492 L E 
tius, whofe ambition had occafioned various diforders. 
The Bulgarians, in this reign, renewed their ufual liofti- 
lities againft the eaftern empire; and the ill fuccefs of the 
generals of Leo obliged him to fubmit to fuch terms of 
peace as they were pleafed to impofe. Notwithftanding 
his title of philofophcr , which he acquired from his literary- 
reputation, his private conduCf difplayed an indolent and 
voluptuous character. On the death of his wife he mar¬ 
ried his concubine Zoe. She was fucceeded in the impe¬ 
rial bed by a third wife ; and, upon herdeceafe in childbed, 
Leo entered into a fourth marriage with another Zoe, who 
had already borne him a fon. The emperor, in his theo¬ 
logical zeal, had formerly iflued an edict againft even third 
marriages. His fourth nuptials were thought fuch a fcan- 
dalous infraction of the difcipline of the Greek church, 
that the patriarch Nicholas refufed to concur in them, and 
proceeded to excommunicate the emperor after their ce¬ 
lebration. For this offence he was depofed ; but even the 
patriarch appointed in his room oppofed an intended ediCt 
of Leo’s, declaring fourth marriages lawful. As an ex- 
cufe for the emperor, it is to be obferved that he had no 
remaining iffue by his former wives. Leo was fuperfti- 
tious, and made pretenfions to the art of foretelling fu¬ 
ture events by divination; fome oracles under his name 
were current among the credulous Greeks. A total de¬ 
feat of his fleet by the Saracens a fliort time preceded his 
death, which took place in 911, after he had poflefled the 
throne above twenty-five years. He bequeathed the em¬ 
pire to his brother Alexander, as a kind of truft for his 
young fon Conftantine Porphyrogenitus. Leo the Phi- 
lofopher was educated under the learned Photius, from 
whom he derived an attachment to various kinds of eru¬ 
dition. He wrote, or gave his name to, feveral works, 
among which were a collection of fermons or homilies; a 
letter to the caliph Omar on the truth of the Chriftian re¬ 
ligion ; a circular pafloral epiftle to his fubjeCts; a trea- 
tife on military difcipline, which was tranfiated into La¬ 
tin ; and a collection of laws begun by his father, and en¬ 
titled Opus Ba/ilicon. 
LE'O the Grammarian wrote in Greek a continuation 
of the Chronicle of Theophanes, comprifing the lives of 
leven emperors of the Eaft, from the year 813 to 1013. It 
is annexed to father Combefis’ edition of the Chronicle 
above-mentioned, Paris, 1655. Of the author, nothing 
perfonally is known. He probably wrote down to the 
age in which he lived. VoJJi Hijl. Grac. 
LE'O (John), named Africanus, a traveller and geo¬ 
grapher, was a native of Granada, of Moorifti extraction. 
When that city was taken by the arms of Ferdinand and 
Ifabella in 1492, he retired into Africa, which circum- 
ftance gave him his furname. He ftudied the Arabic 
language at Fez; and, partly as an ambaflador from the 
king of the country, partly for his own pleafure, took fe¬ 
veral journeys in Europe, Afia Minor, and Africa, of 
which he wrote a narrative in Arabic. Having fallen 
into the hands of pirates at the Ifle of Zerb, he was fold 
to a mafter who prefented him to Leo X. That pontiff 
gave him a favourable reception, on account of his learn¬ 
ing and knowledge; and, having perfuaded him to re¬ 
nounce Mahometifm, gave him his own names of John 
and Leo at the baptifmal font. He acquired the Italian 
language at Rome, and tranfiated into it his defcription 
of Africa, dating his work in 1525. He is fuppofed to 
have died not long after; and one writer reports that be¬ 
fore his death he returned to his original faith. The De¬ 
fcription of Africa, by Leo Africanus, is reckoned one of 
the mod curious of the early voyages and travels, and is 
upon the whole in good credit for veracity. He defcribes 
what he had himfelf feen, chiefly on the northenand weft- 
ern coafls of that peninfula, and fupplies deficiencies from 
the relations of others ; but, as a geographical work, it has 
much of the imperfection of the age. The original Ara¬ 
bic copy is find to have been in the library of J. Vincent 
Pinelln From the Italian an inaccurate verfion was made 
into Latin by Florian, and one into French by Temporal. 
o. 
Marmol has copied great part of the work without ac¬ 
knowledgment. Leo alto wrote a treatife De Vitis Phiio- 
fophorum Arabum, printed by Hottinger at Zurich in 
1664. Voffi Hijl. Lat. 
LE'O of Orvieto, whofe furname was derived from 
the city or territory of Orvieto in Tufcany, in which he 
was born, was either a Dominican or Francifcan monk, 
and appears to have flouriflied towards the commence¬ 
ment of the fourteenth century. He was the author of 
two Chronicles: one, of the popes, down to the year 
1314; and the other of the emperors, terminating at the 
year 1308. Leo has in thefe works availed himfelf of the 
labours of Martin of Poland, whom he cloJely follows, 
adding at the fame time numerous faCts taken from va¬ 
rious other writers. The flyle of thefe Chronicles is 
ftrongly marked by the barbarifms of the age in which 
the author lived ; and his narrative abounds in proofs of 
the ignorance and credulity of the times. But, notwith¬ 
ftanding thefe defeCts, they will be foiyid ufeful to civil 
and ecclefialiical hiftorians. They had long been undif- 
turbed on the {helves of libraries, when father John Lamy 
drew them into notice by publifhing them in his Deliciai 
Eruditorum, printed at Florence. Both Chronicles ap¬ 
peared in 1737, in 2 vols. 8vo. This edition, however, 
is enriched with a number of remarks and hiftorical mo¬ 
numents, which will be found ufeful in correcting the 
errors of the author, and in illuftrating the hiltory of the 
times of which he fpeaks; fuch as many letters of the bi- 
fliops of Rome which had not before feen the light, di¬ 
plomas of emperors and princes, edidts, privileges, re¬ 
cords, &c. The fecond of thefe volumes contains alfo a 
concife fketch of the hiftory of France, written by John 
de I’lfle, or Johannes ab Infula, fuppofed to have been a 
monk of the abbey of St. Denis in France in the fifteenth 
century. 
LE'O of Modena, by which title he is more com¬ 
monly known than by his Jewilh name of R. Jekudah Arie , 
was a learned rabbi, born at Modena, and flouriflied in 
the feventeenth century. For a confiderable’ time he was 
chief of the fynagogue, and reckoned a good poet, both 
in Hebrew and Italian. His enmity to Chriftianity, how¬ 
ever, led him to compofe many difhonourable anagrams, 
and numerical devices a^d puns not worthy of his learned 
pen. He was the author of a valuable little work in Ita¬ 
lian, on the ceremonies and cuftoms of the Jews, which 
is highly efteemed by the learned of all nations, and enti¬ 
tled “Iltoria de Riti Hebraici, Vita et Olfervanze de gli 
Kebrei di quelti Tempi,” the beft edition of which was 
printed at Venice in 1638. A French verfion of this 
piece was publiflied at Paris in 1674, 12010. by Richard 
Simon, with two curious fupplements; one, on. the feCt 
of the Karaites; and the other on that of the modern Sa¬ 
maritans. It was Leo’s defign to have publiflied an Ita¬ 
lian tranflation of the Old Teftament; but he was prohi¬ 
bited from purfuing it by the Inquilition. He therefore 
turned his attention to the compilement of a Hebrew and 
Italian dictionary, entitled The Mouth of the Lion, in 
which he has judicioufly collected and explained all the 
words ufed by the rabbis, which are neither quite He¬ 
brew nor altogether Chaldee; and has endeavoured to fix 
the pronunciation of them fo as to be underftood by Jews 
of all nations. This work was publiflied at Venice, in 
1612, in 4to. and was afterwards reprinted in an enlarged 
form at Padua in 1640. The author died at Venice in 1654, 
about the age of eighty. Mod. Univ. Hijl. 
LEO de St. John, a French carmelite monk and va¬ 
rious writer, was a native of Rennes, and born in the year 
1600. Before lie .embraced the religious profeflion, his 
name was John Mace. He was fucceflively nominated to 
all the honourable and confidential pofts in his order, and 
acquired the efteem of popes Leo XI. and Alexander VIII. 
and of feveral cardinals. He was alfo eminent for his pul¬ 
pit talents, and preached with great approbation before 
Louis XIII. and XIV. He was the friend of cardinal Ri¬ 
chelieu, and received the lalt breath of that minifter. His 
3 own 
