LIVES OF THE ITALIAN POETS. BY THE REV. HENRY STEBBING, M.A. M.R.S.L. WITH TWENTY MEDALLION PORTRAITS. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: EDWARD BULL, HOLLES STREET. 1831. 277. TO SAMUEL ROGERS, Esq. SIR, IN begging you to accept the dedication of this work, I am influenced by a feeling of gratitude, due to those who have contributed by their productions to improve and elevate our sentiments in early life, and by the consideration that "Lives of the Italian Poets" could not be more appropriately dedicated than to a poet, and one who has sung of "Italy" in strains so deeply imbued as your's with the native elegance of her Muse. With these feelings I lay my work before you, happy that, in so doing, I have an opportunity of expressing publicly the admiration and respect I have long entertained for your name and genius. London, Dec. 28th, 1830. HENRY STEBBING. PREFACE. IT had long been a favourite idea with me before commencing the present work, that the Lives of the Italian Poets offered a subject on which the pen of the biographer might be employed with the greatest advantage. The men whose fortunes he would have to describe, appeared to my imagination invested with singular dignity and splendour. Many of them lived in times when genius conferred upon its possessors rank and influence as well as fame; others had to pass through vicissitudes with which it is always instructive and animating to see the human mind virtuously and successfully struggling; and all of them had a deep and enthusiastic veneration for their art, which renders their career worthy of the |