$86 A M A 
AMALGAMATION,/ The actor practice of amal¬ 
gamating metals. For the new procefs, lee Ore. 
AMAI.THjL'A, the name of tire Cumaean Sibyl, who 
offered toTarquinius Superbus nine books, containing the 
Roman deftinies, and demanded 300 pieces of gold for 
them. He derided her; whereupon (he threw three of 
them into the fire ; and, returning, afked the fame price 
for the other fix; which being denied, Hie burnt three 
more; and returned, (tilldemanding the fame price. Up¬ 
on which Tarquin, confulting the pontiffs, was advifed to 
buy them. Thefe books were in fuch efteem, that two 
magiftrates were created to confult them upon extraordi¬ 
nary occaiions. 
Amalthjea, in pagan mythology,, the daughter of Me- 
Jiffus, king of Crete, and. the nurfe of Jupiter, whom Ihe 
fed with, goat’s milk and honey. According toothers, 
Amaltluea was a goat, which Jupiter tranflated into the 
Iky, with her two kids, and gave one of her horns to the 
daughters ot Meliffus, as a reward for the pains they had 
.taken in attending him. This horn had the peculiar pro¬ 
perty of fiirnifhing them withwhatever they wiihed for ; 
and was thence called th e cornucopia, or horn of plenty. 
AMALTHfiE'US (JerOme, John B-aptilia, and Cor¬ 
neille,), three celebrated Latin poets of Italy, who flou- 
jrilhed in the fixteenth century. Their compofitions were 
printed at Amfterdam in 16S5. One of the prettied pieces 
in that collection is an epigram on two children, wdiofe 
beauty was very extraordinary, though each of them was 
deprived of an eye : 
4 Lumine Aeon dextro, capta eft Leonilla finiftro : 
‘ Et pote-rat forma vincere uterque Deos. 
4 Parve puer, lumen quod habes concede forori; 
‘ Sic tu cfficus Amor, fic erit ilia Venus. 5 
AMA'MA (Sixtinus), profeffor of the Hebrew tongue 
in the univerfity of Franeker, a man of great learning, was 
•born in Friefland, and fludied under Drufius. He pub- 
lilhed a criticifm upon the tranflation of the Pentateuch ; 
■collated the Dutch tranflation of the Bible with the ori¬ 
ginal ; and wrote'a cenfure of the Vulgate tranflation of 
the hiftorical books of the Old Teftament, Job, the Pfalms, 
: and Canticles, it is impoftibl-e to anfwer the reafons where¬ 
by he (hows tiie ne.ceffity of •confulting the originals. This 
he recommended fo earneftly, that fome fynods, being 
influenced by his -reafons, decreed, that none fliould be 
admitted into the -miniftry but 1’uch as had a competent 
knowledge of the Flebrew and Greek text of the Scrip¬ 
ture. He died in 1629. 
AMA'NA, a mountain of Cilicia, and one of the Ba- 
hama iflands. 
AM A'NCE, a town in the duchy of Lorraine, upon a 
/vuiet of the fame name. Lat. 48.45. N. Ion. 6. 10. E. 
AMA'ND (Mark-Anthony-Gerard, lieur de St.), a 
French poet, was born -at Roan, in Normandy, in 1594. 
In the epiftle-dedicatory to the third part of his works, 
'he tells 11s, that his father commanded a fquadron of (hips 
in the fervice of Elizabeth queen of England for twenty- 
two years, and that he was for three years prifoner in the 
.Black Tower at Conftantinople. He mentions alfo, that 
two brothers of his had been killed in an engagement 
•againft the Turks. His own life was fpent in a continual 
fucceffion of trav-eds, which was of no advantage to his 
•fortune. There are mifcellaneous poems of this author, 
the greater part of which-are of the comic or burlefque, 
and the amorous, kind. In 1630, lie publilhed “ Stances 
fur la groffeffe de la reine de Pologne et de Suede.” In 
2653, he printed his “ Moife fauve, idyle heroique.” This 
poem had at firftmany admirers : Monf. Chapelain called 
Jt a /peaking piclure ; but it has fince fallen into contempt. 
Araand was admitted a member of the French academy, 
when it was firfl founded by cardinal Richelieu, in the 
year 16-33 : -and Mr, Peliilon informs us, that in 1637, at 
this own define, he was excufed from the -obligation of 
making a fpeech in his turn, on condition that he would 
•compile the comic part of the dictionary which the aca- 
A M A 
demy had undertaken, and collect the burlefque terms. 
This was a talk well fuited to him; for it appears by his 
writings, that he was extremely converfant in thefe terms, 
of which he feems to have made a complete collection 
from the markets, and other places where the lower peo¬ 
ple refort. He died in 1661, being fixty-feven years of age, 
Amand (St.), a town of France, in the department of 
Cher, and late territory of Bourbonois. It is lituated on 
the river Cher, twenty miles fouth of Bourges. Lat. 46. 
32. N. Ion. 3, 30. E. 
Amand (St.), a town of France, in the department of 
the North, and in the late French Flanders. It is feated 
on the river Scarpe, feven miles north of Valenciennes. 
Lat. 30. 27. N. Ion. 2. 35. E. 
AM AND A'TION,/ [from amando, Lat.] The aft of 
fending on a meflage or employment. 
AMAN'DOLA,/ is a green marble, having the ap¬ 
pearance of a honey-comb, and containing white fpots : 
one hundred parts of it contain feventy-(ix of mild cal¬ 
careous earth; twenty of (Indus ; two of iron, partly cal¬ 
cined. The cellular appearance proceeds from the (hiftus, 
Kir tv an. 
AMAN'ICAi P v l x£, (Ptolemy;) Amanides Pyl^e, 
(Strabo;) Amani Portae, (Pliny:) (traits or defiles in 
mount Amanus, through which Darius entered Cilicia ; 
at a greater diilance from the fea than the Pylae Ciliciac, 
or Syrke, through which Alexander paffed. 
AMAN'NIA,/-inbotany. See Ammannia and Peplis. 
AMANTE'A, a fea-port town and bilhop’s fee of the 
kingdom of Naples, fituated near the bay of Euphemia, in 
•the province of Calabria, in lat. 39. 15. N. Ion. j6. 20. E. 
AMANUE'NSIS,/. [Lat.] A perfon who writes what 
another dictates. 
AMA'NUS, or Omanus, a god of the ancient Per- 
fians, fuppofed to be the fun, or the everlalting fire which 
they worfliipped. 
Amanus, a mountain of Syria, feparating it from Ci¬ 
licia ; a branch of mount Taurus, extending chiefly eaft- 
ward, from the fea of Cilicia to the Euphrates; now called 
Monte Negro, or rather Montagna Neres, by the inhabi¬ 
tants.; that is, the watery mountain, as abounding in fprings 
and rivulets. 
AMAPAL'LA, a city and port-town of North Ame¬ 
rica, in the province of Guatimala, feated on the gulph 
of the fame name, in the Pacific ocean. Lat. 12. 30. N. 
Ion. 63. 20. W. 
AMARA'CUS, / in botany. See Origanum. 
AMA'RA Indica, /. in botany. See Momordica. 
AMA'RANTE, /. An order of knighthood, inftituted 
in Sweden by queen Chriftina, in 1633, at an annual feaft, 
■celebrated in that country, called Wirtfchaft. This feaft 
was folemnized with entertainments, balls, mafquerades, 
and the like diverfions, and continued from evening till 
the next morning. That princefs, thinking the name too 
vulgar, changed it into that of th e feaft of the gods, in re¬ 
gard each perfon here reprefented fome deity, as it fell to 
his lot. The queen alTumed the name of Amarante ; that 
is, unfading, or immortal. The young nobility, dreffed 
in the habit of nymphs and (hepherds, ferved the gods at 
•the table. At the end of the feaft, the queen threw off 
•her habit, which was covered with diamonds, leaving it 
to be pulled in pieces by the mafques ; and, in memory 
of fo gallant a feaft, founded a military order, called in 
Sweden Cefchilfchajfl, into which all that had been prefent 
at the feaft were admitted, including fixteen lords, and as 
many ladies, befides the queen. Their device was the cy¬ 
pher -of Amarante, campofed of two A’s, the .one ere St, 
the other inverted, and interwov.en together; the whole 
inclofed by a laurel crown, with this motto, Dolce nella me- 
■moria. Bulftrode Whitlock, the Englifh amhaffador from 
Cromwell to the court of Sweden, was made a knight of 
■the order of Amarante, on which account it feems to be s 
•that we fometimes .find him ftyled Sir Buljlrode Whitlock. 
Amarante, a town of Entre-Douro-e-Minho, Portu¬ 
gal. Here is a linen manufactory of confiderable extent.. 
A/JV 1 ARANTFL, 
