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"The ambitious pontiff aimed at the ftill higher promotion for his brother; he meant to wreft the crown of Naples from Arragon, and place it upon his head, and there can be little doubt but that he would have attained fome great er dignity for him, had not death fnatched Julian away. His lofs was greatly deplored both by his family and the public, becaufe with a tafte equal to Leo's he united many diftinguished virtues. Julian was born in 1478, and died March 17, 1516, and was buried in the church of St. Lorenzo, in Florence. His monument was the work of Michael Angelo, whofe much-admired ftatues of Day and Night are a part of it. By Philiberta he had no child; but he left Hippolito, an illegitimate fon, who became a cardinal.

"Leo accomplished his wifh in providing for Julian, without giving uneafinefs, or being guilty of injustice to any one; but his conduct was most reproachable in his advancement of Lorenzo, the fon of the unfortunate Pietro. He had given him an excellent educa. tion, and placed him over the republic of Florence to govern under himself. To raise him to an independent fovereignty, however, was his aim, and he fixed upon Urbino, though its duke, FrancifcoMaria, had fhowed every kindness to him and his brother in the firft years of their banishment. But

gratitude was of little avail when intereft called; befides, the duke had been averfe to the restoration of the Medicean power in Florence, which Leo thought abrogated all former obligation.

"The amiable Julian whilft he lived had conftantly oppofed Leo's intention, as inconfiftent with decency and honour, but his death left his holiness at liberty to act as he pleafed, without fuch a monitor to check his defigns. The duke of Urbino's character was not irreproachable; an excufe for the intended violence was eafily procur ed: he had in the heat of paffion ftabbed the cardinal of Pavia for his attachment to France; this was the crime principally infifted upon, though his having loft Bologna to the papacy, his oppofing the reftoration of the Medici, and poffeffing a fine principality, were the greatest in the eye of the greedy ambitious pontiff.

"Leo fulminated his thunder against him, and declared his du-, chy forfeited to the holy fee, of which he held. Francifco-Maria did not pay implicit obedience, he remonftrated, he did more, he pul himself ir, a pofture of defence; but the treafury of Florence poured out her ample ftores to obtain what rendered arms of little avail. The foldiers were bribed, and the duke was obliged to leave his dominions to the Medici, to whom he had formerly given afylum. This bufinefs coft eight hundred thousand ducats, but the annual revenue of Urbino was very great; even Pifaro, San Leo, and Singalia, which were feparate members of it, and conquered with the duchy, yielded a revenue of twentyfive thonfand ducats.

"His holinefs having provided Lorenzo, his nephew, with a prin. cipality, united him in marriage

to

to Madelaine de la Tour, of Auvergne, of the house of Bouillon, allied to the blood royal of France. The lying Sleidan, to ufe the epithet of the emperor Charles V. calls this lady Galla, of the house of Bolonnois, but the was the fecond daughter of John de la Tour, count of Auvergne, defcended from a brother of Godfrey, the first Chriftian king of Jerufalem, by Jane of Bourbon, fifter to the count of Vendofme. She brought Lorenzo a fortune of ten thousand ducats per annum, chiefly the gift of Francis 1. who alfo prefented him with fifty thousand ducats out of the money raised for the crufade against the fultan Selim I. and which Leo had given a brief to that monarch to apply to his own ufe.

"It is not eafy to eftimate the grief of this pontiff, when he faw this prince brought to an early grave, by a lingering illness contracted in France from youthful intemperance, and in a few days afterwards Madelaine, in bringing into the world Catherine, their only child. The little orphan becanie queen of France, and is well known for the uncommon beauty, fine accomplishments, and the vaft extent of abilities the poffeffed, but which were rendered dangerous in the extreme by the atrocious wickedness of her man

ners.

"Lorenzo had little to recommend him to Leo, except his relationfhip, as his character was chief ly formed of deceit, revenge, and cowardice. When he bad flamefully deferted France, and dreaded her vengeance, he meanly threw the whole blame upon his uncle and benefactor. Inftead of anfwer ing the challenge of the injured duke of Urbino, as military ho. nour demanded, he bafely hired

affaffins to murder him, which they were near perpetrating. Lorenzo died May 4, 1519; his remains were depofited in the facrifty of St. Lorenzo's church, near thofe of the duke of Nemours. His monument is alfo the workmanship of Michael Angelo; his effigies, and the figure of Aurora and Twilight, are the admiration of connoiffeurs.

"Leo did not confine his favours to the nearest of his name. He was the patron of every one of his family, whether of the male or female line, not forgetting the illegitimate branches. He even formed the project of leaving Julio, the pofthumous natural fon of the unfortunate Julian, who fell a victim to the malice of pope Sixtus IV. and the Pazzi, his successor in the papal fee. Lorenzo, the Maguificent, had shown his particular regard for his brother Julian, by an extreme tenderness for this his fon, whom he educated with his own children, treated as his ne phew, and loaded with every kindnefs.

"His fine parts, learning, and tafte, ftill, if poffible, more endeared all the Medici to him. His courage, affiduity, and the cafe and dexterity with which he per formed the most difficult and hazardous enterprises, won him the favour of the difcerning Julius, who created him a knight of Rhodes, and grand prior of Capua, and as fuch he carried the standard of the military order at the corona. tion of Leo.

"The pontiff was no fooner feated upon the papal throne, than he obliged Julio to go into the church, though his inclination led him moft to the camp. Ecclefiaf tical honours crowded upon him. He received the archiepifcopate of Florence. and the following year

was

-

was prefented with a cardinal's
hat, and made chancellor of the
Roman church, the next dignitary
to the pope. The emperor Charles
V. granted him great penfions,
and when Leo broke with Cæfar,
Francis I. to make a recompence
for the lofs it would occafion to the
cardinal, affigned him an annuity
and preferments to the value of ten
thousand ducats yearly, as he had be-
fore done to Lorenzo. His promo-
tions in the church were beyond all
decency, holding bifhopricks in
moft of the kingdoms in Europe;
and Leo, after Lorenzo's death, ap-
pointed him governor of Florence.

"In all these various fituations,
Julio acted with confummate pru.
dence, and by the confidence Leo
placed in him, he plainly pointed
him out as heir to the Medicean
grandeur. There was none of the
elder branch of the family to con-
tett it with him, and if there had,
his vaft advantages would have fe
cured it to him against every oppo-

nent.

chair about eight. His remains were depofited in a brick grave in St. Peter's church, but were afterwards removed by Paul III. to the church of St. Maria-fopra-Minerva.

"Revenge, more than policy, made Leo the inveterate enemy of France; he remembered that the misfortunes of his houfe were in a great measure owing to that na. tion; but whenever his own or his family's intereft demanded it, he altered his conduct. He profeffed the utmost affection for Francis I. at Bologna, where they had an interview, yet he took the first opportunity to break his engagements with that monarch.

"Leo's excess of magnificence charmed the Romans; a medal was ftruck with Liberalitas Pontificia upon the reverse, with a device fuitable to the motto. He was the first pontiff that had a medal elegantly wrought; his predeceffor began to ftrike them. Martin I. is the earliest who had one ftruck in honour of his memory.

"Leo's ambition and inclination

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"In this fituation was the house of Medici, when Leo, its head, was faddenly called away by excefs to enlarge the patrimony of St. of joy; for whilft he fat at fupper, Peter was equal to that of his prenews was brought him that the deceffor; but Julius left a full, French were beaten out of Italy; Leo an empty treasury. Other he cried out, God has been fopontificates,' it was faid, expir'merciful to me, as to let me feeed at the death of a pope, but his ⚫ three things, which I defired from the bottom of my heart:-To ⚫ return with houour into Florence, whence I was banished with fhame; to have merit fufficient ⚫ to advance me to the papacy; and to see the French beaten out of Italy.' In pronouncing of which laft words, he fell dead, with the glafs he held in his hand.

"This event took place December 2, 1521, when he had within a few days completed his fortyeighth year, and fat in the papal

continued long after.' His unbounded magnificence and liberality, which his revenue, immense as it was, could not fupport, by producing the fale of indulgences, began the Reformation. Some of them the pope had given to be raised by fale, in particular provinces, to his relations and friends; Saxony was apportioned to his fifter Maddelene, the wife of Francifco Cibo, fon of Innocent VIII. not more from affinity to her than in gratitude to him, whofe family had

treated

treated the Medici in the kindest manner after their expulfion from Fiorence. These were fold at fo great and extravagant a price, that it called forth Luther, and Luther, freedom from papal tyranny.

"His atfection to his family, by its excefs became highly criminal, because neither justice, honour, or gratitude, were any impediment to the promoting their intereft, forgetting for that purpose every thing due to his facred character. It is faid he did not even pretend to believe in revelation. His mirth was

that of a Bacchanalian. With all these exceflive defects, he will ever be remembered by the lovers of learning and tafte with veneration. His reign was the golden age of literature, and the arts were not lefs obliged to him, owing in a great measure to his father having felected those of the highest celebrity in every science for his tutors and early companions. How much is it to be laniented, that he was not equally virtuous as learned and elegant."

MEMOIRS of BARON BORN.

[From TRAVELS in HUNGARY, &c. by ROBERT TOWNSON, LL.D. &c.]

"THE

Baron was born at Carlfburg in Tranfylvania, of a noble family, and came early in life to Vienna, and studied under the Jefuits; who, no doubt, perceiving in him more than common abilities, and that he would one day be an honour to their order, prevailed on him to enter into it; but of this fociety he was a member only for about a year and a half. He then left Vienna and went to Prague, where, as it is the cuftom in Germany, he ftudied the law. As foon as he had completed his ftudies, he made a tour through a part of Germany, Holland, the Netherlands, and France; and returning to Prague, he engaged in the ftudies of natural hiftory, mining, and their connected branches; and in 1770 he was received into the department of the mines and mint at Prague. As we learn from his letters, this year he made a tour, and vifited the principal mines of Hungary and Tranfylvania, and during it kept up a correfpondence

with the celebrated Ferber, who in 1774 published his letters.-It was in this tour that he fo nearly loft his life, and where he was ftruck with that disease which embittered the reft of his days, and which was only rendered fupportable by a firong philofophic mind and active difpofition.

"It was at Felfo-Banya where he met with this misfortune, as ap pears from his eighteenth letter to Mr. Ferber. He defcended here into a mine, where fire was used to detach the ore, to obferve the efficacy of this means, too foon after the fire had been extinguished, and whilft the mine was full of ar fenical vapours raifed by the heat.

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My long filence,' fays he to his friend Ferber, is the confequence of an unlucky accident, which had almost coft me my life. I de fcended the Great Mine to fee the manner of applying the fire, and its effects on the mine, when the fire was hardly extinct, and the mine was ftill full of fmoke.'

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How greatly he fuffered in his health by this accident appears from his letter which we mentioned when we spoke of Tokay; where it will be remembered he complained that he could hardly bear the motion of his carriage: upon this misfortune he haftened to Vienna. After this he was appointed at Prague counfellor of the mines. In 1771 he published a fmall work of the Jefuit Poda, on the machinery uled about mines; and the next year his Lithophylacium Borneanum. This is the catalogue of his collection of foffils, which he after wards difpofed of to the hon. Mr. Greville. This work drew on him the attention of mineralogifts, and brought him into correfpondence with the first men in this line. He was now made a member of the Royal Societies of Stockholm, Sienna, and Padua; and in 1774, the fame honour was conferred on him by the Royal Society of London.

"During his refidence in Bohemia, he did not apply himself to the bufinefs of his charge alone; but his active difpofition induced him to feek for opportunities of extending knowledge, and of being useful to the world. He took a part in the work entitled 'Portraits of the Learned Men and 'Artists of Bohemia and Moravia, He was likewife concerned in the 'Acta Literaria Bohemia et Mora'viæ;' and the editor of the latter publicly acknowledges in the preface to it, how much Bohemian literature is indebted to him. Prague and Vienna were both without a public cabinet for the ufe of the ftudents: it was at his inftigation that government was induced to form one, and he himself affifted by his contributious and his labours. In 1775 he laid the foundation of a literary fociety, which published feveral volumes under the title of

Memoirs of a private Society in Bohemia.'

"His fame reaching the empress Mary Therefa, in 1776 the called him to Vienna to arrange and defcribe the imperial collection; and about two years after, he published the fplendid work containing the 'Conchology:' in the execution of this, I believe, he had fome affiftance. The empress defrayed the expences for a certain number of copies. On the death of this patron the work was difcontinued, her fucceffor, the emperor Jofeph, not favouring the undertaking. He had likewife the honour of inftructing the arch-duchefs Maria Anna in natural history, who was partial to this entertaining ftudy and he formed and arranged for her a neat museum. In 1779 he was raised to the office of actual counsellor of the court chamber (Hof Kammer) in the department of the mines and mint. This of fice detained him conftantly in Vi enna, and engaged the chief part of his time.

"The confequences of his mif fortune at Felfo-Banya began now to be felt in the fevereft manner; he was attacked with the most ex. cruciating colics, which rofe to fuch a degree as to threaten a speedy termination of his life and miferies. In this depth of torment he had recourfe to the ufual calmer of bodily pain, opium; and a large por tion of this being placed by the fide of him, which he was ordered only to take in fmall dofes; once brought to defperation through the intensity of his pain, he fwallowed it at one draught. This brought on a lethargy, which lafted fourand-twenty hours; but when he awoke he was free of his pains. The diforder now attacked his legs and feet, particularly his right leg, and in this he was lame for the reft

of

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