Chap. XIII.] CUmic Liter atitre. 033 



examined in the library of St. Mark in tliat city, 

 found a very curious copy of the Iliad, made ia 

 the tenth century, and enriched with tiie nolt^s and 

 scholia, liitherto unpublished, of sixty of the most 

 eminent critics of ancient times. Beside the nutcs 

 and sckoUa^ the manuscript was found to con- 

 tain various ixadings, ecjually numerous and im- 

 portant, drawn from tlie ancient editions of Ho- 

 mer, given by Chios, Cyprus, Crete, ]\Iarseilles, 

 Sinope, and Argos; editions before known only 

 by name, and by some citations of Eustatliius. 

 This manuscript also exhibits various readings 

 drawn from many other editions ; so that it may 

 be emphatically called the Homerus Variorum of 

 all antiquity, and more especially tlie Homer of 

 the famous school of Alexandria. Isl, Villoisoii 

 has since committed this copy of the first e|)ic 

 poem to the press, and thereby made an inestima- 

 ble present to the lovers of Greek literature*. 



To this chapter belongs also some notice of aa 

 event which the classical scholar regards with no 

 small interest. Nearly thirty years ago the presi- 

 dent dc Brosses, a distinguished philologist of 

 France, finding, in the course of his researches, 

 some remains of a Histor}) oj the Roman Rcpuhllc, 

 by Sallust, which had been supposed to be entirely 

 lost, undertook the arduous task of rest..ring it 

 After taking immense pains to collect all the (pio- 

 tations which had been made from this precious 

 relic, by the ancient grammarians and others, he 



* The author believes that M. Villoison also publiblied a splen- 

 did edition of the Odijssty ; but the character of the edition, or tlic 

 ^circumstances attending its pubUcation, are unknown to hini. 



