lousy connected with the success of Handel's Rinaldo, he quitted that situation in 1713, and went to Amsterdam, where he published some musical compositions. Afterward, he returned to London, and undertook a critical catalogue of the gems, medals, and statues preserved in different British collections. This Tesoro Britannico appeared at London in two quarto volumes, dated 1719 and 1720, was highly prized at the time, and is become scarce. It was reedited in Latin at Vienna by Khell, who added valuable notes. Haym also published at London, in 1726, Notizia dei Libri rari nella Lingua Italiana, which contains three thousand articles, and is important to bibliographers. An enlarged edition of this work was printed at Milan in 1771, with the altered title Biblioteca Italiana. Haym had projected a history of music, which he did not live to complete. He died in 1730.'

'HORNEMANN, Frederic Conrad, was born at Hildesheim in 1772, studied at Göttingen, and obtained a pastorship in the Hanoverian territory: but, being more attached to pursuits of science than of erudition, he offered his services through Professor Blumenbach to Sir Joseph Banks, as a traveller disposed to attempt discoveries in Africa. He was employed by the English Society for that purpose, passed some months in London in 1797, and, having received his credentials, went to Paris, where he was liberally treated, and assisted with other protections and recommendations. He then proceeded to Marseilles, and thence to Alexandria. After having staid some time at Cairo, to learn the language of the Maugrebins, or Western Arabs, he joined in 1799 the caravan of Fezzan, entered in September the desert of Libya, visited Siouah, (the oasis supposed to contain the Temple of Jupiter Ammon,) and, after seventy-four days of travelling, reached Mourzouk, the capital of Fezzan. He next visited Tripoli, which he quitted in April, 1800, with the caravan of Bournou. No news has since been heard of him, and he no doubt perished from the effects of climate, or by some other misfortune. His journal was transmitted in German to London, was there translated under the auspices of the African Society, and was published in a quarto volume, dated 1802, with the requisite maps and illustrations. * A French edition was superintended by M. Langlès, who had an opportunity of comparing the original German journal, and who made some important corrections; besides the addition of an itinerary from Tripoli to Fezzan, communicated by Venturi. The German original was printed at Weimar in 1802.'

We have just received another lot of volumes, but reserve them for a future article.

* See M. Rev. vol. xxxix. p. 337

ART.

ART. XIII. Examen Critique, &c.; ¿. e. A Critical Examination and Completion of the most received Historical Dictionaries; from that of Moreri to the Universal Biography inclusive. Vol. I. (A—J) containing about 240 new Articles, 50 that are re-written, and 560 corrected or augmented. By the Author of the Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Works. 8vo. Paris. 1820. Imported by Treuttel and Würtz. Price 148.

A

NTHONY ALEXANDER BARBIER, the author of the work before us, is librarian at the Luxembourg, and has already displayed extensive bibliographical knowlege in his Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Works, which was noticed by us at considerable extent in our lxiiid volume, p. 462. The same zeal, industry, research, and criticism, which we have already applauded, may be discerned in this new publication; yet its plan is not equally happy, because it is a mere catalogue of corrections, and contains no one article complete in itself: so that, however valuable as a book of reference, it offers little temptation to a regular perusal.

Moreri's Dictionary, which is the oldest work of the kind that has decorated the literature of France, was eminently successful, and Bayle founded his great reputation by composing a supplement to it. By degrees, however, it was discovered that too much history and too much controversy had been inserted by these eminent writers; and, although their joint labours were honored by twenty editions, and consisted in the last (anno 1759) of ten folio volumes, yet the enterprize became apoplectic from obesity, and lost the power of circulation. Ladvocat, who was librarian at the Sorbonne, conceived the plan of rendering this huge dictionary portable, and published first in 1755 his Dictionnaire historique portatif; which was successively augmented to six octavo volumes, and in that state went through many editions. Chaudon next undertook, on the brief plan of Ladvocat, another historical dictionary; drawn up on one uniform system, and adopting a moderation and tolerance of opinion that were not always displayed by his predecessor. The English General Biography, published in 1798, has made great use of the labours of Chaudon.

All these works, however, have been superseded by the Biographie Universelle, noticed in our preceding article; which, for multiplicity of names and exact bibliographical notices, surpasses all productions of the kind: although it has the fault of including disproportionate parts, some lives being very long and others emptily short. On all these diction aries, but especially on the last, the present author: here de

M.m 4

livers

livers a series of commentaries, arranged in the alphabetic order of the names to which they relate. Every one of these articles contains some criticism, some correction, some emendation, some addition, or some supplemental information; which will be of great value in causing a number of ameliorations to be introduced into the next revised edition of the Universal Biography. We can hardly abstain from forming the wish that a critic, so comprehensively aware of its many little imperfections, might be intrusted with the superintendance of its republication; and this perhaps is the object and expectation of M. BARBIER: who promises one more volume of errors detected, which is to appear within three months after the completion of the Biographie Universelle. The two volumes will then form an useful critical appendix to that work, and be welcome to its purchasers.

The name of Mad. D'Arconville is wholly omitted in the Biographie: but we have here an entire life of that modest and meritorious woman, who wrote many moral discourses, some novels, some feeble essays on matters of science, and the lives of Cardinal D'Ossat, Mary of Medicis, and Francis II., and who also translated many English works into French. She was born in 1720, and died in 1805.

We shall extract the article Atterbury.

Atterbury, an English Bishop. At the end of this article, it is stated by the editors of the Universal Biography that "Thiriot published at Paris some critical letters on certain French authors, which were supposed to be written by Dr. Atterbury, but the authenticity of which cannot be warranted." The compiler of this article was apparently citing from memory what he had read in the Dictionary of Chaufepied: but Chaufepied merely says: "We shall give to the reader some extracts from his letters, written about the year 1727, to a Frenchman of talent, namely, to M. Thiriot. They are here translated into French with all possible fidelity." It was Chaufepied, therefore, who published at Amsterdam some extracts, translated from English into French, from some letters by Bishop Atterbury. These extracts are of the same kind with eight letters, in Latin, by the same author, which have been included in the 4th vol. of Recueil de Pièces d'Histoire et de Littérature, published at Paris in 1731, by the Abbé Granet and Père Desmolets. I therefore see no reason for questioning their authenticity.'

This micrological exactness is no doubt meritorious, but is also rather tedious. If, however, it wants the vivacity which sometimes accompanies controversial criticism, it is no where deficient in the amenity which politeness is sure to bestow: every slip of the pen is indicated with precision, but with mildness; and a love of truth and equity is no where disgraced 15

by

by any mixture of asperity, any airs of superiority, or any sneers at negligence.

An original article is the memoir of Ginguené, the historian of Italian literature; and we shall epitomize it. - Peter Louis Ginguené was born at Rennes in 1748, and at the age of twenty produced a poem intitled La Confession de Zulme, which was not published until 1775, but the manuscriptcirculation of which excited favourable notice of the author, and brought him acquainted with the poet Lebrun, whose works he afterward edited. In the controversy concerning the relative value of Italian and German music, which occupied many Parisian pens at the time of the peace of 1783, and especially that of Rousseau, M. Ginguené took the side of the Piccinists against the Gluckists, and was the ablest defender of that party. The talents which he displayed in the contest led to his employment in drawing up the musical articles for the Encyclopédie Methodique. He also assisted in the Mercure, and in consequence became acquainted with Laharpe, Marmontel, and Chamfort, who were fellow-labourers. He witnessed the later years both of Voltaire and Rousseau, and composed a pamphlet concerning the Confessions of the latter, which was printed in 1791. At the commencement of the Revolution, he endeavoured to diffuse liberal ideas, wrote concerning Necker, as also a humorous pamphlet intitled De l'Autorité de Rabelais dans la Révolution présente, and co-operated in the Feuille villageoise, in the Decade philosophique, and in the Revue philosophique, periodical works severally devoted to the cause of rational liberty. Under the Directory, Ginguené was named ambassador to Sardinia, and became a member of the Tribunate: but, as he preferred the voice of his constituents to the intimations of his patrons, he was obliged to retreat from political employment. He now devoted his leisure to the composition of a Literary History of Italy, in which career the German publication of Bouterweck had prepared and smoothed his way. Six volumes of this work appeared in the years. 1811, 1812, and 1813, and constitute Ginguené's proudest title to celebrity. He died on the 17th of November, 1816, without bringing his history to a close: but it has since been completed by M. Salfi. Ginguené was a member of the Institute, and left a widow.

The comments included in this volume extend to the end of the letter J in the Biographie Universelle, and revise therefore nearly the first half of that dictionary. To all the possessors of it, the corrections, animadversions, and additions of so accurate and erudite a bibliographer as M. BARBIER cannot fail to become valuable.

ART.

1

ART. XIV. Allgemeines Bibliographisches Lexicon, &c.; i.e. An Universal Bibliographical Lexicon. By F. A. EBERT. 4to. Nos. I. and II. Leipzig. 1820. Imported by Bohte, London.

TH HE number of good books is now so very considerable in all the cultivated languages of the world, and the fashion of collecting voluminous libraries is now so general among the learned and the rich, that it is becoming among us a separate science to acquire a knowlege of the names of the works which it is worth while to possess; without any definite intention of studying their contents. Bibliography undertakes to provide this information, and is gradually introducing a literature of title-pages, an erudition in catalogues, a critical philosophy of editions, and a comparative estimate of volumes of reference, which substitutes for learning itself a command of its instruments and tools. The ends of instruction are thus forgotten in behalf of the means, and the scholar is dwindling into the librarian.

A popular work of this description, the Manuel du Libraire of Brunet, was noticed in our lxxviith vol. p. 513.; and we have now before us a more costly, more elaborate, and more comprehensive catalogue of the same kind, drawn up in the German language, and executed with that ubiquarian research and that unwearied industry, for which the German writers are remarkable. It is yet unfinished: but, if it be carried on with the same patient accuracy with which the first two parts have been compiled, it will surpass all extant publications of the kind. The author professes to compose an universal bibliographical Lexicon, containing a careful external description of those older and those newer books which, on account of their internal worth or their external fame, are generally valued and sought; accompanied by a list of the prices at which they may probably be obtained. These books are, in the prospectus prefixed to the Lexicon, divided into fourteen classes. 1. Works pertaining to the sciences denominated Faculties in Universities; such as the sources of these sciences, the more important productions on their historical parts, the dogmatic writings which have given them a new form, and those publications which, from acknowleged rarity or singularity, supply anecdotes of their literary history. 2. All books which the French writers comprehend under the appellation of Belles Lettres. 3. All editions of Greek and Latin classics. 4. Works of philology, such as dictionaries, grammars, and other critical helps to the knowlege of languages and dialects. 5. Primary impressions, down to the year 1470 inclusive; and afterward only such as have acquired a peculiar interest. 6. Scarce books. 7. Ornamental