2°<» S. N» 107., Jan. 16. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



45 



Galilei writes ; — 



" Ann. 1614 D. 19 Nouembris 

 Vt nobili, ac generoso studio 

 D. Ernesti Brinekij rem grjvta 

 facerem Galileus Galileiu^ Flo- 

 rentinus manu propria scrips! 

 Florentie." 



Under this friendly testimonial of benevolence 

 ia a drawing of four concentric circles ; which 

 would seem pedantic, but for the compliment 

 thus paid to the album-owner's nationality,: — as 

 the invention of telescopes, that induced Galilei 

 to construct one himself, by which he disco- 

 vered the stars of Medici, was made by a 

 Dutchman. 



Van Rappard says, p. 87. : 



" The importance of the inscription by Galijei, or, as 

 he wrote, Galileius, of which [as of that of Dellarminns] 

 we have published a perfectly resembling fac-simile, is 

 augmented by the recollection of the worth then and 

 afterwards attached to the discovery of Jupiter's satel- 

 lites." 



Not only in elucidation of the term Medicea 

 sidera, but also to prove how the invention of 

 telescopes by a Dutctiman W9.s the means of in- 

 viting Galilei to a closer inspection of the heavens, 

 the author cites The Gallery of Portraits, with 

 Memoirs, London, Charles Knight, 1834, and, i{i 

 the first place, from the Introduction, as follQws : 



" The great Tuscan astronomer is best known as the 

 first telescopic observer [and as] the fortunate discoverer 

 of the Medicean stars (so Jupiter's satellites were first 

 named) : and what discovery more fitted to immortalise 

 its author, than one which revealed new worlds? " 



And further : 



" In the same year, 1609, Galileo heard the rpport that 

 a spectacle-maker of Middleburg in Holland had made an 

 instrument, by which distant objects appeared nearer. 

 He tasked his ingenuity to discover the construction, and 

 soon succeeded in manufacturing a telescope. This tele- 

 scope, however, seems to have been made on a difi'erent 

 construction from that of the Dutch optician. It con- 

 sisted of a convex and concave glass, disti^nt from each 

 other by the difference of their focal lengths, like a modern 

 opera-glass; while there is reason to believe that the 

 other was made up [of] two convex lenses, distant by 

 the sum of their focal lengths, the common construction 

 of the astronomical telescope. Galileo's attention naturally 

 was first turned to the moon. He discovered that her 

 surface, instead of being smooth and perfectly spherical, 

 was rough with mountains, and apparently varied like 

 the earth, by land and water. He next applied [it] to 

 Jupiter, and was struck by the appearance of three small 

 stars, almost in a straight line, and close to him. At first 

 he did not suspect the nature of these bodies ; but careful 

 observation soon convinced him that these, together with 

 a fourth, which was at first invisible, were in reality four 

 moons revolving round their primary planet. These he 

 named the IMedicean s,i&rs."—Overzigt, p. 88. 



Thus far the Gallery of Portraits. Perhaps 

 you will not deem it \ininteresting to know that 

 Brinck's last-mentioned Album contains a Cata- 

 logus Linguarum et variarum Dialectorum, quorum 

 Singularum Specimen extat in m^o 4^lio, which last 



numbers more than 200 languages and dialects. — 

 Overzigt, pp. 85. and 89. J. 11. van Lennep. 



Zeyst. 



GOLDKIC OR WALPBIC, CHANCELLOR OF SENRT I. 



Dr. Lingard tells us that, at the battle of 

 Tenchebrai, Robert of Normandy 



" Was made prisoner by Goldric, the king's chaplain, 

 who was rewarded for his services with the bishoprick of 

 Landaff; But this Avarlike prelate soon incurred the 

 hatred of the citizens, and was murdered in a field, with 

 five of his prebendaries." — Hist. Eng. ii. 14., ed. 1849 

 (citing Orderic, p. 821.) 



This statement is copied by Mr. Foss, who ac- 

 knowledges his obligation to Dr. Lingard, and 

 suggests as a motive for the murder, that the citi- 

 zens " were probably disgusted at the king's forc- 

 ing a bishop on them." (Judges of England, i. 68.) 

 But I have just discovered that Dr. Lingard has 

 been led into error by the old edition of Orderic, 

 and, consequently, has been the means of mislead- 

 ing the learned biographer of the Judges (of 

 whose general accuracy I have good reason to 

 entertain the highest possible opinion). Landa- 

 vensis, the reading of Duchesne, is corrected by 

 M. Le Prevost into Laudunensis ; so that Wald- 

 ric's see was not Jjandaff, but a very different 

 place — Laon. His name will be vainly sought in 

 Godwin's De Prcesulibus Anglice; but a full and 

 curious account of his episcopate is to be found in 

 the third book of Guibert of Nogent, De Vita. 

 Sua. From that work it appears that he was chosen 

 by the clergy of Laon and the French king on ac- 

 count of his reputed wealth, notwithstanding the 

 protests of Anselm, dean of the cathedral, who 

 had got information as to his character. The 

 heading which D'Achery has prefixed to one of 

 Guibert's sections — -" Galdricum eligi in episcopum 

 petit rex Anglorum " — would favour the idea 

 that the bishop was preferred in reward of his ser- 

 vices to Henry I. ; but the learned Benedictine 

 has misinterpreted his author's words — " Electus 

 ille praedictUs a clero . . . Rothomagi a rege Anglo- 

 rum de curia contra canones expetitur," which 

 clearly mean that the electors requested Henry to 

 release his chancellor from secular duties. 



As a smaller matter it may be noticed that in- 

 stead of ^^fve prebendaries," Orderic says " septem 

 majoribus ecclesiae ministris." J. C. B. 



Minuv fintt^. 



Mahogany : its first Use in England.-3> 



" Doctor Gibbons, an eminent physician in the latter 

 end of the last, and beginning of the present century, had 

 a brother, a West Indian Captain, who brought over some 

 planks of this wood as ballast. As the doctor was then 

 building a house in King Street, Covent Garden, his 

 brother thought they might be of service to him ; bat 



