Memoirs of Lewis Holberg

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: on the days when my fever intermitted. I admired the noble edifices of this city, which exceeded in magnificence all that I had heard or read of them. In the street called Sinn/a Nuova, every house seems to be a palace rather than a private residence; in other streets, though not so uniformly magnificent...
More Description

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: on the days when my fever intermitted. I admired the noble edifices of this city, which exceeded in magnificence all that I had heard or read of them. In the street called Sinn/a Nuova, every house seems to be a palace rather than a private residence; in other streets, though not so uniformly magnificent as the Slrada Nuova, elegant marble buildings abound. The churches are also remarkable for their marble pavements and the splendour of their architectural embellishments. In this city T first heard an Italian concert; it partook in some measure of the character of French music, for they used horns and trumpets, instruments which have long since been dis- ngers who take the first part generally affect a plaintive, whining intonation; so that one might almost suppose they were undergoing corporal punishment, and that the musical director was compelling them to sing against their will. I have noticed the same whining style of singing in other parts of Italy; and it is not without reason therefore, that the French tax the Italian singers with these weeping propensities. The form of government in Genoa is aristocrati- cal, the prince of the senate being styled the doge. The dignity of doge is not permanent, as at Venice, but passes from one senator to another. It happened, at the time 1 was at Genoa, that the chief magistrate had just retired from his office, and the senate was proceeding to the creation of a new doge. The election of the rector of an university often occasions a greater sensation in other countries than that of a doge in Genoa. The inhabitants, accustomed to the spectacle, do not even go out of their houses to witness the procession which takes place at a new election. I happened to be strolling through the city, when I met a company of soldiers who were alm...