BOLOGNA. Il Bolognese è un popol del demonio, TASSONI. CELEBRATED alike in arts and in letters, Bologna, "the mother of studies," presents numerous objects of interest to the amateur and to the scholar. The halls which were trod by Lanfranc and Irnerius, and the ceilings which glow with the colours of Guido and of the Carracci, can never be neglected by any to whom learning and taste are dear. The external appearance of Bologna is singular and striking. The principal streets display lofty arcades, and the churches, which are very numerous, confer upon the city a highly architectural character. But the most remarkable edifices in Bologna are the watch-towers, represented in the plate. During the twelfth century, when the cities of Italy, "tutte piene di tiranni," were rivals in arms as afterwards in arts, watch-towers of considerable elevation were frequently erected. In Venice, in Pisa, in Cremona, in Modena, and in Florence these singular structures yet remain; but none are more remarkable than the towers of the Asinelli and the Garisenda in Bologna. The former, according to one chro⚫ nicler, was built in 1109, while other authorities assign it to the year 1119. The Garisenda tower, constructed a few years later, has been immortalised in the verse of Dante. When the poet and his guide are snatched up by the huge Antæus, the bard compares the stooping stature of the giant to the tower of the Garisenda, which, as the spectator stands at its base while the clouds are sailing from the quarter to which it inclines, appears to be falling upon his head. 66 "Qual pare a riguardar la Carisenda Sotto 'l chinato, quand' un nuvol vada "as appears The tower of Carisenda from beneath So sail across that opposite it hangs; Such then Antæus seem'd, as at mine ease "En approchant de Bologne," says Madame de Stael, on est frappé de loin par deux tours très-elevées, dont l'une surtout est penchée d'une manière que effraie la vue. C'est en vain que l'on sait qu'elle est ainsi batie, et que c'est ainsi qu'elle a vu passer les siècles; cet aspect importune l'imagination." The tower of the Asinelli rises to the height of about 350 feet, and is said to be three feet and a half out of the perpendicular. The adventurous traveller may ascend to the top by a laborious staircase of 500 steps. Those steps were trod by the late amiable and excellent Sir James Edward Smith, who has described the view presented at the summit. "The day was unfavourable for a view; but we could well distinguish Imola, Ferrara, and Modena, as well as the hills about Verona, Mount Baldus, &c. seeming to rise abruptly from the dead flat which extends on three sides of Bologna. On the south are some very pleasant hills stuck with villas." The Garisenda tower, erected probably by the family of the Garidendi, is about 130 feet in height, and inclines as much as eight feet from the perpendicular. It has been conjectured that these towers were originally constructed as they now appear; but it is difficult to give credit to such a supposition. According to Montfaucon, the celebrated antiquary, the leaning of these towers has been occasioned by the sinking of the earth. "We several times observed the tower called Asinelli, and the other near it named Garisenda. The latter of them stoops so much that a perpendicular, let fall from the top, will be seven feet from the bottom of it; and, as appears upon examination, when this tower bowed, a great part of it went to ruin, because the ground that side that inclined stood on was not so firm as the other, which may be said of all other towers that lean so; for besides these two here mentioned, the tower for the bells of St. Mary Zobenica, at Venice, leans considerably to one side. So also at Ravenna, I took notice of another stooping tower, occasioned by the ground on that side giving way a little. In the way from Ferrara to Venice, where the soil is marshy, we see a structure of great antiquity leaning to |