Dec. 2. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



447 



'■'■Lives of Alchymistical Philosophers." — Will 

 some reader kindly state who is the author of the 

 piece (pp. 293 — 297.) in the Lives of Alchymis- 

 tical Philosophers, 8vo., 1815, or whence the 

 extract in question was made ? Anon. 



[The article is evidently written by the editor of this 

 anonymous work, Francis Barrett, Professor (as he styles 

 himself) of Chemistry, Natural and Occult Philosophy, 

 &c., and author of The Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer, 

 4to., 1801.] 



" Ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius." — [The fol- 

 lowing sentence I have just noticed in Apuleius : 



"Non enim ex omni ligno, ut Pythagoras dicebat, 

 debet Mercurius exsculpi." — De Magid Oratio. 



The common proverb, "Ex quovis ligno non 

 fit Mercurius," is generally taken I think to mean, 

 that you cannot make a genius out of a block- 

 head ; but the quotation I have given quite does 

 away with this application, and shows that it is a 

 saying with a mystical meaning which wants illus- 

 tration. Will some of your readers furnish it ? 



William Fbasbb, B.C.L. 

 Alton, Staffordshire. 



[For an explanation of this sentence we cannot do 

 better than quote the comment of the Delphin edition on 

 this passage: "Plin. lib. xvi. 'Quidam superstitiosius 

 exquirunt materiam, unde numen exsculpant ; et, quan- 

 quam Priapus ille Deus facilis et crassus baud gravatur 

 ficulnus esse, non tamen idem liceat in Mercurio, Deo tam 

 ingenioso, totque prsedito artibus.' Proverbium est : ' Non 

 ex quolibet ligno Mercmius.' De quo vide Erasmum, in 

 Chiliad."] 



Mummij. — In some MS. poems of an author 

 who will date back 230 years, which I am endea- 

 vouring to decypher, I find an allusion made to 

 the importation of " mummy " into this country. 

 It is conjectured to have been whole ov part of the 

 bodies of such as now pass under the name of 

 " Egyptian mummies." In early times, when the 

 medical art was in a kind of superstitious state, it 

 seems to have been believed that certain portions 

 of the animal, as the heart, liver, lungs, &c., were 

 good to be applied in corresponding diseases 

 afflicting the human subject, and hence " mummy 

 pills " and " boluses " are said to have been re- 

 sorted to for cures. Again, " mummy " is asserted 

 to have been a species of gum brought from the 

 East, also anciently used for medicinal purposes. 

 As opinions are various, contradictory, and doubt- 

 ful, if any of the readers of " IST. & Q." can give 

 me some precise notices on any of the foregoing 

 points, it would be esteemed a favour. G. 2Sf. 



[See Nares's Glossary, and the authorities there quoted, 

 for an excellent article on the medicinal use of mummy ; 

 also the extract from Dr. Rill's Materia Medica, quoted in 

 •Johnson's Dictionary, s. v. ] 



3Sitplitg, 



AONIO PALEARIO. 



(Vol. X., pp. 384. 406.) 



It may possibly be of some service to Mr. 

 Babington's inquiry, whether there be any earlier 

 edition of the Trattate utilissimo del Beneficio di 

 Giesu Crista crocifisso verso i Crestiani, than that 

 in the library of St. John's Coll. Cambridge, 

 Venetiis apud Bernardinum de Bindoni, 1543, to 

 know that there recently existed another copy of 

 the original Italian, and a Sclavonic version of it 

 by Primus Truber. They appeared in a MS. 

 catalogue, and subsequently in a printed sale 

 catalogue of the private collection of Barthol. 

 Kapitar, one of the imperial librarians at Vienna. 

 After his death, the Austrian government pur- 

 chased the whole collection, and presented, it to 

 the college library at Laybach in Carniola. If 

 upon inquiry this should be found to be an earlier 

 edition, it might tend to clear up the point of 

 authorship. I owe this information to the late 

 Eichard Garnett of the British Museum, who 

 himself possessed a copy of the first edition of the 

 English version. I know of no traces of the 

 Spanish translation inserted in the Index. 



The authority for the immense circulation of 

 the Italian, during the years 1543—1548, 40,000 

 in six years, is P. P. Vergerio. It is quoted in a 

 communication I made to VEco di Savonarola, 

 printed in the number for August this year, 

 p. 118.; and may be now, not unsuitably, re- 

 peated here. The passage is found in — 



" II Catalog© de libri, li quali nvovamente nel mese di 

 Maggio neir anno presente m.d.xlviii. sono stati condan- 

 nati, et scomunicati per heretici. Da M. Giouan della 

 casa legato di Venetia et d' alcuni frati. E' aggivnto sopra 

 il medesimo catalogo vn iudicio et discorso del Vergerio." 



At sig. G. V. are these remarks : 



" Segue questo benedetto Catalogo, et dice, il benefitio 

 di Cristo, et di sotto vi sono queste parole. Vn libro cosi 

 intitolato, sono accorti, et hanno voluto dicchiarire, che 

 non condannano immediate quel beneticio che . . . Christo 

 fece agli eletti suoi morendo in croce, ma il libro. Et che 

 differentia h condannar quel istesso benefitio, o condan- 

 nare vn dolce libricino, che ci mostra, et ci insegna a 

 conosner quel benefitio ? Or di questo libro ascoltate, o fe 

 buono, h triste, per che ne hanno prima lasciati vender 

 XL mille, che tanti io so, che da sei anni in qua ne sono 

 stati stampati et venduti in Venetia sola, perchfe hanno 

 lasciato andar attorno tanta quantity di tosico di anime 

 (secondo loro)." 



There are two editions : one of Pisa, and Flo- 

 rence, 1849 ; being Italian translations of Mr. 

 Ayre's English, published within three months of 

 each other. If not different translations, they 

 vary in the language in many places from each 

 other. 



It appears by Morgan Crowe's Catalogue of 

 Manuscripts and Rare Boohs in the Library of 

 St. John's Coll., Cambridge, that the copies of 



