:72 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 108,, Jan. 28. '68. 



James II., 1685, it was revived for seven years ; but 

 under William III. it was allowed to expire in 1694. 

 Then came the memorable Act of Queen Anne, 1709, 

 which compelled the booksellers to deliver at Stationers' 

 Hall nine copies of each book ; and a subsequent statute 

 (41 Geo. III. c. 107.) added two more for Trinity Col- 

 lege and King's Inn at Dublin — making in all eleven 

 copies. By the present law five copies are required. 

 (See "K & Q." 2"^ S. ii. 332.) No separate History of 

 the Stationers' Company has been published, which is to 

 be regretted, as it would be a succinct account of the pro- 

 gress of literature in England since the invention of 

 printing. Some interesting notices of the Company are 

 given in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, iii. 545 — 607. ; and 

 the first charter is printed in Ames's Typographical Anti- 

 quities. We must also mention Mr. J. P. Collier's two 

 volumes Of Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' 

 Company, edited bj' him for the Shakspeare Society — the 

 first of which comprises " works entered for publication " 

 between the years 1557 and 1570 ; and the second those 

 entered between 1570 and 1587.] 



Gilbe7% Bishop of Bristol. — Can any of your 

 readers inform me of the family name of this 

 bishop, and of the date of his consecration ? 



Tau. 



[It is remarkable that there were two Bishops of Bris- 

 tol of the same Christian as well as sirname. First, Gil- 

 bert Ironside, consecrated Jan. 13, 1660-1 : ob. Sept. 19, 

 1671. The second of the name, Gilbert Ironside, conse- 

 crated Oct. 13, 1689 ; translated to Hereford, Mav 27, 

 1691 : ob. Aug. 27, 1701.] 



Judge Taunton. — Can any of your readers in- 

 form me when Sir Elias Taunton was knighted 

 and made judge ? also, in what year he died, with 

 any particulars respecting his family (if any), and 

 its collateral branches ? Tau, 



[Sir William Elias Taunton was appointed one of the 

 Judges of the Court of King's Bench in Michaelmas 

 Term, 1830, and no doubt was knighted about that time. 

 He died on Jan. 11, 1835. For a biographical notice of 

 him, see Gentleman's Mag. for April, 1835, p. 431. ; and 

 for an account of his family, Burke's Landed Gentry, ii. 

 1356, edit. 1850.] 



'TAe Spectator." — Who were the writers of 

 The Spectator ? and how may they be identified 

 by their initials ? d. 



[Our correspondent cannot do better than consult the 

 Table of Contents of The Spectator in A. Chalmers's edi- 

 tion of The British Essayists, where the names of the 

 writers, so far as they have been identified, are added to 

 the respective papers. Prefixed to the trade edition of 

 1816, 8 vols., are " Sketches of the Lives of the Authors," 

 and at the end of each paper the name and initial of the 

 writer. Consult also Gent. Mag., 1. 174. ; vol. Iviii. pt. i. 

 p. 485.] 



dSitpliti, 



LOBB BACON S STUDIES. 



(2""* S. V. 14.) 



I am glad to find my quotation suggested this 

 Query, and I trust that it may call forth a satisfac- 

 tory reply, as Lord Bacon's studies and the sources 

 of his learning have long excited my curiosity. 



There have been various treatises on Shakspeare's 

 learning, but no attempt has been made to trace 

 Bacon's. Mr. Devey, indeed, in the preface to 

 his excellent edition of the Adv. of Learn, and 

 N^ov. Org. declares that — 



" Due care has been taken to point out the sources 

 whence Bacon drew his extraordinary stores of learning, 

 by furnishing authorities for the quotations and allusions 

 in the text, so that the reader may view at a glance 

 the principal authors whom Bacon loved to consult, and 

 whose agency contributed to the formation of his colossal 

 powers." 



I need not say that Bacon's professed quota- 

 tions are very short, and, for the most part, easy 

 to be verified ; it is not over them the mystery 

 hangs : accordingly, Mr. Devey's notes, though 

 very good so far as they go, do not help us to solve 

 the problem. The most remarkable instance per- 

 haps of Lord Bacon's habitual neglect of refer- 

 ence is lo be found in The Wisdom of the Ancients, 

 which completely ignores all his predecessors in 

 the same path, and makes not the slightest men- 

 tion of Hyginus, Fulgentius, Lactantius, &c. &c. 



In the Catalogue of Mr. Conway's Books which 

 were sold in Dublin about two years ago, I find 

 at p. 213., lot 7206., " Catalogue of Bacon's Li- 

 brary." Perhaps some reader can give me inform- 

 ation about this Catalogue ? 



Bacon was obviously well acquainted with the 

 Neo-Platonists and Hermetic writers — Philo, 

 Paracelsus, &c. He often refers to Patricius, 

 Severinus and Telesius. Severinus he had a 

 special admiration for, and considered him to be 

 the most elegant and philosophical exponent of 

 the principles of Paracelsus, at the same time 

 lamenting the misdirection of his powers. 



In Mallet's edition of Bacon's Works, London, 

 1740, folio, vol. i. Appendix, p. 71., we have some 

 long extracts in a translated form from a work 

 thus entitled : Valerius Terminus, Of the Interpre- 

 tation of Nature ; with the Annotations of Hermes 

 Stella. First, I would ask for some account of 

 this book ; and, secondly, inquire whether the 

 papers referred to are literal extracts, or merely 

 paraphrases with comments interspersed ? If they 

 be what they profess, viz. Extracts made by Bacon 

 from Valerius Terminus (whoever he be), it is 

 worth remarking that the greater part, if not all, 

 is repeated in various parts of Bacon's Works, in 

 the very same words, and as his own. 



In the Adv. of Learn. (B. v. ch. iv.) occurs the 

 following passage : — 



« The Mind, being itself of an equal and uniform sub- 

 stance, presupposes a greater Unanimity and Uniformity 

 in the Nature of Things, than there really is . . , whence 

 our Thoughts are continually drawing Parallels, and sup- 

 posing Relations in many things that are truly diflFerent 

 and singular. Hence the Chemists have fantastically 

 imagined their Four Principles corresponding to the 

 Heavens, Air, Earth, and Water; dreaming that the 

 Series of Existences formed a kind of square battalion, 

 and that each Element contained species of Beings cor- 



