DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71556#0199
SAVONAROLA'S sermons.
159
energy, and the devout earnestness of the preacher.
If they cannot be praised for an accurate division
of the parts, for a logical process of reasoning, or
for great elegance of diction, it will be found, to
use the words of Tiraboschi*, that, " from time to
time, he inveighs and thunders with a power akin
to lightning." After citing some illustrative pas-
sages, he concludes thus: " Be it remembered that
these discourses were not committed to paper by
Savonarola himself, but were taken down by re-
porters; so that we not only want in them the im-
pressive influence of the orator's animated voice,
but we must also bear in mind that they come down
to us mutilated and imperfect. Yet such as we
have them, they are justly to be regarded as the
most eloquent that are to be found in the age of
which we are treating."
We will now proceed to place before our readers
various specimens of the style and matter of these
addresses. In doing so we shall, in order to bring
the more striking passages before our readers,
compress some of those that are introductory to
them, yet so as to preserve their spirit and mean-
ing; and even in the important passages, we have
occasionally found it essential to use a certain de-
gree of compression, for Savonarola is very discur-
sive. But, as truth is our object, we have given in
the Appendix the principal passages in Italian, in
* Tiraboschi, Storia dell. Lett. Ital. lib. iii. p. 329.
159
energy, and the devout earnestness of the preacher.
If they cannot be praised for an accurate division
of the parts, for a logical process of reasoning, or
for great elegance of diction, it will be found, to
use the words of Tiraboschi*, that, " from time to
time, he inveighs and thunders with a power akin
to lightning." After citing some illustrative pas-
sages, he concludes thus: " Be it remembered that
these discourses were not committed to paper by
Savonarola himself, but were taken down by re-
porters; so that we not only want in them the im-
pressive influence of the orator's animated voice,
but we must also bear in mind that they come down
to us mutilated and imperfect. Yet such as we
have them, they are justly to be regarded as the
most eloquent that are to be found in the age of
which we are treating."
We will now proceed to place before our readers
various specimens of the style and matter of these
addresses. In doing so we shall, in order to bring
the more striking passages before our readers,
compress some of those that are introductory to
them, yet so as to preserve their spirit and mean-
ing; and even in the important passages, we have
occasionally found it essential to use a certain de-
gree of compression, for Savonarola is very discur-
sive. But, as truth is our object, we have given in
the Appendix the principal passages in Italian, in
* Tiraboschi, Storia dell. Lett. Ital. lib. iii. p. 329.