DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0296
CHAPTER XII.
VITVmO.—SUBHINA.
Cernimus exemplis oppida posse mori.—Rbtilius.
Multa retro rerum jacet, atque ambagibus sevi
Obtegitur densa caligine mersa vetustas.—Sil. Ital.
Almost every town in Italy and Spain has its chronicle,
written generally by some monk, who has made it a labour
of love to record the history, real or imaginary, of his native
place from the creation down to his own time. In these
monographs, as they may be termed, the great object
appears to be to exalt the antiquity and magnify the pris-
tine importance of each respective town, often at the
expense of every other. It is this feeling which has as-
cribed to many of the cities of Spain a foundation by
Japhet or Tubal-Cain; and to this foolish partiality we
owe many a bulky volume replete with dogmatical asser-
tions, distortions of history, unwarranted readings or
interpretations of ancient writers; and sometimes even
blackened with forgery.
Among those who have been guilty of this foulest of
literary crimes, stands foremost in impudence, unrivalled in
voluminous perseverance, Fra Giovanni Nanni, commonly
called Annio di Viterbo, a Dominican monk of this town,
who lived in the fifteenth century. He was a wholesale
and crafty forger; he did not write the history of his
native place, but pretended to have discovered fragments
of various ancient writers, most of which are made, more or
VITVmO.—SUBHINA.
Cernimus exemplis oppida posse mori.—Rbtilius.
Multa retro rerum jacet, atque ambagibus sevi
Obtegitur densa caligine mersa vetustas.—Sil. Ital.
Almost every town in Italy and Spain has its chronicle,
written generally by some monk, who has made it a labour
of love to record the history, real or imaginary, of his native
place from the creation down to his own time. In these
monographs, as they may be termed, the great object
appears to be to exalt the antiquity and magnify the pris-
tine importance of each respective town, often at the
expense of every other. It is this feeling which has as-
cribed to many of the cities of Spain a foundation by
Japhet or Tubal-Cain; and to this foolish partiality we
owe many a bulky volume replete with dogmatical asser-
tions, distortions of history, unwarranted readings or
interpretations of ancient writers; and sometimes even
blackened with forgery.
Among those who have been guilty of this foulest of
literary crimes, stands foremost in impudence, unrivalled in
voluminous perseverance, Fra Giovanni Nanni, commonly
called Annio di Viterbo, a Dominican monk of this town,
who lived in the fifteenth century. He was a wholesale
and crafty forger; he did not write the history of his
native place, but pretended to have discovered fragments
of various ancient writers, most of which are made, more or