Mit markanten Zügen hat Goethe Winckelmanns Lebensbild gezeichnet und ihm für immer den Vorteil gesichert, “im Andenken der Nachwelt als ein ewig Tüchtiger und Kräftiger zu erscheinen”; in umfassender Weise hat Justi Winckelmann, den Kunsthistoriker und Archäologen, in einer Biographie dargestellt, welche sich zu einem groszen Bilde der zeitgenössischen Kunstbestrebungen erweitert; aber die philologische Forschung hat Winckelmann bis jetzt gänzlich unbeachtet gelassen. Mit Unrecht, denn die deutsche Literatur kann Winckelmann mit eben so viel, wenn nicht mit mehr Recht für sich in Anspruch nehmen als die Kunstgeschichte und Altertumskunde. Winckelmanns Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums ist, vom kunsthistorischen und archäologischen Standpunkt beurteilt, durchaus veraltet, als Literaturdenkmal steht dieses Werk in unvergänglicher Jugendfrische da.

A man's notes in his favourite books must have an interest quite distinct from that of the revelation of himself disclosed in what he invents or composes of his own motion. He is taken, as it were, unawares. The receptive and responsive regions of his intelligence under the touch of another mind are revealed in the passages that strike him, as in the annotations and reflections suggested to him. The reader who comes upon a volume so annotated may promise himself a new, probably a more intimate view of its quondam owner; aridity or abundance may equally surprise him. It is, then, with a sense of adventure that he will embark upon the perusal of notes like those of Gabriel Harvey in a book of such vogue and effect as the famous Courtier of Baldesare Castiglione, “fine Castilio,” as Harvey himself calls him.

Muiopotmos has long been a puzzle to the readers of Spenser. A poem of fantastic beauty built upon a trifle as a subject, a light and fanciful story of over four hundred lines with no apparent lesson or moral, Muiopotmos is altogether so unlike “our sage and serious Spenser” that critics have been baffled in their efforts to account for it.

The student of to-day who wishes to make a study of the dolce stil nuovo is very soon brought face to face with a serious difficulty. As he reads his standard text-books, he finds in them a pretty uniform definition of the originality and characteristics of this school. But, upon looking further and consulting special books, he is confronted with recent work, both industrious and able, taking issue with the definition he has just learned. It is the object of this paper to help that student. We would try to determine what changes, if any, are forced upon the traditional view by the discoveries of the most successful of its opponents.