But the
breath of the age moves in his pages, and his Leo, his Alfonso, his
Pompeo Colonna, live and act before us with such perfect truth and
reality, that we seem admitted to the deepest recesses of their nature.
Among Neapolitan writers, Tristano Caracciolo, so far as we are able to
judge, holds indisputably the first place in this respect, although his
purpose was not strictly biographical. In the figures which he brings
before us, guilt and destiny are wondrously mingled. He is a kind of
unconscious tragedian. That genuine tragedy which then found no place
on the stage, 'swept by' in the palace, the street, and the public
square. The 'Words and Deeds of Alfonso the Great,' written by Antonio
Panormita during the lifetime of the king, are remarkable as one of the
first of such collections of anecdotes and of wise and witty sayings.
The rest of Europe followed the example of Italy in this respect but
slowly, although great political and religious movements had broken so
many bonds, and had awakened so many thousands to new spiritual life.
Italians, whether scholars or diplomatists, still remained, on the
whole, the best source of information for the characters of the leading
men all over Europe. It is well known how speedily and unanimously in
recent times the reports of the Venetian embassies in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries have been recognized as authorities of the first
order for personal description.
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