xml:lang="el">Δ

An Infant Prodigy (Vol. ii., p. 101.).—There are parallel cases in the hagioloists (Hist. de l'Eglise Gallicane, par Longueval, tom. iii. p. 430. 1782):

"S. Amand après cette mission étant repassé dans la Gaule, eut bientôt occasion de montrer l'intrépidité de son zèle ... L'amour des femmes, écueil fatal des jeunes princes, fit en peu de temps oublier à Dagobert les leçons qu'il avoit reçues de S. Arnoux et de S. Cunibert. Il se livra à cette passion avec tant de scandale, qu'il eut jusqu'à trois femmes à la fois qui portoient le nom de reines, sans parler d'un grand nombre de concubines ...

"Amand, après un assez long exil, 'refusa d'abord l'honneur de baptiser' l'enfant de son maître: 'mais les instances que le roi lui fit faire par Ouen et Eloi firent céder sa modestie à l'obéissance. L'enfant fut aussitôt apporté le saint évêque l'ayant pris entre ses bras, lui donna sa bénédiction, et récita les prières pour le faire catéchumène. L'oraison étant finie, comme personne ne répondoit, Dieu délia la langue du jeune prince, qui n'avoit pas plus de quarante jours, et il répondit distinctement amen.'"

This happened in 630 at Orleans, and the holy abbot who attests the miracle was present when it occurred. Had St. Amand learnt ventriloquism during his missionary excursions?

And now permit me to tell your correspondent CH. that Abp. Bramhall's Dutch is quite correct. "Mevrouw" is still the title of empresses, queens duchesses, Countesses, noble ladies, ministers of state's and other great men's wives.

G.M.

Guernsey.

A Hint for Publishers.—Many, like myself, have no doubt experienced the inconvenience of possessing early impressions of books, of which later editions exist with numerous emendations and errata.

Would it not be practicable for publishers to issue these emendations and errata in a separate form and at a fair price, for the benefit of the purchasers of the preceding editions?

Were this plan generally adopted, the value of most books would be materially enhanced, and people would not object, as they now do, to order new publications.

HERBERT.

"He who runs may read."—There appeared in Vol. ii., p. 374., a new, and, in my opinion, an erroneous, interpretation of part of ver. 2., chap. ii. Habakkuk. It appears to me probable that a person reading the vision might be struck with awe, and so "alarmed by it" as not to be able "to fly from the impending calamity" in the way which your correspondent imagines. I prefer Archbishop Newcome's explanation:—"Let the characters be so legible that one who hastily passeth on may read them. This may have been a proverbial expression."

If you be pleased to insert this, readers may judge for themselves which is the right interpretation.

PLAIN SENSE.

The Rolliad.—The following memoranda relative to this word were given to me by one who lived during the period of its publication, and was, it is believed, himself a contributor. Wraxall, in his Memoirs, states that the work was nearly all written by Richardson; this is not true. The principal writers were Gen. Fitzpatrick, Lord John Townshend, Dr. Lawrence—he had the chief control. They met in a room at Becket's, the bookseller; they had a secretary and copyist.

None of the contributions went to the newspaper in the original handwriting. The Morning Herald was the paper it is believed, in which they first appeared, although that journal was on the eve of going over to the opposite party. The "ode" to Wraxall, was written by Tickell, author of "Anticipation.".

W.A.

November, 23. 1850.

The Rolliad.—

From The Times, about 1784.

The above epigram is inserted in my copy of the Rolliad.

Can any of your readers give the names of the

authors of the numerous pieces in the second part of "Political Miscellanies."

F.B.R.

The Conquest.—Permit me to point out the erroneous historical idea which obtains in the use of this phrase. Acquisition out of the common course of inheritance is by our legists called perquisitio, by the feudists conquisitio, and the first purchaser (he who brought the estate into the current family) the conquereur. The charters and chronicles of the age thus rightly style William the Norman conquisitor, and his accession conquæstus; but now, from disuse of the foedal sense, with the notion of the forcible method of acquisition, we annex the idea of victory to conquisition,—a title to which William never pretended.

W.L.

Twickenham.

QUERIES.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL QUERIES.

(Continued from page 421.)

(18.) What could have induced the accurate and learned Saxius (Catal. Lib. Mediol., edit. p. DXC.) to give the name Elucidarium to the first part of the Mariale of Bernardinus de Bustis? This writer, who has sometimes erroneously been reputed a Dominican, and who is commemorated in the Franciscan Martyrology on the 8th of May (p. 178.), derived his denomination from his family, and not "from a place in the country of Milan," as Mr. Tyler has supposed. (Worship of the Virgin, p. 41. Lond. 1846.) Elsewhere Saxius had said (Hist. Typog.-Liter. Mediol., col. ccclii.) that the Mariale was printed for the first time in 1493, and dedicated to Pope Alexander VI.; and Argelati was led by him to consider the Elucidarium to be a distinct performance; and he speaks of the Mariale as having been published in 1494. (Biblioth. Scriptor. Med., tom. i. p. ii. 245.) Unquestionably the real title assigned by the author to the first part of his Sermonarium or Mariale was "PERPETUUM SILENTIUM," and it was inscribed to Alexander's predecessor, Pope Innocent VIII.; and, in conjunction with De Bustis's Office of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary (sanctioned by a Brief of Pope Sixtus IV., who in 1476 had issued the earliest pontifical decree in favour of an innovation now predominant in the Church of Rome), was primarily printed "Mli," that is, Mediolani, "per Uldericum scinzenzeler, Anno dni M.cccc.lxxxxij" (1492). Wharton, Olearius, Clement, and Maittaire knew nothing of this edition; and it must take precedence of that of Strasburg named by Panzer (i. 47.).

(19.) Can any particulars be easily ascertained relative to reprints of the acts of the canonisation of the Seraphic Doctor in their original small quarto shape?

(20.) To whom should we attribute the rare tract entitled Lauacrum conscientie omnium sacerdotum, which consists of fifty-eight leaves, and was printed in Gothic letter at Cologne, "Anno post Jubileum quarto?"

(21.) Where can information be met with as to the authorship of the Dialogus super Libertate Ecclesiastica, between Hugo, Cato, and Oliver? Fischer (Essai sur Gutenberg, 79.) traces back the first edition to the year 1463; but I know the treatise only in the form in which it was republished at Oppenheim in 1516.

(22.) Who was the compiler or curator of the Viola Sanctorum? and can the slightest attempt be made at verifying the signatures and numbers inserted in the margin, and apparently relating to the MSS. from which the work