Arteaga, Stephen

, a learned writer on music and poetry, was a Spanish Jesuit, and very young when that order was suppressed in Spain. He then went to Italy, and lived a considerable time at Bologna, in the house of cardinal Albergati. He afterwards accompanied his friend the chevalier Azara, the Spanish ambassador, to Paris and died in his house Oct. 30, 1799. His first publication was a treatise on “Ideal Beauty,” in Spanish but that which has contributed most to his fame, was his “Revoluzioni del teatro musicale Italiano, dalla sua origine, fino al presente,” Venice, 1785, 3 vols. 8vo. This is the second edition, but the only complete one the first consisting of only one volume, printed at Bologna, 1783;, and now entirely changed and augmented. An excellent analysis and criticism on this work, from the pen of a veteran scholar in the musical art, appeared in the Monthly Review, vols. LXXVII. and LXXIX. He left also some learned dissertations on Greek and Latin poetry, and an elaborate work on rhythm, which he intended to have printed at Parma, at the Bodoni press; these manuscripts appear to have been confided to Grainville, who died soon after. ³