VENETIAN EMBASSIES, ETC.

From the Foreign Quarterly Review.

ers. Their very minuteness paints, much better than dignified dissertation, the character of a people and the manners of a time. Relations des Ambassadeurs Venetiens sur les We may mention, before we proceed further, affaires de France au Seizième Siècle, (Cor- that the correspondence occupies a part of respondence of the Venetian Ambassadors the reign of Francis I.; that of his son, Henon the Affairs of France in the Sixteenth ry II.; and, passing over the brief rule of his Century,) recueillies et traduites par Toм-grandson Francis, a portion of those of MASEO. 2 vols. 4to. Paris. Charles IX. and Henry III. Always held to be of great importance, they were copied, and some few printed. Navagero, Suriano, and Tiepolo, were thus published before, but incorrectly and imperfectly.

WHEN Monsieur Guizot was Minister of Public Instruction, the idea and the proposition being his own, the sum of 150,000 francs was voted for the collection and publication of documents relating to French history. A similar payment has since been made yearly the ministry disposing of the funds under the direction of a committee composed of fifty members of the several academies, themselves named by royal'ordonnance,' and with power to examine and decide on the works proposed for their approval. Among the most remarkable volumes which have yet appeared, are these containing the correspondence of the Venetian ambassadors.

Venice was placed high enough to see well. Her envoys, if we make allowance for religious intolerance and national prejudice, had commonly judged with fairness both France and the passing events of her history, Themselves actors in some of the most remarkable of those events, in company with them we push aside the gilded panels, and pass behind the scenes. We discover the small machinery which wrought great effects, and can sound every depth and shallow of that selfish and narrow ambition which ruled the life of Catherine of Medicis, and laid her crowned sons bound before her, her earliest victims.

The editor is the Signor Tommaseo; himself author of the translation which accompanies the text, and of a French and Italian preface, ably written. Obliged to make selection from a large mass of material, he has The first of these ambassadors, Navagero, consigned into untranslated notes, in com- presents us only with the notes of his journey pany with long geographical descriptions, through Spain and France. He was sucamusing only as they show the ignorance of ceeded by Marino Giustiniano, the date of those addressed, other details perhaps thought whose mission is 1535. These early French beneath the attention of an historian. Think- times have been recently the subject of an ing better of them, we have been at the trou- article in this review, and on the present ocble to make some translations for our read-casion we shall abstain from detailed histori

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that selfish and narrow ambition which ruled the life of Catherine of Medicis, and laid her crowned sons bound before her, her earliest victims.

The editor is the Signor Tommaseo; himself author of the translation which accompanies the text, and of a French and Italian preface, ably written. Obliged to make selection from a large mass of material, he has The first of these ambassadors, Navagero, consigned into untranslated notes, in com- presents us only with the notes of his journey pany with long geographical descriptions, through Spain and France. He was sucamusing only as they show the ignorance of ceeded by Marino Giustiniano, the date of those addressed, other details perhaps thought whose mission is 1535. These early French beneath the attention of an historian. Think- times have been recently the subject of an ing better of them, we have been at the trou- article in this review, and on the present ocble to make some translations for our read-casion we shall abstain from detailed histori

See page 3 of Cover for Explanations.

THE

ECLECTIC MAGAZINE

OF

FOREIGN LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.

JANUARY, 18 4 4

VENETIAN EMBASSIES, ETC.

From the Foreign Quarterly Review.

ers. Their very minuteness paints, much better than dignified dissertation, the character of a people and the manners of a time. Relations des Ambassadeurs Venetiens sur les We may mention, before we proceed further, affaires de France au Seizième Siècle, (Cor- that the correspondence occupies a part of respondence of the Venetian Ambassadors the reign of Francis I.; that of his son, Henon the Affairs of France in the Sixteenth ry II.; and, passing over the brief rule of his Century,) recueillies et traduites par Toм-grandson Francis, a portion of those of MASEO. 2 vols. 4to. Paris. Charles IX. and Henry III. Always held to be of great importance, they were copied, and some few printed. Navagero, Suriano, and Tiepolo, were thus published before, but incorrectly and imperfectly.

WHEN Monsieur Guizot was Minister of Public Instruction, the idea and the proposition being his own, the sum of 150,000 francs was voted for the collection and publication of documents relating to French history. A similar payment has since been made yearly the ministry disposing of the funds under the direction of a committee composed of fifty members of the several academies, themselves named by royal 'ordonnance,' and with power to examine and decide on the works proposed for their approval. Among the most remarkable volumes which have yet appeared, are these containing the correspondence of the Venetian ambassadors.

Venice was placed high enough to see well. Her envoys, if we make allowance for religious intolerance and national prejudice, had commonly judged with fairness both France and the passing events of her history, Themselves actors in some of the most remarkable of those events, in company with them we push aside the gilded panels, and pass behind the scenes. We discover the small machinery which wrought great effects, and can sound every depth and shallow of that selfish and narrow ambition which ruled the life of Catherine of Medicis, and laid her crowned sons bound before her, her earliest victims.

The editor is the Signor Tommaseo; himself author of the translation which accompanies the text, and of a French and Italian preface, ably written. Obliged to make selection from a large mass of material, he has The first of these ambassadors, Navagero, consigned into untranslated notes, in com- presents us only with the notes of his journey pany with long geographical descriptions, through Spain and France. He was sucamusing only as they show the ignorance of ceeded by Marino Giustiniano, the date of those addressed, other details perhaps thought whose mission is 1535. These early French beneath the attention of an historian. Think- times have been recently the subject of an ing better of them, we have been at the trou- article in this review, and on the present ocble to make some translations for our read-casion we shall abstain from detailed histori