Sept. 8. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



187 



published at Frankfort, 1608. He was then dead. 

 He had been " Professor Physiologise in celeber- 

 rima Academia Marpurgensi." B. H. C. 



[Joannes Magirus was born at Fritzlar, and studied at 

 Padua. In 1585 he was made Doctor of Medicine at 

 Marburg, and became professor of physic there in 1591. 

 He died August 22, 151)6. A list of his works is given in 

 Jocher, Gelehr ten- Lexicon, Supplement, vol. iv. p. 369.] 



Last Prior of Dunmow. — Who was the last 

 prior of Dunmow, and where shall I find an ac- 

 count of him ? A. S. 



[Stevens, in his Supplement to the Monasticon Angli- 

 canum, vol. ii. p. 110., has given the following notice of 

 the last prior : " Geoffrey Shetler (Dugdale calls him 

 Shether), the sub-prior of this house, was elected prior 

 Dec. 11, 1518 {Fitz- James, 130.), and is the last prior of 

 Dunmow that I find in the London registry, and very 

 likelv continued so till the house was suppressed, 27 

 Henry VHI."] 



Nathaniel Ball. — Who was Nathaniel Ball of 

 Chelmsford, who wrote in Latin hexameters the 

 Recte Vivendi ratio, 1754 ? He calls it a trans- 

 lation from the English. Query, Of what work? 



B. H. C. 



[This is a translation of The Economy of Human Life. 

 Nathaniel Ball was instituted to the rectory of Wisley, in 

 Surrey, Nov. 13, 1762, on the presentation of Richard 

 Lord Onslow, and was also assistant preacher at Berwick 

 and King Street Chapel, St. James. He died in 1766. 

 See Watt's Bibliotheca for a list of his works.] 



" GESTA KOMANORUM." 



(Vol. xii., p. 144.) 



In reply to the inquiry of G. R., I beg to say 

 that he will find, in a note at p. iii. of my Intro- 

 duction to the Old English Gesta, notice taken of 

 the passage in the Dialogus Creaturarum morali- 

 satus, and an opinion expressed, " that the work 

 thus referred to in dial. 68. is certainly not the 

 Gesta but the Chronicle of Helinand (misprinted 

 Helimandus by Grasse), which is a second time 

 quoted by the same title in dial. 64." Helinand 

 was a monk of the Cistercian Order in the monas- 

 tery of Froidmont, diocese of Beauvois, and wrote 

 not only Latin sermons and other pieces, but also 

 poems in the vernacular dialect. He is stated by 

 some to have died in 1223, and by others in 1227. 

 His Universal Chronicle, from the Creation to 

 A.D. 1204, is his best known work ; and the latter 

 part of it, containing books 44 — 49, from a.d. 634 

 to A.D. 1204, was published by Bertrand Tissier in 

 tom. vii. of the Bibliotheca Patnim Cisterciensium, 

 1660-4. The original manuscript of the work 

 was deposited at Froidmont, and is said to have 

 been lost, so that of the early portion of this Chro- 

 nicle no copies are known to exist, except a tran- 



No. 306.] 



script of the first sixteen books, in the Cottonian 

 MS., Claudius, B. ix., extending from the Creation 

 to the reign of Darius Nothus. As to the pro- 

 bable author of the original Latin Gesta Roma- 

 norum (as distinguished from the later compilation 

 made in England), the writer who seems to have 

 the best claim is Pierre Bercheur, prior of the 

 Benedictine convent of St. Eloi at Paris, who died 

 in 1362. The evidence on this head may be found 

 in my Introduction to the English Gesta. 



F. Madden. 



CHAKACTERS OF ENGLAND, TRANCE, THE LOW 

 COUNTRIES, AND SCOTLAND. 



(Vol.xi., p. 44.) 



Mr. Bates's communication has directed my 

 attention to a 32mo. volume (not 12mo., at least 

 my copy is not) which has been for some years 

 on my shelves, and which contains the following 

 tracts : 



1. " A Character of England, as it was lately presented 

 in a Letter to a Noble Man of France. With Eeflections 

 upon Gallus Castratus. The Third Edition. London: 

 printed for John Crooke, and are to be sold at the Ship 

 in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1659." 



This tract occupies sixty-six pages, besides 

 seventeen pages prefixed, and entitled " A Letter 

 in Vindication of this Character, against the sordid 

 Reproaches of Gallus Castratus;" and four pages 

 addressed " To the Reader." 



2. " A Character of France. To which is added, Gallus 

 Castratus; or, An Answer to a late Slanderous Pamphlet 

 called The Character of England : 



' Si talia nefanda et facinora quis non 

 Democritus ? ' 

 London : printed for Nath. Brooke, at the Angel in Corn- 

 hill, 1659." 



After five pages addressed " To the Impartial 

 Reader," one page is occupied with the following 

 notice : 



" Reader, Be pleased to take notice that there is now 

 in the Press almost finished, a Book intituled England's 

 Worthies, select lives of the most eminent Persons of the 

 three Nations, from Constantine the Great to the death of 

 the late Protector, Oliver Cromwell." 



The "Character of France" occupies forty-five 

 pages, and the " Gallus Castratus," thirty-eight ; 

 each being separately paged, and each having a 

 separate title. On the back of the title-page of 

 the latter is the following ; 



" To the Illustrious Starres of Glory, the Incomparable 

 Beauties of the English Nation. These with a Deep 

 Humility." 



3. " A Brief Character of the Low Countries under the 

 States. Being Three Weeks' Observation of the Vices 

 and Vertues of the Inhabitants. 'Non seria semper.' 

 London : printed for H. S., and are to be sold by Rich. 

 Lowndes, at the White Lion in St. Paul's Churchyard, 

 neer the little North door, 1659," 



