and in the full possession of its enjoyments, Raffaello became an unfortunate victim to the barbarous state of the medical knowledge of his own time: and from the unscientific manner in which his death has been reported, the grossest misapprehensions have been taken as to the cause of it. Raffaello was handsome in his person, amiable in his manners, and of delicate constitution. He was not married; and the irregularities incident to celibacy have been imputed to his character with a liberty of construction not supported by authority, nor justified by any known

facts.

A beautiful young woman, the daughter of a baker in Rome, and thence known by the distinction of La Bella Fornarina, was the person who early engaged his affections. Her portrait is represented as a muse in the picture of Mount Parnassus in the Vatican, painted in or before the year 1511, It also appears, that while he was employed by the Prince Ghigi in painting his Casino in the Longara, which was one of his latest works, that he was more attentive to La Fornarina than to his employment for the prince. Raffaello did not expedite his work with any solicitude, from frequently leaving it to attend upon "La sua amata;" from which circumstance it occurred to the prince that the best way to have his work sooner terminated, was to invite her also to

reside in his house, which was done, and the Loggia was speedily finished, transcendently displaying the superior powers of his mind. This is the account given by the author of the Milan MS. and perfectly agrees with Vasari, who relates the same circumstances; which sufficiently show that the greatest attachment subsisted between them. Neither is there the slightest mention of any other person who is supposed to have divided his affection. Raffaello is also known to have lived with her till his death; and, as a

further confirmation of the sincerity of his affection, he left her by his will in a state of independence.

"From these facts, his morality may be censured by a better order of society, but there can be no reason to suspect that he was otherwise a man who made his passions subservient to irregularity. Whatever was the cause of the violent fever with which he was suddenly attacked, the physicians who were called in, immediately bled him, and with so little discretion, that instead of the benefit they proposed, his end was precipitated, and he fell a victim to the mistake. By this inproper treatment, he became so rapidly reduced, that he had only time to make his will, and conform to the last offices of religion, before his death, which took place on the 7th of April, 1520.

"Thus terminated the life of the most illustrious painter of modern times; and, for any data we have to the contrary, perhaps the most eminent that ever lived at any pe

nod of the world."

It is a relief to pass from the last judgment to the pictures of Raffaello, from representations of fiendish ma lignity, or intense suffering, to the fea tures of innocence, or thoughtful wis dom, or heavenly beauty. The greater part of these latter selections are from the dispute of the sacrament; we never saw heads more exquisitely engraved than those of St. Jerome and Cardinal Bonaventura; La Fornarina and Homer, are from the Mount Parnassus; it would have been better if the wreath of laurel round Homer's brow had been left as an outline: at present it is not sufficiently distinct, and therefore renders more singular a head which is already strange from its eyelessness, and the manner in which the light falls on it. La Forna rina is exceedingly beautiful : the painter has certainly this advantage over the poet, that he can immortalize his mix tress in the way most flattering to female beauty. The heads from the Jurispru dence, the School of Athens, and the Retreat of Attila, are intended to point out a freedom of drawing, and breadth of light and shadow, which decidedly nolds has remarked, as existing between show that difference which Sir Joshua Reythe works of this great master in fresco and in cil. The title page admirably corresponds to the work; it is a design for Raffaello's tomb, on which is placed the emblem of eternity, and the sun is seen setting behind St. Peter's.-The whole work is indeed uniformly excellent.

Mr. Duppa's remarks upon the merits of Raffaello, evince an able and diser, minating mind. Our limits will only permit us to transcribe a part.

"On the sight of the Capella Sistina he immediately, from a dry, gothic, and even insipid manner, which attends the minute accidental discriminations of particular and individual objects, assumed that grand ste of painting, which improves partial repre sentation by the general and invariable ideas of nature. His fresco pictures in Italy, and his cartoons now in England, are the great works on which his immortality is founded. This mode of painting excludes all attention to minute elegancies; and as Raffaello owes his great reputation to his excellence in the higher parts of the art, so this mode was well calculated to display his superior powers. and at the same time not likely to betray him into any mechanical habit that his better judgment might disapprove. In these compositions propriety of sentiment prevails. In each individual figure the component parts

THE wealth and taste of the English nation have for some years rendered this country the chief mart for the productions of the fine arts. From every part of Europe they are continually flowing into the cabinets of our curious collectors. This is so eminently the case with regard to scarce and valuable books, that a distinguished French bibliographer of the present age makes the following remark, alluding to a fine copy of one of the Aldine classics, " qui fut sans doute acheté pour l'Angleterre ;-car c'est dans ce pays qui depuis quelques années passent la plupart des livres précieux."

A taste for the collection of books, when regulated by considerations of uti lity, and guided by knowledge, is no doubt in a high degree rational and honourable When carried to excess, or exercised in an undistinguishing appetite for what is rare or ancient, without regard to better considerations than those of rarity and antiquity, it is in danger, like other enthusiastic tastes, of becoming ridiculous. Thus one bibliographer celebrates the praises of a book, because. it is probably the only uncut vellum Aldus in the world." Another work has acquired a singular value in the eyes of the collector, because immediately after its publication, being discovered to be full of errors, it was suppressed, and is therefore extraordinarily rare. Nor can we think that the present writer has wholly escaped an exaggerated feeling of admiration for the external qualities of the art. with the productions of which he is conversant, when (speaking of Clarke's Cæsar) he observes, the ty, ecf this magnificent volume is truly beautiful and splendid; and for its fine

"It was seventeen years composing and ings per volume."

lustre and perfect execution, reflects im mortality on Tonson." p. 65.

The present work is styled the second edition of a publication under the same title, which was noticed in the first volume of this review (p. 538). The work however now appears in so enlarged a form, that the two publications have little in common, except the title and the index analyticus. It is divided into the following departments: 1st. an account of polyglot bibles; 2d. of Greek bibles; 3d. Greek testaments; 4th. edi tions of the most popular Greek and Latin classics; 5th. Roman writers ca husbandry; 6th. Greek romances; 7th. various sets of the classics; 8th. an index analyticus. It is obvious that with in the compass of an octavo volume only the most important articles can be treated; it cannot however be denied, that under these various heads, Mr. Dibdin has collected, from good authorities, much entertaining and instructive information.

As a specimen of the work we have selected the following article:

"Lexicon Heptaglotton, Hebraicum, Chal

daicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Ethi opicum, Arabicum, conjunctim: et Persicum separatim, &c. &c.

"Londini. Fol. 1669. 2 vol.

"The celebrity of this publication is so well known, that it is not necessary to enter minutely into the various parts of it, or o present the reader with the opinions of learn his own house, and at his own expense, seved Englishmen and seven foreigners as writer, all of whom died before the work was con‐ pleted; he is said to have expended his whole patrimony on it, and to have borrowed such large sums, that it nearly occasioLeu

ed men thereon. Dr. Castell maintained a

printing: the original price was forty shil

his being thrown into prison for life. In his distress he wrote to king Charles-ne carcer esset præmium tot laborum et sumptuumi!' Charles, who preferred gaiety to learning, and who would rather have bestowed a whole province on a debauched favourite than the smallest donation on a deserving scholar, wrote to the bishops and noblemen of the realm, recommending Castell and his work to their pity and protection; the bishops and noblemen, in their turn, recommended the author to the public: and thus, between the king, his court, and the public, Dr. Castell did not receive a farthing. What scholar of feeling can read the following interesting passage without a sigh? I had once,' says he, companions in my undertaking, partners in my toil; but some of them are now no more, and others have abandoned me, alarmed at the immensity of the undertaking. I am now, therefore, left alone, without amanuensis or corrector, far advanced in years, with my patrimony exhausted, my bodily and mental strength impaired, and my eyesight almost gone! In another passage he observes, I considered that day as idle and dissatisfactory in which I did not toil sixteen or eighteen hours either at the Polyglot or Lexicon.'

From the dedicatory epistle to king Charles (preceding the preface), it appears that he lost the greater part of his library and Furniture, and 300 copies of his Lexicon, in the memorable fire of London. He complains of the civil wars as pestis sævissima.' "Such were the inelancholy circumstances

under which the Lexicon of Castell was composed; a work which has long challenged the admiration, and defied the competition, of foreigners; and which, with the great Polyglot of Walton, its inseparable and invaluable companion, has raised an eternal monument of literary famet.

"It now remains to gratify the bibliographer with some account of the large paper copies of these sumptuous publications. Of the Polyglot, there are probably about twelve copies. Mons. Colbert had one, but his Lexicon was on small paper: this copy is now in the library of count Lauragais. See De Bure, No. 4, who was ignorant of there being any large paper copies of the Lexicon. At la Valliere's sale, No. 5, the Polyglot in large paper, 14 vol. and the Lexicon in small paper, 2 vol. were sold for 1251 livres. Ilis majesty and lord Spencer have cach a large paper copy of the Polyglot only. At Dr.

Mead's sale, No. 30, a large paper copy of both Polyglot and Lexicon was sold for 211. In the library of St. Paul's cathedral I saw a very magnificent one, in 14 vol., including the Lexicon, which was ruled with red lines: it was given by my maternal ancestor, Dr. Compton, then bishop of London, who founded the library. In the British Museum I saw another similar copy of both; the Lexicon was king Charles's own copy; and a third set of both Polyglot and Lexicon is in the library of St. John's College, Cambridge. Probably these three are the only large paper copies of the Lexicon in the world.

"The common paper copies of the Polyglot and Lexicon have now become rare and very valuable: Mr. Evans, in his Cat. of 1802, No. 399, has marked a fine copy, in Russia binding, at 311. 10s."

ous.

It is not perhaps to be expected, that a work of this nature should be wholly exempt from inaccuracies. We observe with pleasure that they are not numerThere is one which, on account of its singularity, we are tempted to transcribe, though it cannot be referred to any other origin than typographical error. We hope to see it corrected in a future edition. "This work" (the edi tion of Aristophanes, printed at Amsterdam, 1670) " is compiled chiefly from Scaliger's edition, and contains the critical notes and Latin version of Ecclesi azusarus, with the animadversions of Faber." p. 36. In page 371, Mr. Dib

din should not have admitted the word Thebaidos as a legitimate title of the poem of Statius, being only the genitive case barbarously adopted by the ignorance of the gothic ages, from the running title of the books, in the same manner as our ancient writers speak of Virgil's Æneidos.

The few errors which a careful inspection might detect in the present work, are much overbalanced by the quantity of accurate information which it conveys. We therefore recommend it as a pleasing and useful guide to the young student of classical literature. In a preceding paragraph, in describ