GIROLAMO, a celebrated historian and writer on Italian literature, was born at Bergamo on the 27th December 1731. He studied at the Jesuit college of Monza, and afterwards joined that order. About 1766 he became professor of rhetoric in the university of Milan, and in 1770 was appointed by the Duke of Modena librarian of his rich library, where his predecessors had been Muratori, Zaccaria, and Granelli. In the interval, however, his first work had appeared, the history of a monastic order entitled Vetera Humilitatorum Monumenta, which was suppressed by a papal bull in 1771. This was followed by his Storia della Letteratura Italiana, which appeared between 1771 and 1782, in 13 vols. 4to, and which traces the history of Italian literature from the earliest recorded times of the Etruscans and the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia down to the end of the seventeenth century. No similar work had then appeared in that or any other country, and it is no mean praise to say, that it is probably as complete and accurate as could have been expected from one man. It was necessarily a work of immense labour, and most conscientiously has he executed it. It soon became highly esteemed, and passed through several editions. The second edition, in 16 vols. 4to in 1787–93, contains numerous additions and corrections by the author in the form of notes. In appreciation of his labours, the Duke of Modena made him a knight, and nominated him a member of his council. The chief of his other works are Biblioteca Modenese, 6 vols., 1781–86, and Memorie Storiche Modenesi, 3 vols., 1793. He died at Modena in June 1794.

TIRAÑAS and TONADILLAS (Spanish) are Spanish national melodies in 4 time, and of a moderate movement, sung with an accompaniment for the guitar only. The Spanish dance-tunes, such as the Fandangos, the Boleros, and the Seguidillas, formerly much in vogue in Spain, were played on the guitar, often accompanied by the voice and by castanets. The Bolero, a modification of the Seguidillas, is said to have derived its name from a dancing-master of Murcia, named Bolero.