Lord Vernon’s Dante; Sir G. Cornewall Lewis on Milton and Dante; Chi era Francesco da Bologna? John Harris.
During 1848, Europe was greatly disturbed by internal commotions, calculated to unsettle thinking men, and more especially those who took an active interest in politics. It is a matter for astonishment, therefore, that Panizzi, whose share in such agitation was by no means inconsiderable, should have found time and inclination to devote himself to literary productions. Nevertheless, indulging in the aspirations for freedom which were then moving nations he yet was able to dedicate much of his time to literature.
Dante
Indeed, it is almost incredible how he could, with so much on his brain, have given himself up to the editing of Dante. Of the great Italian poet so much might be written that it would be but irrelevant to this biography to leave the principal mover in it, even temporarily, to dilate on so exalted a subject. We must, therefore, merely observe that Panizzi was deeply impressed with the 295importance of Dante’s poetry, which excelled all that had preceded it, and was written in the lingua vulgare, only that it might be understood by the people, who delighted in its inexhaustible treasures. Five centuries have elapsed since the great Florentine wrote his Divina Commedia, which has now become the property and admiration of the whole civilized world.
The editions of it are very numerous, but it is with the first four we have now to deal.
The earliest is the Editio Princeps, of Foligno, by Numeister, bearing date 1472. In the same year were also printed one edition at Jesi, by Federico Veronese, and another at Mantua, by Germanus, Giorgio e Paolo. That at Naples was edited by Giovanni Francesco del Tuppo, printed by Reussinger, and appeared three years later.
An idea of the value and importance of the volume edited by Panizzi, at the expense of Lord Vernon (published by Messrs. T. and W. Boone, and printed by Charles Whittingham), may be formed by the mere fact that these first four editions are here united in one, which, to the student, must prove an invaluable boon, as he is thus enabled to perceive at a glance the variations in the text.
These editions can only be found altogether at the British Museum, though separate copies exist in other libraries also.
296In the year 1835, Mr. Grenville gave the sum of ￡60 for the copy printed at Naples, and in 1842 he purchased for ￡42. 16s. 0d. the Mantua edition, which two copies are now in the British Museum, forming part of his munificent bequest to the Nation.
From Panizzi’s preface we learn that he gave ￡90 to Mr. Asher, of Berlin, for the Jesi Dante, in which six pages were missing. Fac-similes were made by John Harris, from a copy in the possession of Earl Spencer. Later on, Mr. Winter Jones, at that time Keeper of the Printed Books, purchased another incomplete copy, from which he was enabled to replace four more pages, thus rendering it all but complete.
Two copies of the Foligno Edition are to be found in the same Library—the most favoured possessor in the world of early editions of Dante.
Lord Vernon could have no better opportunity of reprinting them in London. In securing the assistance of Panizzi, whose knowledge and precision were of the utmost importance, he was most fortunate. Moreover, the printing of the book in question is highly creditable to British typography. It is a folio of 800 pages, with a preface by the Editor, and contains fac-similes of the originals. Lord Vernon, being a corresponding member, dedicated it to the Accademia della Crusca.
The preliminaries for this work, which was published in 1858, were entered into just ten years before; and a memorandum from Lord Vernon, dated October 23, 1848, is extant, in which he makes a proposal to Panizzi that the sum of ￡50 should be paid to him 297every six months, until the completion of the work—the said payment to terminate in four years—the whole sum amounting in the aggregate to ￡400.
In this transaction Mr. Pickering was consulted.
Panizzi lost no time, and was evidently eager to begin a task so congenial to his taste; for barely a week afterwards (to quote his own words) he wrote to Lord Vernon, “I have set to work without a moment’s delay, putting aside every other unofficial occupation.”
The question relating to the latter part of the following letter of Lord Vernon, seems to have arisen from a misunderstanding as to the use of the word his for this; and will be best explained by giving his Lordship’s letter, in addition to Panizzi’s very characteristic reply:—
“Florence, 21st Nov., 1848.
“My Dear Sir,
I am very happy to find that Mr. Pickering’s proposal has met with your approval, as it did with mine. As for myself, I can only congratulate myself at having had the good fortune to secure your valuable assistance at any price within my means.
Lord Vernon
Respecting the correction of the press, you are right in supposing that it was intended to apply not only to the part which more immediately concerns yourself, but to the whole work. If, however, you think that the revision of my part of the work will be a great fatigue, and take up too much of your time, I am willing to omit this from the conditions above 298stated. I must, however, in this case, beg of you to name your own terms, in case it suited you to undertake it, or else to find some one else in whose capacity and judgment you have confidence, and who will have some discretion in his demands upon my purse.
Yours, &c., &c.,
Vernon.”
“B. M., Nov. 30th, 1848.
“My dear Lord,
In thanking you for your kind expressions towards me, I beg to add that I cannot allow you to incur any expense whatever for correcting your own edition of the Inferno. I consider it part of my duty, according to the terms of the memorandum of the 23rd of October, as explained in my lettter to your Lordship on the 31st of the same month, to correct the press of that Cantica; I am at your Lordship’s orders, and ready to perform that duty to the best of my abilities.
I suppose I shall hear from Mr. Pickering when I am wanted in that respect. With reference to the text of the first four editions, twelve cantos of the first (Foligno) are prepared for collation with those of Mantua, Jesi, and Naples.
By midsummer I hope the greater part, if not the whole of the first part of the poem, will be thus collated and ready for press. The printing will proceed slowly, as I am to re-collate the whole in type.
Yours, &c., &c.,
A. Panizzi.”
As early as September, 1849, there was already sufficient material for going to press; but though Panizzi continually wrote to his Lordship urging the necessity of beginning to print, a year elapsed without any communication on the subject, and without any progress with the work. From a letter in the month of June, 1851, Lord Vernon appears to have 299been somewhat discouraged; the booksellers not having taken up the matter in so spirited a manner as he anticipated, and Panizzi complaining, not without reason, that the work seems to have come almost to a stand still, consoled himself by addressing the following letter to Mr. E. White, his Lordship’s solicitor:—
“British Museum, May 5th, 1852.
“Dear Sir,
It is not for me to suggest to his Lordship any course of proceeding; as, however, I am not totally indifferent with respect to the determination he may come to, I hope to be forgiven for saying a very few words on the subject.
When I undertook to carry out Lord Vernon’s wishes expressed in the memorandum handed to me by Mr. Pickering, and confirmed by his Lordship’s subsequent letters, I was not only moved by the pecuniary remuneration which Lord Vernon was pleased to propose to me, I looked forward to the time when the work should be published, from which I expected some credit. I cannot, therefore, feel indifferent to his Lordship’s determination as to publishing; nor can I receive without some slight observation the sum which Lord Vernon proposed to me as a remuneration for a certain work, without fulfilling on my part the obligations I have incurred. These I am most anxious to perform, but it is impossible for me to do so if Lord Vernon does not order a printer to print the manuscript which I have not failed to prepare as agreed, and in a manner which his Lordship had fully approved of.
I am not less desirous to perform what I have undertaken, than I am of receiving the remuneration which I was led to expect for it; and it would be very painful to me if his Lordship merely performed his part of the agreement without enabling me to perform mine.
Yours, &c., &c.,
A. Panizzi.”
300Much to the editor’s delight, however, work was resumed; and by the summer of 1854 Mr. Whittingham had already sent in a bill for printing the Inferno.
Such was the beauty of the work that it deeply impressed Lord Vernon’s sensitive nature, and in the following year he desired that the Purgatorio should be forthwith proceeded with, but as the first portion approached completion, his Lordship became anxious as to the title of the book and its disposal, as the following letter clearly testifies:—
“Nov. 4, 1856,
H?tel Westminster,
Rue de la Paix, Paris.
“Dear Mr. Panizzi,
What shall we call the union of four editions in one? I cannot think of a word. You cannot call it “Tesseraglott,” because it is one “glotte,” or language, though not quite in one dialect. If I remember right, there is in Ugo Foscolo’s edition rather a learned disquisition about the cause of the difference in the texts of the early editions, viz., the difference in the dialect of the early copyists, &c., &c., &c.
I was thinking of dedicating the book to the Crusca(of which I am a most unworthy corresponding member), if you see no objection to it. What plan would you recommend me to pursue for the publication of this book, and of my own edition of the “Inferno?” Had I better sell it to some bookseller for a certain sum, or had I better let the bookseller sell it on my account, receiving so much percent? Or had I better sell it by auction, or had I better give it all away?
What bookseller to employ I know not, nor whether to publish it in England, France, or Italy.
Then as to price (if a price it is to have). What might it be? There will be 2 vols, folio—viz., one of the text with 301my paraphrastic interpretation (I say this because it is not exactly a paraphrase, inasmuch as no single word of the original is omitted). 2nd. A volume also in folio of illustrative matters; and 3rd, 1 vol. folio, the album Dantesco with explanatory notes.
I say folio, but perhaps it is royal 4to., I do not know how this may be, but they will all be the same size. I shall be very thankful when it is off my hands.
If I had health I should do the “Purgatorio.” The “Paradiso” is too philosophical and metaphysical and theological for my poor simple head. It is a pity, however, that the other two Cantiche should not be done, as it would add considerably to the value of the book.
There is another way of publication—viz., subscription, but I do not much like this.
Yours, &c., &c.,
Vernon.”
This letter was followed not long afterwards by another, in which Lord Vernon entered into details regarding the sale and profits likely to accrue from it. He was, evidently, still undecided as to the title of the book, and urged Panizzi to suggest one.
As to the place of publication, his Lordship, with a certain amount of reason, desired that it should be in London; he very justly observes that:—“Being done at the expense of an Englishman, printed in England, on English paper, and from four editions, which are found together only in the British Museum, moreover, being the homage of an Englishman to Italy’s greatest poet, to her literature, and to her most celebrated Academies, it would appear with better grace, as coming from London, than any Italian city.”
302By March, 1858, the book was completed, when Lord Vernon expressed himself thus: “I hope to hear in a short time that, like the Great Leviathan, it has overcome all stops and hindrances, and been fairly launched in the stream of literature.”
Some writers—and amongst them the subject of our memoir—have looked upon Milton as an occasional imitator of Dante. A propos of this theory (which may best be studied in Professor Masson’s biography of the great Puritan poet), we propose to give, at some length, a correspondence on the subject between Panizzi and Sir G. Cornewall Lewis. The letters of the former are so full of sound thought and such fair specimens of his literary knowledge that we append them, together with Sir G. C. Lewis’s reply, for the reader’s edification.
“British Museum,
January 22, 1856.
My dear Sir George,
Sir G. Cornwall Lewis
I have been looking whether my memory had served me right as to Milton having occasionally imitated Dante, which I mentioned on Sunday, when we were speaking of Dante being or not being known in England before the last century. I have found several passages which I think bear me out; for instance:—
‘Non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda, e passa.’
‘Therefore eternal silence be their doom.’—P. L. 6, 385.
But I don’t quote more, as in his prose works (vol. IV., p. 11, edit. of 1753) he actually quotes as his authority against Rome Dante’s lines, c. 19, v. 115—
303‘Ahi Costantin, di quanto, mal fu matre,’ and translates them thus:—
‘Ah, Constantine! of how much ill was cause
Not thy conversion, but those rich demains
That the first wealthy Pope receiv’d of thee.’
and then he, moreover, refers to the twentieth Canto of the Paradiso.
It is curious to see, not long after Milton—or, perhaps, at the same time—Stillingfleet, in his Origines Sacr? (Book 2nd, ch. 9, sec. 19, and ch. 10, sec. 5) quote Dante as an authority on the truth of Christianity, but he gives the verses in a Latin translation by F. S. (I have not looked to see who F. S. was.)
Spenser, too, has imitated Dante, I think. Tradubio, who is turned into a tree and speaks, of Pier delle Vigne.
‘Uomini fummo, ed or siam fatti sterpi.’
‘But once a man, Tradubio, now a tree.’
Chaucer has often imitated Dante, whom he calls (Wife of Bath’s Tale, v. 6708, in Tyrwhitt’s edit.) ‘the wise poet of Florence—that highte Dante,’ of whom he translated immediately after the lines:—
‘Rade volte discende per li rami,’ &c.
‘Full selde up riseth by his branches small,’ &c.;
and in the Monk’s Tale the whole of Ugolino’s Story is translated, and he ends by referring to
‘The grete poete of Itaille—
That highte Dante ...’ as its author.
And now I end in haste.
Yours, &c., &c.,
A. Panizzi.”
“Kent House, Jan. 25, 1856.
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