Giovanni da Ravenna, insigne figura d'umanista (1343-1408), by Remigio Sabbadini (Studi Umanistici 1). xii + 258 pp. Como, Tipografia editrice Ostinelli, 1924. Giovanni di Conversino da Ravenna was a fourteenth century humanist. Sabbadini gives us in this book a survey of his life based on his unpublished works, together with copious extracts from the works themselves. Some of the qualities of the man which may be significant for the nature and origin of humanism were his restlessness, his individualism, his passion for obtaining a knowledge of human beings and their ways, his critical attitude towards political and religious questions, his admiration for Petrarch, his interest in poetry rather than in "practical" subjects. While his unpublished writings have enabled Sabbadini to restore for us a life-like picture of the man, it was not his writing but his teaching that made him an important figure in the history of humanism. He taught in many centers of northeastern Italy. Among his students were Sicco Polenton, Pier Paolo Vergerio, Guarino of Verona, Vittorino da Feltre. As compared with Petrarch, he seems to have been only a half-humanist. He did not have the same eagerness for classical literature and antiquity. The monuments of ancient Rome did not attract his attention apparently. He seems to have made no great effort to secure new classical works. He had no longing, apparently, to know Greek: he reproves a correspondent for using Greek quotations. As to the book itself, Sabbadini has added one more to the long list of books and articles which have made him the greatest student of humanism the world has known. B. L. ULLMAN University of Chicago Martial and the English Epigram from Sir Thomas Wyatt to Ben Jonson, by T. K. Whipple. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1925. The English epigram deserves greater attention than it hitherto has received, if for no other reason than its close connection with satire. These literary forms have much the same social background, much the same antecedents, and, in England, exactly the same period of greatest growth, during the late years of the sixteenth century and the early years of the seventeenth century. All this is clearly presented by Professor Whipple in his interesting monograph. By confining his interest largely to the influence of Martial on the English poets from John Heywood to Jonson, he holds a consistent point of view and is able to demonstrate plainly that Ben Jonson was the first to attain a real success as a follower of the Roman poet. One may feel, possibly, that the native English epigram should receive more credit, for the poets whom Jonson in his customary way disparaged at least helped prepare the way, and that the periods of its growth, decade by decade, are a little too rigidly marked in the monograph. After all, this "lowly and impermanent species of poetry" would reflect a literary fashion more faithfully than broad social changes in England. But Professor Whipple's work is admirably done. Of chief value, I think, is its plain revelation of the artistic possibilities of a literary type that is too often disparaged. E. N. S. THOMPSON. University of Iowa Issued in January, April, July, and October. Subscription price, $2.00 a year; single copies, 60 cents postpaid. All communications are to be addressed to the Editor, Hardin Craig, Iowa City, Iowa. Editor HARDIN CRAIG Associate Editors CHARLES BUNDY WILSON, Germanic Languages and Literatures BERTHOLD L. ULLMAN, Classical Languages and Literatures THOMAS A. KNOTT, English and Comparative Literature CHARLES E. YOUNG, Romance Languages and Literatures PERCY H. HOUSTON, Doctor Johnson. A Study in Eighteenth Entered at the post office at Iowa City, Iowa, as second class mail matter. 92 |