Dec. 1. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



431 



distance, and generally supposed to be the ancient 

 Minoa. Pishey Thompson. 



Stoke Newington. 



(VoLxii., p. 286.) 



This word is from the Italian banco, a shop- 

 counter. A bench is also called banco in that lan- 

 guage ; hence our judges sit occasionally in banco. 

 The Court of King's Bench is so named from the 

 bench or counter on which the king, originally in 

 his own person, administered justice, and which is 

 considered as moveable (Blackstone, iii. 42.), which 

 seems to have been a property of the banker's 

 counter, when various markets had to be attended, 

 chiefly for the purpose of furnishing change for 

 coins, and assaying their value. The receipt of 

 money on interest by bankers is ancient, as appears 

 from the allusions to the practice in Matt. xxi. 12., 

 Luke xix. 23., where the banker, Tpaire^lrns^ is 

 called a money-changer (Lucian, Sale of Live.i, 

 Diogenes) ; his occupation taking its name from 

 his bench or counter, called rpairi^a*, the form of 

 which is familiar to the geometrician ; two ends of 

 the table being parallel, whilst the two sides were 

 not so ; the trapezium being narrow at the head, 

 and wide at the bottom ; the latter so made for 

 the convenience of bringing on and removing the 

 viands, the guests occupying three sides only. In 

 all those paintings which represent the guests at 

 the Supper of the Lord sitting, instead of reclin- 

 ing, and at a long parallelogram table instead of a 

 trapezoid, historical truth is violated. In Rome 

 the bankers were called mensarii, from mensa, their 

 table, counter, or bench =: bank ; which is still the 

 most conspicuous object in a banking-shop, if that 

 name be not already obsolete. The word rpaire^a 

 means also an abacus (Persius, i. 131.). Our 

 Court of Exchequer is so named from the abacus, 

 or chess-like cover on the bench (Blackstone, 

 iii. 44.). In the Syriac version, the " tables of 

 money-changers" are mentioned ; and the prac- 

 tice of banking is referred to in Gen. xxiii. 16., 

 where Abraham pays money " current with the 

 merchant." T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



The word " bank," as applied to a place where 

 money is kept, is the translation of the Italian 

 word " monte," a " joint-stock," or " common 

 fund." The word " monte " was originally ap- 

 plied 'to public loans for the service of the State. 

 Thus the Bank of Venice was formed by the con- 

 solidation of several loans. The Bank of Genoa 

 the same; and they were permitted to receive 



public deposits. The practice of these "joint- 

 stocks" was then extended for the purpose of 

 lending money to the poor, and they were called 

 "monti di pieta," literally charity banks. The 

 earliest use of the word is probably in Bacon's 

 Essay on Usury (vol. i. p. 141., Montague's edit.) : 



" Let it be do bank, or common stock, but every man be 

 master of his own money, not that I altogether dislike 

 banks, but they will hardly be brooked," &c. 



So the " Bank of England " was formed by a body 

 of persons who subscribed to a loan to govern- 

 ment. It is not unusual to see it stated that it is 

 derived from bunco; but this is a popular delusion, 

 founded on an accidental verbal coincidence. 



Heney Dunning Macleod. 



Bank is from Ital. banco., a bench. The term arose 

 in the twelfth century, when the bankers carried on 

 their business in the market-places and exchanges, 

 where their dealings were conducted on benches. 

 Many ancient nations used the word table in a 

 similar sense ; but most modern European nations 

 have adopted the Ital. banco. I have at hand no 

 very old books, but I find in Cooper's Thesaurus, an 

 older example of the word than the one he gives. 

 " A counter or table that bankers use." " A 

 hanke7-''s bourde." " A banker, of whom men 

 borrow." Under Collybus he has, — 



" The losse of money by exchaunge or in banke, as men 

 that go into straunge countreis deliucring their countrey 

 mone\' for other." — Ed. 1584. 



B. H. C. 



No. 318.] 



* From standing on four feet. 



CUBLLS "COKINNA. 



(Vol. xii., pp. 277. 392.) 

 I am much obliged to II. J. for his reference to 

 the article in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, I 

 have found it in No. 131., "New Series," for 

 July 4, 1846 ; but it does not, as he supposes, 

 contain any original information as to the history 

 of the " fair Corinna." It may be worth travel- 

 ling a little out of the question to note how much 

 truth and research are deemed necessary for a 

 " popular " article, as evidenced by the sketch 

 referred to. The writer undertakes to defend the 

 lady from " the unmanly attacks of Pope " in 

 what he calls, " that dreary record of literary 

 irritability and malice. The Dunciad." For this 

 purpose, he says, " we propose to give, from au- 

 thentic sources within our reach, an account of 

 the extraordinary history of this lady ; " but he 

 omits to say that the " authentic sources " mys- 

 teriously stated to be " within our reach," are 

 within everybody' else's reach ; and he does not 

 even allude to a little book, which most bookstall 

 loiterers must have met with, and which is the 

 sole " source " from which his memoir is compiled. 



