vations with which the professor concludes his statement, I fully assent. (a)

XII.

v. 4to. ed. vol. i. p. 89. 8vo. ed. vol. i.

p. 122. "Will long continue to do honour to his memory."

PROFESSOR POZZETTI has availed himself of the opportunity afforded him by the publication of his dissertations on the English Life of Lorenzo de' Medici, to add some further particulars to his Memoirs of Leo Battista Alberti, which are deserving of notice, but would lead us too far beyond our limits to enter upon them here. He has also referred. to a medallion of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, lord of Ri

(a) "Converremo tutti col Sig. Roscoe, che la diffinitiva sentenza intorno la collazione del premio ridondò effettivamente in ischerno degli aspiranti; nè potè dunque simile spettacolo appellarsi in genere, il Trionfo della Letteratura; ma egli, confido, si degnerà concedermi altresì, che l'oggetto pel quale venne proposta la tenzone, illustra assaissimo le lettere giudicate valevoli di concorrere al sollievo del Pubblico. Tale appunto, e solo, fu il pensiero che manifestai nelle riferite parole."-Pozz. Diss. I. p. 5.

mini, executed in 1450, on the reverse of which is represented the church of S. Francesco, at Rimini; and has published a letter of Alberti, in order to shew that he intended to terminate that building, of which he was the architect, with a cupola like that of Brunelleschi at Florence, although such intention was not carried into effect. Below is a copy of the medallion referred to, from an original in my posses

XIII.

v. 4to. ed. vol. i. p. 117. 8vo. ed. vol. i. p. 158.

"That the heart of Lorenzo had little share in this engagement, is marked by a striking circumstance. In adverting to his marriage in his Ricordi, he bluntly remarks, that he took this lady to wife, or rather, says he, she was given to me on the day before mentioned."

THE Italian translator, Mecherini, has in a note objected to my construction of the above passage, which he says, only implies, in good Tuscan phraseology, a promise of future espousal; and affords no ground to suppose that there was any dissatisfaction on the part of Lorenzo. (a) I by no means feel disposed to press my opinion against that of a well-informed native, who must be so much more competent to judge on the subject; yet in justice to myself

(a) "Da questa espressione, che non altro significa in buon Toscano se non che una promessa di futuri sponsali, non può trarsi congettura d'alienazione di Lorenzo da questo matrimonio.”—Vita di Lor, trad. di Mecherini, i. 121.

H

I cannot omit to notice the remark of Pignotti, who in reference to this passage in the Italian translation, seems to admit of my construction, observing that "it is difficult to perceive how the translator could pervert the sense by an unnecessary note." (a)

XIV.

v. 4to. ed. vol. i. p. 129. 8vo. ed. vol. i. p. 174.

"On the second day after that event he was attended at his own house by many of the principal inhabitants of Florence, who requested that he would take upon himself the administration and care of the republic, in the same manner as his grandfather and father had before done."

M. DE' SISMONDI (b) has preferred the authority of Macchiavelli and his copyists, to that of Lorenzo himself in his Ricordi, who expressly attributes his elevation to the direction, or, as he expresses it, the care of the republic, to the intervention of the chief persons of the state,

(a) "Non si sa come il Traduttore possa storcere il senso con una inopportuna nota."-Pignotti Storia di Toscana, tom. ix. p. 166.

(b) Hist. des Rep. Ital. tom. xi. p. 5.

two days after the death of his father. (a) Whether the authority of this domestic, private, and contemporary record, is not to be preferred to that of a writer, who, to say nothing of his occasional inaccuracy, was only born in the year in which the event took place, the reader will judge.

On this head I must not omit to notice an observation in the excellent work of Mr. Hallam, which is important to this point. In relating the succession of Lorenzo and Giuliano to the rank and authority of the family, which he expresses somewhat too strongly by their assuming the reins of government, he observes that Lorenzo had asserted in excuse for himself, that "it was not easy to live at Florence without governing it ;"(b) "which," he adds, "was true enough, and his ancestors had been in a good degree the cause of it." (c) This undoubtedly would be very decisive evidence, if such were in fact the sense of the passage; but I apprehend that the expression senza lo stato,

(a) v. Ricordi di Lor. in Life of Lor. de' Medici, Appendix,

No. XII.

(b) " A Firenze si può mal vivere senza lo stato.”—Ricordi di Lorenzo, ut sup.

(c) Hallam's View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, 4° ed. vol. i. 384.8°. ed. vol. i. p. 541.