It also serves as an opportunity for Cervantes to show his zeal for the Roman Catholic religion, which he never loses throughout the whole work. The expulsion of the Moors was determined upon in 1609. Persiles and Sigismunda is the last work Cervantes ever wrote. The dedication is dated 1616.
[Note 8.] Page 377.
The Academy of the Entronadas, properly Intronati, an Italian word which signifies blockheads. The Italian academies, of which almost every town, large and small, had one or more, (and in the sixteenth century especially Italy was remarkable for them,) were distinguished by quaint and humorous names, such as "Insensati," "Stordite," "Confusi," "Politice," "Umorose," "Oziosi," "Gelati." The Intronati, which Cervantes has called Entronadas, were at Sienna.
"Les Intronati mot qu'on ne peut rendre en Francais que par les Abasourdis ou les Stupides, avaient autant d'esprit et de malice, mais plus d'elegance que les Rozze (grossiers, mal gracieux stupides). Leur Academie avait été fondée en 1525 par le Tolommei, Luca Contile, François Piccolomini, qui fut depuis Archevêque de Sienne, et par d'autres hommes distingués dans la Philosophie et dans les lettres. Elle faisoit une étude particulière de la langue Toscane et son Theatre Comique avait une grande celebrité."—Ginguené Hist. Litteraire de l'Italie.
Milan had its Trasformati; Pavia the Affidati, Desiosi; Mantua the Invhagati Intenti; but for further information the reader may consult Ginguené or Triaboschi, who has in his eighth volume an entire chapter upon the academies.
BOOK IV.
Note 9. Page 418, after the word Bargains.
I have here omitted a page which relates to a poet whose appearance once before I also left out. It appears to be introduced only for the purpose of saying a word in praise of Francisco López de Zárate, whose verses, says Cervantes, ought to resound through the four quarters of the globe, and his harmonious numbers enchant every heart, as he sings of "The Invention of the Cross of Christ," with "The Wars of the Emperor Constantine," a poem truly heroic and religious, and worthy to be called a poem. He is not mentioned by Sismondi; and Bouterweke only gives his name as one among several in a list of the authors of "A Torrent of Heroic Poems." "La Invencion de la Cruz," by López Zárate, is one of these, but he receives no other notice than this remark upon them all: "None but those who make this branch of literature their especial study now think of perusing these and similar patriotic effusions, which were, at the period of their publication, regarded as epic poems."