notat, mnou bw by, eo quod loquacula fuerit, ut Baal Hatturim ait, Fagius, Hebræos ita id efferre, scribit. 8 by ADYDYDI M'707, Eo quod loquacula et garrula fuit, locutaque est cum serpente verba inutilia, donec comprehensa fuit in verbis suis, atque ita peccavit, simul atque peccare fecit maritum suunt, vocavit eam " Witsii Econ. Fœder. I. iv. c. 1. § It were trifling to record the derivation of Tobacco from the Hebrew, or the Greek; or to contradict Geropius Becanus, who maintained that the harmonious language of Paradise was none other than the vulgar High Dutch! And to doubt Verstegan's reference of the Patriarchal names to our beloved Saxon, would too nearly verge towards disaffection to the truly noble language of our fathers. Suffice it to say, that the learned Greeks, the Roman Tacitus, the Christian fathers, the Jewish Rabbins, the Scholastic Divines, the modern Literati, the profound Scholar, the accurate Critic, the elegant Tourist, the Grub-street quill-driver, and the beautiful blue-stocking, have all in their turn descended to the puerilities of idle and baseless etymologies! GEOFFREY ON THE MONUMENTS OF CICERO. THE Abate Lignaminio, an antiquary of Padua, relates that on the first of December, 1544, as some workmen were digging the foundations of a church in the island of Zante, they dis covered the sepulchre of the orator; and within it one cinerary, and two lacrymatory vases. He, as well as Clavelli, are of opi nion that the domestics who were present at the assassination, after his head and hands were cut off by Popilius Lænas, burnt his body, and sailed with the ashes to Zacynthus, where they honored them with a funeral. But have any travellers seen this monument at Zante? I can only say that Clavelli, in his Storia d'Arpino, gives a view of it, which I copied at Naples. Fig. 7, (See Plate 1.) exhibits one end of the sepulchre, with the inscription. Fig. 8, is the cinerary urn which possibly contained the ashes of the orator. Fig. 9, is the bottom of the cinerary urn. Who the Tertia Antonia of the inscription may have been is unknown. Here perhaps it may not be inapposite to introduce an epitaph lately published for the first time at Rome, and taken from a MS. of the fourteenth century, in the possession of Signor Mariottini; whether it may have been inscribed on an ancient sarcophagus, or whether it be the invention of some monk, contemporary of Petrarch, I leave to skilful Latinists to decide: Unicus orator, lumenque, decusque senatus, Cujus ab ingenio tandem illustrata perenni Quisquis in hoc saxo Tulli legis advena nomen, The only ancient bust with the orator's name inscribed was in the Mattei collection at Rome; but it has lately passed into the hands of an illustrious English Duke; who, after a series of brilliant achievements in the field, proves that he reverences the toga Ciceroniana as it deserves. The Magnesian medal preserved, I believe, in a monastery at Ravenna, exhibits his profile and name in Greek. The busts shown in the Campidoglio, and in the Medicean gallery at Florence, are so far valuable, that they exactly resemble each other. But I suspect that they are not portraits of the orator; who speaks somewhere of his procerum et tenue collum. Now these busts are fleshy, and short about the neck. But in the Medicean collection, there is another portrait, which usu ally goes by the name of the Florentine bust; copies of which are spread so generally throughout Europe. It is certainly expressive of acuteness of intellect, and passes for the best reputed likeness of the orator. The inhabitants of Arpino preserved a very ancient bust of their townsman, in front of their town hall; but it was destroyed during the commotions which took place in their city, in consequence of the French invasion..: Whether or not the statue lately found among the ruins of Tusculum, the profile, of which is inserted in this work, represents the orator, videant Viscontii. , Of the inscriptions, commemorating the family of the Cice ' Lettera di Cancellieri, Roma, 1812. |