lation, when he endeavoured to cut off the apocalypse of St. John from the canon of the Scriptures. Father FASSINI of the Oratory undertakes, in the work before us, to restore this mystical branch, which fome think ought not to be lightly rejected; for though hitherto, say they, it has produced but very little fruit, it may yield an harvest of knowledge in some future season. M. ABAUZIT alleged that the book in question was looked upon as the production not of St. John the Evangelift, but of some other writer, for more than eight centuries, both by Grecian and oriental authors *. F. FASSINI collects all his erudition and critical prowess to invalidate this assertion; and in order to come forth in due order of battle against his adverfary, he divides his work into thirteen chapters. In the first, he endeavours to prove, that Papias, the disciple of St. John, was acquainted with the apocalypse, being mentioned by Andrew archbishop of Cæfarea (an early writer, and also an expofitor of this mysterious book) as an undoubted witness of its authenticity. This testimony is farther strengthened by that of Justin Martyr, who lived near the time of Papias, and who, in his famous controversy with the Jew Triphon, acknowledges St. John as the author of the Revelation that bears his name. M. Abauzit, it is true, has prepossessed the inquirers into this subject pretty strongly against the teftimony of Justin, on account of his credulity, and his attachment to the Millenarian system: but we really think that our Author has the advantage of him in appreciating the evidence of this celebrated Writer; for, on the principles of M. Abauzit, there will not be many cafes of any consequence in which the report of teftimony may be entirely depended upon. It is hard to fufpect a man of telling lies, when they are adapted to maintain his theological system, if there be no other previous reason to question his veracity. In the second, third, and fourth chapters, our Author comes down upon the heretic of Geneva with a cloud of witnesses, of the second century, such as Polycarp, Irenæus, Meliton bishop of Sardes, Theophilus of Antioch, Apollonius, Clement of Alexandria, &c. who all confider the Apocalypfe, or Revelation, as a work composed by divine inspiration, and as coming from the pen of St. John the Evange list. The testimonies of the third century, among which Hippolytus, Origen, Dionyfius of Alexandria, and other men of eminence appear, are produced in the four following chapters; and the eighth contains a multitude of proofs in favour of the facred book under confideration, from the records of the fourth century, and the ecclefiaftical writers, that swarmed like bees

* See an account of ABAUZIT's work in our Review for May 1774, Vol. 50. p. 375. :

3

during during that period.-He also refutes in this chapter the objections of Abauzit against Eufebius of Cæfarea, Athanafius, Ephrem, Bafilius, Macarius the Elder, and Didymus of Alexandria. In the ninth chapter our Author explains the real sentiments of Epiphanius, and proves, or attempts to prove, in the tenth, that Cyril of Jerufalem, and the two Gregories of Nyssa and Nazianze, acknowledged the authenticity of the Revelation, though M. Abauzit represents them as having rejected it. The three following chapters contain the teftimonies of later times.

ART. XVI.

Origine e Antichita Fermane, Sc. - Concerning the Origin and Antiquities of Fermo. Folio. Printed at Fermo. 1778.

THE

HE Abbé CATALANI, to whom the lovers of antiquities are indebted for a learned Differtation on the Origin of the Picentes, is the author of this piece, which is in the same taste, and abounds with ancient erudition.

Specimen Hierarchiæ Hungarice, &c - An Effay concerning Ecclesiastical Power in Hungary, containing a chronological Series of the Archbishops and Bishops of that Kingdom, and a Description of its Dioceses. Part I. By Mr. George Pray. Presburg and Cafchaw. 1778.

W

E should not have mentioned this publication, were it not adapted to shew us how little the progress of light, and a liberal manner of thinking, have contributed to the abolition or amendment of institutions founded upon the tyranny of superstition. This is remarkably exemplified in that Colossus of opulence and power, the archbishop of Gran in Hungary, whose rights, immunities, privileges, and revenues, form the chief, nay almost the only contents of this volume. The annual income of this prelate is valued at 360,000 florins: fince the year 1257 he has enjoyed the title and performs the functions of perpetual count, principal secretary and chancellor, and reprefentative of the royal prefence: he crowns the kings of Hungary: his lands and vassals are exempted from all fecular jurisdiction and every species of taxation: he has a right to name the palatine, or the principal judge of the district, and to invest him with powers, which the palatine holds of him and not of the sovereign: he has the tenth part of the produce of the royal domain, of the revenue of the exchequer, of the taxes imposed upon the cattle of the Walachians, and of all the money that is coined in the kingdom, or imported: if one of his vassals be condemned to death, for theft, by the civil tribunal, the confifcated goods of the criminal become the property of this prelate,

late. The present archbishop of Gran is the count Joseph Bathiana, who was raised to that dignity in 1776. The fee had been vacant eleven years before his filling it; and we suppose vacancies of this kind will happen oftener in time to

come.

ART. XVIII.

Phyficalische Untersuchung der Naturlichen Ursachen des Nordscheins, &c.-Philofophical Researches concerning the Natural Caufes of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, together with some new Observations relative to that singular Meteor. By M. J. W. C. А. Baron DE HUPSCH. Cologn. 1779.

H

OWEVER ingenious the new observations of this learned inquirer may be, we do not think his hypothesis more plausible than those that have been already employed in order to account for this singular phenomenon. There is, nevertheless, a good deal of sagacity and philosophical knowledge discovered in these researches. The Author diftinguishes the different kinds of meteors that are comprehended under the general denomination of aurora borealis, or nothern light. Some of the meteors, thus called, are produced by the refraction and reflexion of rays of light, and this kind has most commonly an arched form, when observed in those countries that lie between the 55th and 75th degrees of latitude. The true aurora borealis, according to our Author, is produced by a phosphorical matter, which derives its origin from fulphureous exhalations of a very refined and fubtile nature. This hypothefis is not new; it was one of the suppositions formerly proposed by Dr. Halley, who imagined that the watery vapours, or effluvia, rarified exceedingly by fubterraneous fire, and tinged with fulphureous steams, might be the cause of the phenomenon under confideration. Halley, indeed, offered another supposition to account for this meteor; i. e, a subtile matter, which, entering into the earth near the southern pole, and freely pervading its pores, passed out again with some force into the ather, at the same distance from the northern, and having its density or velocity fome way or other increased, might produce a small degree of light, after the manner of effluvia from electric bodies, which by a strong and quick friction (says he) emit light in the dark. This hypothesis was looked upon as vague and unsatisfactory. It was, however, the effort of genius in a period of darkness; and fince experience has thrown some new rays of light on the mysterious operations of nature, this hypothesis has acquired a high degree of plausibility and evidence, and is likely to make its way, in a new form. For since it has been proved with a very high degree of evidence, that the electric matter

and

menon.

and lightning are one and the same substance, philofophers now are disposed to seek the explication of all aerial luminous meteors in the principles of electricity, and the aurora borealis is now almost universally supposed to be an electrical phenoOur learned Author Barón DE HUPSCH is not, indeed, of this opinion; he thinks that the duration of the meteor in question is too considerable to admit of its being attributed to an electrical principle as to its cause; but this observation is fallacious in the highest degree.

ART. XIX.

Vitè dei più Architetti e Scultori Veneziani, &c. -The Lives of the most celebrated Venetian Architects and Sculptors, who flourished in the Sixteenth Century. By THOMAS TEMANZA, Architect to the Most Serene Republic of Venice. 4to. Venice. 1778.

T

HE Author of this work is

already known by the lives of

Sansovino, Palladio, and Scamozzi, which appeared some time ago, and are republished here, with several interesting additions. In the first part of the prefent publication, М. TEMANZA gives us the lives of those Venetian artists, who contributed to the revival of the fine arts, Francis Colonna, a Dominican, surnamed Polyphilus; John Jocond, an architect of Verona, a monk also, whom Lewis XII. fent for to France, where he built the Pont de Notre Dame, and diftinguished himself by his writings; Pietro Lombardi, who was the architect of the tomb of Dante at Ravenna; Barthelemi Buono-Antonio Scarpagnino, Alexander Leopardo, the two fons of Lombardi, and lastly, John Maria Falconetto, a native of Verona. The life of this laft artist, who, according to our Author, was one of the first who introduced a true taste and a good style of architecture into the Venetian state, and brought that art very near its perfection, is more complete, and more enriched with facts and anecdotes, than any that has been hitherto given. The articles contained in the second part of this work are less numerous, but more ample and also more interesting. Their subjects, who are more modern and better known than those contained in the first part, are eight in number, the two Sammithelis of Verona, Tatti, Catanes, who was architect, sculptor, and poet, and whose productions, in the two former arts, are to be seen in the church of St. Anaftafius at Verona, and in the mint and the library of St. Mark at Venice; Palladio, Scamozzi, Antonio da Ponté, who conftructed the new bridge of the Rialto, and began the prisons of Venice, which Contino finished after his death, and Campagna.

RT,

ART XX. : Cremonenfium Monumenta Romæ extantia, &c.-Remains of several celebrated Persons, Natives of Cremona, extant at Rome, collected and illustrated by F. R. THOM. AUGUSTIN VAIRANI, of the preaching Order. 4to. Rome. 1778.

is

modern erudition. It contains an account of the lives and writings, hitherto unpublished, of several learned men, natives of Cremona, some of whom are already known by productions of merit. The work opens with the life and writings of Platina, who wrote, in elegant Latin, the Lives of the Popes, so far down as Paul II., was honoured with the protection of the Gonzagues and Medicis; composed the history of the former, and a dialogue De optimo Cive, which he dedicated to Laurent de Medicis, and, coming to Rome in the year 1458, under the pontificate of Calixtus III., acquired there great reputation for erudition and eloquence, and was appointed librarian of the Vatican by Sixtus V. with the title of one of his Famigliari. The writings of this great man, with feveral anecdotes of his life and conduct, fill the first part of Frater VAIRANI'S work. The second part begins with the life of Vida, who was born at Cremona in 1470, and is known to have been diftinguished by extraordinary marks of the favour and protection of Leo X. The next in order is the life of Faerno, who rose to the highest credit and fortune under the pontificate of Pius IV., had a peculiar place in the esteem of that pontiff, and maintained, at the papal court, his native modesty and fimplicity of manners. Our Author has made the following discovery concerning Faerno; that, foon after his arrival at Rome, he was appointed reviser and corrector of books in the library of the Vatican, and that he diftinguished himself in this employment by his dexterity in restoring the true text of those ancient Greek and Latin manuscripts that had been injured by time, or by the negligence of copyifts. There is no doubt but he rendered important service to claffic literature by his corrections of Plautus, Terence, Livy, Cicero, and other ancient authors. His own fables are truly classical, and worthy of the pureft periods of Latinity. He has been accused of fuppreffing the MSS. of the Fables of Phædrus, which was in his poffeffion, that they might not eclipse or diminish the merit of his own. But though it be true, that these fables were first published in 1596 by P. Pithou, yet our Author vindicates Faerno from this charge, and proves it a calumny, from feveral circumstances; among which the reputation of probity, which this amiable man enjoyed and merited, is not the leaft perfuafive. Faerno died in the year 1561; his