120 
being very curious. In the third part, 
which treats of dumb rhetoric, the 
ehapters labour to define the rhetoric 
of the eyes, of tears, of misery display- 
ed in-the look, of beauty and gesticu- 
lations in general; and, finally, the 
rhetoric of money and of wine, which 
seem to have had a particular influ- 
ence upon the author’s mind. ‘ The 
rhetoric of wine (says he,) has all its 
figures represented in the glasses, its 
amplifications in banquets, and its 
common places in public-houseés ; it 
greatly tends to inflame the passions. 
Would you have love? without wine, 
says the poet, Venus is chilled. Do 
you seek the aid of friendship? It is 
only to be found with flaggons, and in 
the midst of feasting. If rage is re- 
quired ; do not broils ensue at the ter- 
mination of repasts? Do you covet 
hilarity? Scripture hath said, ‘Wine 
rejoiceth the heart of man;’ while 
Virgil calls it the distributor of gaiety. 
Ts your research after truth? The Pro- 
verb very justly observes, that wine 
unlocks every secret. Do you wish 
for dumb rhetoric? Place a man near 
a full bottle of sparkling wine, and he 
is, as it were, beside a red looking- 
elass, wherein be admires himself, and 
gleans from that joyful contemplation 
the majesty of his countenance, the 
freedom of gesticulation, the diversity 
of motion, and all the vigour of his in- 
tellect.” The writer terminates this no- 
vel and curious work with the follow- 
ing lines :— 
Chacun met dans son goit le prix de 
chaque livre ; 
Souvent le propre amour vous entéte et 
enivre : 
Mais toute prévention a part, 
Si l’on prétend parler en faveur de notre 
art, 
Quelqa’ami soutiendra qu’en cette rhé- 
torique 
Ou y lit des endroits bien exempts de 
critique. 
The author, no doubt, conceived that 
the rhetoric of money and wine, above 
all, influenced the taste of the world 
at large. 
NO. VY. 
Pliny’s Natural History. In Latin, folio. 
_ This manuscript, upon beautiful 
vellum, is remarkable not only from 
its perfect state of preservation, but on 
aecount of the correctness and beauty 
of the character; it may truly be 
esteemed a chef-d’euvre of the calli- 
graphic art; the letters being of a 
round form, and not interrupted by 
Bibliothecal Curiosities of Lyons. 
[Sept. 1, 
columns, as is usual with manuscripts 
of this description. The majuscules 
are enluminated and highly embellish- 
ed with gold, and the frontispiece, en- 
closed within a coronet, is decorated 
in a similar manner, the first page 
displaying vignettes and a beautiful 
miniature, delineating stags grazing 
on the borders of a stream; while upon 
the broad margins of the manuscript 
are indicated the subjects of the re- 
spective chapters. 
Pliny, a native of Verona, acquired 
the esteem of the Emperor Vespasian ; 
he was intendant in Spain, and was 
swallowed up in the year 79, during 
the terrible eruption recorded of Mount 
Vesuvius, which the philosopher ap- 
proached too near, in his eagerness to 
witness that dreadful convulsion of 
nature. Pliny’s Natural History, the 
greatest work of the kind handed 
down to us from antiquity, was first 
printed at Rome in 1470. 
The manuscript of which we are 
speaking appears to owe its date to 
the year 1400; it was purchased by 
Claude de Rola, a physician of Mont- 
brison, who acquired considerable 
celebrity in the sixteenth century. In 
1782 it became the property of the 
Library of Lyons, of which it ranks 
one of the most conspicuous orna- 
ments, and is particularly quoted in 
the writings of Father Hardouin. 
NO. VE. 
Prophecies of \ Father Thelesphorus, 
Hermit of Cusance. Yn Latin, folio. 
This precious and very curious calli- 
graphic specimen contains the prophe- 
cies of the Hermit Thelesphorus upon 
popes and emperors, the future state 
of the Holy See, and of the empire, 
from 1386 until the end of the world. 
The style of the penmanship is gothic, 
and difficult to decipher; while the 
titles, initials, and indications of the 
drawings, are in purple characters. 
These designs, consisting of forty-five, 
are coloured, representing the popes, 
with divers attributes, as well as an- 
gels, monks, and devils. The writer 
styles himself hermit of Cusance, a 
village in the ancient province of 
Franche-Comté, at which spot, after 
the author’s demise, a priory of monks 
was established. ' 
This work in 1624 was presented to 
the library of Lyons by Francis de 
Chevriers, son of Gabriel de Chev- 
riers, lord of St. Mauris, a knight 
of St. Louis, and one of the gentlemen 
of the King’s Chamber, who was in- 
stituted 
