one slipping from the Venetians' grasp would one day be the heritage of his own descendants, and that its possession would bring with it many of the qualities and faults he had noted as especially belonging to Venice.

The ordinary impression made by the Florentines was one of talkativeness and a great desire to appear eloquent. Thomas observed that "he is not reputed a man among them that cannot play the orator in his tale, as well in gesture as in word." Dallington, fifty years later, wrote that although he had heard much of the great wit of the Florentines he was unable to find it himself, whatever Machiavelli might say about it; the Florentine was good enough for conversation on frivolous subjects, but for nothing deeper. And this, though they "do all things alla mostra and speak always alla grande, witness their great houses, and small furniture of the one, their great words and small matter."" Everything was done for show, even their duels, where each party was well armed under his garments. He himself had seen two gallants in Pisa fight thus completely provided where after a very furious encounter, and a most merciless shredding and slashing of their apparel, with a most desperate resolution to cut one another out of his clothes, they were (to the saving of many a stitch) parted and by mediation with much ado made friends." 3

66

To follow the English traveller through the cities of Italy would be a study in itself. Each place excited

1 Op. cit., p. 139.

2 Dallington, Tuscany, p. 61. 8 Ibid., p. 65.

L

some comment on his part. Thus at Siena, Hoby noticed the hospitality of every one, while at Naples, Thomas remarked the politeness of the people, but qualified it by saying that they could not be trusted. In Genoa he was especially struck by the amorous qualities of its inhabitants, who could indeed teach Ovid "a dozen points. so that in mine opinion the supreme court of love is nowhere to be found out of Genoa." 2

Although the English traveller in Italy no longer went there purely to study, he was still interested in culture; while at Padua, for instance, Hoby alluded to the great professors of classics, and mentioned later that he passed the birthplace of "the famous clerk in letters of humanity, Lazarus Bonamicus, stipended reader in the schools of Padua." 113 The learning of the Italian women was also noticed, especially that of the Sienese who "wrote excellently well both in prose and verse." What made a deep impression, however, was the Florentine Academy, of which Thomas wrote probably the first English account, all the more interesting in view of the Areopagus of Sidney, and of Bolton's idea of a similar institution which was never to take root in England. The Academy seemed to Thomas one of the most interesting of all the sights he had seen. He described how the learned Florentines met there, the duke being of their number. The

one to whom the task had been assigned beforehand would ascend the tribune and deliver an oration, lasting an hour, on any subject of his choice, the orator of the occasion being seated higher than the duke himself. Thomas confessed to never having heard "reader in school nor preacher in pulpit handle themselves better." Later on, Dallington presented the other side of the picture. In former days, he wrote, the Florentines may well have had wit, but like spendthrifts they had run through the fortune that was left them; if Machiavelli were still alive and could see those wont to rule a state pay toll for a few lettuce brought from their villa, "he would unsay that which he had formerly said, and swear they had no wit."

V

Architecture was then the only art really noticed by English travellers, perhaps because of its learned side. Thomas devoted considerable attention to it, and, following Vitruvius, he explained at some length the different classic orders and styles, probably for the first time in English. The ruins of antiquity were likewise often regarded from the point of view of their own intrinsic beauty. Frequently, too, the churches impressed the traveller. St. Peter's was briefly described by Thomas, who admired the grandeur of its dimensions, but said that most people were in doubt as to whether it would ever be finished.2

The great palaces of the Renaissance were also

1 Op. cit., p. 139.

2 Ibid., p. 40.

objects of the traveller's admiration. Thomas remarked of Venice that no place in all Europe was able to compare with it in number of sumptuous houses, and that there were over two hundred palaces there, all able to lodge any king.1 In Rome, too, he thought the Palazzo Farnese one of the grandest buildings in the world, and admired beyond measure the Belvedere, with the fountains and orange trees around it, which made it look like another paradise.

Saw." 2

The æsthetic appreciation of the Englishman in the sixteenth century may be judged from the fact that the only statues observed by him were antiques. Classical education had not yet deigned to notice contemporary sculpture; Hoby almost alone admired a marble fountain representing the story of Acteon by Giovan Angelo [Montorsoli] at Messina, "which to my eyes is one of the fairest works of marble that ever I But he passed the bronze gates of the Baptistery in Florence without a remark of any kind. On the other hand, such works as the marble horses on the Monte Cavallo in Rome, supposed to have been by Phidias and Praxiteles, were mentioned by nearly every traveller. The statues of the Belvedere were also described by Thomas, who spoke of "the images of fine marble, of Romulus and Remus playing with a wolf's teats, of Apollo with his bow and arrows, of Laocöon with his two children wrapped about with serpents, of Venus beholding little Cupido, of the sorrowful Cleopatra [Ariadne] lying by the river side, and divers

1 Turler, op. cit., p. 74.

2 Ms. cit., f. 69 b.