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Show RISE AND PROGRESS OF DANCING. 11 the fete which he prepared for Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, on the marriage of that prince, with Isabella of Arragon6. The taste and magnificence displayed in this superb festival at Tortona, was imitated by all the principal towns of Italy, who seemed eager to concur in the regeneration of those agreeable arts. Italy has, at different times been the garden of every art and science. It was there that Dante, Columbus, Galileo, and Machiavel were born; and there also was the enchanting Terpsichore honoured under a more pleasing and elegant form, than antiquity had bestowed upon her. " D'ogni bell' Arte non sei madre, o Italia ? SILVIO PELLICO. W e may, therefore, say that the Italians were the first to subject the arms, legs, and body to certain rules; which regulation took place in the sixteenth century. Before that time they danced, in m y opinion, much in the same manner as the Greeks and Romans had done before them, which was, by giving high leaps, making extravagant contortions, uncouth and indelicate motions, and resting in the most unbecoming attitudes. A common-place practice was the only instruction such dancers received 7. The greater or less pleasure they enjoyed in their performance, occasioned them more or less to excel. Dancing (as an art) was then only in its infancy. Taste and experience having, at length, established precepts whereby the steps, attitudes, and motions, were systematically arranged, all was done afterwards, according to method, and in strict harmony with the time and cadence of the accompanying music. The works of the best sculptors and painters must have served as models towards the attainment of grace and elegance^ in the various positions adopted in dancing, as they did to the |