“I have a particular satisfaction in offering to you the ‘History of Italian Poetry,’ as written by the great historian of the general literature of Italy, Tiraboschi, which will be published in a few days. I am sure every scholar in this country will agree in the propriety of addressing this work personally to you, as you have every claim arising from its peculiar subject, which you have illustrated in one of the principal periods, by your talents and your erudition, and which is known and admired in every part of the civilised world.
“If the canzone, which is honoured by the
| 272 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. |
‘Non ita certandi cupidus, quam propter
amorem.’ |
“I am inclined to hope that the language and literature of Italy may finally, under your auspices, be honoured, cultivated, and promoted in Great Britain; and I trust that these disinterested contributions to revive them may be favourably regarded. In the different addresses to our countrymen in the various Italian works I have presented to their notice, in the originals, I have fully explained my sentiments.”
