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have certain peculiarities strikingly distinguishing them 

 from common biographical accounts, was published a few 

 years ago in London by Messrs. Hunt and Clarke, in 34 

 vole. ISmo. 



Csosar's Commentaries of the Gallic and Civil Wars may 

 be quoted as examples of autobiographical works in antient 

 literature. Another example is afforded by the lost history 

 of his own times, also entitled Commentaries, written by the 

 Greek General Aratus, which Polybius mentions. [See 

 ARATUS.] 



The collections of Lives that have appeared in modern 

 times have also been very numerous. Thus we have the 

 various martyrologies, or accounts of the lives and deaths 

 of the early Christian martyrs, by Ruinart (fol. Amster- 

 dam, 1713), by Assemani (2 vols. fol. Rom. 1748), c. 

 .There is also the great work of the Flemish Jesuits, Bol- 

 landug, Henschenius, &c., entitled ' Acta Sanctorum Om- 

 nium,' which was begun to be published at Antwerp in 

 1 6-13, and is of the enormous extent of fifty -threo volumes 

 lolio. The 16 volumes quarto of Tillemont's work, entitled 

 'Memoires pour servir a 1'Histoire Ecelesiastique de vi. 

 premieres siecles de 1'Eglise,' (Paris, 1693, &c.) is also in 

 the main a work of ecclesiastical biography. There are 

 also the Lives of the Fathers, by St. Jerom, and by many 

 succeeding writers ; the Lives of the Popes by Anastasiufi, 

 commonly called the ' Bibliothecary,' and by other* in later 

 timeg ; the Histories of the various monastic orders, which 

 are all in the greater part biographical ; and such works 

 as John Fox's ' Book of Martyrs, &c.' As examples of col- 

 lections of lives of the members of different artificial orders 

 of persons among ourselves, may be noticed such works as 

 Ashmole's ' History of the Order of the Garter,' the various 

 Peerages and Baronetages ; Wilson's 'Biographical Index 

 to the House of Commons,' (Lend. 1 806) ; Ward's ' Lives 

 of the Professors of Groham College,' Wood's Athena; 

 Oxonienses,' which is an account of writers educated at 

 Oxford, &c. 



The lives of eminent statesmen, military commanders, 

 admirals, navigators, travellers, highwaymen, and various 

 other descriptions of persons, either in all countries, or in 

 some one country, have frequently formed the subjects of 

 distinct works. Boccaccio wrote a work in Latin, first pub- 

 lished at Ulm in 1473, in folio, entitled 'Opus de Claris 

 Hominibuset Mulieribus,' and in subsequent editions, ' De 

 Canibus Virorum et Feminarum Illustrium,' being a history 

 of unfortunate princes and princesses, and other persons of 

 eminence. A translation of this work into English verse, 

 from a very paraphrastic French version executed by Lau- 

 rent de Premierfait, was composed by John Lydgate, who 

 lived in the reign of Henry VI., under the title of ' The 

 Tragedies gathered by John Bochas of all such princes 

 il from their estates through the mutability of fortune 

 since the creation of Adam until his time.' The poem is 

 commonly known by the title of Lydgate's ' Fall of Princes.' 

 Somewhat similar to the design of this work, and indeed 

 confessedly borrowed from it, is that of the celebrated col- 

 lection of poems, first published in quarto, in 1559, with 

 the tkle of ' A Mirror for Magistrates, wherein may be 

 seen, by example of others, with how grievous Plagues 

 Vices are punished, and how frail and unstable worldly 

 Prosperity is found, even of those whom Fortune seemeth 

 most highly to favour.' But the narratives in the ' Mirror 

 for Magistrates,' are all selected from English History, from 

 which, as the editor in his dedication complains, Boccaccio 

 had omitted to take any of his examples. 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 contains, the Induction and the Complaint of Henry 

 Duke of Buckingham, by Thomas Sackville, the first Lord 

 Buckhurst and first Earl of Dorset appeared in 2 vols. 4to. 

 in 1815, under the superintendence of the late Mr. Hasle- 

 wood. Many biographical works have appeared, containing 

 exclusively the lives of females. A collection of some of the 

 earliest or these was published in a folio volume at Paris in 

 1521, under the title of 'Opera Diversorum aliquot Scrip- 

 torum de Claris Mulieribus ex editions Jo. Ravisii Tex- 

 toris.' Two of the books of Brantome's Memoires are 

 occupied with gallant women (Dames Gallantea), and one 

 with illustrious women. Menage wrote a work entitled 

 ' Historia Mulierum Philosophorum.' There is a little book 

 in French, called ' La Gallerie des Femmes Fortes,' by 

 Pierre le Moyne, an edition of which, adorned with hand- 

 somely executed portraits, was published by the Elzevirs 

 at Le'yden, in 1660. There was published at Paris, in 3 



vols. 12mo., in 1779, a ' Dictionnaire Historique Portatif 

 des Femmes Celebres.' Bayle (Dictionnaire, Art. ' Urraca,' 

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

 persons of distinguished merit, and that of women espe- 

 cially 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 dif- 

 ferent nations might in like manner be compared together," 

 Such a comparison in regard to females of an opposite 

 character from those here spoken of, is perhaps instituted 

 in a work of which we know nothing more than the title, 

 Holberg's ' Vies Paralleles de quelques Femmes Illustres.' 

 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 BIBLIO- 

 GRAPHY. Among others which are not noticed there, we 

 may mention such works as the ' Pulcher Tractatus do 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 vo- 

 lumes in 1655, 1656, 1660, and 1662, and has since been 

 translated into Latin, as well as several times reprinted in 

 English ; the ' Historia Critica Philosophiia' of Brucker, 

 5 vols. 4to. Leipzig, 1741-4, and second edition, 6 vols. 4to. 

 1767: the 'Theatrum Virorum Eruditione Clarorum' of 

 Paul Freher, 2 vols. fol. Noriberg. 1688; the ' Vit Viro- 

 rum Eruditorum' of Melchior Adam, 2 vols. fol. Francf. 

 ad Moen. 1705 ; the 'Memoires pour servir a 1'Histoire des 

 Homines Illustres dans la Ropublique des Lettres' of J. P. 

 Niceron, 42 vols. 12mo. Paris, 1729-45; the 'Lives and 

 Characters of the English Dramatic Poets,' by Gerard Lang- 

 jaine, 8vo. Lon. 1698 ; the ' Biographia Dramatica' of D. E. 

 Baker, first published in 1764, the best edition of which 

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

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

 5te. Under the same head may be mentioned Vasari's 

 Lives of the most eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Archi- 

 tects,' first published at Florence in 2 vols. 4to. in 1550, 

 and repeatedly since with many additions ; the Dictionary 

 of Artists of Pelegrino Antonio Orlandi, first published at 

 Jologna in 4to. in 1719, under the title of ' Abecedario Pit- 

 orico ;' Horace Walpole's ' Anecdotes of Painting in Eng- 

 and and Catalogue of Engravers,' forming in all 4 vols. 

 Ito. 1761-1771; Pilkington'g 'Dictionary of Painters,' 4to. 

 :770, and 2 vols. 8vo. 1829; and other works of a similar 

 description of later date. 



Of the principal collections of exclusively British bio- 

 graphy an account is given in the preface to the first edition 

 of the 'Biographia Britanniea.' The writer mentions the 

 Catalogus Scriptorum Ecclesise,' composed by John Bos- 

 an, a Benedictine monk of St. Edmondsbury, in the reign 

 if Henry IV. (which was never published, and of which 

 there are but few manuscript copies extant) ; the ' Com- 

 mentarii de Scriptoribus Britannicis' of John Leland, pre- 

 lared in the reign of Henry VIII., but first published at 

 Oxford in 2 vols. 8vo. in 1 709 ; John Bale's ' Scriptorum 

 [llustrium Majoris Britannioa 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 Academiis et Illustribus Angliso Scriptoribus,' by John 

 Pits, the first volume of which (the only one that was ever 

 riven to the world) was published in 4to. at Paris in 1619 ; 

 he 'Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum' of Thomas 

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

 was printed a few years ago by the Bannntyne Club of 

 Edinburgh, a work of no authority, or rather indued a mere 

 romance ; Sir James Ware's work, ' De Scriptoribus Hi- 

 berniEB,' 4to. Dublin, 1639, also translated into English, with 

 a continuation, in the editions of his collected works published 

 n 1739 and in 1764; and Fuller's 'Worthies of England,' 

 folio, 1662. The first edition of the ' Biographia Britanniea,' 

 or the Lives of the most eminent persons who have flou- 

 rished in Great Britain and Ireland from the earliest ages 

 Lo the present times,' was begun to be published at London 

 n 1747, and was completed in 5 vols. folio, in 1766. Most 

 of the best articles in this work were written by Dr. Joun 



