received the MS.
This proves that Du Cerceau knew little of our 'volgar lingua' of the
fourteenth century. But the errors into which he has run shew, that even
that little was unknown to his guide, and still less to Father Brumoy,
(however learned and reputed the latter might be in French literature,)
who, after the death of Du Cerceau, supplied the deficiencies in the
first pages of the author's MS., which were, I know not how, lost; and
in this part are found the more striking errors in the work, which
shall be noticed in the proper place; in the meantime, one specimen will
suffice. In the third chapter, book i., Cola, addressing the Romans,
says, 'Che lo giubileo si approssima, che se la gente, la quale verra
al giubileo, li trova sproveduti di annona, le pietre (per metatesi sta
scritto le preite) ne porteranno da Roma per rabbia di fame, e le pietre
non basteranno a tanta moltitudine. Il francese traduce. Le
jubile approche, et vous n'avez ni provisions, ni vivres; les
etrangers...trouvent votre ville denue de tout. Ne comptez point sur les
secours des gens d'Eglise; ils sortiront de la ville, s'ils n'y trouvent
de quoi subsister: et d'ailleurs pourroient-ils suffire a la multitude
innombrable, que se trouvera dans vos murs?'" (The English translator
could not fail to adopt the Frenchman's ludicrous mistake.) "Buon Dio!"
exclaims the learned Zefirino, "Buon Dio! le pietre prese per tanta
gente di chiesa!" (See Preface to Zefirino Re's edition of the "Life of
Rienzi," page 9, note on Du Cerceau.)

Another blunder little less extraordinary occurs in Chapter vi., in
which the ordinances of Rienzi's Buono Stato are recited.

It is set forth as the third ordinance:--"Che nulla case di Roma sia
data per terra per alcuna cagione, ma vada in commune;" which simply
means, that the houses of delinquents should in no instance be razed,
but added to the community or confiscated. This law being intended
partly to meet the barbarous violences with which the excesses and
quarrels of the Barons had half dismantled Rome, and principally to
repeal some old penal laws by which the houses of a certain class of
offenders might be destroyed; but the French translator construes it,
"Que nulle maison de Rome ne saroit donnee en propre, pour quelque
raison que ce put etre; mais que les revenus en appartiendroient au
public!" (The English translator makes this law unintelligible:--"That
no family of Rome shall appropriate to their own use