40 Mr. Parkes's Histoiy of 



book, and of the quality of the author, if known." London, 

 quarto, printed for Geo. Wells, 1687. 



This important work was planned and published by the 

 learned John Le Clerc, a native of Geneva, who early in life 

 settled in London, but soon removed on account of his state of 

 health to Amsterdam, where he published the greater part of 

 his works, English as well as French. The first number of the 

 " Bibliotheque" for Jan. 1686, was printed in 1687, and it was 

 continued by him, with the assistance of Mr. De la Crosse, to 

 the end of the eleventh volume ; the subsequent volumes, to 

 the nineteenth, were written solely by Le Clerc, and the last six 

 volumes by his relative, the learned Mr. James Bernard. The 

 whole work consists of twenty-five volumes in quarto, and was 

 completed at the close of the year 1693. 



In 1688, Cave first published his " Historia Literaria," in 

 two volumes folio, which is a review of ecclesiastical writers, 

 and is considered to be a work of great research, but as it was 

 not published periodically, it does not come within my plan. 



IIL 1690. " Censura Celibrium Authorum ;" by 

 Sir Thomas Pope Blount, bart., in one volume folio. The 

 author of this work was a man of great erudition, and his book 

 has always been much esteemed by the curious. In this review of 

 the writings of a variety of eminent men of his own and former 

 times, he reports their opinions in their own language, which 

 renders the book of more value than it would otherwise have 

 been. The " Censura" was not published periodically, but 

 appeared at first in the year 1690, in one volume, folio, and 

 was printed in London. It was reprinted at Geneva, in quarto, 

 in 1694, and again in 1710 and 1718. This learned man pub- 

 lished also a work in quarto, entitled, " Remarks on Poetry," 

 London, 1694, which is a kind of Censura, confined to an exa- 

 mination of the merits of the poets. Sir Thomas was also the 

 author of a volume of essays on a variety of subjects, printed in 

 octavo, in 1697. Respecting these essays, Mr. Chalmers says, 

 that, "in point of learning, judgment, and freedom of thought, 

 they are no way inferior to those of the celebrated Montaigne." 



