230 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 123. 



Doctor was prosecuted. Mr. Lathbury states (His- 

 tory of the Nonjurors, p. 237) that "of the Sermon 

 * Perils among False Brethren,' no less than forty 

 thousand copies were sold in a few weeks. " We have 

 also now before us two copies of the Derby Sermon, 

 both printed in 1709, Svo., but no intimation on the 

 title-page of their being different editions, which they 

 (Evidently are, on an examination of their typographical 

 composition. The Bodleian contains a quarto edition 

 of the latter Sermon, 1 7 1 0. ] 



Lticas Lossius. — I have an old 12mo. volume 

 with the following title-page : 



" Annotationes Scholasticae in Evangelia Domini- 

 calia et ea quse in Festis lESV CHRISTI, et Sanc- 

 torum ejus prjecipuis, leguntur in Ecclesia, per totius 

 Anni circulum: non inutile futurse puerilibus Scholis. 



His adjectcB sunt in singula Evangelia Disticha, Ar- 

 gumenta, Doctrince Summarice, Loci et Oijectiones prse- 

 terea, cum brevibus ac veris earum solutionibus Dia- 

 lecticis, exercendie adolescentiae causa. 



CoUecta et dictata a Luca Lossio, in Schola Lunx- 

 htirgensi, 



*^ * 

 Adiecimus et iam recens erudita Evangeliorum Do- 

 ininicalium et Festivalium Disticha, inundae memoriae 

 causa, a Vuendelino Helbachio conscripta. 



Franc. Apud Hcered. Christ. Egen. 



M.B.LXXVIII." 



The words, and parts of words, in Italics are 

 rubricated. 



As I live at a distance from any large library, 

 and have consulted in vain such biographical 

 works as my own scanty shelves afford, I shall be 

 greatly obliged to any of your correspondents who 

 have access to our public libraries, to inform me 

 who Lucas Lossius was, and where any account of 

 him may be met with ? Also, who Wendelinus 

 Helbachius, Stigelius, and Bernardus Bomgardius 

 were, whose "Disticha" are interspersed through- 

 out the volume ? In the "Epistola Nimcupatoria" 

 mention is made of " Joannis Stigelij, Poetae cla- 

 rlssimi, nostra ajtate," and of " M. Bernardi Bom- 

 gardij, Ludimoderatoris Vlzeniani;" but I cannot 

 find any account of these worthies. 



I ought to add that each Sunday or Saint's Day 

 is preceded by a curious woodcut representing the 

 subject of which the Gospel treats. R. Bn. 



[Lucas Lossius, of Lunenburg, was a Lutheran 

 divine and schoolmaster, well skilled in music, who 

 published at Nuremberg in 1553, Erotemata Musicm 

 practicce, and together with Melancthon, the Lutheran 

 ritual, Psalmodia, seu Cantica sacra veteris ecclesia 

 selecta. At the period of the Reformation, the Lu- 

 therans preserved more of the ancient hymns and music 

 of the church in their services than the Calvinists. 

 Some account of Lossius is given in Hawkins's Histonj 

 of Music, vol. iii. p. 102. There is an edition of 

 Annotationes Scholasticee, with the curious woodcuts 

 printed in the year 1560, at Leipsic] 



The ^''Athenian Oracle. ^^ — Can you inform me 

 who were the authors of the " Athenian Oracle," 

 or, in other words, the members of the " Learned 

 Society" who conducted this work ? You may 

 feel some interest in it as a kind of prototype and 

 progenitor of your own " N. & Q." Your work, 

 as I apprehend, does not profess to solve and 

 answer so many nice puzzling points in divinity, 

 philosophy, love, &c., as that of the Oracle, which 

 furnishes us with a curious picture of the wants, 

 opinions, and manners of the age in which it ap- 

 peared; but yours, though neither dipping so 

 deeply nor ranging so widely, ought to be highly 

 prized as the exponent of the demands of our 

 times more improved, enlightened, and not less in- 

 quisitive, and as affording to some of your cor- 

 respondents far from the great metropolis of letters, 

 a ready channel for information, much to their in- 

 struction and pleasure. Pardoning this digres.sion, 

 the copy of the Athenian Oracle I i)Ossess is in 

 3 vols. 8vo., purporting to be an entire collecition 

 of all the valuable questions and answers in the 

 old Athenian Mercuries, &c., by a member of the 

 Athenian Society; London, printed for Andrew 

 Bell at the Cross Keys and Bible in Cornhill, near 

 Stocks Market, the second volume 1703, tiie first 

 and third 1704. The copy bears an autograph on 

 the fly-leaf; "Ex Libris Thomas Browne, E.k: 

 Dono plurim ; M" Guil Carstairs Acad. Edinburg. 

 primarij professoris Cui omnia (two words obscure) 

 Ed. Nov. 23, 1706." The historical celebrity of 

 Carstairs is a small feather in the cap of the copy, 

 but unimportant to some farther knowledge from 

 you of the book and its authors, the former having 

 often supplied much rational fireside entertainment. 



N. 



Glasgow. 



[The Athenian Gazette, afterwards called Tlie Athe- 

 nian Mercury, swelled at last to twenty volumes folio; 

 these becoming scarce, a collection of the most valu- 

 able questions and answers was reprinted under the 

 title of The Athenian Oracle, in 4 vols. Svo. The fourth 

 volume contains a Supplement, to wliich is prefixed 

 " The History of the Athenian Society," and an " Essay 

 upon Learning." It was projected by the celel)rated 

 John Dunton, who says, " My first project was the 

 Athenian Gazette. As the Athenian Society had their 

 first meeting in my brain, so it has been kept ever 

 since religiously secret : but I will now oblige the 

 reader with a true discovery of the question-project, and 

 of the several persons that engaged in it." These were 

 his brother-in-law, the Rev. Samuel Wesley and Mr. 

 Richard Sault, who were occasionally assisted by Dr. 

 Norris. The work was also countenanced by several 

 of the most eminent writers of the a^e; and was 

 honoured in particular with a commendatory poem by- 

 Swift. Some curious notices respecting Dunton and 

 his numerous literary projects will be found in the 

 Life and Errors of .John Dunton, 2 vols. 8vo., 1818; 

 and in Nichols' Literary Anecdotes, vol. v. pp. 59 — ' 

 83.] 



