especially by the turning of the river Brenta, as the learned Castelli hath declared.

When Nova Zembla shall be no stay

Unto those who pass to or from Cathay;

That is, whenever that often sought for north-east passage unto China and Japan shall be discovered; the hinderance whereof was imputed to Nova Zembla; for this was conceived to be an excursion of land shooting out directly, and so far northward into the sea, that it discouraged from all navigation about it. And therefore adventurers took in at the southern part at a strait by Waygatz next the Tartarian shore: and sailing forward they found that sea frozen and full of ice, and so gave over the attempt. But of late years, by the diligent enquiry of some Muscovites, a better discovery is made of these parts, and a map or chart made of them. Thereby Nova Zembla is found to be no island extending very far northward, but, winding eastward, it joineth to the Tartarian continent, and so makes a peninsula: and the sea between it which they entered at Waygatz, is found to be but a large bay, apt to be frozen by reason of the great river of Oby, and other fresh waters, entering into it; whereas the main sea doth not freeze upon the north of Zembla except near unto shores; so that if the Muscovites were skilful navigators, they might, with less difficulty, discover this passage unto China; but, however, the English, Dutch, and Danes, are now like to attempt it again.

But this is conjecture, and not prophecy; and so (I know) you will take it. I am, Sir, &c.

4 north-east passage.] These speculations may well be contrasted with some observations of Mr. Barrow on the same subject, in his Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Regions, p. 370. "Of the three directions in which a passage has been sought for from the Atlantic to the Pacific, that by the north-east holds out the least encouraging hope; indeed the various unsuccessful attempts by the English and the Dutch on the one side, and by the Russians on the other, go far to prove the utter impracticability of a navigable passage round the northern extremity of Asia; though the whole of this coast, with the exception perhaps of a single point, has been navigated in several detached parts, and at different times."

TRACT XIII.1

MUSÆUM CLAUSUM, OR, BIBLIOTHECA ABSCONDITA: CONTAINING SOME REMARKABLE BOOKS, ANTIQUITIES, PICTURES, AND RARITIES OF SEVERAL KINDS, SCARCE OR NEVER SEEN BY ANY MAN NOW LIVING.

SIR,-With many thanks I return that noble catalogue of books, rarities, and singularities of art and nature, which you were pleased to communicate unto me. There are many collections of this kind in Europe. And, besides the printed accounts of the Museum Aldrovandi, Calceolarianum, Moscardi, Wormianum; the Casa Abbellita at Loretto, and Tresor of St. Dennis, the Repository of the duke of Tuscany, that of the duke of Saxony, and that noble one of the emperor at Vienna, and many more, are of singular note. Of what in this kind I have by me I shall make no repetition, and you having already had a view thereof, I am bold to present you with the list of a collection, which I may justly say you have not seen before.

The title is as above:-Museum Clausum, or Bibliotheca Abscondita; containing some remarkable books, antiquities, pictures, and rarities of several kinds, scarce or never seen by any man now living.

1 TRACT XIII.] This curious Tract is well characterised by Mr. Crossley, as "the sport of a singular scholar. Warburton, in one of his notes on Pope, is inclined to believe that this list was imitated from Rabelais's Catalogue of the Books in the library of St. Victor; but the design of the two pieces appears so different, that this suggestion seems entitled to little regard."-Preface to Tracts, 18mo. Edin. 1822.

Bishop Warburton's opinion seems to me, nevertheless, highly probable. It had been suggested to me by a passage in Religio Medici (Part i. § 21); and seems to be in perfect consonance with Sir Thomas's character as a writer. He delighted, perhaps from the very originality of his own mind, to emulate the singularities of others. The preceding Tract was occasioned by some similar production which had been submitted to his criticism. His Christian Morals appears to have been written on the model of the Book of Proverbs; see an allusion, in his 21st section.

*

1. Rare and generally unknown Books.2

1. A Poem of Ovidius Naso,3 written in the Getick language, during his exile at Tomos; found wrapt up in wax, at Sabaria, on the frontiers of Hungary, where there remains a tradition that he died in his return towards Rome from Tomos, either after his pardon or the death of Augustus.

2. The Letter of Quintus Cicero, which he wrote in answer to that of his brother, Marcus Tullius, desiring of him an account of Britany, wherein are described the country, state, and manners of the Britans of that age.

3. An ancient British Herbal, or description of divers plants of this island, observed by that famous physician Scribonius Largus, when he attended the Emperor Claudius in his expedition into Britany.

4. An exact account of the Life and Death of Avicenna, confirming the account of his death by taking nine clysters together in a fit of the cholic, and not as Marius, the Italian poet, delivereth, by being broken upon the wheel: left with other pieces, by Benjamin Tudelensis, as he travelled from Saragossa to Jerusalem, in the hands of Abraham Jarchi, a famous rabbi of Lunet, near Montpellier, and found in a vault when the walls of that city were demolished by Louis the Thirteenth.

5. A punctual relation of Hannibal's march out of Spain into Italy, and far more particular than that of Livy: whereabout he passed the river Rhodanus, or Rhone; at what place he crossed the Isura, or L'Isere; when he marched up towards the confluence of the Soane and the Rhone, or the place where the city of Lyons was afterward built: how wisely he decided the difference between King Brancus and his brother; at what place he passed the Alps; what

* Ah pudet et scripsi Getico sermone libellum.

2 Books.] The Irish antiquaries mention public libraries that were before the flood: and Paul Christian Ilsker, with profounder erudition, has given an exact catalogue of Adam's!-D'Israeli's Cur. of Lit. 7th edit. vol. ii. 250.

3A Poem of Ovidius, &c.] Mr. Taylor, in his Historic Survey of German Poetry, has a curious section on this poem of Ovid, whom he considers as the earliest German poet on record.-See vol. i. § 2.

vinegar he used; and where he obtained such a quantity as to break and calcine the rocks made hot with fire.

6. A learned comment upon the Periplus of Hanno the Carthaginian; or his navigation upon the western coast of Africa, with the several places he landed at; what colonies he settled; what ships were scattered from his fleet near the equinoctial line, which were not afterward heard of, and which probably fell into the trade winds, and were carried over into the coast of America.

7. A particular Narration of that famous Expedition of the English into Barbary, in the ninety-fourth year of the Hegira, so shortly touched by Leo Africanus, whither called by the Goths, they besieged, took and burnt the city of Arzilla possessed by the Mahometans, and lately the seat of Guyland; with many other exploits, delivered at large in Arabic, lost in the ship of books and rarities which the king of Spain took from Siddy Hamet, king of Fez, whereof a great part were carried into the Escurial, and conceived to be gathered out of the relations of Hibnu Nachu, the best historian of the African affairs.

8. A. Fragment of Pythæas, that ancient traveller of Marseilles; which we suspect not to be spurious; because, in the description of the northern countries, we find that passage of Pytheas mentioned by Strabo; that all the air beyond Thule is thick, condensed and gellied, looking just like sea lungs.

9. A Submarine Herbal, describing the several vegetables found on the rocks, hills, valleys, meadows, at the bottom of the sea, with many sorts of alga, fucus, quercus, polygonum, gramen, and others not yet described.

10. Some Manuscripts and Rarities brought from the libraries of Ethiopia, by Zaga Zaba, and afterwards transported to Rome, and scattered by the soldiers of the duke of Bourbon, when they barbarously sacked that city.

11. Some Pieces of Julius Scaliger, which he complains to have been stolen from him, sold to the bishop of Mende, in Languedoc, and afterward taken away and sold in the civil wars under the duke of Rohan.

12. A Comment of Dioscorides upon Hippocrates, procured from Constantinople by Amatus Lusitanus, and left in the hands of a Jew of Ragusa.

13. Marcus Tullius Cicero his Geography; as also a part of that magnified piece of his, De Republica, very little answering the great expectation of it, and short of pieces under the same name by Bodinus and Tholosanus.

14. King Mithridates his Oneirocritica.

Aristotle, De Precationibus.

Democritus, de his quæ fiunt apud orcum, et oceani circumnavigatio.4

Epicurus De Pietate.

A Tragedy of Thyestes, and another of Medea, writ by Diogenes the Cynick.

King Alfred, upon Aristotle de Plantis.

Seneca's Epistles to St. Paul.

King Solomon, de Umbris Idearum, which Chicus Asculanus, in his comment upon Johannes de Sacrobosco, would make us believe he saw in the library of the duke of Bavaria.

15. Artemidori Oneirocritici Geographia.

Pythagoras, de Mare Rubro.

The works of Confucius, the famous philosopher of China, translated into Spanish.

16. Josephus, in Hebrew, written by himself.

17. The Commentaries of Sylla the Dictator.

18. A Commentary of Galen upon the Plague of Athens, described by Thucydides.

19. Duo Cæsaris Anti-Catones, or the two notable books writ by Julius Cæsar against Cato; mentioned by Livy, Sallustius, and Juvenal; which the cardinal of Liege told Ludovicus Vives were in an old library of that city.

Mazhapha Einok, or the prophecy of Enoch, which Ægidius Lochiensis, a learned eastern traveller, told Peireschius that he had found in an old library at Alexandria containing eight thousand volumes.

20. A collection of Hebrew Epistles, which passed between the two learned women of our age, Maria Molinea of Sedan, and Maria Schurman of Utrecht.

A wondrous collection of some writings of Ludovica Saracenica, daughter of Philibertus Saracenicus, a physician

4 Democritus, &c.] MS. Sloan. 1847, adds the following article:-A defence of Arnoldus de Villa Nova, whom the learned Postellus conceived to be the author of De Tribus Impostoribus.