THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE

By E. FELIX FORESTI, LL.D.,

PROFESSOR OF THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE AND IN THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW- YORK.

One neat Volume, l2mo. Price $1.

South Carolinian.

44 Thèse sélections are from diffèrent authors, and on varioussubjects, exhibiting the manifold peculiaritles of style and idiom found in this mellifluous tongue. Dr. Foresti lias consulted the American taste of his readers, in judiciously selecting from the works of those authors who ara m'ist imbued with the libéral sentiments which belong to our own âge and clime. He lias done this to enlist the sympathy of the student, and thereby facilitate his progress in the language. This is a capital thought. We perceive that C. Botta is laid under contribution for two ortluee articles, in which some of our American worthies appear in Ilalian costume. A glossary accompank-s each lesson — anglicizing those idiomatic phrases which présent peculiar difficulty to the student. As the work is a companion to OllendorfFs Italian Grammar, it will of course be adupted by ail who adopt his unrivalled System of teaching or acquiring aforeign language."

Savannah Republican.

" The Italian Reader iscompiled by Mr. Foresti, Professor of the Italian Language in the Columbia Collège and the University of New- York. It appears to be designed to ibllow the srudy of Ollendorff 's Italian Grammar, on which work many correct judges hâve pronounced that no important improvement can well be made. In making sélections for the book before us, Mr. Foresti has preferred modem Italian writers to the old school of noveîists, historians, and poeîs. In this he has done a good thing ; for the Italian Reader contains the modem language. True, there are some innovations, some changes which many would deem a departure from original purity, but nevertheless it is the language which one finds and hears spoken in Italy. Thèse changes hâve gone on under the eye and against the stem authority of the Academy délia Cruscay and in their magnificent new dictionary now in process of publication, they hâve found themselves compelled to insert many words which are the growth not only of modem necessity, but of caprice.

4" The sélections in the Italian Reader are from popular authors, such as Botta, Manzoni, Machiavelli, Villani, and others. They are so made as not to constitute mère exercises, but contain distinct relations so complète as to gratify the reader and engage his attention while they instruct. This is a marked impiovement on that old System which exacted much labor without enlistmg the sympathies of the student. The sélections from Manzoni, for example, are from the " Promessi Sposi," one of the noblesr, works of fiction ever issued from the press — a work so popular as to hâve gone through an incredible number of éditions in Italy, while it has been translated into every language of Europe. There hâve been, we believe, no less than three distinct English translations made, two of which were done in this country. The Reader contains six extracts from this novel, among which are the beautiful épisodes of Father Cristoforo and the Nun of Monza, and a description of the famine and plague of Milan in theyear 1G30. The account of the plague rivais the celebrated one of Bocaccio in his Decameron. The idioms that occur in the sélections are explained by a glossary appended to eaoh The Italian Reader can with confidence be recommended to students in the language as a -afp nni' mtv gnide, <\fre ma*tering it, the Italian poets and other classicists ma y h? -■. " '

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