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BIOGRAPHY. 



BIOGRAPHY. 



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with how grieroui Plagues Vice* are punished, and how fnil and 

 unstable worldly Prosperity is found, even of those whom Fortune 

 serneth most highly to TOUT.' But the narratives in the ' Mirror for 

 Magistrate*,' are all elected from English History, from which, as the 

 editor in his dHioationtmtnpUini, Boccaccio had omitted to take any 

 of his example*. A new edition of the 'Mirror for Magistrates,' 

 which ranks so high in our old poetry, on account of the two admirable 

 pieces which it contain*, the Induction and the Complaint of Henry 

 Duke of Buckingham, by Thomas Sackville, the first Lord Buckhunit 

 and first Earl oi Dorset appeared in 2 vols. 4to. in 1815, under the 

 superintendence of the late Mr. Haslewood. Many biographical works 

 hare appeared, containing exclusively the lives of female*. A collec- 

 tion of some of the earliest of these was published in a folio volume at 

 Parii in 1521, under the title of ' Opera Uivcrsorum aliquot Scriptorum 

 de Claris Mulieribus ex editione Jo. Rarisii Textoris.' Two of the 

 books of Brantome's Me'moires are occupied with gallant women 

 (Dames Oallantos), and one with illustrious women. Menage wrote a 

 work entitled ' Historia Mulienun PhiloBophorum.' There is a little 

 book in French, called ' La Oallerie des Femmes Fortes,' by Pierre le 

 Moyne, an edition of which, adorned with handsomely executed por- 

 traits, was published by the Elzevirs at Leyden, in 1660. There was 

 published at Paris, in 3 vols. 12rao., in 1779, a ' Dictionnaire Historique 

 Portatif des Femmes Colibree.' Bayle (Dictionnaire, Art. ' Urraca,' 

 note E.) complains that writers of lives usually select only persons of 

 distinguished merit, and that of women especially who have been the 

 disgrace of their sex and their country no biographical account as far 

 as he knew had appeared. " Yet," he continues," it is a subject which 

 it would be well worth some writer's pains to handle. It might be 

 treated after the fashion of Plutarch ; I mean that as that famous author 

 has chosen the most illustrious Romans, and the most illustrious Greeks, 

 in order to draw parallels between them, the queens and princesses 

 of different nations might in like manner be compared together." 



The most numerous class of biographical works is that of collections 

 of literary biography. Of these many of the most important are 

 mentioned under the article BIBLIOGRAPHY. Among others which are 

 not noticed there, we may mention such works as the ' Pulcher Tract- 

 atus de Vita Philosophorum,' by Walter Burley (the Venerable Doctor, 

 as he was called), 4to. Colon. 1472, a very rare volume ; the ' History 

 of Philosophy, containing the Lives, Opinions, Actions, and Discourses 

 of the Philosophers of every sect,' by Thomas Stanley, which appeared 

 in four successive volumes in 1655, 1656, 1660, and 1662, and has since 

 been translated into Latin, as well as several times reprinted in 

 English ; the ' Historia Critica Philosophise ' of Brucker, 5 vols, 4to. 



fol. Fnuicf . ad Moen. 1 705 ; the ' Me'moires pour servir h 1'Histoire des 

 Hommes Illustres dans la Republique des Lettres,' of J. P. Nioeron, 

 4'.' vols. 12mo. Paris, 1729-45; the ' Lives and Characters of the English 

 Dramatic Poets,' by Gerard Langbaine, 8vo. Lon. 1698 ; the ' Biographia 

 Dramatic*' of D. E. Baker, first published in 1764, the best edition of 

 which is that published by the late Mr. Isaac Heed, in 2 vols. 8vo. in 

 1782; the 'Lives of the English Poets,' by Dr. Johnson, &c. ; the 

 ' Biographia Britannica Literaria,' Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman 

 periods, by Thomas Wright, published by the Royal Society of 

 Literature, 8vo, 1842. Almost more numerous perhaps have been the 

 collections of biographies of artists ; as examples of which may be 

 mentioned Vosori s ' Lives of the most 'eminent Painters, Sculptors, 

 and Architects,' first published at Florence in 2 vols. 4to. hi 1550, and 

 repeatedly since with many additions ; Sandrart's ' L' Academia Todesca ; 

 Teutsche Academic der edlen Ban- Bild- und Mahlerey Kiinste,' 4 vols. 

 fol., Ntirnberg, 1675-79, better known by the Latin translation, 

 'Academia Noblissimse Artis Pictorial,' Numb. 1783; 'True Effegies 

 of the most eminent Painters and other famous Artists that have 

 nourished in Europe,' am. folio, Load. 1694 (with 120 portraits, 

 originally published at Antwerp in 1649) ; Pascoli's ' Vite de 1 Pittori, 

 Scultori. ed Architetti Moderni,' Rome, 1736 ; the Dictionary of Artists 

 of Pelegrino Antonio Orlandi, first published at Bologna hi 4to. in 

 1718, under the title of Abecedario Pittorico ;' J. B. Descamp's ' La 

 Vic des Pemtres Flamands, Allemands, et Hollandois,' 4 vols. 8vo. 

 Par. 1763-64; D'Argenville's 'Abrege' de la Vie des plus fameux 

 Peintres,' 4 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1762; H liber, 'Notices generates des 

 Oraveurs divises par Nations, et des Peintres ranges par Ecoles,' fto, 

 8vo. Dresden, 1787 ; Lanzi's, ' Storia Pittorica,' of which the first part 

 appeared in 1790, the last in 1796, but which he afterwards con- 

 siderably extended in subsequent editions ; Horace Walpole's ' Anec- 

 dotes of Painting in England and Catalogue of Engravers,' forming in 

 all 4 vols. 4to. 1761-1771 ; Pilkington's ' Dictionary of Painters,' 4to. 

 1770, and 2 vols. 8vo. 1829; 'Lives of the most eminent British 

 Painters, Sculptors, and Architects,' by Allan Cunningham, 6 vols. 

 1 2mo. 1 929-33 ; the great work of Nagler, ' Neues allgememes Kttnstler- 

 Lexicnn, oder Nachricbten von detn Lcben und den Werken der Maler, 

 Bildhaucr, Baumeister, Kupfersteoher, Fornischneider, Llthngraphen, 

 Zeichncr, Medailleure, Elfenbeinorbciter, Ac.,' 22 vols. 8vo. MUnchen, 

 1835-51 ; Stirling's ' Annals of the Artists of Spain,' 3 vols. 8vo. 1848 ; 

 and many other works of a similar description. 



Of the principal collections of exclusively British biography an ac- 

 count U given in the preface to the first edition of the ' Biogrnphi* 



Britannica.' The writer mentions the ' Catalogus Scriptorum Ecclesite,' 

 composed by John Boston, a Benedictine monk of St. Edmondsbury, 

 in the reign of Henry IV. (which was never published, and of which 

 there are but few manuscript copies extant) ; the ' Commenterii de 

 Scriptoribua Britannic-la' of John I/eland, prepared in the reign of 

 Henry VIII., but first published at Oxford in 2 vols, 8vo. in 1709; 

 John Bale's ' Scriptorum Illustrium Maioris Britannia Catalogus,' the 

 first part of which was published at Ipswich, and the same year at 

 Wesel, in 4to. in 1549 : the first complete edition appeared at Basel in 

 the same form in 1557 ; the treatise entitled ' De Academiin et Illus- 

 trious Angliio Scriptoribus,' by John Pits, the first volume of which 

 (the only one that was ever given to the world) was published in 4to. 

 at Paris in 1619; the ' Historia Ecclesiastica Oentis Scotonun ' of 

 Thomas Dempster, 4 to. Bonon. 1627, and of which a new edition was 

 printed a few years ago by the Bannatyne Club of Edinburgh, a work 

 of no authority, or rather indeed a mere romance ; Sir James Ware's 

 work, ' De Scriptoribus Hiberniso,' 4t<>. Dublin, 1639, also translated 

 into English, with a continuation, in the editions of his collected 

 works published in 1739 and in 1764 ; and Fuller's ' Worthies of 

 England,' folio, 1 662. The first edition of the ' Biographia Britannica, 

 or the Lives of the most eminent persons who have nourished in 

 Great Britain and Ireland from the earliest ages to the present times,' 

 was begun to be published at London in 1747, and was completed in 

 5 vols. folio, in 1766. Most of the best articles in this work were 

 written by Dr. John Campbell, the author of the ' Political Survey of 

 Great Britain ; ' among the other writers were the Rev. Thomas 

 Broughton, William Oldys, and Philip Morant, author of the ' History 

 of Essex.' A new and much extended edition of the ' Biographia 

 Britannica ' was begun in 1778 by the late Dr. Andrew Kippis, but was 

 not carried farther than the fifth volume (folio), which brings downXhe 

 alphabetical list of names only to the letter F. This edition, besides a 

 great mass of new matter collected by the laborious editor, is enriched 

 by communications from Lord Hailed, Lord Hardwicke (the author of 

 the ' Athenian Letters ') ; Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore ; Dr. Douglas, 

 Bishop of Salisbury ; Sir William Blackstone, Isaac Reed, and several 

 other eminent literary persons of that time. Perhaps the most 

 important body of British biography that has issued from the press, 

 since the publication of the ' Biographia Britannica,' is the work of the 

 late Mr. John Nichols, entitled ' Literary Anecdotes of th-- 

 Century,' 9 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1812-16, with the supplement entitled 

 ' Illustrations of the Literature of the Eighteenth Century,' 5 vols. 

 8vo. 1817-28. Another work of considerable value in this departaMOl 

 is that entitled ' Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain, 

 with Biographical and Historical Memoirs' by Edmund I/orig. 

 12 vols. 8vo. Lon. 1823-35. This last-mentioned work is on a some- 

 what similar plan to the ' Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great 

 Britain,' engraved by Houbraken and Vertue, with memoirs by Dr. 

 Birch, which appeared in 2 vols. fol. in 1 7">-. Mr. Grainger's ' Biogra- 

 phical History of England,' originally appeared in 2 vols. 4to. in 1 769, 

 and was afterwards extended by the author to four 8vo volumes. A 

 continuation of Mr. t! Hunger's work, in 3 vols. 8vo., by the Rev. Mark 

 Noble, appeared in 1806. The ' Gallery of Portraits, with Memoirs,' 

 completed in 1837, in 7 vols. imp. Svo., contains a selection of 129 of 

 the most eminent individuals of all countries, of whom the memoirs 

 have been written with great care and ability. 



Of general biographical dictionaries, the ' Dictionorium Historico- 

 Geographico-Poeticum,' of Charles Stephens, published in 4to. at 

 Geneva, hi 1566, two years after the death of the author, may pro- 

 bably be regarded as the earliest ; but this work, as its title indicates, 

 contained many others besides biographical articles. The same remark 

 applies to the ' Dictionarium Historicum, Geographicum, Poeticum, 

 Gentium, Hominum, Ac.,' of our countryman, Nicholas Lloyd, which 

 appeared in folio, firxt at Oxford in 1670, and again, greatly enlarged, 

 at London in 1686. A much more extended work, of a similar descrip- 

 tion, is the ' Lexicon Universale Historico-Geographico-Chronologico- 

 Poetico-Philologicum,' of Jo. Jac. Hofman ; the first edition of which, 

 in 2 vols. folio, was printed at Bale in 1677. A Supplement, or 

 tinuation,' as it is called, of the same extent, followed in 1683; and, 

 finally, the two publications were incorporated in a new edition puli- 

 lished at Leyden in 4 vols. folio, in 1698. Hofman's work may be 

 considered as the origin of our modern encyclopaedias. Our exclusively 

 biographical dictionaries may be regarded as having been rather sug- 

 gested by another work which appeared about the same tim 

 Grand Dictionnaire Historique et Critique,' of Louis Moreri. This 

 work, the first edition of which appeared in 1 vol. folio, in 1678, 

 although its contents were also very miscellaneous, was still of a more 

 decidedly biographical character than that of llofnmi. in' .Moreri's 

 Dictionary there have been about twenty .-ditionn in r'reneli. the lost 

 of which appeared at Paris in 176U, to 10 v>K Mi... l"|,n Moreri's 

 Dictionary was founded the ' Great Historical, Geographical, Genea- 

 logical, and Poetical Dictionary,' printed at London in 1694 : the 

 second edition of which, ' revised, corrected, and enlarged to the year 

 1688, by Jeremy Collier, A.M.,' appeared in 2 vols. folio, in 1701. To 

 these a third volume was added in ) . :ning a Supplement by 



-. and, In a separate alphabet, 'a Continuation from the year 

 1888 to this time, by another hand.' The whole was afterwards re- 

 published, with addition*, in 4 vols. folio, in 1727. Meanwhile the 

 immortal ' Dictiounaire Historique t Critique' of Bsyle, originally 



