298 Mr. Parkcs's Histori/ of 



Octavo Numbers, commencing in January 1735, and 12 numbers 

 formed a volume. The second volume ends with December 

 1736; and I have reason to think more volumes were pub- 

 lished. There are tv/o Indexes to each of the volumes I have ; 

 the first being a list of books reviewed; the last an alpha- 

 betical reference to all the miscellaneous matter contained 

 in it. 



In the preface, Mr. Chambers carries the antiquity of Literary 

 Journals much higher than any writer with whom I am ac- 

 quainted. 



" A history of the works of the Learned," says he, " is far 

 from being a new project. Apollodorus an Athenian, who lived 

 about two hundred and forty years before the Nativity of Christ, 

 composed a work of this sort, which he called, a Library of tlie 

 Origin of the Gods; that is, a collection of the most ancient 

 histories, as they lie disguised under fables and fictions. We 

 have still three books of it. Diodorus of Sicily, in the reign of 

 Augustus, spent about thirty years in composing an Historical 

 Library, in forty books, of which fifteen are now extant. But 

 the richest and most comprehensive work of this sort is the 

 Myriobiblia, written by Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, in 

 the middle of the ninth century of the christian sera. It is 

 usually called the Library of Photius, and contains the argu- 

 ments or extracts of nearly two hundred and eighty volumes of 

 different authors, on several subjects *. These laborious and 

 useful works have preserved to us some valuable fragments of 

 antiquity, which would otherwise never have come to our 

 knowledge." 



* This Bibliotheca was composed by Photius while he was an Ambas- 

 sador in Assyria. It seems our editor did not overrate this work, for 

 Fabricius calls it, " non liber sed insignis thesaurus, not a book, but an il- 

 lustrious treasure," in which are contained many curious things no where 

 else to be found. David Hoeschelius firsl caused it to be printed in 1601 ; 

 ;n Greek, at Vienna. Schottus translated it into Latin, and afterwards 

 the Greek text and tlie translation were printed together at Geneva in 1611, 

 but the best edition is that printed at Rouen in 1653, folio, under the title 

 " Photii Myriobiblion," 8j-c. There are large-paper-copies of this edition, 

 which bear a very high price. See Chalmers Vol. XXIV. page 473. 



