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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Something of a literary sensation in its day (1737), as well as a mystification, Gaudentio di Lucca has fallen into a state of progressive neglect that threatens to become oblivion. Students of utopian schemes of social organization seem to have forgotten its existence. Recent historians have either ignored it entirely or have accorded it only cursory attention. “Interesting from a certain oddity and air of ‘key’ about it rather than from much merit as literature,” is the verdict of Professor Saintsbury; while Professor Elton concedes that its author had some invention and color, and that his “ ‘news from nowhere, ‘unlike many fictions of the kind, includes adequate police intelligence.”
1 The English Novel, p. 134.
2 English Literature (1730–1780), i, 231.
3 The Progress of Romance, through Times, Countries and Manners (New York: Facsimile Text Society, 1930), i, 124. * History of Fiction, ed. Wilson, ii, 590.
6 iv, 330.
6 Progress of Romance, i, 124.
7 Manuel bibliographique de la littérature moderne, p. 582.
8 The Adventures of Gaudentio di Lucca (London: Chas. Gilpin, 1850).
9 Loc. cit., vii, 257.
10 Loc. cit., vii, 317.
11 For an elaborate argument in support of Berkeley's authorship see The Retrospective Review, iv, 332 ff.
12 Loc. cit., l, 125.
13 Loc. cit., lv, 757.
14 The impression left by Berington upon his age is by no means commensurate with his learning and abilities. The following details as to his life and activities are ascertainable: Simon Berington, son of Mr. John Berington, of Winsley, County Hereford, and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Wolryche, was born January 16 (o.s.), 1679. Like several other members of the family, he was educated at the English College at Douay, taking his degree in divinity in 1704. For twelve years following his graduation he was Professor of Poetry and Philosophy in his alma mater. His earliest published work, a laudatory poem “To His Most Excellent Majesty, James III, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of this Faith,” etc., describes him as “Priest and Present Professor of Poetry in the English College at Douay.” He returned to England in 1716, and began service upon the mission, succeeding his cousin Thomas Berington at St. Thomas's, near Stafford, in 1720. At some undetermined date he assumed charge of the clergy library for Catholics, at Gray's Inn, and died in his chambers there in 1755. Two members of his family, Bishop Charles Berington (1748–88), a cousin, and Dr. Joseph Berington (1746–1827), a nephew, were able and influential men, and leaders in the movement toward liberalism which stirred English Catholics during the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
The list of Simon Berington's published writings is a long one, though it contains mostly works of pamphlet dimensions. A considerable number of his unpublished manuscripts yet remain in the Chapter archives. His erudition is said to have been most impressive, and the range of his reading astonishingly wide. One of his books, Dissertations on the Mosaical Creation, Deluge, Building of Babel and Confusion of Tongues, is especially interesting in connection with Gaudentio di Lucca, as indicating the origin of the elaborate annotation supplied by “the learned Signor Rhedi.” The sources of information concerning Berington are Burke, Landed Gentry of Great Britain, Kirk, Biographies of English Catholics in the Eighteenth Century, Milner, Supplementary Memoirs of English Catholics, and Chas. Butler, An Account of the Life and Writings of the Reverend Alban Butler (London, 1799).
15 References in this article are to the English translation, The Royal Commentaries of Peru. Written originally in Spanish and done into English by Sir Paul Rycaut, Kt. (London, 1688).
16 The deistical character of the religion of the Incas, as well as the paternalism of their government, is discussed by Geoffry Atkinson, The Extraordinary Voyage in French Literature, pp. 20 ff.
17 Histoire des Séverambes, peuples qui habitent une partie du troisieme continent appelé Terre Australe (Paris, 1677–79).—References in this article are to the Amsterdam edition of 1716.
18 See Gaud., pp. 251 ff.
19 Introduction to the Literature of Europe, iii, 158.
