atmosphere of the
eighteenth century life, belonged the Sperelli. Urbanity, hellenism,
love of all that was exquisite, a predilection for out-of-the-way
studies, an aesthetic curiosity, a passion for archaeology, and an
epicurean taste in gallantry were hereditary qualities of the house of
Sperelli. An Alessandro Sperelli brought in 1466 to Frederic of Aragon,
son of Ferdinand King of Naples, and brother to Alfonso Duke of
Calabria, a manuscript in folio containing the 'less rude' poems of the
old Tuscan writers which Lorenzo de Medici had promised him at Pisa in
1465; and in concert with the most erudite scholars of his time, that
same Alessandro wrote a Latin elegy on the death of the divine
Simonetta--sad and melting numbers after the manner of Tibullus. Another
Sperelli--Stefano,--was during the same century in Flanders, in the
midst of all the pomp, the extravagant elegance, the almost fabulous
magnificence of the court of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, where
he remained, having allied himself with a Flemish family. A son of his,
named Giusto, learned painting under the direction of Gossaert, in whose
company he came to Italy in the suite of Philip of Burgundy, the
ambassador of the Emperor Maximilian to Pope Julius II. in 1508. He
settled in Florence, where the chief branch of his family continued to
flourish, and had for his second master Piero di Cosimo, that jocund and
facile painter and vivid and harmonious colourist, under whose brush the
pagan deities came to life again. This Giusto was by no means a mediocre
artist, but he consumed all his forces in the vain effort to reconcile
his primary Gothic education with the newly awakened spirit of the
Renaissance. Towards the middle of the seventeenth century the Sperelli
family migrated to Naples. There a Bartolomeo Sperelli published in 1679
an astrological treatise: _De Nativitatibus_; in 1720 a Giovanni
Sperelli wrote for the theatre an opera bouffe entitled _La Faustina_
and also a lyrical tragedy entitled _Progne_; 1756 a Carlo Sperelli
brought out a book of amatory verses in which much licentious persiflage
was expressed with the Horatian elegance so much affected at that
period. A better poet, and moreover a man of exquisite gallantry, was
Luigi Sperelli, attached to the court of the _lazzaroni_ king of Naples
and his queen Caroline. His Muse was very charming, and affected a
certain epicurean melancholy. He loved much and with a fine
discrimination, an