348 F I B 
horfes on each flank of the procefllon.” The revenue of 
this prince is compofed of a tax on towns and villages, a 
tax on every camel load of goods (except provilions) 
which enters the capital, fines for offences, lands of per- 
f'ons dying without heirs, and a tax on gardens and date- 
trees. Gold-dull, by weight, is the chief medium of pay¬ 
ment ; but for convenience they are furniflied with fmall 
papers of gold-dull of different values, from two xarbes 
or one and a half upwards; for fmaller articles corn or 
flour are ufed as a medium. One grain of gold is equal 
to three-halfpence (lerling. Major Rennell places Mour- 
2011k, the capital of Fezzan, in lat. 27. 20. or 260 miles 
from Mafurati. Lon. 44. E. Cape Verd. 
IT AC', a town of France, in the department of the 
Tarn, and chief place of a canton, in the didricl of La- 
vaur : four miles ead of Lavaur. 
FIACO'NE, a town of Italy, in the (late of Genoa, on 
the confines of the Milanefe, between Genoa andTortona. 
FIA'NO, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, 
and province of Abruzz0 Ultro : eight miles and a half 
fouth of Teramo. 
, FIA'NO, a town of Italy, in the (late of the Church, 
and patrimony of St. Peter, on the Tiber: fifteen miles 
north of Rome. 
FIANO'NA, a fea-port town of Venetian Klria, on tire 
.Gulf of Venice, with a good harbour : nineteen miles eaff 
of Rovigno. 
FIASCO'NE. See Monte Fiascone, 
FI'AT, f. [Latin.] A decree.; 
The fire, that rules the thunder with a nod, 
‘Declar’d the fiat, and difmifs’d the god. Garth. 
FLAT,/. inlaw, a (hort order or warrant of a judge 
for making out and allowing certain procelfes, &c. If a 
certiorari be taken out in vacation, and tefted of the pre¬ 
cedent term, the fiat for it rauft be Ggned by a judge of 
the court, fome time before the effoign-day of the fubfe- 
quent term, otherwife it will be irregular: but it is faid 
there is no need for a judge to fign the writ of certiorari it- 
felf; but only where it is required by datute. 1 Salk. 150. 
FI'AT JUSTl'TIA, in law, upon a petition to the 
king, for his warrant to bring a writ of error in parlia¬ 
ment, he writes on the top of the petition fiat jufiitia, and 
then the writ of error is made out, &c. And when the 
king is petitioned to redrefs a wrong, he indorfes upon the 
petition, “ Let right be done the party.” Dyer, 385. 
FI'AUNT, f. [fiant, Lat.] Warrant: 
Nought fuffered he the ape to give or graunt, 
But through his hand alone mud pals the fia-unt. Spevfcr. 
FIB, f. [a cant word among children.] A lie; a falfe- 
hood : 
I fo often lie, 
Scarce Harvey’s felf has told more fibs than I. Pope. 
To FIB, v. n. To lie ; to tell lies ; to fpeak falfely.— 
If you have any mark, whereby one may know when you 
fib, and when you fpeak truth, you had bed tell it me. 
Arbuthnot. 
FIB'BER, f. A teller of fibs. 
FI'BRE,/ [ fibre , Fr. fibra, Lat.] A fmall thread or 
firing ; the fir ft conftituent parts of bodies : 
Now Aiding dreams the thirdy plants renew, 
And feed their/£r« with reviving dew. Pope „ 
A fibre, in anatomy, is an animal .thread, of which fome 
are foft, flexible, and eladic ; and thefe are either hol¬ 
low, like lmall pipes, or fpongiousand full of little cells, 
as the nervous and flelhy fibres ; others are more folid, 
flexible, and with a drong eladicity or fpring, as the mem¬ 
branous and cartilaginous fibres ; and a third fort are hard 
and flexible, as the nervous fibres of the bones. Some fo 
very fmall as not to be eafily perceived; and others fo 
big as to be plainly feen ; and mod of them appear to 
be compofed of (till fmaller fibres ; thefe fibres fird confti- 
tute the fubdance of the bones, cartilages, ligaments, 
F I C 
membranes, nerves, veins, arteries, and mufcles. Quincy , 
See the article Anatomy, vol. i. 
My heart finks in me while I hear him fpeak, 
And every flacken’d fibre drops its hold, 
Like nature letting down the fprings of life : 
The name of father awes me dill. Dryden. 
FIBRE'NUS, a river of Italy, falling into the Liris 
•through Cicero’s farm at Arpinum. Cicero. 
FLBRIL, or Fibri l'la,/. [ fibrille , Fr.] A fmall fibre 
or dring.—The mufcles confift of a number of fibres, and 
each fibre of an incredible number of little fibrils bound 
together, and divided into little cells. Cheyne. 
FLBROUS, adj. \_fibreux, Fr,] Compofed of fibres or 
-damina.—The fibrous and folid parts of plants pafs unal¬ 
tered through the intedines. Arbuthnot. 
FIB'ULA,/ [quafi figilula, from figo, Lat. to fuflen.] 
In furgery, a button or buckle to faden bandages or the 
lips of wounds together. Alfo the fmall bone of the 
leg ; fo named becaufe it.joins together the tibia and the 
mufcles.—See the article Anatomy. 
FIB'ULA,/. A ring or broach, to faden various parts 
of our ancedors’ garments. Thefe ornaments are conti¬ 
nually dug up, and are found to be either of bronze, fil- 
ver, or gold, enlarged with precious dones, See. 
FICA'NA, anciently a town of Latium, at the fouth 
of Rome, near the Tiber. Livy. 
FICARE'TO, a town of Italy, in the date of the 
-Church, and duchy of Spoleto : five miles ead of Todi. 
FICA'RIA, a fmall ifland on the ead of Sardinia, now 
■Serpcntera. Pliny. 
FICA'RIA,/. in botany. See Ranunculus. 
FICHERUO'LO, a town of Italy, in the duchy of 
Ferrara, on the Po, on the frontiers of Mantua: thirteen 
■miles wed-north-wed of Ferrara. 
FICH'TELBERG, a mountain of Germany, in the 
circle of Franconia, which extends from near Bareuth to 
Eger in Bohemia. It is one of the highed mountains in 
Germany, and contains in it many delerts, rocks, bogs, 
and moraffes. It takes its name from the great number 
of pines with which it is covered ; there are a great num¬ 
ber of other trees, oak, beech, elm, See. The extent 
from ead to wed is fixteen miles, and as much from north 
to fouth. 
FICI'NUS (Marfilius), a learned Italian ecclefiadic in 
the fifteenth century, and one of the fird revivers of the 
Platonic philofophy in the wed, born at Florence, in 1433. 
His father, who was phyfician to Cofmo de Medici, in¬ 
tending 'to bring him up to his own profeflion, fent him 
to dudy medicine at Bologna; where, by reading the aca¬ 
demical queftions of Cicero, and other Latin writers who 
have treated of the philofophy of Plato, he became paf- 
fionately attached to the principles of that Grecian fage. 
On his return home, his father introduced him to Cofmo 
de Medici, who was much pleafed with his appearance 
and manners, and dill more fo with his converfation, when 
he found that he was an enthufiad in favour of Platonifm. 
Cofmo, wl(p was himfelf a Platonid, and who had pro¬ 
jected the edablifiiment of an academy in which his fa¬ 
vourite philofophy fltould be taught, confidering young 
Ficinus to poffefs a genius and talents fitted for fuch an 
inditution, determined to take upon himfelf the care of 
his farther education, and to give his abilities full fcope 
by furnifhing him with every advantage which Italy then 
afforded for improvement. With this view he placed 
him under the abled inftruCtors in the different branches 
of literature, and among others under George Gemidus, 
.called alfo Pletho, a native of Condantinople, who was a 
man of great learning, and intimately converfant in the 
Alexandrian philofophy. By this tutor particular atten¬ 
tion was paid to make him a proficient in the Greek lan¬ 
guage, and in the doClrine of his fchool, with the defigu 
of qualifying him to tranfiate the writings and to revive 
the philofophy of Plato. Ficinus availed himfelf, with 
great diligence and l'uccefs, of the advantages which were 
afforded 
