MEMOIR OF PLINY. 81 



" The friendly acceptance which T. Livius of Padua 

 (also translated hy Dr Holland) hath found in this 

 Realme since time hee shewed himselfe in English 

 weed vnto her sacred Majestic, hath trained ouer 

 vnto him his neighhour Plinius Secundus from Ve- 

 rona, whome being now arraied in the same habit, 

 yet fearefull to set foote forward in this forreine 

 ground without the countenance of some worthie 

 personage, who might both giue him his hand at his 

 first entrance, in token of welcome, and also grace him 

 afterwards with a favourable regard to win acquaint- 

 ance, I humbly present vnto your honor." On the 

 continent various editions and translations of Pliny 

 have appeared in succession. From the beginning of 

 the sixteenth century there was scarcely a celebrated 

 city that had not professors, supported at the pub- 

 lic expense, for lecturing and commenting upon his 

 Natural History. A host of editors and commenta- 

 tors followed each other, from the Bishop of Corsica 

 in 1470, down to Father Hardouiri, who surpassed 

 all his predecessors in erudition, and who undertook 

 the work by order of Louis XIV., for the use of the 

 Dauphin, with the assistance of Bossuet and Huet, 

 the two most learned prelates in the kingdom. An- 

 other edition was afterwards projected by the well 

 known Mons.de Malesherbes, in 1750, aided by some 

 of the most distinguished savans and academicians 

 in France, and published at Paris in 1771 in twelve 

 volumes quarto. That of Franzius was published 

 at Leipsic in 1778-91, in ten volumes, and being in 



VOL. IX. F 



