"In a letter from Mr. George Ballard (a gentleman at Campden in Gloucestershire) directed to Mr. Joseph Ames, at the Golden Key, near Union Stairs, in Wappin, London, and dated Feb'. y 12, 173, the following passages were inserted:

"All I can send you at present, as additional "to the Life of Caxton, is his inscription, which "I have upon a spare leaf at the beginning of "his Fructus Temporum, printed by Julian "Notary, Anno 1515; and is as follows:"

"Of your Charitee pray for the souls of Mayster Wyllyam Caxton, that in his tyme 66 was a man of moche ornate, and moche re"nowned Wysdome, and Connyng, and De"cessed full Crystenly the Yere of our Lord,

M.C.CCCLXXXXI.

Modyr of Mercy shyld hym from t'horribull Fynd "And bryng hym, to lyff yternall that nevyr hath ynd."

"You will observe that Caxton's inscription "fixes his death a year earlier than Mr. Lewis's "account."

"Transcrib'd from y orig. letter, by me

CANTI CARNASCHIALESCHI.

AT the celebration of the Carnival at Florence, it was formerly customary to amuse the multitude with Pageants of Warriors, Trophies, Cars, &c.; and among other things, with Carnival Songs. The merits of these chiefly consist in the purity of their Florentine diction, for which they are eminently remarkable. The countenance of Lorenzo de Medici gave a great spirit and animation to these madrigals, and induced Anton. Francesco Grazzini to select them. They were published at Florence in 1559. There was, however, a former edition of these Carnival Songs so early as 1500, but this which was published by Grazzini, or as he was commonly called II. Lasca, is more particularly curious, on the following account, as represented by Roscoe, in his life of Lorenzo de Medici.

This was not, however, the first edition of the Canti Carnaschialeschi. Zeno, in his notes on the Bibl. Ital. of Fontanini (v. 2. p. 83) has cited two editions printed without note of date or place, but prior, as he thought, to the year 1500, the first intitled Canzone per ardore im Maschere, the latter Ballattette del Magnifico Lorenzo de Medici, di M. Agnolo Poliziano, e di Bernardo Giamborlari. The edition of 1559

is,

is, however, the first general collection of these pieces, towards which a great number of the natives of Florence contributed. Of this edition the greater part of the copies are mutilated, having been deprived of 100 pages about the middle of the book; viz. from page 298 to page 398, in which space were contained the pieces of Battista dell' Ottenaio, whose brother Paolo having remonstrated against their publication in a surreptitious manner, and in an inaccurate state, had sufficient influence with the government of Florence to obtain an order, that the printer, Torrentino, should deliver up all the copies in his hands, which appeared to be 495. After a year's litigation, the poems of Ottenaio were ordered to be cut out from the book, and Paolo was left at liberty to publish another edition of them, which he accordingly did. This dispute has given rise to another contest during. the present century, between the Canonico Biscioni, late Librarian of the grand duke's library, at Florence, and Sig. Rinaldo Maria Bracci, who published at Pisa, under the date of Cosmopoli 1750, a new edition of the Canti Carnaschialeschi in two volumes quarto, including those of Ottenaio, from the impression of his brother Paolo; in the introduction to which, he justifies the decree that suppressed these pieces in the edition of 1559, contrary to the opinion of Biscioni, who considered it as severe and unjust.

6

The

The dispute seems of little importance, but the result of it was unfavourable to the modern editor, whose elegant, and apparently correct edition of these poems, has never obtained that credit amongst the literati of Italy, to which, on many accounts, it appears to be intitled."

I subjoin a specimen of one of these excluded poems by Ottenaio:

CANTO DELLE LANTERNE.

Silenzio noi siam quei che hoggi in terra
Vivono al buio, e danno ad altri lume
Fanno ogni male, e riprendon chi erra.
Perche fu sempre un pessimo costume,
Badare à i casi d'altri, e non à i nostri ;
Noi siam rimasti al buio, e facciam lume,
Col viso volto udiamo i fatti vostri ;
Che'l ciel vuol che se mostri

L'opere, e poi s'insegni àgli altri fare,
Perche dalle parole

Saper dar suole, ogniun poco operare.
Se pure alcun vuol dar riprensione,
E ogni cosa insegnare, e vedere ;
Guardisi prima à i piè come il Pagone,

E non gli fia fatica poi tacere:

Che gli ha poco sapere,

E quel, che l'huom piu erra, altri insegnare:
Che'l buon Medico stima

Curar se prima, e poi gli altri sanare.

Hor che siam vecchi, e conosciam l'errore
Pensar vorremo à noi, e non possiamo;
Perche 'l tempo si fugge, e poi si muore,
Onde, per questo, à maggior buio andiamo:

Però

Però vi consigliamo,

A farvi lume innanzi ch'al morire;
Perche pochi fien poi

Ch'à Voi pensin, se non per arricchire.

The curious in Italian Literature will not be displeased to know, that a perfect copy of this very scarce book, with the whole of Ottenaio's compositions, is preserved in the Cracherode Collection.

CRONICA DE ESPANA.

Los cinco Libros primeros de la Cronica general de Espana que recopila et maëstro Florian do Campo, Cronista del Rey nuestro Senor por mandado de su magestad en Carrona.

Impresso en Medina del Campo por. Guillermo de Millis. Anno 1553. Con Previlegio Real

CONCERNING the author of this rare and curious book, I find the following memorandum by Mr. Cracherode.

"Florianus de Campo seu de Ocampo, seu Docampo Canonicus fuit Zamoræ et Caroli V. Historiographus. Chronicon generale totius His