of subject, whether history, tragedy or
husbandry, was treated in verse. Neri di Landocio wrote a life of St
Catherine; Jacopo Gradenigo put the gospels into triplets; Paganino
Bonafede in the _Tesoro dei rustici_ gave many precepts in agriculture,
beginning that kind of Georgic poetry which was fully developed later by
Alamanni in his _Coltivazione_, by Girolamo Baruffaldi in the
_Canapajo_, by Rucellai in the _Api_, by Bartolommeo Lorenzi in the
_Coltivazione dei monti_, by Giambattista Spolverini in the
_Coltivazione del riso_, &c.


  Drama.

There cannot have been an entire absence of dramatic literature in Italy
in the 14th century, but traces of it are wanting, although we find them
again in great abundance in the 15th century. The 14th century had,
however, one drama unique of its kind. In the sixty years (1250 to 1310)
which ran from the death of the emperor Frederick II. to the expedition
of Henry VII., no emperor had come into Italy. In the north of Italy,
Ezzelino da Romano, with the title of imperial vicar, had taken
possession of almost the whole of the March of Treviso, and threatened
Lombardy. The popes proclaimed a crusade against him, and, crushed by
it, the Ezzelini fell. Padua then began to breathe again, and took to
extending its dominion. There was living at Padua Albertino Mussato,
born in 1261, a year after the catastrophe of the Ezzelini; he grew up
among the survivors of a generation that hated the name of the tyrant.
After having written in Latin a history of Henry VII. he devoted himself
to a dramatic work on Ezzelino, and wrote it also in Latin. The
_Eccerinus_, which was probably never represented on the stage, has been
by some critics compared to the great tragic works of Greece. It would
probably be nearer the truth to say that it has nothing in common with
the works of Aeschylus; but certainly the dramatic strength, the
delineation of certain situations, and the narration of certain events
are very original. Mussato's work stands alone in the history of Italian
dramatic literature. Perhaps this would not have been the case if he had
written it in Italian.

In the last years of the 14th century we find the struggle that was soon
to break out between the indigenous literary tradition and the reviving
classicism already alive in spirit. As representatives of this struggle,
of this antagonism, we may consider Luigi Marsilio and Coluccio
Salutati, both learned men who spoke and wrote Latin, who aspired to be
humanists, but who meanwhile also loved Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio,
and felt and celebrated in their writings the beauty of Italian
literature.


  Graeco-Latin learning.

3. _The Renaissance._--A great intellectual movement, which had been
gathering for a long time, made itself felt in Italy in the 15th
century. A number of men arose, all learned, laborious, indefatigable,
and all intent on one great work. Such were Niccolò Niccoli, Giannozzo
Manetti, Palla Strozzi, Leonardo Bruni, Francesco Filelfo, Poggio
Bracciolini, Carlo d'Arezzo, Lorenzo Valla. Manetti buried himself in
his books, slept only for a few hours in the night, never went out of
doors, and spent his time in translating from Greek, studying Hebrew,
and commenting on Aristotle. Palla Strozzi sent into Greece at his own
expense to search for ancient books, and had Plutarch and Plato brought
for him. Poggio Bracciolini went to the Council of Constance, and found
in a monastery in the dust-hole Cicero's _Orations_. He copied
Quintilian with his own hand, discovered Lucretius, Plautus, Pliny and
many other Latin authors. Guarino went through the East in search of
codices. Giovanni Aurispa returned to Venice with many hundreds of
manuscripts. What was the passion that excited all these men? What did
they search after? What did they look to? These Italians were but
handing on the solemn tradition which, although partly latent, was the
informing principle of Italian medieval history, and now at length came
out triumphant. This tradition was that same tenacious and sacred memory
of Rome, that same worship of its language and institutions, which at
one time had retarded the development of Italian literature, and now
grafted the old Latin branch of ancient classicism on the flourishing
stock of Italian literature. All this is but the continuation of a
phenomenon that has existed for ages. It is the thought of Rome that
always dominates Italians, the thought that keeps appearing from Boetius
to Dante Alighieri, from Arnold of Brescia to Cola di Rienzi, which
gathers strength with Petrarch and Boccaccio, and finally becomes
triumphant in literature and life--in life, because the modern spirit is
fed on the works of the ancients. Men come to have a more just idea of
nature: the world is no longer cursed or despised; truth and beauty join
hands; man is born again; and human reason resumes its rights.
Everything, the individual and society, are changed under the influence
of new facts.


  New social conditions.

First of all there was formed a human individuality, which was wanting
in the middle ages. As J. Burckhardt has said, the man was changed into
the individual. He began to feel and assert his own personality, which
was constantly attaining a fuller realization. As a consequence of this,
the idea of fame and the desire for it arose. A really cultured class
was formed, in the modern meaning of the word, and the conception was
arrived at (completely unknown in former times) that the worth of a man
did not depend at all on his birth but on his personal qualities. Poggio
in his dialogue _De nobilitate_ declares that he entirely agreed with
his interlocutors Niccolò Niccoli and Lorenzo de' Medici in the opinion
that there is no other nobility but that of personal merit. External
life was growing more refined in all particulars; the man of society was
created; rules for civilized life were made; there was an increasing
desire for sumptuous and artistic entertainments. The medieval idea of
existence was turned upside down; men who had hitherto turned their
thoughts exclusively to heavenly things, and believed exclusively in the
divine right, now began to think of beautifying their earthly existence,
of making it happy and gay, and returned to a belief in their human
rights. This was a great advance, but one which carried with it the
seeds of many dangers. The conception of morality became gradually
weaker. The "fay ce que vouldras" of Rabelais became the first principle
of life. Religious feeling was blunted, was weakened, was changed,
became pagan again. Finally the Italian of the Renaissance, in his
qualities and his passions, became the most remarkable representative of
the heights and depths, of the virtues and faults, of humanity.
Corruption was associated with all that is most ideal in life; a
profound scepticism took hold of people's minds; indifference to good
and evil reached its highest point.


  Literary dangers of Latinism.

Besides this, a great literary danger was hanging over Italy. Humanism
threatened to submerge its youthful national literature. There were
authors who laboriously tried to give Italian Latin forms, to do again,
after Dante's time, what Guittone d'Arezzo had so unhappily done in the
13th century. Provincial dialects tried to reassert themselves in
literature. The great authors of the 14th century, Dante, Petrarch,
Boccaccio, were by many people forgotten or despised.


  Influence of Florence.

It was Florence that saved literature by reconciling the classical
models to modern feeling, Florence that succeeded in assimilating
classical forms to the "vulgar" art. Still gathering vigour and elegance
from classicism, still drawing from the ancient fountains all that they
could supply of good and useful, it was able to preserve its real life,
to keep its national traditions, and to guide literature along the way
that had been opened to it by the writers of the preceding century. At
Florence the most celebrated humanists wrote also in the vulgar tongue,
and commented on Dante and Petrarch, and defended them from their
enemies. Leone Battista Alberti, the learned Greek and Latin scholar,
wrote in the vernacular, and Vespasiano da Bisticci, whilst he was
constantly absorbed in Greek and Latin manuscripts, wrote the _Vite di
uomini illustri_, valuable for their historical contents, and rivalling
the best works of the 14th century in their candour and simplicity.
Andrea da Barberino wrote the beautiful prose of the _Reali di Francia_,
giving a colouring of "romanità" to the chivalrous romances. Belcari and
Benivieni carry us back to the mystic idealism of earlier times.


  Lorenzo de' Medici.

But it is in Lorenzo de' Medici that the influence of Florence on the
Renaissance is particularly seen. His mind was formed by the ancients:
he attended the class of the Greek Argyropulos, sat at Platonic
banquets, took pains to collect codices, sculptures, vases, pictures,
gems and drawings to ornament the gardens of San Marco and to form the
library afterwards called by his name. In the saloons of his Florentine
palace, in his villas at Careggi, Fiesole and Ambra, stood the wonderful
chests painted by Dello with stories from Ovid, the Hercules of
Pollajuolo, the Pallas of Botticelli, the works of Filippino and
Verrocchio. Lorenzo de' Medici lived entirely in the classical world;
and yet if we read his poems we only see the man of his time, the
admirer of Dante and of the old Tuscan poets, who takes inspiration from
the popular muse, and who succeeds in giving to his poetry the colours
of the most pronounced realism as well as of the loftiest idealism, who
passes from the Platonic sonnet to the impassioned triplets of the
_Amori di Venere_, from the grandiosity of the _Salve_ to _Nencia_ and
to _Beoni_, from the _Canto carnascialesco_ to the _Lauda_. The feeling
of nature is strong in him--at one time sweet and melancholy, at another
vigorous and deep, as if an echo of the feelings, the sorrows, the
ambitions of that deeply agitated life. He liked to look into his own
heart with a severe eye, but he was also able to pour himself out with
tumultuous fulness. He described with the art of a sculptor; he
satirized, laughed, prayed, sighed, always elegant, always a Florentine,
but a Florentine who read Anacreon, Ovid and Tibullus, who wished to
enjoy life, but also to taste of the refinements of art.


  Poliziano.

Next to Lorenzo comes Poliziano, who also united, and with greater art,
the ancient and the modern, the popular and the classical style. In his
_Rispetti_ and in his _Ballate_ the freshness of imagery and the
plasticity of form are inimitable. He, a great Greek scholar, wrote
Italian verses with dazzling colours; the purest elegance of the Greek
sources pervaded his art in all its varieties, in the _Orfeo_ as well as
the _Stanze per la giostra_.


  The Academies.

As a consequence of the intellectual movement towards the Renaissance,
there arose in Italy in the 15th century three academies, those of
Florence, of Naples and of Rome. The Florentine academy was founded by
Cosmo I. de' Medici. Having heard the praises of Platonic philosophy
sung by Gemistus Pletho, who in 1439 was at the council of Florence, he
took such a liking for those opinions that he soon made a plan for a
literary congress which was especially to discuss them. Marsilius
Ficinus has described the occupations and the entertainments of these
academicians. Here, he said, the young men learnt, by way of pastime,
precepts of conduct and the practice of eloquence; here grown-up men
studied the government of the republic and the family; here the aged
consoled themselves with the belief in a future world. The academy was
divided into three classes: that of patrons, who were members of the
Medici family; that of hearers, among whom sat the most famous men of
that age, such as Pico della Mirandola, Angelo Poliziano, Leon Battista
Alberti; that of disciples, who were youths anxious to distinguish
themselves in philosophical pursuits. It is known that the Platonic
academy endeavoured to promote, with regard to art, a second and a more
exalted revival of antiquity. The Roman academy was founded by Giulio
Pomponio Leto, with the object of promoting the discovery and the
investigation of ancient monuments and books. It was a sort of religion
of classicism, mixed with learning and philosophy. Platina, the
celebrated author of the lives of the first hundred popes, belonged to
it. At Naples, the academy known as the Pontaniana was instituted. The
founder of it was Antonio Beccadelli, surnamed Il Panormita, and after
his death the head was Il Pontano, who gave his name to it, and whose
mind animated it.


  Romantic poetry.

Romantic poems were the product of the moral scepticism and the artistic
taste of the 15th century. Italy never had any true epic poetry in its
period of literary birth. Still less could it have any in the
Renaissance. It had, however, many poems called _Cantari_, because they
contained stories that were sung to the people; and besides there were
romantic poems, such as the _Buovo d' Antona_, the _Regina Ancroja_ and
others. But the first to introduce elegance and a new life into this
style was Luigi Pulci, who grew up in the house of the Medici, and who
wrote the _Morgante Maggiore_ at the request of Lucrezia Tornabuoni,
mother of Lorenzo the Magnificent. The material of the _Morgante_ is
almost completely taken from an obscure chivalrous poem of the 15th
century recently discovered by Professor Pio Rajna. On this foundation
Pulci erected a structure of his own, often turning the subject into
ridicule, burlesquing the characters, introducing many digressions, now
capricious, now scientific, now theological. Pulci's merit consists in
having been the first to raise the romantic epic which had been for two
centuries in the hands of story-tellers into a work of art, and in
having united the serious and the comic, thus happily depicting the
manners and feelings of the time. With a more serious intention Matteo
Boiardo, count of Scandiano, wrote his _Orlando innamorato_, in which he
seems to have aspired to embrace the whole range of Carlovingian
legends; but he did not complete his task. We find here too a large vein
of humour and burlesque. Still the Ferrarese poet is drawn to the world
of romance by a profound sympathy for chivalrous manners and
feelings--that is to say, for love, courtesy, valour and generosity. A
third romantic poem of the 15th century was the _Mambriano_ by Francesco
Bello (Cieco of Ferrara). He drew from the Carlovingian cycle, from the
romances of the Round Table, from classical antiquity. He was a poet of
no common genius, and of ready imagination. He showed the influence of
Boiardo, especially in something of the fantastic which he introduced
into his work.


  Drama.

The development of the drama in the 15th century was very great. This
kind of semi-popular literature was born in Florence, and attached
itself to certain popular festivities that were usually held in honour
of St John the Baptist, patron saint of the city. The _Sacra
Rappresentazione_ is in substance nothing more than the development of
the medieval _Mistero_ ("mystery-play"). Although it belonged to popular
poetry, some of its authors were literary men of much renown. It is
enough to notice Lorenzo de' Medici, who wrote _San Giovanni e Paolo_,
and Feo Belcari, author of the _San Panunzio_, the _Abramo ed Isac_, &c.
From the 15th century, some element of the comic-profane found its way
into the _Sacra Rappresentazione_. From its Biblical and legendary
conventionalism Poliziano emancipated himself in his _Orfeo_, which,
although in its exterior form belonging to the sacred representations,
yet substantially detaches itself from them in its contents and in the
artistic element introduced.


  Pastoral poetry.

From Petrarch onwards the eclogue was a kind of literature that much
pleased the Italians. In it, however, the pastoral element is only
apparent, for there is nothing really rural in it. Such is the _Arcadia_
of Jacopo Sannazzaro of Naples, author of a wearisome Latin poem _De
Partu Virginis_, and of some piscatorial eclogues. The _Arcadia_ is
divided into ten eclogues, in which the festivities, the games, the
sacrifices, the manners of a colony of shepherds are described. They are
written in elegant verses, but it would be vain to look in them for the
remotest feeling of country life. On the other hand, even in this style,
Lorenzo de' Medici was superior. His _Nencia da Barberino_, as a modern
writer says, is as it were the new and clear reproduction of the popular
songs of the environs of Florence, melted into one majestic wave of
octave stanzas. Lorenzo threw himself into the spirit of the bare
realism of country life. There is a marked contrast between this work
and the conventional bucolic of Sannazzaro and other writers. A rival of
the Medici in this style, but always inferior to him, was Luigi Pulci in
his _Beca da Dicomano_.


  Lyric poetry.

The lyric love poetry of this century was unimportant. In its stead we
see a completely new style arise, the _Canto carnascialesco_. These were
a kind of choral songs, which were accompanied with symbolical
masquerades, common in Florence at the carnival. They were written in a
metre like that of the ballate; and for the most part they were put into
the mouth of a party of workmen and tradesmen, who, with not very chaste
allusions, sang the praises of their art. These triumphs and masquerades
were directed by Lorenzo himself. At eventide there set out into the
city large companies on horseback, playing and singing these songs.
There are some by Lorenzo himself, which surpass all the others in their
mastery of art. That entitled _Bacco ed Arianna_ is the most famous.


  Religious reaction. Savonarola.

Girolamo Savonarola, who came to Florence in 1489, arose to fight
against the literary and social movement of the Renaissance. Some have
tried to make out that Savonarola was an apostle of liberty, others that
he was a precursor of the Reformation. In truth, however, he was neither
the one nor the other. In his struggle with Lorenzo de' Medici, he
directed his attack against the promoter of classical studies, the
patron of pagan literature, rather than against the political tyrant.
Animated by mystic zeal, he took the line of a prophet, preaching
against reading voluptuous authors, against the tyranny of the Medici,
and calling for popular government. This, however, was not done from a
desire for civil liberty, but because Savonarola saw in Lorenzo and his
court the greatest obstacle to that return to Catholic doctrine which
was his heart's desire; while he thought this return would be easily
accomplished if, on the fall of the Medici, the Florentine republic
should come into the hands of his supporters. There may be more justice
in looking on Savonarola as the forerunner of the Reformation. If he was
so, it was more than he intended. The friar of Ferrara never thought of
attacking the papal dogma, and always maintained that he wished to
remain within the church of Rome. He had none of the great aspirations
of Luther. He only repeated the complaints and the exhortations of St
Catherine of Siena; he desired a reform of manners, entirely of manners,
not of doctrine. He prepared the ground for the German and English
religious movement of the 16th century, but unconsciously. In the
history of Italian civilization he represents retrogression, that is to
say, the cancelling of the great fact of the Renaissance, and return to
medieval ideas. His attempt to put himself in opposition to his time, to
arrest the course of events, to bring the people back to the faith of
the past, the belief that all the social evils came from a Medici and a
Borgia, his not seeing the historical reality, as it was, his aspiring
to found a republic with Jesus Christ for its king--all these things
show that Savonarola was more of a fanatic than a thinker. Nor has he
any great merit as a writer. He wrote Italian sermons, hymns (laudi),
ascetic and political treatises, but they are roughly executed, and only
important as throwing light on the history of his ideas. The religious
poems of Girolamo Benivieni are better than his, and are drawn from the
same inspirations. In these lyrics, sometimes sweet, always warm with
religious feeling, Benivieni and with him Feo Belcari carry us back to
the literature of the 14th century.


  Histories, &c.

History had neither many nor very good students in the 15th century. Its
revival belonged to the following age. It was mostly written in Latin.
Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo wrote the history of Florence, Gioviano Pontano
that of Naples, in Latin. Bernardino Corio wrote the history of Milan in
Italian, but in a rude way.

Leonardo da Vinci wrote a treatise on painting, Leon Battista Alberti
one on sculpture and architecture. But the names of these two men are
important, not so much as authors of these treatises, but as being
embodiments of another characteristic of the age of the
Renaissance--versatility of genius, power of application along many and
varied lines, and of being excellent in all. Leonardo was an architect,
a poet, a painter, an hydraulic engineer and a distinguished
mathematician. Alberti was a musician, studied jurisprudence, was an
architect and a draughtsman, and had great fame in literature. He had a
deep feeling for nature, an almost unique faculty of assimilating all
that he saw and heard. Leonardo and Alberti are representatives and
almost a compendium in themselves of all that intellectual vigour of the
Renaissance age, which in the 16th century took to developing itself in
its individual parts, making way for what has by some been called the
golden age of Italian literature.

4. _Development of the Renaissance._--The fundamental characteristic of
the literary epoch following that of the Renaissance is that it
perfected itself in every kind of art, in particular uniting the
essentially Italian character of its language with classicism of style.
This period lasted from about 1494 to about 1560; and, strange to say,
this very period of greater fruitfulness and literary greatness began
from the year 1494, which with Charles VIII.'s descent into Italy marked
the beginning of its political decadence and of foreign domination over
it. But this is not hard to explain. All the most famous men of the
first half of the 16th had been educated in the preceding century.
Pietro Pomponazzi was born in 1462, Marcello Virgilio Adriani in 1464,
Castiglione in 1468, Machiavelli in 1469, Bembo in 1470, Michelangelo
Buonarroti and Ariosto in 1474, Nardi in 1476, Trissino in 1478,
Guicciardini in 1482. Thus it is easy to understand how the literary
activity which showed itself from the end of the 15th century to the
middle of the following one was the product of the political and social
conditions of the age in which these minds were formed, not of that in
which their powers were displayed.


  History.

Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini were the chief
originators of the science of history. Machiavelli's principal works
are the _Istorie fiorentine_, the _Discorsi sulla prima deca di Tito
Livio_, the _Arte della guerra_ and the _Principe_. His merit consists
in having been the creator of the experimental science of politics--in
having observed facts, studied histories and drawn consequences from
them. His history is sometimes inexact in facts; it is rather a
political than an historical work. The peculiarity of Machiavelli's
genius lay, as has been said, in his artistic feeling for the treatment
and discussion of politics in and for themselves, without regard to an
immediate end--in his power of abstracting himself from the partial
appearances of the transitory present, in order more thoroughly to
possess himself of the eternal and inborn kingdom, and to bring it into
subjection to himself.

Next to Machiavelli both as an historian and a statesman comes Francesco
Guicciardini. Guicciardini was very observant, and endeavoured to reduce
his observations to a science. His _Storia d' Italia_, which extends
from the death of Lorenzo de' Medici to 1534, is full of political
wisdom, is skilfully arranged in its parts, gives a lively picture of
the character of the persons it treats of, and is written in a grand
style. He shows a profound knowledge of the human heart, and depicts
with truth the temperaments, the capabilities and the habits of the
different European nations. Going back to the causes of events, he
looked for the explanation of the divergent interests of princes and of
their reciprocal jealousies. The fact of his having witnessed many of
the events he related, and having taken part in them, adds authority to
his words. The political reflections are always deep; in the _Pensieri_,
as G. Capponi[3] says, he seems to aim at extracting through
self-examination a quintessence, as it were, of the things observed and
done by him--thus endeavouring to form a political doctrine as adequate
as possible in all its parts. Machiavelli and Guicciardini may be
considered, not only as distinguished historians, but as originators of
the science of history founded on observation.

Inferior to them, but still always worthy of note, were Jacopo Nardi (a
just and faithful historian and a virtuous man, who defended the rights
of Florence against the Medici before Charles V.), Benedetto Varchi,
Giambattista Adriani, Bernardo Segni; and, outside Tuscany, Camillo
Porzio, who related the _Congiura de' baroni_ and the history of Italy
from 1547 to 1552, Angelo di Costanza, Pietro Bembo, Paolo Paruta and
others.


  Romantic epic. Ariosto (1474-1533).

Ariosto's _Orlando furioso_ was a continuation of Boiardo's
_Innamorato_. His characteristic is that he assimilated the romance of
chivalry to the style and models of classicism. Ariosto was an artist
only for the love of his art; his sole aim was to make a romance that
should please the generation in which he lived. His Orlando has no grave
and serious purpose; on the contrary it creates a fantastic world, in
which the poet rambles, indulging his caprice, and sometimes smiling at
his own work. His great desire is to depict everything with the greatest
possible perfection; the cultivation of style is what occupies him most.
In his hands the style becomes wonderfully plastic to every conception,
whether high or low, serious or sportive. The octave stanza reached in
him the highest perfection of grace, variety and harmony.


  Heroic epic.

Meanwhile, side by side with the romantic, there was an attempt at the
historical epic. Gian Giorgio Trissino of Vicenza composed a poem called
_Italia liberata dai Goti_. Full of learning and of the rules of the
ancients, he formed himself on the latter, in order to sing of the
campaigns of Belisarius; he said that he had forced himself to observe
all the rules of Aristotle, and that he had imitated Homer. In this
again, we see one of the products of the Renaissance; and, although
Trissino's work is poor in invention and without any original poetical
colouring, yet it helps one to understand better what were the
conditions of mind in the 16th century.


  Lyric poetry.

Lyric poetry was certainly not one of the kinds that rose to any great
height in the 16th century. Originality was entirely wanting, since it
seemed in that century as if nothing better could be done than to copy
Petrarch. Still, even in this style there were some vigorous poets.
Monsignore Giovanni Guidiccioni of Lucca (1500-1541) showed that he had
a generous heart. In fine sonnets he gave expression to his grief for
the sad state to which his country was reduced. Francesco Molza of
Modena (1489-1544), learned in Greek, Latin and Hebrew, wrote in a
graceful style and with spirit. Giovanni della Casa (1503-1556) and
Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), although Petrarchists, were elegant. Even
Michelangelo Buonarroti was at times a Petrarchist, but his poems bear
the stamp of his extraordinary and original genius. And a good many
ladies are to be placed near these poets, such as Vittoria Colonna
(loved by Michelangelo), Veronica Gambara, Tullia d' Aragona, Giulia
Gonzaga, poetesses of great delicacy, and superior in genius to many
literary men of their time.


  Tragedy.

The 16th century had not a few tragedies, but they are all weak. The
cause of this was the moral and religious indifference of the Italians,
the lack of strong passions and vigorous characters. The first to occupy
the tragic stage was Trissino with his _Sofonisba_, following the rules
of the art most scrupulously, but written in sickly verses, and without
warmth of feeling. The _Oreste_ and the _Rosmunda_ of Giovanni Rucellai
were no better, nor Luigi Alamanni's _Antigone_. Sperone Speroni in his
Canace and Giraldi Cintio in his _Orbecche_ tried to become innovators
in tragic literature, but they only succeeded in making it grotesque.
Decidedly superior to these was the _Torrismondo_ of Torquato Tasso,
specially remarkable for the choruses, which sometimes remind one of the
chorus of the Greek tragedies.


  Comedy.

The Italian comedy of the 16th century was almost entirely modelled on
the Latin comedy. They were almost always alike in the plot, in the
characters of the old man, of the servant, of the waiting-maid; and the
argument was often the same. Thus the _Lucidi_ of Agnolo Firenzuola, and
the _Vecchio amoroso_ of Donato Giannotti were modelled on comedies by
Plautus, as were the _Sporta_ by Gelli, the _Marito_ by Dolce, and
others. There appear to be only three writers who should be
distinguished among the many who wrote comedies--Machiavelli, Ariosto
and Giovan Maria Cecchi. In his _Mandragora_ Machiavelli, unlike all the
others, composed a comedy of character, creating types which seem living
even now, because they were copied from reality seen with a finely
observant eye. Ariosto, on the other hand, was distinguished for his
picture of the habits of his time, and especially of those of the
Ferrarese nobles, rather than for the objective delineation of
character. Lastly, Cecchi left in his comedies a treasure of spoken
language, which nowadays enables us in a wonderful way to make ourselves
acquainted with that age. The notorious Pietro Aretino might also be
included in the list of the best writers of comedy.


  Burlesque and satire.

The 15th century was not without humorous poetry; Antonio Cammelli,
surnamed the Pistoian, is specially deserving of notice, because of his
"pungent _bonhomie_," as Sainte-Beuve called it. But it was Francesco
Berni who carried this kind of literature to perfection in the 16th
century. From him the style has been called "bernesque" poetry. In the
"Berneschi" we find nearly the same phenomenon that we already noticed
with regard to _Orlando furioso_. It was art for art's sake that
inspired and moved Berni to write, as well as Anton Francesco Grazzini,
called Il Lasca, and other lesser writers. It may be said that there is
nothing in their poetry; and it is true that they specially delight in
praising low and disgusting things and in jeering at what is noble and
serious. Bernesque poetry is the clearest reflection of that religious
and moral scepticism which was one of the characteristics of Italian
social life in the 16th century, and which showed itself more or less in
all the works of that period, that scepticism which stopped the
religious Reformation in Italy, and which in its turn was an effect of
historical conditions. The Berneschi, and especially Berni himself,
sometimes assumed a satirical tone. But theirs could not be called true
satire. Pure satirists, on the other hand, were Antonio Vinciguerra, a
Venetian, Lodovico Alamanni and Ariosto, the last superior to the others
for the Attic elegance of his style, and for a certain frankness,
passing into malice, which is particularly interesting when the poet
talks of himself.


  Didactic works.

In the 16th century there were not a few didactic works. In his poem of
the _Api_ Giovanni Rucellai approaches to the perfection of Virgil. His
style is clear and light, and he adds interest to his book by frequent
allusions to the events of the time. But of the didactic works that
which surpasses all the others in importance is Baldassare Castiglione's
_Cortigiano_, in which he imagines a discussion in the palace of the
dukes of Urbino between knights and ladies as to what are the gifts
required in a perfect courtier. This book is valuable as an illustration
of the intellectual and moral state of the highest Italian society in
the first half of the 16th century.


  Fiction.

Of the novelists of the 16th century, the two most important were Anton
Francesco Grazzini and Matteo Bandello--the former as playful and
bizarre as the latter is grave and solemn. As part of the history of the
times, we must not forget that Bandello was a Dominican friar and a
bishop, but that notwithstanding his novels were very loose in subject,
and that he often holds up the ecclesiastics of his time to ridicule.


  Translations.

At a time when admiration for qualities of style, the desire for
classical elegance, was so strong as in the 16th century, much attention
was naturally paid to translating Latin and Greek authors. Among the
very numerous translations of the time those of the _Aeneid_ and of the
_Pastorals_ of Longus the Sophist by Annibal Caro are still famous; as
are also the translations of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_ by Giovanni Andrea
dell' Anguillare, of Apuleius's _Golden Ass_ by Firenzuola, and of
Plutarch's _Lives_ and _Moralia_ by Marcello Adriani.


  Tasso (1544-1595).

The historians of Italian literature are in doubt whether Tasso should
be placed in the period of the highest development of the Renaissance,
or whether he should form a period by himself, intermediate between that
and the one following. Certainly he was profoundly out of harmony with
the century in which he lived. His religious faith, the seriousness of
his character, the deep melancholy settled in his heart, his continued
aspiration after an ideal perfection, all place him as it were outside
the literary epoch represented by Machiavelli, by Ariosto, by Berni. As
Carducci has well said, Tasso "is the legitimate heir of Dante
Alighieri: he believes, and reasons on his faith by philosophy; he
loves, and comments on his love in a learned style; he is an artist, and
writes dialogues of scholastic speculation that would fain be Platonic."
He was only eighteen years old when, in 1562, he tried his hand at epic
poetry, and wrote _Rinaldo_, in which he said that he had tried to
reconcile the Aristotelian rules with the variety of Ariosto. He
afterwards wrote the _Aminta_, a pastoral drama of exquisite grace. But
the work to which he had long turned his thoughts was an heroic poem,
and that absorbed all his powers. He himself explains what his intention
was in the three _Discorsi_ written whilst he was composing the
_Gerusalemme_: he would choose a great and wonderful subject, not so
ancient as to have lost all interest, nor so recent as to prevent the
poet from embellishing it with invented circumstances; he meant to treat
it rigorously according to the rules of the unity of action observed in
Greek and Latin poems, but with a far greater variety and splendour of
episodes, so that in this point it should not fall short of the romantic
poem; and finally, he would write it in a lofty and ornate style. This
is what Tasso has done in the _Gerusalemme liberata_, the subject of
which is the liberation of the sepulchre of Jesus Christ in the 11th
century by Godfrey of Bouillon. The poet does not follow faithfully all
the historical facts, but sets before us the principal causes of them,
bringing in the supernatural agency of God and Satan. The _Gerusalemme_
is the best heroic poem that Italy can show. It approaches to classical
perfection. Its episodes above all are most beautiful. There is profound
feeling in it, and everything reflects the melancholy soul of the poet.
As regards the style, however, although Tasso studiously endeavoured to
keep close to the classical models, one cannot help noticing that he
makes excessive use of metaphor, of antithesis, of far-fetched conceits;
and it is specially from this point of view that some historians have
placed Tasso in the literary period generally known under the name of
"Secentismo," and that others, more moderate in their criticism, have
said that he prepared the way for it.


  The Secentismo.

5. _Period of Decadence._--From about 1559 began a period of decadence
in Italian literature. The Spanish rule oppressed and corrupted the
peninsula. The minds of men were day by day gradually losing their
force; every high aspiration was quenched. No love of country could any
longer be felt when the country was enslaved to a stranger. The
suspicious rulers fettered all freedom of thought and word; they
tortured Campanella, burned Bruno, made every effort to extinguish all
high sentiment, all desire for good. Cesare Balbo says, "if the
happiness of the masses consists in peace without industry, if the
nobility's consists in titles without power, if princes are satisfied by
acquiescence in their rule without real independence, without
sovereignty, if literary men and artists are content to write, paint and
build with the approbation of their contemporaries, but to the contempt
of posterity, if a whole nation is happy in ease without dignity and the
tranquil progress of corruption,--then no period ever was so happy for
Italy as the hundred and forty years from the treaty of Cateau Cambresis
to the war of the Spanish succession." This period is known in the
history of Italian literature as the Secentismo. Its writers, devoid of
sentiment, of passion, of thoughts, resorted to exaggeration; they tried
to produce effect with every kind of affectation, with bombast, with the
strangest metaphors, in fact, with what in art is called mannerism,
"barocchism." The utter poverty of the matter tried to cloak itself
under exuberance of forms. It seemed as if the writers vied with one
another as to who could best burden his art with useless metaphors, with
phrases, with big-sounding words, with affectations, with hyperbole,
with oddities, with everything that could fix attention on the outer
form and draw it off from the substantial element of thought.


  Marini.

At the head of the school of the "Secentisti" comes Giovan Battista
Marini of Naples, born in 1569, especially known by a poem called _L'
Adone_. His aim was to excite wonder by novelties; hence the most
extravagant metaphors, the most forced antitheses, the most far-fetched
conceits, are to be found in his book. It was especially by antitheses
that he thought he could produce the greatest effect. Sometimes he
strings them together one after the other, so that they fill up whole
stanzas without a break. Achillini of Bologna followed in Marini's
steps. He had less genius, however, and hence his peculiarities were
more extravagant, becoming indeed absolutely ridiculous. In general, we
may say that all the poets of the 17th century were more or less
infected with "Marinism." Thus Alessandro Guidi, although he does not
attain to the exaggeration of his master, is emptily bombastic,
inflated, turgid, while Fulvio Testi is artificial and affected. Yet
Guidi as well as Testi felt the influence of another poet, Gabriello
Chiabrera, born at Savona in 1552. In him the Secentismo took another
character. Enamoured as he said he was of the Greeks, he made new
metres, especially in imitation of Pindar, treating of religious, moral,
historical and amatory subjects. It is easy to understand that a
Pindaric style of poetry in the 17th century in Italy could not but end
in being altogether artificial, without anything of those qualities
which constitute the greatness of the Greek poet. Chiabrera, though
elegant enough in form, proves empty of matter, and, in his vain attempt
to hide this vacuity, has recourse to poetical ornaments of every kind.
These again, in their turn, become in him a fresh defect. Nevertheless,
Chiabrera's school, in the decadence of the 17th century, marks an
improvement; and sometimes he showed that he had lyrical capacities,
which in better literary surroundings would have brought forth excellent
fruit. When he sings, for example, of the victories of the Tuscan
galleys against the Turks and the pirates of the Mediterranean, he rises
to grand imagery, and seems quite another poet.

Filicaja the Florentine has a certain lyric _élan_, particularly in the
songs about Vienna besieged by the Turks, which seems to raise him more
than the others above the vices of the time; but even in him we see
clearly the rhetorical artifice and the falseness of the conceits. And
in general all the lyric poetry of the 17th century may be said to have
had the same defects, but in different degrees--defects which may be
summed up as absence of feeling and exaggeration of form. There was no
faith; there was no love; and thus art became an exercise, a pastime, a
luxury, for a servile and corrupt people.


  The Arcadia.

The belief then arose that it would be sufficient to change the form in
order to restore literature, in forgetfulness that every reform must be
the effect of a change in social and moral conditions. Weary of the
bombastic style of the 17th century, full of conceits and antithesis,
men said--let us follow an entirely different line, let us fight the
turgid style with simplicity. In 1690 the "Academy of Arcadia" was
instituted. Its founders were Giovan Maria Crescimbeni and Gian Vincenzo
Gravina. The Arcadia was so called because its chief aim and intention
were to imitate in literature the simplicity of the ancient shepherds,
who were fabulously supposed to have lived in Arcadia in the golden age.
As the "Secentisti" erred by an overweening desire for novelty, which
made them always go beyond the truth, so the Arcadians proposed to
themselves to return to the fields of truth, always singing of subjects
of pastoral simplicity. This was obviously nothing else than the
substitution of a new artifice for the old one; and they fell from
bombast into effeminacy, from the hyperbolical into the petty, from the
turgid into the over-refined. The Arcadia was a reaction against
Secentismo, but a reaction which, reversing the movement of that earlier
epoch, only succeeded in impoverishing still further and completely
withering up the literature. The poems of the "Arcadians" fill many
volumes, and are made up of sonnets, madrigals, canzonets and blank
verse. The one who most distinguished himself among the sonneteers was
Felice Zappi. Among the authors of songs Paolo Rolli was illustrious.
Innocenzo Frugoni was more famous than all the others, a man of fruitful
imagination but of shallow intellect, whose wordy verses nobody now
reads.


  Symptoms of revival. Scientific prose.

Whilst the political and social conditions in Italy in the 17th century
were such as to make it appear that every light of intelligence, all
spirit of liberty, was extinguished, there appeared in the peninsula, by
that law of reaction which in great part governs human events, some
strong and independent thinkers, such as Bernardino Telesio, Giordano
Bruno, Tommaso Campanella, Lucilio Vanini, who turned philosophical
inquiry into fresh channels, and opened the way for the scientific
conquests of Galileo Galilei, the great contemporary of Descartes in
France and of Bacon in England. Galileo was not only a great man of
science, but also occupied a conspicuous place in the history of
letters. A devoted student of Ariosto, he seemed to transfuse into his
prose the qualities of that great poet--a clear and frank freedom of
expression, a wonderful art of knowing how to say everything with
precision and ease, and at the same time with elegance. Galileo's prose
is in perfect antithesis to the poetry of his time. Perhaps it is the
best prose that Italy has ever had; it is clear, goes straight to the
point, is without rhetorical ornaments and without vulgar slips,
artistic without appearing to be so.

Another symptom of revival, a sign of rebellion against the vileness of
Italian social life, is given us in satire and in particular in that of
Salvator Rosa and Alessandro Tassoni. Salvator Rosa, born in 1615, near
Naples, was a painter, a musician and a poet. As a poet he showed that
he felt the sad condition of his country, showed that he mourned over
it, and gave vent to his feeling (as another satire-writer, Giuseppe
Giusti, said) in _generosi rabbuffi_. His exhortation to Italian poets
to turn their thoughts to the miseries of their country as a subject for
their song--their country languishing under the tyrant's hands--certain
passages where he deplores the effeminacy of Italian habits, a strong
apostrophe against Rome, make Salvator Rosa a precursor of the patriotic
literature which inaugurated the revival of the 18th century. Tassoni,
a man really quite exceptional in this century, was superior to Rosa. He
showed independent judgment in the midst of universal servility, and his
_Secchia Rapita_ proved that he was an eminent writer. This is an heroic
comic poem, which is at the same time an epic and a personal satire. He
was bold enough to attack the Spaniards in his _Filippiche_, in which he
urged Duke Carlo Emanuele of Savoy to persist in the war against them.


  New Political conditions.

6. _The Revival in the 18th Century._--Having for the most part freed
itself from the Spanish dominion in the 18th century, the political
condition of Italy began to improve. Promoters of this improvement,
which was shown in many civil reforms, were Joseph II., Leopold I. and
Charles I. The work of these princes was copied from the philosophers,
who in their turn felt the influence of a general movement of ideas,
which was quietly working in many parts of Europe, and which came to a
head in the French encyclopedists.


  Historical works.

Giambattista Vico was a token of the awakening of historical
consciousness in Italy. In his _Scienza nuova_ he applied himself to the
investigation of the laws governing the progress of the human race, and
according to which events are developed. From the psychological study of
man he endeavoured to infer the "comune natura delle nazioni," i.e. the
universal laws of history, or the laws by which civilizations rise,
flourish and fall.

From the same scientific spirit which animated the philosophical
investigation of Vico, there was born a different kind of investigation,
that of the sources of Italian civil and literary history. Lodovico
Antonio Muratori, after having collected in one entire body (_Rerum
Italicarum scriptores_) the chronicles, the biographies, the letters and
the diaries of Italian history from 500 to 1500, after having discussed
the most obscure historical questions in the _Antiquitates Italicae
medii aevi_, wrote the _Annali d' Italia_, minutely narrating facts
derived from authentic sources. Muratori's associates in his historical
researches were Scipione Maffei of Verona and Apostolo Zeno of Venice.
In his _Verona illustrata_ the former left, not only a treasure of
learning, but an excellent specimen of historical monograph. The latter
added much to the erudition of literary history, both in his
_Dissertazioni Vossiane_ and in his notes to the _Biblioteca dell'
eloquenza italiana_ of Monsignore Giusto Fontanini. Girolamo Tiraboschi
and Count Giovanni Maria Mazzuchelli of Brescia devoted themselves to
literary history.


  Social science.

While the new spirit of the times led men to the investigation of
historical sources, it also led them to inquire into the mechanism of
economical and social laws. Francesco Galiani wrote on currency; Gaetano
Filangieri wrote a _Scienza della legislazione_. Cesare Beccaria, in his
treatise _Dei delitti e delle pene_, made a contribution to the reform
of the penal system and promoted the abolition of torture.


  Satire: Parini.

The man in whom above all others the literary revival of the 18th
century was most conspicuously embodied was Giuseppe Parini. He was born
in a Lombard village in 1729, was mostly educated at Milan, and as a
youth was known among the Arcadian poets by the name of Darisbo
Elidonio. Even as an Arcadian, however, Parini showed signs of departing
from the common type. In a collection of poems that he published at
twenty-three years of age, under the name of Ripano Eupilino, there are
some pastoral sonnets in which the poet shows that he had the faculty of
taking his scenes from real life, and also some satirical pieces in
which he exhibits a spirit of somewhat rude opposition to his own times.
These poems are perhaps based on reminiscences of Berni, but at any rate
they indicate a resolute determination to assail boldly all the literary
conventionalities that surrounded the author. This, however, was only
the beginning of the battle. Parini lived in times of great social
prostration. The nobles and the rich, all given up to ease and to silly
gallantry, consumed their lives in ridiculous trifles or in shameless
self-indulgence, wasting themselves on immoral "Cicisbeismo," and
offering the most miserable spectacle of feebleness of mind and
character. It was against this social condition that Parini's muse was
directed. Already, improving on the poems of his youth, he had proved
himself an innovator in his lyrics, rejecting at once Petrarchism,
Secentismo and Arcadia, the three maladies that had weakened Italian art
in the centuries preceding his own, and choosing subjects taken from
real life, such as might help in the instruction of his contemporaries.
In the _Odi_ the satirical note is already heard. But it came out more
strongly in the poem _Del giorno_, in which he imagines himself to be
teaching a young Milanese patrician all the habits and ways of gallant
life; he shows up all its ridiculous frivolities, and with delicate
irony unmasks the futilities of aristocratic habits. Dividing the day
into four parts, the Mattino, the Mezzogiorno, the Vespero, the Notte,
by means of each of these he describes the trifles of which they were
made up, and the book thus assumes a social and historical value of the
highest importance. Parini, satirizing his time, fell back upon truth,
and finally made art serve the purpose of civil morality. As an artist,
going straight back to classical forms, aspiring to imitate Virgil and
Dante, he opened the way to the fine school that we shall soon see rise,
that of Alfieri, Foscolo and Monti. As a work of art, the _Giorno_ is
wonderful for the Socratic skill with which that delicate irony is
constantly kept up by which he seems to praise what he effectually
blames. The verse has new harmonies; sometimes it is a little hard and
broken, not by accident, but as a protest against the Arcadian monotony.
Generally it flows majestically, but without that Frugonian droning that
deafens the ears and leaves the heart cold.


  Gozzi; Baretti.

Gasparo Gozzi's satire was less elevated, but directed towards the same
end as Parini's. In his _Osservatore_, something like Addison's
_Spectator_, in his _Gazzetta veneta_, in the _Mondo morale_, by means
of allegories and novelties he hit the vices with a delicate touch, and
inculcated a practical moral with much good sense. Gozzi's satire has
some slight resemblance in style to Lucian's. It is smooth and light,
but withal it does not go less straight to its aim, which is to point
out the defects of society and to correct them. Gozzi's prose is very
graceful and lively. It only errs by its overweening affectation of
imitating the writers of the 14th century. Another satirical writer of
the first half of the 18th century was Giuseppe Baretti of Turin. In a
journal called the _Frusta letteraria_ he took to lashing without mercy
the works which were then being published in Italy. He had learnt much
by travelling; and especially his long stay in England had contributed
to give an independent character to his mind, and made him judge of men
and things with much good sense. It is true that his judgments are not
always right, but the _Frusta letteraria_ was the first book of
independent criticism directed particularly against the Arcadians and
the pedants.


  Dramatic reform.

Everything tended to improvement, and the character of the reform was to
throw off the conventional, the false, the artificial, and to return to
truth. The drama felt this influence of the times. Apostolo Zeno and
Metastasio (the Arcadian name for Pietro Trapassi, a native of Rome) had
endeavoured to make "melodrama and reason compatible." The latter in
particular succeeded in giving fresh expression to the affections, a
natural turn to the dialogue and some interest to the plot; and if he
had not fallen into constant unnatural over-refinement and unseasonable
mawkishness, and into frequent anachronisms, he might have been
considered as the first dramatic reformer of the 18th century. That
honour belongs to Carlo Goldoni, a Venetian. He found comedy either
entirely devoted to classical imitation or given up to extravagance, to
_coups de théâtre_, to the most boisterous succession of unlikely
situations, or else treated by comic actors who recited impromptu on a
given subject, of which they followed the outline. In this old popular
form of comedy, with the masks of pantaloon, of the doctor, of
harlequin, of Brighella, &c., Goldoni found the strongest obstacles to
his reform. But at last he conquered, creating the comedy of character.
No doubt Molière's example helped him in this. Goldoni's characters are
always true, but often a little superficial. He studied nature, but he
did not plunge into psychological depths. In most of his creations, the
external rather than the internal part is depicted. In this respect he
is much inferior to Molière. But on the other hand he surpasses him in
the liveliness of the dialogue, and in the facility with which he finds
his dramatic situations. Goldoni wrote much, in fact too much (more than
one hundred and fifty comedies), and had no time to correct, to polish,
to perfect his works, which are all rough cast. But for a comedy of
character we must go straight from Machiavelli's _Mandragora_ to him.
Goldoni's dramatic aptitude is curiously illustrated by the fact that he
took nearly all his types from Venetian society, and yet managed to give
them an inexhaustible variety. A good many of his comedies were written
in Venetian dialect, and these are perhaps the best.


  Patriotic literature and return to classicism.

The ideas that were making their way in French society in the 18th
century, and afterwards brought about the Revolution of 1789, gave a
special direction to Italian literature of the second half of the 18th
century. Love of ideal liberty, desire for equality, hatred of tyranny,
created in Italy a literature which aimed at national objects, seeking
to improve the condition of the country by freeing it from the double
yoke of political and religious despotism. But all this was associated
with another tendency. The Italians who aspired to a political
redemption believed that it was inseparable from an intellectual
revival, and it seemed to them that this could only be effected by a
reunion with ancient classicism--in other words, by putting themselves
in more direct communication with ancient Greek and Latin writers. This
was a repetition of what had occurred in the first half of the 15th
century. The 17th century might in fact be considered as a new Italian
Middle Age without the hardness of that iron time, but corrupted,
enervated, overrun by Spaniards and French, an age in which previous
civilization was cancelled. A reaction was necessary against that period
of history, and a construction on its ruins of a new country and a new
civilization. There had already been forerunners of this movement; at
the head of them the revered Parini. Now the work must be completed, and
the necessary force must once more be sought for in the ancient
literature of the two classic nations.


  Alfieri (1749-1803).

Patriotism and classicism then were the two principles that inspired the
literature which began with Alfieri. He worshipped the Greek and Roman
idea of popular liberty in arms against the tyrant. He took the subjects
of his tragedies almost invariably from the history of these nations,
made continual apostrophes against the despots, made his ancient
characters talk like revolutionists of his time; he did not trouble
himself with, nor think about, the truth of the characters; it was
enough for him that his hero was Roman in name, that there was a tyrant
to be killed, that liberty should triumph in the end. But even this did
not satisfy Alfieri. Before his time and all about him there was the
Arcadian school, with its foolish verbosity, its empty abundance of
epithets, its nauseous pastoralizing on subjects of no civil importance.
It was necessary to arm the patriotic muse also against all this. If the
Arcadians, not excluding the hated Metastasio, diluted their poetry with
languishing tenderness, if they poured themselves out in so many words,
if they made such set phrases, it behoved the others to do just the
contrary--to be brief, concise, strong, bitter, to aim at the sublime as
opposed to the lowly and pastoral. Having said this, we have told the
good and evil of Alfieri. He desired a political reform by means of
letters; he saved literature from Arcadian vacuities, leading it towards
a national end; he armed himself with patriotism and classicism in order
to drive the profaners out of the temple of art. But in substance he was
rather a patriot than an artist. In any case the results of the new
literary movement were copious.


  Foscolo.

Ugo Foscolo was an eager patriot, who carried into life the heat of the
most unbridled passion, and into his art a rather rhetorical manner, but
always one inspired by classical models. The _Lettere di Jacopo Ortis_,
inspired by Goethe's _Werther_, are a love story with a mixture of
patriotism; they contain a violent protest against the treaty of Campo
Formio, and an outburst from Foscolo's own heart about an unhappy
love-affair of his. His passions were sudden and violent; they came to
an end as abruptly as they began; they were whirlwinds that were over in
a quarter of an hour. To one of these passions _Ortis_ owed its origin,
and it is perhaps the best, the most sincere, of all his writings. Even
in it he is sometimes pompous and rhetorical, but much less so than he
is, for example, in the lectures _Dell' origine e dell' ufficio della
letteratura_. On the whole, Foscolo's prose is turgid and affected, and
reflects the character of the man who always tried to pose, even before
himself, in dramatic attitudes. This was indeed the defect of the
Napoleonic epoch; there was a horror of anything common, simple,
natural; everything must be after the model of the hero who made all the
world gaze with wonder at him; everything must assume some heroic shape.
In Foscolo this tendency was excessive; and it not seldom happened that,
in wishing to play the hero, the exceptional man, the little Napoleon of
ladies' drawing-rooms, he became false and bad, false in his art, bad in
his life. The _Sepolcri_, which is his best poem, was prompted by high
feeling, and the mastery of versification shows wonderful art. Perhaps
it is to this mastery more than to anything else that the admiration the
_Sepolcri_ excites is due. There are most obscure passages in it, as to
the meaning of which it would seem as if even the author himself had not
formed a clear idea. He left incomplete three hymns to the Graces, in
which he sang of beauty as the source of courtesy, of all high qualities
and of happiness. Here again what most excites our admiration is the
harmonious and easy versification. Among his prose works a high place
belongs to his translation of the _Sentimental Journey_ of Sterne, a
writer by whom one can easily understand how Foscolo should have been
deeply affected. He went as an exile to England, and died there. He
wrote for English readers some _Essays_ on Petrarch and on the texts of
the _Decamerone_ and of Dante, which are remarkable for the time at
which they were written, and which may be said to have initiated a new
kind of literary criticism in Italy. Foscolo is still greatly admired,
and not without reason. His writings stimulate the love of fatherland,
and the men that made the revolution of 1848 were largely brought up on
them.


  Monti.

If in Foscolo patriotism and classicism were united, and formed almost
one passion, so much cannot be said of Vincenzo Monti, in whom the
artist was absolutely predominant. Yet Monti was a patriot too, but in
his own way. He had no one deep feeling that ruled him, or rather the
mobility of his feelings is his characteristic; but each of these was a
new form of patriotism, that took the place of an old one. He saw danger
to his country in the French Revolution, and wrote the _Pellegrino
apostolico_, the _Bassvilliana_ and the _Feroniade_; Napoleon's
victories caused him to write the _Prometeo_ and the _Musagonia_; in his
_Fanatismo_ and his _Superstizione_ he attacked the papacy; afterwards
he sang the praises of the Austrians. Thus every great event made him
change his mind, with a readiness which might seem incredible, but is
yet most easily explained. Monti was above everything an artist; art was
his real, his only passion; everything else in him was liable to change,
that alone was persistent. Fancy was his tyrant, and under its rule he
had no time to reason and to see the miserable aspect of his political
tergiversation. It was an overbearing deity that moved him, and at its
dictation he wrote. Pius VI., Napoleon, Francis II., were to him but
passing shadows, to which he hardly gives the attention of an hour; that
which endures, which is eternal to him, is art alone. It were unjust to
accuse Monti of baseness. If we say that nature in giving him one only
faculty had made the poet rich and the man poor, we shall speak the
truth. But the poet was indeed rich. Knowing little Greek, he succeeded
in making a translation of the _Iliad_ which is remarkable for its
Homeric feeling, and in his _Bassvilliana_ he is on a level with Dante.
In fine, in him classical poetry seemed to revive in all its florid
grandeur.


  Niccolini.

Monti was born in 1754, Foscolo in 1778; four years later still was born
another poet of the same school, Giambattista Niccolini. In literature
he was a classicist; in politics he was a Ghibelline, a rare exception
in Guelph Florence, his birthplace. In translating or, if the
expression is preferred, imitating Aeschylus, as well as in writing the
_Discorsi sulla tragedia greca_, and on the _Sublime e Michelangelo_,
Niccolini displayed his passionate devotion to ancient literature. In
his tragedies he set himself free from the excessive rigidity of
Alfieri, and partly approached the English and German tragic authors. He
nearly always chose political subjects, striving to keep alive in his
compatriots the love of liberty. Such are _Nabucco_, _Antonio
Foscarini_, _Giovanni da Procida_, _Lodovico il Moro_, &c. He assailed
papal Rome in _Arnaldo da Brescia_, a long tragic piece, not suited for
acting, and epic rather than dramatic. Niccolini's tragedies show a rich
lyric vein rather than dramatic genius. At any rate he has the merit of
having vindicated liberal ideas, and of having opened a new path to
Italian tragedy.


  Historians.

The literary period we are dealing with had three writers who are
examples of the direction taken by historical study. It seems strange
that, after the learned school begun by Muratori, there should have been
a backward movement here, but it is clear that this retrogression was
due to the influence of classicism and patriotism, which, if they
revived poetry, could not but spoil history. Carlo Botta, born in 1766,
was a spectator of French spoliation in Italy and of the overbearing
rule of Napoleon. Hence, excited by indignation, he wrote a _History of
Italy from 1789 to 1814_; and later on he continued Guicciardini's
_History_ up to 1789. He wrote after the manner of the Latin authors,
trying to imitate Livy, putting together long and sonorous periods in a
style that aimed at being like Boccaccio's, caring little about that
which constitutes the critical material of history, only intent on
declaiming his academic prose for his country's benefit. Botta wanted to
be classical in a style that could no longer be so, and hence he failed
completely to attain his literary goal. His fame is only that of a man
of a noble and patriotic heart. Not so bad as the two histories of Italy
is that of the _Guerra dell' indipendenza americana_.

Close to Botta comes Pietro Colletta, a Neapolitan born nine years after
him. He also in his _Storia del reame di Napoli dal 1734 al 1825_ had
the idea of defending the independence and liberty of Italy in a style
borrowed from Tacitus; and he succeeded rather better than Botta. He has
a rapid, brief, nervous style, which makes his book attractive reading.
But it is said that Pietro Giordani and Gino Capponi corrected it for
him. Lazzaro Papi of Lucca, author of the _Commentari della rivoluzione
francese dal 1789 al 1814_, was not altogether unlike Botta and
Colletta. He also was an historian in the classical style, and treats
his subject with patriotic feeling; but as an artist he perhaps excels
the other two.


  The Purists.

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.


  Giordani.

A patriot, a classicist and a purist all at once was Pietro Giordani,
born in 1774; he was almost a compendium of the literary movement of the
time. His whole life was a battle fought for liberty. Most learned in
Greek and Latin authors, and in the Italian trecentisti, he only left a
few writings behind him, but they were carefully elaborated in point of
style, and his prose was in his time considered wonderful. Now it is
looked on as too majestic, too much laboured in phrases and conceits,
too far from nature, too artificial. Giordani closes the literary epoch
of the classicists.


  Manzoni.

7. _Nineteenth Century and After._--At this point the contemporary
period of literature begins. It has been said that the first impulse was
given to it by the romantic school, which had as its organ the
_Conciliatore_ established in 1818 at Milan, and on the staff of which
were Silvio Pellico, Lodovico di Breme, Giovile Scalvini, Tommaso
Grossi, Giovanni Berchet, Samuele Biava and lastly Alessandro Manzoni.
It need not be denied that all these men were influenced by the ideas
that, especially in Germany, at the beginning of the 19th century
constituted the movement called Romanticism. Nevertheless, in Italy the
course of literary reform took another direction. There is no doubt that
the real head of the reform, or at least its most distinguished man, was
Alessandro Manzoni. He formulated in a letter of his the objects of the
new school, saying that it aspired to try and discover and express "il
vero storico" and "il vero morale," not only as an end, but as the
widest and eternal source of the beautiful. And it is precisely realism
in art that characterizes Italian literature from Manzoni onwards. The
_Promessi Sposi_ is the one of his works that has made him immortal. No
doubt the idea of the historical novel came to him from Sir Walter
Scott, but he succeeded in something more than an historical novel in
the narrow meaning of that word; he created an eminently realistic work
of art. The romance disappears; no one cares for the plot, which
moreover is of very little consequence. The attention is entirely fixed
on the powerful objective creation of the characters. From the greatest
to the least they have a wonderful verisimilitude; they are living
persons standing before us, not with the qualities of one time more than
another, but with the human qualities of all time. Manzoni is able to
unfold a character in all particulars, to display it in all its aspects,
to follow it through its different phases. He is able also to seize one
moment, and from that moment to make us guess all the rest. Don Abbondio
and Renzo are as perfect as Azzeccagarbugli and Il Sarto. Manzoni dives
down into the innermost recesses of the human heart, and draws thence
the most subtle psychological reality. In this his greatness lies, which
was recognized first by his companion in genius, Goethe. As a poet too
he had gleams of genius, especially in the Napoleonic ode, _Il Cinque
Maggio_, and where he describes human affections, as in some stanzas of
the _Inni_ and in the chorus of the _Adelchi_. But it is on the
_Promessi Sposi_ alone that his fame now rests.


  Leopardi.

The great poet of the age was Leopardi, born thirteen years after
Manzoni at Recanati, of a patrician family, bigoted and avaricious. He
became so familiar with Greek authors that he used afterwards to say
that the Greek mode of thought was more clear and living to his mind
than the Latin or even the Italian. Solitude, sickness, domestic
tyranny, prepared him for profound melancholy. From this he passed into
complete religious scepticism, from which he sought rest in art.
Everything is terrible and grand in his poems, which are the most
agonizing cry in modern literature, uttered with a solemn quietness that
at once elevates and terrifies us. But besides being the greatest poet
of nature and of sorrow, he was also an admirable prose writer. In his
_Operette morali_--dialogues and discourses marked by a cold and bitter
smile at human destinies which freezes the reader--the clearness of
style, the simplicity of language and the depth of conception are such
that perhaps he is not only the greatest lyrical poet since Dante, but
also one of the most perfect writers of prose that Italian literature
has had.


  Political literature.

As realism in art gained ground, the positive method in criticism kept
pace with it. From the manner of Botta and Colletta history returned to
its spirit of learned research, as is shown in such works as the
_Archivio storico italiano_, established at Florence by Giampietro
Vieusseux, the _Storia d' Italia nel medio evo_ by Carlo Troya, a
remarkable treatise by Manzoni himself, _Sopra alcuni punti della storia
longobardica in Italia_, and the very fine history of the _Vespri
siciliani_ by Michele Amari. But alongside of the great artists Leopardi
and Manzoni, alongside of the learned scholars, there was also in the
first half of the 19th century a patriotic literature. To a close
observer it will appear that historical learning itself was inspired by
the love of Italy. Giampietro Vieusseux had a distinct political object
when in 1820 he established the monthly review _Antologia_. And it is
equally well known that his _Archivio storico italiano_ (1842) was,
under a different form, a continuation of the _Antologia_, which was
suppressed in 1833 owing to the action of the Russian government.
Florence was in those days the asylum of all the Italian exiles, and
these exiles met and shook hands in Vieusseux's rooms, where there was
more literary than political talk, but where one thought and one only
animated all minds, the thought of Italy.

The literary movement which preceded and was contemporary with the
political revolution of 1848 may be said to be represented by four
writers--Giuseppe Giusti, Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi, Vincenzo
Gioberti and Cesare Balbo. Giusti wrote epigrammatic satires in popular
language. In incisive phrase he scourged the enemies of Italy; his
manner seemed very original, but it really was partly imitated from
Béranger. He was a telling political writer, but a mediocre poet.
Guerrazzi had a great reputation and great influence, but his historical
novels, though read with ferverish avidity before 1848, are now almost
forgotten. Gioberti, a powerful polemical writer, had a noble heart and
a great mind; his philosophical works are now as good as dead, but the
_Primato morale e civile degli Italiani_ will last as an important
document of the times, and the _Gesuita moderno_ will live as the most
tremendous indictment ever written against the Jesuits. Balbo was an
earnest student of history, and made history useful for politics. Like
Gioberti in his first period, Balbo was zealous for the civil papacy,
and for a federation of the Italian states presided over by it. His
_Sommario della storia d' Italia_ is an excellent epitome.     (A. Ba.)


  Contemporary literature.

After the year 1850 political literature becomes less important, one of
the last poets distinguished in this _genre_ being Francesco dall'
Ongaro, with his _stornelli politici_. For details as to the works of
recent writers, reference may be made to the separate biographical
articles, and here a summary must suffice. Giovanni Prati and Aleardo
Aleardi continue romantic traditions. The dominating figure of this
later period, however, is Giosuè Carducci, the opponent of the Romantics
and restorer of the ancient metres and spirit, who, great as a poet, was
scarcely less distinguished as a literary critic and historian. Other
classical poets are Giuseppe Chiarini, Domenico Guoli, Arturo Graf,
Guido Mazzoni and Giovanni Marradi, of whom the two last named may
perhaps be regarded as special disciples of Carducci, while another,
Giovanni Pascoli, best known by his _Myricae_ and _Poemetti_, only began
as such. Enrico Panzacchi (b. 1842) was at heart still a romantic.
Olindo Guerrini (who wrote under the pseudonym of Lorenzo Stecchetti) is
the chief representative of _veriomo_ in poetry, and, though his early
works obtained a _succès de scandale_, he is the author of many lyrics
of intrinsic value. Alfredo Baccelli and Mario Rapisardi are epic poets
of distinction. Felice Cavallotti is the author of the stirring _Marcia
de Leonida_. Among dialect writers, the great Roman poet Giuseppe
Gioachino Belli has found numerous successors, such as Renato Fucini
(Pisa), Berto Barbarini (Verona) and Cesare Pascarella (Rome). Among the
women poets, Ada Negri, with her socialistic _Fatalità_ and _Tempeste_,
has achieved a great reputation; and others, such as Vittoria Aganoor,
A. Brunacci-Brunamonti and Annie Vivanti, are highly esteemed in Italy.

Among the dramatists, Pietro Cossa in tragedy, Gherardi del Testa,
Ferdinando Martini and Paolo Ferrari in comedy, represent the older
schools. More modern methods were adopted by Giuseppe Giacosa and
Gerolamo Rovetta.

In fiction, the historical romance has fallen into disfavour, though
Emilio de Marchi has written some good examples in this genre. The novel
of intrigue was cultivated by Anton Giulio Barrili and Salvatore Farina,
the psychological novel by Enrico Annibale Butti, the realistic local
tale by Giovanni Verga, the mystic philosophical novel by Antonio
Fogazzaro. Edmondo de Amicis, perhaps the most widely read of all modern
Italians, has written acceptable fiction, though his moral works and
travels are more generally known. Of the women novelists, Matilde Serao
and Grazia Deledda have become deservedly popular.

Gabriele d' Annunzio has produced original work in poetry, drama and
fiction, of extraordinary quality. He began with some lyrics which were
distinguished no less by their exquisite beauty of form than by their
licence, and these characteristics reappeared in a long series of poems,
plays and novels. D' Annunzio's position as a man of the widest literary
and artistic culture is undeniable, and even his sternest critics admit
his mastery of the Italian tongue, based on a thorough knowledge of
Italian literature from the earliest times. But with all his genius, his
thought is unhealthy and his pessimism depressing; the beauty of his
work is the beauty of decadence.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Among the more aesthetic accounts of Italian
  literature, those of Emiliano Giudici (Florence, 1855) and Francesco
  de Sanctis (Naples, 1870) are still the best. Two histories of real
  scientific value were interrupted by the death of the authors: that of
  Adolfo Bartoli (Florence, 1879-1899) breaking off in the 14th century,
  and that of Gaspary (Berlin, 1884-1889; English version, so far only
  down to the death of Dante, London, 1901) breaking off before Tasso (a
  completion being undertaken by Wendriner). Bartoli's article in the
  9th edition of this encyclopaedia has been reproduced, with some
  slight revision, above. Among the many recent Italian works, the most
  important is the elaborate series of volumes contributing the _Storia
  lett. d' Italia scritta da una società di professori_ (1900 sqq.):
  Giussani, _Lett. romana_; Novati, _Origini della lingua_; Zingarelli,
  _Dante_; Volpi, _Il Trecento_; Rossi, _Il Quattrocento_; Flamini, _Il
  Cinquecento_; Belloni, _Il Seicento_; Concari, _Il Settecento_;
  Mazzoni, _L' Ottocento_. Each volume has a full bibliography.
  Important German works, besides Gaspary, are those of Wilse and
  Percopò (illustrated; Leipzig, 1899), and of Casini (in Gröber's
  _Grundr. der röm. Phil._, Strassburg, 1896-1899). English students are
  referred to Symonds's _Renaissance in Italy_ (especially, but not
  exclusively, vols. iv. and v.; new ed., London, 1902), and to R.
  Garnett's _History of Italian Literature_ (London, 1898).     (H. O.)


FOOTNOTES:

  [1] See Giesebrecht, _De litterarum studiis apud Italos primis
    mediaevi saeculis_ (Berlin, 1845.)

  [2] See Gaspary, _Die sicilianische Dichterschule des 13ten
    Jahrhunderts_ (Berlin, 1878).

  [3] _Storia della repubblica di Firenze_ (Florence, 1876).




ITALIAN WARS (1848-1870), a generic name for the series of wars for
Italian unity which began with the Milan insurrection of the 18th of
March 1848 and closed with the capture of Rome by the Italians on the
20th of September 1870. For their Italian political interest see ITALY:
_History_. The present article deals with certain campaigns of
distinctively military importance, viz. 1848-49, 1859 and 1866, in the
first and third of which the centre of gravity of the nationalist
movement was the Piedmontese regular army, and in the second the French
army commanded by Napoleon III. On the other side the Austrian army was
throughout the basis of the established order of things, settled at the
Congress of Vienna on the theory that Italy was "a geographical
expression." Side by side with these regular armies, each of which was a
special type, there fought national levies of widely varying kinds, and
thus practically every known form of military service, except the fully
organized "nation in arms" (then peculiar to Prussia) made its
appearance in the field. Further, these wars constitute the greater part
of European military history between Waterloo and Königgrätz--a
bridge--if a broken one--between Napoleon and Moltke. They therefore
present a considerable technical interest, wholly apart from their
historical importance and romantic interest.


AUSTRO-SARDINIAN WAR OF 1848-1849

From about 1846 the spirit of revolt against foreign domination had
gathered force, and two years later, when Europe was on the verge of a
revolutionary outburst, the struggle for Italian unity was initiated by
the insurrection at Milan. At this moment the Austrian army in Lombardy,
practically a highly-trained force of long-service professional
soldiers, was commanded by Radetzky, one of the greatest generals in
Austrian history. Being, however, virtually an army of occupation, it
was broken up into many garrisons, and in all was not more than 70,000
strong, so that after five days' fighting in the streets of Milan,
Radetzky did as Wellington had proposed to do in 1817 when his army of
occupation in France was threatened by a national rising, and withdrew
to a concentration area to await reinforcements. This area was the
famous Quadrilateral, marked by the fortresses of Mantua, Verona,
Peschiera and Legnago, and there, in the early days of April, the
scattered fractions of the Austrians assembled. Lombardy and Venetia had
followed the example of Milan, and King Charles Albert of Sardinia,
mobilizing the Piedmontese army in good time, crossed the frontier, with
45,000 regulars two days after the Austrians had withdrawn from Milan.
Had the insurrectionary movements and the advance of the Piedmontese
been properly co-ordinated, there can be little doubt that some, at any
rate, of the Austrian detachments would have been destroyed or injured
in their retreat, but as it was they escaped without material losses.
The blow given to Austrian prestige by the revolt of the great cities
was, however, so severe that the whole peninsula rallied to Charles
Albert. Venice, reserving a garrison for her own protection, set on foot
an improvised army 11,000 strong on the mainland; some 5000 Lombards and
9000 insurgents from the smaller duchies gathered on both sides of the
Po; 15,000 Papal troops under Durando and 13,000 Neapolitans under the
old patriot general Pepe moved up to Ferrara and Bologna respectively,
and Charles Albert with the Piedmontese advanced to the Mincio at the
beginning of April. His motley command totalled 96,000 men, of whom,
however, only half were thoroughly trained and disciplined troops. The
reinforcements available in Austria were about 25,000 disciplined troops
not greatly inferior in quality to Radetzky's own veterans. Charles
Albert could call up 45,000 levies at a few weeks' notice, and
eventually all the resources of the patriot party.

  The regular war began in the second week of April on the Mincio, the
  passages of which river were forced and the Austrian advanced troops
  driven back on the 8th (action of Goito) and 9th. Radetzky maintained
  a careful defensive, and the king's attempts to surprise Peschiera
  (14th) and Mantua (19th) were unsuccessful. But Peschiera was closely
  invested, though it was not forced to capitulate until the end of May.
  Meantime the Piedmontese army advanced towards Verona, and, finding
  Radetzky with a portion of his army on their left flank near
  Pastrengo, swung northward and drove him over the Adige above Verona,
  but on turning towards Verona they were checked (action of Pastrengo
  28th-30th April and battle of Santa Lucia di Verona, 6th May).

  Meantime the Austrian reinforcements assembled in Carniola under an
  Irish-born general, Count Nugent von Westmeath (1777-1862) and entered
  Friuli. Their junction with the field marshal was in the last degree
  precarious, every step of their march was contested by the levies and
  the townsmen of Venetia. The days of rifled artillery were not yet
  come, and a physical obstacle to the combined movements of trained
  regulars and a well-marked line of defence were all that was necessary
  to convert even medieval walled towns into centres of effective
  resistance. When the spirit of resistance was lacking, as it had been
  for example in 1799 (see FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS), the importance of
  the walled towns corresponded simply to their material strength, which
  was practically negligible. But throughout the campaign of 1848-1849,
  the essential moral conditions of defence being present, the Austrians
  were hampered by an endless series of minor sieges, in which the
  effort expended was out of all proportion to the success achieved.


    Radetzky in the Quadrilateral.

  Nugent, however, pressed on, though every day weakened by small
  detachments, and, turning rather than overpowering each obstacle as it
  was encountered, made his way slowly by Belluno to Vicenza and Treviso
  and joined Radetzky at Verona on the 25th of May. The latter then for
  a moment took the offensive, passing around the right flank of the
  loyal army by way of Mantua (actions of Curtatone, 29th May, and
  Goito, 30th May), but, failing of the success he expected he turned
  swiftly round and with 30,000 men attacked the 20,000 Italians (Papal
  troops, volunteers, Neapolitans) under Durando, who had established
  themselves across his line of communication at Vicenza, drove them
  away and reoccupied Vicenza (9th June), where a second body of
  reinforcements from Trent, clearing the Brenta valley (Val Sugana) as
  they advanced, joined him, the king meanwhile being held in check by
  the rest of Radetzky's army.

  After beating down resistance in the valleys of the Brenta and Piave,
  the field marshal returned to Verona. Charles Albert had now some
  75,000 men actually in hand on the line of high ground, S.
  Giustina-Somma Campagna, and made the mistake of extending
  inordinately so as to cover his proposed siege of Mantua. Napoleon,
  fifty years before on the same ground (see FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS),
  had only with great difficulty solved this same problem by the
  economical grouping and resolute handling of his forces, and Charles
  Albert, setting out his forces _en cordon_, was weak at all points of
  his long front of 45 m. Thus Radetzky, gathering his forces opposite
  the king's centre (Sona, Somma Campagna), was able to break it (23rd
  July). The Piedmontese, however, fell back steadily, and 25,000 of
  them collected at Villafranca, whence on the 24th they
  counter-attacked and regained the heights at Custozza and Somma
  Campagna that they had lost. Radetzky, however, took the offensive
  again next morning and having succeeded in massing half of his army
  opposite to one quarter of the Piedmontese, was completely victorious
  (first battle of Custozza, 24th-25th July). Pursuing vigorously, the
  Austrians drove the king over the Mincio (action of Volta, 26th-27th),
  the Chiese, the Adda and the Ticino into his own dominions, Milan
  being reoccupied without fighting. The smaller bands of patriots were
  one after the other driven over the borders or destroyed. Venice alone
  held out to the end. Besieged by land and water, and bombarded as
  well, she prolonged her resistance until October 1849, long after the
  war had everywhere else come to an end.

The first campaign for unity had ended in complete failure, thanks to
the genius of Radetzky and the thorough training, mobility and handiness
of his soldiers. During the winter of 1848-1849--for, to avoid
unnecessary waste of his precious veterans, Radetzky let the Piedmontese
army retire unmolested over the Ticino--Charles Albert took energetic
measures to reorganize, refit and augment his army. But his previous
career had not fitted him to meet the crisis. With aspirations for unity
he sympathized, and to that ideal he was soon to sacrifice his throne,
but he had nothing in common with the distinctively revolutionary party,
with whom circumstances had allied him. Radicalism, however, was a more
obvious if a less real force than nationalism, and Charles Albert made
it a fatal concession in appointing the Polish general Albert
Chrzanowski (1788-1861) his principal adviser and commander-in-chief--an
appointment that alienated the generals and the army, while scarcely
modifying the sentiments of distrust with which the Liberal party
regarded the king.[1]


    Campaign of Novara.

  In March the two main armies were grouped in the densely intersected
  district between Milan, Vercelli and Pavia (see sketch map below),
  separated by the Ticino, of which the outposts of either side watched
  the passages. Charles Albert had immediately in hand 65,000 men, some
  25,000 more being scattered in various detachments to right and left.
  Radetzky disposed of 70,000 men for field operations, besides
  garrisons. The recovery of Milan, the great city that had been the
  first to revolt, seemed to the Italians the first objective of the
  campaign. It was easier indeed to raise the whole country in arms than
  to crush the field-marshal's regulars, and it was hoped that Radetzky
  would, on losing Milan, either retire to Lodi and perhaps to Mantua
  (as in 1848), or gather his forces for battle before Milan. Radetzky
  himself openly announced that he would take the offensive, and the
  king's plans were framed to meet this case also. Two-thirds of the
  army, 4 divisions, were grouped in great depth between Novara,
  Galliate and Castelnuovo. A little to the right, at Vespolate and
  Vigevano, was one division under Durando, and the remaining division
  under Ramorino was grouped opposite Pavia with orders to take that
  place if possible, but if Radetzky advanced thence, to fall back
  fighting either on Mortara or Lomello,[2] while the main body
  descended on the Austrian flank. The grouping both of Ramorino and of
  the main body--as events proved in the case of the latter--cannot be
  seriously criticized, and indeed one is almost tempted to assume that
  Chrzanowski considered the case of Radetzky's advance on Mortara more
  carefully than that of his own advance on Milan. But the seething
  spirit of revolt did not allow the army that was Italy's hope to stand
  still at a foreign and untried general's dictation and await
  Radetzky's coming. On the 19th of March orders were issued to the main
  body for the advance on Milan and on the 20th one division, led by the
  king himself, crossed the Ticino at San Martino.

  But no Austrians were encountered, and such information as was
  available indicated that Radetzky was concentrating to his left on the
  Pavia-Lodi road. Chrzanowski thereupon, abandoning (if indeed he ever
  entertained) the idea of Radetzky's retirement and his own triumphal
  march on Milan, suspended the advance. His fears were justified, for
  that evening he heard that Ramorino had abandoned his post and taken
  his division across the Po. After the war this general was shot for
  disobedience, and deservedly, for the covering division, the fighting
  flank-guard on which Chrzanowski's defensive-offensive depended, was
  thus withdrawn at the moment when Radetzky's whole army was crossing
  the Ticino at Pavia and heading for Mortara.[3]

  The four Austrian corps began to file across the Ticino at noon on the
  20th, and by nightfall the heads of Radetzky's columns were at
  Zerbolo, Gambolo and La Cava, the reserve at Pavia, a flank-guard
  holding the Cava-Casatisma road over the Po against the contingency of
  Ramorino's return, and the two brigades that had furnished the
  outposts along the Ticino closing on Bereguardo.


    Action of Mortara.

  Chrzanowski, however, having now to deal with a foreseen case, gave
  his orders promptly. To replace Ramorino, the 1st division was ordered
  from Vespolate through Mortara to Trumello; the 2nd division from
  Cerano to push south on Vigevano; the reserve from Novara to Mortara;
  the remainder to follow the 2nd division. Had the 1st division been
  placed at Mortara instead of Vespolate in the first instance the story
  of the campaign might have been very different, but here again, though
  to a far less culpable degree, a subordinate general's default
  imperilled the army. Durando (21st March), instead of pushing on as
  ordered to Trumello to take contact with the enemy, halted at Mortara.
  The reserve also halted there and deployed west of Mortara to guard
  against a possible attack from San Giorgio. The Sardinian advanced
  guard on the other road reached Borgo San Siro, but there met and was
  driven back by Radetzky's II. corps under Lieut. Field Marshal d'
  Aspre (1789-1850), which was supported by the brigades that now
  crossed at Bereguardo. But the Italians were also supported, the
  Austrians made little progress, and by nightfall the Sardinian II.,
  III. and IV. divisions had closed up around Vigevano. Radetzky indeed
  intended his troops on the Vigevano road to act simply as a defensive
  flank-guard and had ordered the rest of his army by the three roads,
  Zerbolo-Gambolo, Gropello-Trumello and Lomello-San Giorgio, to
  converge on Mortara. The rearmost of the two corps on the Gambolo road
  (the I.) was to serve at need as a support to the flank-guard, and,
  justly confident in his troops, Radetzky did not hesitate to send a
  whole corps by the eccentric route of Lomello. And before nightfall an
  important success had justified him, for the II. corps from Gambolo,
  meeting Durando outside Mortara had defeated him before the Sardinian
  reserve, prematurely deployed on the other side of the town, could
  come to his assistance. The remaining corps of Radetzky's army were
  still short of Mortara when night came, but this could hardly be well
  known at the royal headquarters, and, giving up the slight chances of
  success that a counterstroke from Vigevano on Mortara offered,
  Chrzanowski ordered a general concentration on Novara. This was
  effected on the 22nd, on which day Radetzky, pushing out the II. corps
  towards Vespolate, concentrated the rest at Mortara. That the Italians
  had retired was clear, but it was not known whither, and, precisely as
  Napoleon had done before Marengo (see FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS), he
  sent one corps to seize the king's potential line of retreat,
  Novara-Vercelli, kept one back at Mortara--ready, it may be presumed,
  to grapple an enemy coming from Vigevano--and engaged the other three
  in a single long column, widely spaced out, on the Novara road. Thus
  it came about that on the 23rd d' Aspre's II. corps encountered
  Charles Albert's whole army long before the III. and Reserve could
  join it. The battle of Novara was, nevertheless, as great an event in
  the history of the Imperial-Royal Army as Marengo in that of the
  French.


    Novara.

  First the II. corps, and then the II. and III. together attacked with
  the utmost resolution, and as the hours went by more and more of the
  whitecoats came on the field until at last the IV. corps, swinging
  inward from Robbio, came on to the flank of the defence. This was no
  mere strategical triumph; the Austrians, regiment for regiment, were
  more than a match for the Italians and the result was decisive.
  Charles Albert abdicated, and the young Victor Emmanuel II., his
  successor, had to make a hasty armistice.

After Novara, the first great struggle for Italian unity was no more
than a spasmodic, if often desperate, struggle of small bodies of
patriots and citizens of walled towns to avert the inevitable. The
principal incidents in the last phase were the siege of Venice, the sack
of Brescia by the merciless Haynau and the capture of Rome by a French
expeditionary corps under General Oudinot.


THE ITALIAN WAR OF 1859

The campaign of Magenta and Solferino took place ten years later.
Napoleon III., himself an ex-_carbonaro_, and the apostle of the theory
of "nationalities," had had his attention and his ambitions drawn
towards the Italian problem by the attempt upon his life by Orsini. The
general political horizon was by no means clear at the end of 1858, and
on the 1st of January 1859 the emperor of the French publicly expressed
to the Austrian ambassador his regret that "our relations are not so
good as heretofore." This was regarded by all concerned as a prelude to
war, and within a short time a treaty and a marriage-contract allied
Sardinia with the leading European power. In the smaller Italian states,
as before, the governments were on the side of Austria and the
"settlement of 1815," and the peoples on that of United Italy. The
French still maintained a garrison in Rome to support the pope. The
thorny question of the temporal power _versus_ the national movement was
not yet in the foreground, and though Napoleon's support of the former
was later to prove his undoing, in 1859 the main enemy was Austria and
the paramount factor was the assistance of 200,000 French regulars in
solving the immediate problem.

The Sardinian army, reconstituted by La Marmora with the definite object
of a war for union and rehabilitated by its conduct in the Crimea, was
eager and willing. The French army, proud of its reputation as the
premier army in the world, and composed, three-fourths of it, of
professional soldiers whose gospel was the "Legend," welcomed a return
to the first Napoleon's battle-grounds, while the emperor's ambitions
coincided with his sentiments. Austria, on the other hand, did not
desire war. Her only motive of resistance was that it was impossible to
cede her Italian possessions in face of a mere threat. To her, even more
than to France and infinitely more than to Italy, the war was a
political war, a "war with a limited aim" or "stronger form of
diplomatic note"; it entirely lacked the national and personal spirit of
resistance which makes even a passive defence so powerful.

Events during the period of tension that preceded the actual declaration
of war were practically governed by these moral conditions. Such
advantages as Austria possessed at the outset could only be turned to
account, as will presently appear, by prompt action. But her army system
was a combination of conscription and the "nation in arms," which for
the diplomatic war on hand proved to be quite inadequate. Whereas the
French army was permanently on a two-thirds war footing (400,000 peace,
600,000 war), that of Austria required to be more than doubled on
mobilization by calling in reservists. Now, the value of reservists is
always conditioned by the temper of the population from which they come,
and it is more than probable that the indecision of the Austrian
government between January and April 1859 was due not only to its desire
on general grounds to avoid war, but also, and perhaps still more, to
its hopes of averting it by firmness, without having recourse to the
possibly dangerous expedient of a real mobilization. A few years before
the method of "bluffing" had been completely successful against Prussia.
But the Prussian reservist of 1850 did not want to fight, whereas the
French soldier of 1859 desired nothing more ardently.


  Mobilization.

In these conditions the Austrian preparations were made sparingly, but
with ostentation. The three corps constituting the Army of Italy
(commanded since Radetzky's death in 1858 by Feldzeugmeister Count Franz
Gyulai (1798-1863)), were maintained at war efficiency, but not at war
strength (corps averaging 15,000). Instead, however, of mobilizing them,
the Vienna government sent an army corps (III.) from Vienna at peace
strength in January. This was followed by the II. corps, also at peace
strength, in February, and the available field force, from that point,
could have invaded Piedmont at once.[4] The initial military situation
was indeed all in favour of Austria. Her mobilization was calculated to
take ten weeks, it is true, but her concentration by rail could be much
more speedily effected than that of the French, who had either to cross
the Alps on foot or to proceed to Genoa by sea and thence by one line of
railway to the interior. Further, the demands of Algeria, Rome and other
garrisons, the complicated political situation and the consequent
necessity of protecting the French coasts against an English attack,[5]
and still more the Rhine frontier against Prussia and other German
states (a task to which the greatest general in the French army,
Pélissier, was assigned), materially reduced the size of the army to be
sent to Italy. But the Austrian government held its hand, and the
Austrian commander, apparently nonplussed by the alternation of
quiescence and boldness at Vienna, asked for full mobilization and
turned his thoughts to the Quadrilateral that had served Radetzky so
well in gaining time for the reserves to come up. March passed away
without an advance, and it was not until the 5th of April that the
long-deferred order was issued from Vienna to the reservists to join the
II., III., V., VII. and VIII. corps in Italy. And, after all, Gyulai
took the field, at the end of April, with most of his units at
three-quarters of their war strength.[6] On the side of the allies the
Sardinians mobilized 5 infantry and 1 cavalry divisions, totalling
64,000, by the third week in April. A few days later Austria sent an
ultimatum to Turin. This was rejected on the 26th, war being thereupon
declared. As for the French, the emperor's policy was considerably in
advance of his war minister's preparations. The total of about 130,000
men (all that could be spared out of 500,000) for the Italian army was
not reached until operations were in progress; and the first troops only
entered Savoy or disembarked in Genoa on the 25th and 26th of April.


  Austrian movements.

Thus, long as the opening had been delayed, there was still a period
after both sides had resolved on and prepared for war, during which the
Austrians were free to take the offensive. Had the Austrians crossed the
frontier instead of writing an ultimatum on the 19th of April, they
would have had from a week to a fortnight to deal with the Sardinians.
But even the three or four days that elapsed between the declaration and
the arrival of the first French soldiers were wasted. Vienna ordered
Gyulai to take the offensive on the 27th, but it was not until the 30th
that the Austrian general crossed the Ticino. His movements were
unopposed, the whole of the Sardinian army having concentrated (by
arrangement between La Marmora and Marshal Canrobert) in a flank
position between Casale and Alessandria, where it covered Turin
indirectly and Genoa, the French disembarkation port, directly.
Gyulai's left was on the 2nd of May opposite the allied centre, and his
right stretched as far as Vercelli.[7] On the 3rd he planned a
concentric attack on King Victor Emmanuel's position, and parts of his
scheme were actually put into execution, but he suspended it owing to
news of the approach of the French from Genoa, supply difficulties
(Radetzky, the inheritor of the 18th-century traditions, had laid it
down that the soldier must be well fed and that the civilian must not be
plundered, conditions which were unfavourable to mobility) and the heavy
weather and the dangerous state of the rivers.

[Illustration: Map.]


  Austrians grouped at Mortara.

Gyulai then turned his attention to the Sardinian capital. Three more
days were spent in a careful flank march to the right, and on the 8th of
May the army (III., V. and VII.) was grouped about Vercelli, with
outposts 10-14 m. beyond the Sesia towards Turin, reserves (II. and
VIII.) round Mortara, and a flank-guard detached from Benedek's VIII.
corps watching the Po. The extreme right of the main body skirmished
with Garibaldi's volunteers on the edge of the Alpine country. The Turin
scheme was, however, soon given up. Bivouacs, cancelled orders and
crossings of marching columns all contributed to exhaust the troops
needlessly. On the 9th one corps (the V.) had its direction and
disposition altered four times, without any change in the general
situation to justify this. In fact, the Austrian headquarters were full
of able soldiers, each of whom had his own views on the measures to be
taken and a certain measure of support from Vienna--Gyulai, Colonel Kuhn
his chief of staff, and Feldzeugmeister Hess, who had formerly played
Gneisenau to Radetzky's Blücher. But what emerges most clearly from the
movements of these days is that Gyulai himself distrusted the offensive
projects he had been ordered to execute, and catching apparently at some
expression of approval given by the emperor, had determined to imitate
Radetzky in "a defensive based on the Quadrilateral." His immediate
intention, on abandoning the advance on Turin was to group his army
around Mortara and to strike out as opportunity offered against the
heads of the allied columns wherever they appeared. Meantime, the IX.
corps had been sent to Italy, and the I. and XI. were mobilizing. These
were to form the I. Army, Gyulai's the II. The latter was by the 13th of
May grouped in the Lomellina, one third (chiefly VII. corps) spread by
brigades fanwise from Vercelli along the Sesia and Po to Vaccarizza, two
thirds massed in a central position about Mortara. There was still no
information of the enemy's distribution, except what was forwarded from
Vienna or gathered by the indefatigable Urban's division, which moved
from Milan to Biella, thence to Brescia and Parma, and back to Lombardy
in search of revolutionary bands, and the latter's doings in the nature
of things could not afford any certain inferences as to the enemy's
regular armies.

On the side of the allies, the Piedmontese were grouped on the 1st of
May in the fortified positions selected for them by Canrobert about
Valenza-Casale-Alessandria. The French III. corps arrived on the 2nd and
3rd and the IV. corps on the 7th at Alessandria from Genoa. Unhampered
by Gyulai's offensive, though at times and places disquieted by his
minor reconnaissances, the allies assembled until on the 16th the French
were stationed as follows: I. corps, Voghera and Pontecurone, II., Sale
and Bassignana, III., Tortona, IV., Valenza, Guard, Alessandria, and the
king's army between Valenza and Casale. The V. French corps under Prince
Napoleon had a political mission in the duchies of middle Italy; one
division of this corps, however, followed the main army. On the eve of
the first collision the emperor Napoleon, commanding in chief, had in
hand about 100,000 French and about 60,000 Sardinian troops (not
including Garibaldi's enlisted volunteers or the national guard).
Gyulai's II. Army was nominally of nearly equal force to that of the
allies, but in reality it was only about 106,000 strong in combatants.


  Montebello.

The first battle had no relation to the strategy contemplated by the
emperor, and was still less a part of the defence scheme framed by
Gyulai. The latter, still pivoting on Mortara, had between the 14th and
19th drawn his army somewhat to the left, in proportion as more and more
of the French came up from Genoa. He had further ordered a
reconnaissance in force in the direction of Voghera by a mixed corps
drawn from the V., Urban's division and the IX. (the last belonging to
the I. Army). The saying that "he who does not know what he wants, yet
feels that he must do something, appeases his conscience by a
reconnaissance in force," applies to no episode more forcibly than to
the action of Montebello (20th May) where Count Stadion, the commander
of the V. corps, not knowing what to reconnoitre, engaged disconnected
fractions of his available 24,000 against the French division of Forey
(I. corps), 8000 strong, and was boldly attacked and beaten, with a loss
of 1400 men against Forey's 700.


  Flank march of the Allies.

Montebello had, however, one singular result: both sides fell back and
took defensive measures. The French headquarters were already
meditating, if they had not actually resolved upon, a transfer of all
their forces from right to left, to be followed by a march on Milan (a
scheme inspired by Jomini). But the opening of the movement was
suspended until it became quite certain that Stadion's advance meant
nothing, while Gyulai (impressed by Forey's aggressive tactics)
continued to stand fast, and thus it was not until the 28th that the
French offensive really began.[8] The infantry of the French III. corps
was sent by rail from Pontecurone to Casale, followed by the rest of the
army, which marched by road. To cover the movement D'Autemarre's
division of Prince Napoleon's corps (V.) was posted at Voghera and one
division of the king's army remained at Valenza. The rest of the
Piedmontese were pushed northward to join Cialdini's division which was
already at Vercelli. The emperor's orders were for Victor Emmanuel to
push across the Sesia and to take post at Palestro on the 30th to cover
the crossing of the French at Vercelli. This the king carried out,
driving back outlying bodies of the enemy in spite of a stubborn
resistance and the close and difficult character of the country. Hearing
of the fighting, Gyulai ordered the recapture of Palestro by the II.
corps, but the Sardinians during the night strengthened their positions
and the attack (31st) was repulsed with heavy loss. These two initial
successes of the allies, the failures in Austrian tactics and leadership
which they revealed, and the fatigues and privation to which indifferent
staff work had exposed his troops, combined to confirm Gyulai in his now
openly expressed intention of "basing his defensive on the
Quadrilateral." And indeed his only alternatives were now to fall back
or to concentrate on the heads of the French columns as soon as they had
passed the Sesia about Vercelli. Faithful to his view of the situation
he adopted the former course (1st June). The retreat began on the 2nd,
while the French were still busied in closing up. Equally with the
Austrians, the French were the victims of a system of marching and
camping that, by requiring the tail of the columns to close up on the
head every evening, reduced the day's net progress to 6 or 7 m.,
although the troops were often under arms for fourteen or fifteen hours.
The difference between the supreme commands of the rival armies lay not
in the superior generalship of one or the other, but in the fact that
Napoleon III. as sovereign knew what he wanted and as general pursued
this object with much energy, whereas Gyulai neither knew how far his
government would go nor was entire "master in his own house."


  Austrian retreat.

  French advance to the Ticino.

The latter became very evident in his retreat. Kuhn, the chief of staff,
who was understood to represent the views of the general staff in
Vienna, had already protested against Gyulai's retrograde movement, and
on the 3rd Hess appeared from Vienna as the emperor's direct
representative and stopped the movement. It was destined to be resumed
after a short interval, but meanwhile the troops suffered from the
orders and counter-orders that had marked every stage in the Austrian
movements and were now intensified instead of being removed by higher
intervention. Meanwhile (June 1-2) the allies had regrouped themselves
east of the Sesia for the movement on Milan. The IV. corps, driving out
an Austrian detachment at Novara, established itself there, and was
joined by the II. and Guard. The king's army, supported by the I. and
III. corps, was about Vercelli, with cavalry far out to the front
towards Vespolate. From Novara, the emperor, who desired to give his
troops a rest-day on the 2nd, pushed out first a mixed reconnaissance
and then in the afternoon two divisions to seize the crossing of the
Ticino, Camou's of the Guard on Turbigo, Espinasse's of the II. corps on
San Martino. Further the whole of the Vercelli group was ordered to
advance on the 3rd to Novara and Galliate, where Napoleon would on the
4th have all his forces, except one division, beyond Gyulai's right and
in hand for the move on Milan. The division sent to Turbigo bridged the
river and crossed in the night of the 2nd/3rd, that at San Martino (on
the main road) occupied the bridge-head and also the river bridge
itself, though the latter was damaged. Espinasse's division here was
during the night replaced by a Guard division and went to join a growing
assembly of troops under General MacMahon, which established itself at
Turbigo and Robecchetto on the morning of the 3rd. Lastly, in order to
make sure that no attack was impending from the direction of Mortara,
Napoleon sent General Niel with a mixed reconnoitring force thither,
which returned without meeting any Austrian forces--fortunately for
itself, if the fate of the "reconnaissance in force" at Montebello
proves anything.

  The centre of gravity was now at Buffalora, a village on the main
  Milan road at the point where it crosses the Naviglio Grande. Here, on
  the night of the 1st, Count Clam-Gallas, commanding the Austrian I.
  corps (which had just arrived in Italy and was to form part of the
  future I. Army) had posted a division, with a view to occupying the
  bridge-head of San Martino. On inspecting the latter Clam-Gallas
  concluded that it was indefensible, and, ordering the San Martino road
  and railway bridges to be destroyed (an order which was only
  partially executed), he called on Gyulai for support, sent out
  detachments to the right against the French troops reported at
  Turbigo, and prepared to hold his ground at Buffalora. On receipt of
  Clam-Gallas's report at the Austrian headquarters, Hess ordered the
  resumption of the retreat that he had countermanded, but it was
  already late and many of the troops did not halt for the night till
  midnight, June 3rd/4th. Gyulai promised them the 4th as a rest-day,
  but fortune ordered it otherwise. This much at least was in favour of
  the Austrians, that when the troops at last reached their assigned
  positions four-fifths of them were within 12 m. of the battlefield.
  But, as before, the greater part of the army was destined to be
  chained to "supporting positions" well back from the battlefield.


    Battle of Magenta.

  When day broke on the 4th, the emperor of the French was still
  uncertain as to Gyulai's whereabouts, and his intention was therefore
  no more than to secure the passage of the Ticino and to place his army
  on both sides of the river, in sufficient strength to make head
  against Gyulai, whether the latter advanced from Mortara and Vigevano
  or from Abbiategrasso. He therefore kept back part of the French army
  and the whole of the Sardinian. But during the morning it became known
  that Gyulai had passed the Ticino on the evening of the 3rd; and
  Napoleon then ordered up all his forces to San Martino and Turbigo.
  The battlefield of Magenta is easily described. It consists of two
  level plateaux, wholly covered with vineyards, and between them the
  broad and low-lying valley of the Ticino. This, sharply defined by the
  bluffs of the adjoining plateaux, is made up of backwaters, channels,
  water meadows and swampy woods. At Turbigo the band of low ground is
  1½ m. wide, at Buffalora 2½. Along the foot of the eastern or Austrian
  bluffs between Turbigo and Buffalora runs the Grand Canal (Naviglio
  Grande); this, however, cuts into the plateau itself at the latter
  place and trending gradually inwards leaves a tongue of high ground
  separate from the main plateau. The Novara-Milan road and railway,
  crossing the Ticino by the bridge of San Martino, pass the second
  obstacle presented by the canal by the New Bridges of Magenta, the Old
  Bridge being 1000 yards south of these. The canal is bridged at
  several points between Turbigo and Buffalora, and also at Robecco, 1½
  m. to the (Austrian) left of the Old Bridge. Clam-Gallas's main line
  of defence was the canal between Turbigo and the Old Bridge,
  skirmishers being posted on the tongue of high ground in front of the
  New Bridges, which were kept open for their retreat. He had been
  joined by the II. corps and disposed of 40,000 men, 27,000 more being
  at Abbiategrasso (2½ m. S. of Robecco). Of his immediate command, he
  disposed about 12,000 for the defence of the New Bridges, 12,000 for
  that of Buffalora, 8000 at Magenta and 8000 at Robecco; all bridges,
  except the New Bridges, were broken. Cavalry played no part whatever,
  and artillery was only used in small force to fire along roads and
  paths.

  Napoleon, as has been mentioned, spent the morning of the 4th in
  ascertaining that Gyulai had repassed the Ticino. Being desirous
  merely of securing the passage and having only a small force available
  for the moment at San Martino, he kept this back in the hope that
  MacMahon's advance from Turbigo on Magenta and Buffalora would
  dislodge the Austrians. MacMahon advanced in two columns, 2 divisions
  through Cuggiono and 1 through Inveruno. The former drove back the
  Austrian outposts with ease, but on approaching Buffalora found so
  serious a resistance that MacMahon broke off the fight in order to
  close up and deploy his full force. Meantime, however, on hearing the
  cannonade Napoleon had ordered forward Mellinet's division of the
  Guard on the New Bridges and Buffalora. The bold advance of this
  _corps d'élite_ carried both points at once, but the masses of the
  allies who had been retained to meet a possible attack from Mortara
  and Vigevano were still far distant and Mellinet was practically
  unsupported. Thus the French, turning towards the Old Bridge, found
  themselves (3.30 P.M.) involved in a close fight with some 18,000
  Austrians, and meantime Gyulai had begun to bring up his III. and VII.
  corps towards Robecco and (with Hess) had arrived on the field
  himself. The VII. corps, on its arrival, drove Mellinet back to and
  over the New Bridges, but the French, now broken up into dense swarms
  of individual fighters, held on to the tongue of high ground and
  prevented the Austrians from destroying the bridges, while the
  occupants of Buffalora similarly held their own, and beyond them
  MacMahon, advancing through orchards and vineyards in a line of battle
  2 m. long, slowly gained ground towards Magenta. The III. Austrian
  corps, meanwhile, arriving at Robecco spread out on both sides of the
  canal and advanced to take the defenders of the New Bridges in rear,
  but were checked by fresh French troops which arrived from San Martino
  (4 P.M.). The struggle for the New and Old Bridges continued till 6
  P.M., more and more troops being drawn into the vortex, but at last
  the Austrians, stubbornly defending each vineyard, fell back on
  Magenta. But while nearly all the Austrian reinforcements from the
  lower Ticino had successively been directed on the bridges, MacMahon
  had only had to deal with the 8000 men who had originally formed the
  garrison of Magenta. The small part of the reinforcing troops that had
  been directed thither by Gyulai before he was aware of the situation,
  had in consequence no active rôle defined in their orders and
  (initiative being then regarded as a vice) they stood fast while
  their comrades were beaten. But it was not until after sunset that the
  thronging French troops at last broke into Magenta and the victory was
  won. The splendid Austrian cavalry (always at a disadvantage in Italy)
  found no opportunity to redress the balance, and their slow-moving and
  over-loaded infantry, in spite of its devotion, was no match in broken
  country for the swift and eager French. The forces engaged were 54,000
  French (one-third of the allied army) to 58,000 Austrians (about half
  of Gyulai's total force). Thus the fears of Napoleon as regards an
  Austrian attack from Mortara-Vigevano neutralized the bad distribution
  of his opponent's force, and Magenta was a fair contest of equal
  numbers. The victory of the French was palpably the consequence not of
  luck or generalship but of specific superiority in the soldier. The
  great result of the battle was therefore a conviction, shared by both
  sides, that in future encounters nothing but exceptional good fortune
  or skilful generalship could give the Austrians victory. The
  respective losses were: French 4000 killed and wounded and 600
  missing, Austrians 5700 killed and wounded, 4500 missing.


  Melegnano.

While the fighting was prolonged to nightfall, the various corps of the
Austrian army had approached, and it was Gyulai's intention to resume
the battle next day with 100,000 men. But Clam-Gallas reported that the
I. and II. corps were fought out, and thereupon Gyulai resolved to
retreat on Cremona and Mantua, leaving the great road Milan-Brescia
unused, for the townsmen's patriotism was sharpened by the remembrance
of Haynau, "the Hyena of Brescia." Milan and Pavia were evacuated on the
5th, Hess departed to meet the emperor Francis Joseph (who was coming to
take command of the united I. and II. Armies), and although Kuhn was
still in favour of the offensive Gyulai decided that the best service he
could render was to deliver up the army intact to his sovereign on the
Mincio. On the 8th of June Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel made their
triumphal entry into Milan, while their corps followed up rather than
pursued the retreating enemy along the Lodi and Cremona roads. On the
same day, the 8th of June, the I. and II. French corps, under the
general command of Marshal Baraguay d'Hilliers, attacked an Austrian
rearguard (part of VIII. corps, Benedek) at the village of Melegnano.
MacMahon with the II. corps was to turn the right flank, the IV. the
left of the defenders, while Baraguay attacked in front. But MacMahon,
as at Magenta, deployed into a formal line of battle before closing on
the village, and his progress through the vineyards was correspondingly
slow. The IV. corps was similarly involved in intricate country, but
Baraguay, whose corps had not been present at Magenta, was burning to
attack, and being a man _aussi dur à ses soldats qu'à lui-même_, he
delivered the frontal attack about 6 P.M. without waiting for the
others. This attack, as straightforward, as brusque, and as destitute of
tactical refinements as that of the Swiss on that very ground in 1515
(Marignan), was carried out, without "preparation," by Bazaine's
division _à la baïonnette_. Benedek was dislodged, but retreated safely,
having inflicted a loss of over 1000 men on the French, as against 360
in his own command.

After Melegnano, as after Magenta, contact with the retiring enemy was
lost, and for a fortnight the story of the war is simply that of a
triumphal advance of the allies and a quiet retirement and
reorganization of the Austrians. Up to Magenta Napoleon had a
well-defined scheme and executed it with vigour. But the fierceness of
the battle itself had not a little effect on his strange dreamy
character, and although it was proved beyond doubt that under reasonable
conditions the French must win in every encounter, their emperor turned
his attention to dislodging rather than to destroying the enemy. War
clouds were gathering elsewhere--on the Rhine above all. The simple
brave promise to free Italy "from the Alps to the Adriatic" became
complicated by many minor issues, and the emperor was well content to
let his enemy retire and to accelerate that retirement by manoeuvre as
far as might be necessary. He therefore kept on the left of his
adversary's routes as before, and about the 20th of June the whole
allied army (less Cialdini's Sardinian division, detached to operate on
the fringe of the mountain country) was closely grouped around
Montechiaro on the Chiese. It now consisted of 107,000 French and 48,000
Sardinians (combatants only).


  Austrians on the Mincio.

The Austrians had disappeared into the Quadrilateral, where the emperor
Francis Joseph assumed personal command, with Hess as his chief of
staff. Gyulai had resigned the command of the II. Army to Count Schlick,
a cavalry general of 70 years of age. The I. Army was under Count
Wimpffen. But this partition produced nothing but evil. The imperial
headquarters still issued voluminous detailed orders for each corps, and
the intervening army staff was a cause not of initiative or of
simplification, but of unnecessary delay. The direction of several
armies, in fact, is only feasible when general directions (_directives_
as they are technically called) take the place of orders. All the
necessary conditions for working such a system--uniformity of training,
methods and doctrine in the recipients, abstention from interference in
details by the supreme command--were wanting in the Austrian army of
1859. The I. Army consisted of the III., IX. and XI. corps with one
cavalry division and details, 67,000 in all; the II. Army of the I., V.,
VII. and VIII. corps, one cavalry division and details or 90,000
combatants--total 160,000, or practically the same force as the allies.
The emperor had made several salutary changes in the administration,
notably an order to the infantry to send their heavy equipment and
parade full-dress into the fortresses, which enormously lightened the
hitherto overburdened infantryman. At this moment the political omens
were favourable, and gathering the impression from his outpost reports
that the French were in two halves, separated by the river Chiese, the
young emperor at last accepted Hess's advice to resume the offensive, in
view of which Gyulai had left strong outposts west of the Mincio, when
the main armies retired over that river, and had maintained and
supplemented the available bridges.

[Illustration: Map of Solferino.]

The possibility of such a finale to the campaign had been considered but
dismissed at the allied headquarters, where it was thought that if the
Austrians took the offensive it would be on their own side, not the
enemy's, of the Mincio and in the midst of the Quadrilateral. Thus the
advance of the French army on the 24th was simply to be a general move
to the line of the Mincio, preparatory to forcing the crossings, coupled
with the destruction of the strong outpost bodies that had been left by
the Austrians at Solferino, Guidizzolo, &c. The Austrians, who advanced
over the Mincio on the 23rd, also thought that the decisive battle would
take place on the third or fourth day of their advance. Thus, although
both armies moved with all precautions as if a battle was the immediate
object, neither expected a collision, and Solferino was consequently a
pure encounter-battle.


    Battle of Solferino.

  Speaking generally, the battlefield falls into two distinct halves,
  the hilly undulating country, of which the edge (almost everywhere
  cliff-like) is defined by Lonato, Castiglione, Cavriana and Volta, and
  the plain of Medole and Guidizzolo. The village of Solferino is within
  the elevated ground, but close to the edge. Almost in the centre of
  the plateau is Pozzolengo, and from Solferino and Pozzolengo roads
  lead to crossing places of the Mincio above Volta (Monzambano-Salionze
  and Valeggio). These routes were assigned to the Piedmontese (44,000)
  and the French left wing (I., II. and Guard, 57,000), the plain to the
  III. and IV. corps and 2 cavalry divisions (50,000). On the other side
  the Austrians, trusting to the defensive facilities of the plateau,
  had directed the II. Army and part of the I. (86,000) into the plain,
  2 corps of the I. Army (V. and I.) on Solferino-Cavriana (40,000), and
  only the VIII. corps (Benedek), 25,000 strong, into the heart of the
  undulating ground. One division was sent from Mantua towards Marcaria.
  Thus both armies, though disposed in parallel lines, were grouped in
  very unequal density at different points in these lines.

  The French orders for the 24th were--Sardinian army on Pozzolengo, I.
  corps Esenta to Solferino, II. Castiglione to Cavriana, IV. with two
  cavalry divisions, Carpenedolo to Guidizzolo, III. Mezzane to Medole
  by Castel Goffredo; Imperial Guard in reserve at Castiglione. On the
  other side the VIII. corps from Monzambano was to reach Lonato, the
  remainder of the II. Army from Cavriana, Solferino and Guidizzolo to
  Esenta and Castiglione, and the I. Army from Medole, Robecco and
  Castel Grimaldo towards Carpenedolo. At 8 A.M. the head of the French
  I. corps encountered several brigades of the I. Army in advance of
  Solferino. The fighting was severe, but the French made no progress.
  MacMahon advancing on Guidizzolo came upon a force of the Austrians at
  Casa Morino and (as on former occasions) immediately set about
  deploying his whole corps in line of battle. Meanwhile masses of
  Austrian infantry became visible on the edge of the heights near
  Cavriana and the firing in the hills grew in intensity. Marshal
  MacMahon therefore called upon General Niel on his right rear to
  hasten his march. The latter had already expelled a small body of the
  Austrians from Medole and had moved forward to Robecco, but there more
  Austrian masses were found, and Niel, like MacMahon, held his hand
  until Canrobert (III. corps) should come up on his right. But the
  latter, after seizing Castel Goffredo, judged it prudent to collect
  his corps there before actively intervening. Meantime, however,
  MacMahon had completed his preparations, and capturing Casa Morino
  with ease, he drove forward to a large open field called the Campo di
  Medole; this, aided by a heavy cross fire from his artillery and part
  of Niel's, he carried without great loss, Niel meantime attacking Casa
  Nuova and Robecco. But the Austrians had not yet developed their full
  strength, and the initial successes of the French, won against
  isolated brigades and battalions, were a mere prelude to the real
  struggle. Meanwhile the stern Baraguay d'Hilliers had made ceaseless
  attacks on the V. corps at Solferino, where, on a steep hill
  surmounted by a tower, the Austrian guns fired with great effect on
  the attacking masses. It was not until after midday, and then only
  because it attacked at the moment when, in accordance with an often
  fatal practice of those days, the Austrian V. corps was being relieved
  and replaced by the I., that Forey's division of the I. corps,
  assisted by part of the Imperial Guard, succeeded in reaching the
  hill, whereupon Baraguay stormed the village and cemetery of Solferino
  with the masses of infantry that had gradually gathered opposite this
  point. By 2 P.M. Solferino was definitively lost to the Austrians.

  During this time MacMahon had taken, as ordered, the direction of
  Cavriana, and was by degrees drawn into the fighting on the heights.
  Pending the arrival of Canrobert--who had been alarmed by the reported
  movement of an Austrian force on his rear (the division from Mantua
  above mentioned) and having given up his cavalry to Niel was unable to
  explore for himself--Niel alone was left to face the I. Army. But
  Count Wimpffen, having been ordered at 11 to change direction towards
  Castiglione, employed the morning in redistributing his intact troops
  in various "mutually supporting positions," and thus the forces
  opposing Niel at Robecco never outnumbered him by more than 3 to 2.
  Niel, therefore, attacking again and again and from time to time
  supported by a brigade or a regiment sent by Canrobert, not only held
  his own but actually captured Robecco. About the same time MacMahon
  gained a foothold on the heights between Solferino and Cavriana, and
  as above mentioned, Baraguay had stormed Solferino and the tower hill.
  The greater part of the II. Austrian Army was beaten and in retreat on
  Valeggio before 3 P.M. But the Austrian emperor had not lost hope, and
  it was only a despairing message from Wimpffen, who had suffered least
  in the battle, that finally induced him to order the retreat over the
  Mincio. On the extreme right Benedek and the VIII. corps had fought
  successfully all day against the Sardinians, this engagement being
  often known by the separate name of the battle of San Martino. On the
  left Wimpffen, after sending his despondent message, plucked up heart
  afresh and, for a moment, took the offensive against Niel, who at
  last, supported by the most part of Canrobert's corps, had reached
  Guidizzolo. In the centre the Austrian rearguard held out for two
  hours in several successive positions against the attacks of MacMahon
  and the Guard. But the battle was decided. A violent storm, the
  exhaustion of the assailants, and the firm countenance of Benedek,
  who, retiring from San Martino, covered the retreat of the rest of the
  II. Army over the Mincio, precluded an effective pursuit.

  The losses on either side had been: Allies, 14,415 killed and wounded
  and 2776 missing, total 17,191; Austrians, 13,317 killed and wounded,
  9220 missing, total 22,537. The heaviest losses in the French army
  were in Niel's corps (IV.), which lost 4483, and in Baraguay
  d'Hilliers' (I.), which lost 4431. Of the total of 17,191, 5521 was
  the share of the Sardinian army, which in the battle of San Martino
  had had as resolute an enemy, and as formidable a position to attack,
  as had Baraguay at Solferino. On the Austrian side the IX. corps,
  which bore the brunt of the fighting on the plain, lost 4349 and the
  V. corps, that had defended Solferino, 4442. Solferino, in the first
  instance an encounter-battle in which each corps fought whatever enemy
  it found in its path, became after a time a decisive trial of
  strength. In the true sense of the word, it was a soldier's battle,
  and the now doubly-proved superiority of the French soldier being
  reinforced by the conviction that the Austrian leaders were incapable
  of neutralizing it by superior strategy, the war ended without further
  fighting. The peace of Villafranca was signed on the 11th of July.


THE CAMPAIGN OF 1866

In the seven years that elapsed between Solferino and the second battle
of Custozza the political unification of Italy had proceeded rapidly,
although the price of the union of Italy had been the cession of Savoy
and Nice to Napoleon III. Garibaldi's irregulars had in 1860 overrun
Sicily, and regular battles, inspired by the same great leader, had
destroyed the kingdom of Naples on the mainland (Volturno, 1st-2nd
October 1860). At Castelfidardo near Ancona on the 18th of September in
the same year Cialdini won another victory over the Papal troops
commanded by Lamoricière. In 1866, then, Italy was no longer a
"geographical expression," but a recognized kingdom. Only Rome and
Venetia remained of the numerous, disunited and reactionary states set
up by the congress of Vienna. The former, still held by a French
garrison, was for the moment an unattainable aim of the liberators, but
the moment for reclaiming Venetia, the last relic of the Austrian
dominions in Italy, came when Austria and Prussia in the spring of 1866
prepared to fight for the hegemony of the future united Germany (see
SEVEN WEEKS' WAR).

The new Italian army, formed on the nucleus of the Sardinian army and
led by veterans of Novara and Solferino, was as strong as the whole
allied army of 1859, but in absorbing so many recruits it had
temporarily lost much of its efficiency. It was organized in four corps,
of which one, under Cialdini, was detached from the main body.
Garibaldi, as before, commanded a semi-regular corps in the Alpine
valleys, but being steadily and skilfully opposed by Kuhn, Gyulai's
former chief of staff, he made little or no progress during the brief
campaign, on which indeed his operations had no influence. The main
Austrian army, still the best-trained part of the emperor's forces, had
been, up to the verge of the war, commanded by Benedek, but Benedek was
induced to give up his place to the archduke Albert, and to take up the
far harder task of commanding against the Prussians in Bohemia. It was
in fact a practically foregone conclusion that in Italy the Austrians
would win, whereas in Bohemia it was more than feared that the Prussians
would carry all before them. But Prussia and Italy were allied, and
whatever the result of a battle in Venetia, that province would have to
be ceded in the negotiations for peace with a victorious Prussia. Thus
on the Austrian side the war of 1866 in Italy was, even more than the
former war, simply an armed protest against the march of events.


  Second Battle of Custozza.

The part of Hess in the campaign of Solferino was played with more
success in that of Custozza by Major-General Franz, Freiherr von John
(1815-1876). On this officer's advice the Austrian army, instead of
remaining behind the Adige, crossed that river on the 23rd of June and
took up a position on the hills around Pastrengo on the flank of the
presumed advance of Victor Emmanuel's army. The latter, crossing the
Mincio the same day, headed by Villafranca for Verona, part of it in the
hills about Custozza, Somma-Campagna and Castelnuovo, partly on the
plain. The object of the king and of La Marmora, who was his adviser,
was by advancing on Verona to occupy the Austrian army (which was only
about 80,000 strong as against the king's 120,000), while Cialdini's
corps from the Ferrara region crossed the lower Po and operated against
the Austrian rear. The archduke's staff, believing that the enemy was
making for the lower Adige in order to co-operate directly with
Cialdini's detachment, issued orders for the advance on the 24th so as
to reach the southern edge of the hilly country, preparatory to
descending upon the flank of the Italians next day. However, the latter
were nearer than was supposed, and an encounter-battle promptly began
for the possession of Somma-Campagna and Custozza. The king's army was
unable to use its superior numbers and, brigade for brigade, was much
inferior to its opponents. The columns on the right, attempting in
succession to debouch from Villafranca in the direction of Verona, were
checked by two improvised cavalry brigades under Colonel Pulz, which
charged repeatedly, with the old-fashioned cavalry spirit that Europe
had almost forgotten, and broke up one battalion after another. In the
centre the leading brigades fought in vain for the possession of
Custozza and the edge of the plateau, and on the left the divisions that
had turned northward from Valeggio into the hills were also met and
defeated. About 5 P.M. the Italians, checked and in great disorder,
retreated over the Mincio. The losses were--Austrians, 4600 killed and
wounded and 1000 missing; Italians, 3800 killed and wounded and 4300
missing. The archduke was too weak in numbers to pursue, his losses had
been considerable, and a resolute offensive, in the existing political
conditions, would have been a mere waste of force. The battle necessary
to save the honour of Austria had been handsomely won. Ere long the bulk
of the army that had fought at Custozza was transported by rail to take
part in defending Vienna itself against the victorious Prussians. One
month later Cialdini with the re-organized Italian army, 140,000 strong,
took the field again, and the 30,000 Austrians left in Venetia retreated
to the Isonzo without engaging.

In spite of Custozza and of the great defeat sustained by the Italian
navy at the hands of Tegetthof near Lissa on the 20th of July, Venetia
was now liberated and incorporated in the kingdom of Italy, and the
struggle for unity, that had been for seventeen years a passionate and
absorbing drama, and had had amongst its incidents Novara, Magenta,
Solferino and the Garibaldian conquest of the Two Sicilies, ended in an
anti-climax.

Three years later the cards were shuffled, and Austria, France and Italy
were projecting an offensive alliance against Prussia. This scheme came
to grief on the Roman question, and the French chassepôt was used for
the first time in battle against Garibaldi at Mentana, but in 1870
France was compelled to withdraw her Roman garrison, and with the assent
of their late enemy Austria, the Italians under Cialdini fought their
way into Rome and there established the capital of united Italy.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The war of 1848-49 has been somewhat neglected by
  modern military historians, but the following are useful: _Der Feldzug
  der österr. Armee in Italien 1848-49_ (Vienna, 1852); Gavenda,
  _Sammlung aller Armeebefehle u.s.w. mit Bezug auf die Hauptmomente des
  Krieges_ 1848-49; Major H. Kunz, _Feldzüge des F. M. Radetzki in
  Oberitalien_ (Berlin, 1900), and Major Adams, _Great Campaigns_. Both
  the French and the Austrian governments issued official accounts
  (_Campagne de Napoléon III en Italie 1859_, _Der Krieg in Italien
  1859_) of the war of 1859. The standard critical work is _Der
  italienische Feldzug 1859_ by the German general staff (practically
  dictated by Moltke). Prince Kraft zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, who had
  many friends in the Austrian army, deals with the Magenta campaign in
  vol. i. of his _Letters on Strategy_. General Silvestre's _Étude sur
  la campagne de 1859_ was published in 1909. In English, Col. H. C.
  Wylly, _Magenta and Solferino_ (1906), and in German General Cämmerer,
  _Magenta_, and Major Kunz, _Von Montebello bis Solferino_ should be
  consulted.

  For the Italian campaign of 1866 see the Austrian official history,
  _Österreichs Kämpfe 1866_ (French translation), and the Italian
  official account, _La Campagna del 1866_, of which the volume dealing
  with Custozza was published in 1909. A short account is given in Sir
  H. Hozier's _Seven Weeks' War_, and tactical studies in v. Verdy's
  _Custozza_ (tr. Henderson), and Sir Evelyn Wood, _Achievements of
  Cavalry_.     (C. F. A.)


FOOTNOTES:

  [1] Several of the French generals--Lamoricière, Bedeau, Changarnier
    and others--who had been prominent in Algeria and in the 1848
    revolution in France had been invited to take the command, but had
    declined it.

  [2] Students of Napoleonic strategy will find it interesting to
    replace Ramorino by, say, Lannes, and to post Durando at
    Mortara-Vigevano instead of Vespolate-Vigevano, and from these
    conditions to work out the probable course of events.

  [3] Ramorino's defence was that he had received information that the
    Austrians were advancing on Alessandria by the south bank of the Po.
    But Alessandria was a fortress, and could be expected to hold out for
    forty-eight hours; moreover, it could easily have been succoured by
    way of Valenza if necessary.

  [4] The Sardinians, at peace strength, had some 50,000 men, and
    during January and February the government busied itself chiefly with
    preparations of supplies and armament. Here the delay in calling out
    the reserves was due not to their possible ill-will, but to the
    necessity of waiting on the political situation.

  [5] The Volunteer movement in England was the result of this crisis
    in the relations of England and France.

  [6] As far as possible Italian conscripts had been sent elsewhere and
    replaced by Austrians.

  [7] The movements of the division employed in policing Lombardy
    (Urban's) are not included here, unless specially mentioned.

  [8] The advantages and dangers of the flank march are well summarized
    in Colonel H. C. Wylly's _Magenta and Solferino_, p. 65, where the
    doctrinaire objections of Hamley and Rüstow are set in parallel with
    the common-sense views of a much-neglected English writer (Major
    Adams, _Great Campaigns_) and with the clear and simple doctrine of
    Moltke, that rested on the principle that strategy does not exist to
    avoid but to give effect to tactics. The waste of time in execution,
    rather than the scheme, is condemned by General Silvestre.




ITALIC, i.e. Italian, in Roman archaeology, history and law, a term
used, as distinct from Roman, of that which belongs to the races,
languages, &c., of the non-Roman parts of Italy (see ITALY, _Ancient
Languages and Peoples_). In architecture the Italic order is another
name for the Composite order (see ORDER). The term was applied to the
Pythagorean school of philosophy in Magna Graecia, and to an early Latin
version of the Bible, known also as _Itala_, which was superseded by the
Vulgate, but its special technical use is of a particular form of type,
in which the letters slope to the right. This is used, in present-day
printing, chiefly to emphasize words or phrases, to indicate words or
sentences in a foreign language, or to mark the titles of books, &c. It
was introduced by the Aldine Press (see MANUTIUS and TYPOGRAPHY).





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