very great accession has been made to our biographical stock, not only by the demise of many eminent characters in the literary world, but by the additional ardour given to the spirit of literary curiosity. It is to this that we owe many valuable memoirs of authors and writings unjustly consigned to oblivion, but recovered by the industry of those who, without being insensible to the merit of their own times, are impartial enough to do justice to the talents of remote ages.

Of the lives retained from the last edition, besides an attempt to restore uniformity of style, there are very few which are not, either in whole or in part, re-written, or to which it has not been found necessary to make very important additions. Nor ought this to be construed into a reflection on preceding Editors. Biography was of later growth in this country than in any other; and every new work, if performed with equal industry and accuracy, must excel the past in utility and copiousness.

As from works of this description a superior degree of judgment is expected, which at the same time is acknowledged to be rarely found, it becomes necessary to advert to the insurmountable difficulty of making such a selection as shall give universal satisfaction. The rule to admit important and reject insignificant lives, would be useful, were it practicable. But no individual, or considerable number of individuals, can be supposed capable of determining on the various merits that are allotted in biographical collections; and even where we have recourse to those in which

the critical plan has been professedly adopted, there is in very few cases that decisive concurrence of opinion on which an Editor can rely.

It has been acknowledged, however, that of the two grand errors, that of redundancy may be committed with most impunity, not only because curiosity after the works of past ages has lately become more extensive, and is nourished by the superior attention bestowed on the contents of our great libraries, as well as by the formation of new and extensive libraries by opulent individuals; but because there are few lives so insignificant as not to be useful in illustrating some point of literary history. And, what is more important, it has often been found, since the progress of learning became to be more accurately traced, that persons once considered as insignificant, proved to be so only because little known. Still, as there are some general opinions which may be followed, some general inscriptions of fame which are too distinctly legible to be mistaken, the most ample spaces will be filled by those whose names are most familiar to scholars of all ages and nations.

In order, likewise, to obviate as much as possible the errors of selection, it is intended, in the present edition, to subjoin, throughout the whole series, very copious REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES. These in some similar works, particularly on the Continent, have been either wholly omitted, or given at second-hand so incorrectly as to be useless. But if collected from an inspection of the works referred to, where that is

practicable, they will always serve to point out to the curious reader where farther information may be found, and at the same time, in lives that are sufficiently copious, may justify the Editor, who must in a thousand instances be guided by opinions which he has it not in his power to appreciate.

While references to authorities, however, are given, it has not been thought necessary to extend them to a degree of ostentatious minuteness. In referring, for example, to such a work as the Biographia Britannica, it cannot, for any useful purpose, be necessary to strip the margins of that work, of those minute references to a variety of books, pamphlets, and records, from which small particulars are taken; and the same remark may be applied to Moreri, the General Dictionary including Bayle, and other elaborate compilations of a similar nature. At the same time, the reader has a right to expect that the original and leading authorities should be carefully pointed out.

Another improvement intended in the present Edition, is that of a more copious list of each AUTHOR'S WRITINGS than has usually been thought necessary. Whatever be the case with our conmay temporaries, we have no more certain criterion of past reputation and value, than frequency of reprinting, and no more certain method of estimating the learning and taste of past generations, than by inspecting the works from which they derived instruction. But in some cases over which oblivion seems to have cast her deepest shades, it may be sufficient to refer to original lists, and avoid that minuteness of descrip

tion which belongs more strictly to the province of Bibliography.

In this part of the present undertaking, it has likewise been recommended, with great propriety, that the titles of Books should generally be given in their ORI GINAL LANGUAGES. Much difficulty has arisen to collectors of Books, as well as to the readers in public libraries, from having a translated title only, which is not to be found in catalogues, nor perhaps, upon that account, easily recollected by librarians. It is intended, therefore, to restore this necessary information, where if ean be procured; but the Editor finds it due to himself, to add, that he has not always been so successful in recovering the proper titles of works, as could have been wished. The biographers of most nations have hitherto been partial to translated, and frequently abridged, titles; and whoever has consulted the French biographers, in particular, must be sensible of the great inconveniencies attending this plan, as well as that of naturalizing the NAMES of Authors, which is frequently done in such a manner as to create considerable confusion.

In adverting to this last source of perplexity, the Editor of every new collection of lives, must hope to find an excuse for those almost unavoidable errors to which he is exposed; and particularly to the danger of repeating the same life under two apparently different names. Even in the present volume, and notwithstanding the care that has been taken to avoid errors of this kind, ALESSI, GALEAS, is afterwards VOL. I.

b.

repeated under ALGHIZI-GALEAZZO.

The Editor is aware that he is pleading bad example, rather than an excuse, when he adds, that he was led into this error by the editors both of the DICTIONNAIRE HISTORIQUE, and of that more accurate work the BIOGRAPHIE UNIVERSELLE.

There are few respects in which works of this kind have been more encumbered, than in the admission of Emperors, Kings, Sultans, &c. whose lives are merely passages of history, unintelligible, if short, and if prolix, by no means biographical. Of these a few have been formerly admitted, and may be supposed sanctioned by repetition; but as curiosity seldom looks to biographical collections for such subjects, very little addition will be made to this series, except in the case of some royal personages of our own country, whose private or public history continues to be interesting.

It only remains to be noticed that, according to the original plan, a preference will be given to the Worthies of our own country; a preference, however, not of selfish partiality, but of absolute necessity, as all foreign collections are notoriously deficient in the English series. For this it would be unfair to account either from want of learning or research. A more obvious reason is, that most of the foreign biographical collections have been made by Catholics, and in Catholic countries, where it would have been unsafe to enter into the merits of Englishmen of renown, either in Church or State. We owe it, however, to