At the end of the century, Jovianus
Pontanus, in his 'Antonius,' writes an imaginary journey through Italy,
simply as a vehicle for malicious observations. But in the sixteenth
century we meet with a series of exact and profound studies of national
characteristics, such as no other people of that time could rival.
Machiavelli sets forth in some of his valuable essays the character and
the political condition of the Germans and French in such a way that
the born northerner, familiar with the history of his own country, is
grateful to the Florentine thinker for his flashes of insight. The
Florentines begin to take pleasure in describing themselves; and
basking in the well-earned sunshine of their intellectual glory, their
pride seems to attain its height when they derive the artistic pre-
eminence of Tuscany among Italians, not from any special gifts of
nature, but from hard, patient work. The homage of famous men from
other parts of Italy, of which the sixteenth Capitolo of Ariosto is a
splendid example, they accepted as a merited tribute to their
excellence.
Of an admirable description of the Italians, with their various
pursuits and characteristics, though in a few words and with special
stress laid on the Lucchese, to whom the work was dedicated, we can
give only the title: _Forcianae Questiones, _by Ortensio Landi, Naples,
1536.
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