July 5. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



of the George, next to Saynt Dunstone's Churche, by 

 Wyllyam Powell, cum priuilegio ad imprimendum 

 solum." 



Then follows tlie " PrognossicacioD," the title- 

 page to which is as follows : 



" A Prognossicacion for the yere of our Lord 

 M.cccccL., calculed upoir the Meridiane of the Towne 

 of Anwarpe and the- Country thereabout, by Master 

 Peter of Moorbecke, Doctoure in Physicke of y' same 

 Towne, whereunto is added the Judgment of M. Cor- 

 nelius Schute, Doctor in Physicke of the Towne of 

 Bruges in Flanders, upon and concerning the Disposi- 

 cion, Estate, and Condicion of certaine Prynces, Con- 

 treys, and Regions for thys present yere, gatliered oute 

 of hys Prognostication for the same yere. Translated 

 out of Duch into Englysbe by William Harrys." 



At the end — 



" Imprynted at London by John Daye, dwellynge 

 over Aldersgate, and Wylliam Seres, dwellyng in 

 Peter CoUedge. Those Bokes are to be sold at the 

 Newe Shop by the lytle Conduyte in Chepesyde." 



The print is old English. Mr. Francis Moore 

 and the Almanacs have figured in your recent 

 Numbers, and I have thought that a brief notice 

 of an almanac three hundred years old might not 

 be unacceptable to your " Notes aisd Queries " 

 friends. D. 



Exeter, June 18. 1851. 



catteries. 



GHOST STORIES. 



From some recent experiments of the Baron 

 von Reichenbach, it seems probable that wherever 

 chemical action is going on light is evolved, though 

 it is only by persons possessing peculiar (though 

 not very rare) powers of sight, and by them only 

 under peculiar circumstances, that it can be seen. 

 It occurred to him that such persons might perhaps 

 see light over graves in whi«h dead bodies wei-e 

 undergoing decomposition. He says : 



" The desire to inflict a mortal wound on the mon- 

 ster, superstition, which, from a similar origin, a few 

 centuries ago, inflicted on European society so vast an 

 amount of misery; and by whose influence, not hun- 

 dreds, but thousands of innocent persons died in tor- 

 tures on the rack and at the stake; — this desire made 

 me wish to make the experiment, if possible, of bringing 



a highly sensitive person, by night, to achurchyari" 



§ 158. Gregory's Translation, p. 1'26. 



The experiment succeeded. Light " was chiefly 

 seen over all new graves ; while there was no ap- 

 pearance of it over very old ones." The fact was 

 confirmed in subseiiuent expciinients by five other 

 sensitive persons, and I iiavo no design of cpies- 

 tioning it. JMy doubt is only how far we can con- 

 sider the knowledge of it as giving a "mortal 

 wound" to superstition. "Thousands of ghost 

 stories," the Baron tells us, " will now receive a 

 natural explanation, and will thus cease to be mar- 



vellous ; " and he afterwards says, " Thus I have, 

 I trust, succeeded in tearing down one of the 

 densest veils of darkened ignorance and human 

 error." I repeat that I do not question the fact ; 

 my Query is, where to find the " thousands of 

 ghost stories " which are explained by it ; and as 

 I suspect that you have some correspondents 

 capable of giving information on such subjects^ I 

 shall feel much obliged if they will tell me. 



S. R. Maitland. 

 Gloucester. 



A BOOK WANTED OF ENZINAS. FRANCISCO DE 



ENZINAS, OR DRYANDER, TRANSEATOB OF THE 

 SPANISH NEW TESTAMENT, 1543. 



Can any obliging reader of the "Notes and 

 Queries " inform me of the existence, in any of 

 our public libraries, or for sale, of the following 

 book : Dryandri (^Franciscus) FlandricB propria; in- 

 carcerationis etUberationis Historia : Antwerpiae (?) 

 1545. Sra. 8vo. ? Fox, the martyrologist, writing 

 of Dryander, says : 



" I read the book in the shop of John Oporine, printer, 

 of Basil." 



I have a French translation of it, and a Spanish 

 version is mentioned by Pellicea (after Gerdes), 

 under this title : Bi-eve Descripcion del Pais Baxo, 

 y razon de la Religion en Espo.ha, en 8vo. ; but in 

 such a manner as leaves it questionable. If a 

 Spanish verson is known, I should esteem it a 

 favour to be informed where it can now be found. 



Enzinas passed part of the years 1542-3 with 

 Melanethon at Wittemberg. Having completed 

 his New Testament, he returned early in the latter 

 year to Antwerp to get it printed. After much 

 reflection and advice with his f'-iends, he made an 

 agreement with Stephen Mierdmann of Antwerp, 

 in the following manner : 



"I determined," says he, "to do my duty in the 

 aflfair, at all events ; which was, to undertake the pub- 

 lication, and to leave the consequences, and the course 

 of the inspired Word, to the providence of God, to 

 whom it of right belonged. 1 therefore spoke with a 



, and asked him whether he was willing to print 



my book. He answered, Yes, very gladly ; partly 

 because I desire to do some good for the commonweal 

 more than for my own particular interest, caring little 

 for gain or for the slander of opponents ; and partly, 

 also, said he, because it is a book that has long been 

 desired. Then I asked him whether it was needful to 

 have a license or permission, and whether he could not 

 print it without these : for, said I, it would ill beseem 

 the Word of God, from which kings and rulers derive 

 the authority for the exercise of their power, that it 

 sliould be subject to the permission or prohibition of 

 any human feeling or fancy. To this he answered, 

 that no law of the Emi>eror had ever forbidden the 

 printing of the Holy Scriptures; and this was well 

 known, for in Antwerp the New Testament had already 

 been printed in almost every language of Europe but 



