LITE R 
even in Italy. In 14.50, the foundation of that of the Va¬ 
tican at Rome was laid ; and about the fame period of 
time the ducal library at Florence, St. Mark’s at Venice, 
St. Paul’s in the cathedral at London, and that of Trinity 
college, Cambridge. 
The Jewifli philologifts of this period were Aben-Ezra, 
Salomon Ben-Ifaac Rafhi, Mofes Maimonides, and the 
three Kimchis. The firft edition of the Hebrew fcrip- 
tures was printed at Ferrara in 14.76. Pope Clement V. 
in the council of Vienna, 1311, decreed that the Hebrew, 
Arabic, arid Chaldee, fnould be taugfef in all the higher 
fchools ; but this decree was. little obferved. Among 
the Greeks, philology flourifhed principally in the twelfth 
century under the aufpices cf the Comnenas. The moft 
remarkable learned men among them were Tzeizes, Eu- 
ftatbius, Emmanuel Chryfoloras, Mofchopulus, Beffarion, 
Theodore Gaza, and Lafcaris ; whofe Greek Grammar, 
firfi printed at Milan in 1476; has been the foundation of 
all others fince publifhed. By him and other Greeks from 
Conliantinople, a ciaiiical tafie was gradually diffufed 
from Italy over the reft of Europe. The fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries produced Petrarch, Papias, De Janua, 
Malpaghino, Angeli, Barzizins, Guarinus, Manetti, Valla, 
and Bracciolini, commonly called Poggius; nlfo Percttus, 
Philelphus, Hermolus Barbaras, Politian, Marcilius Fi- 
cinus, and fome others of lefs celebrity. During this 
v time, the Italian language was highly cultivated and em- 
bellifhed ; and many of the Greek and Latin claffics were 
tranflated into it. The Provencal, or Romanza, was cul¬ 
tivated chiefly in the fouthern provinces of France ; 
■whence it l'oon fpread into the other provinces, and into 
the neighbouring regions of Catalonia, Valentia, Murcia, 
Majorca, Minorca, and Sardinia. France produced not 
many eminent philologifts during this period. M. Meu- 
fel mentions only Abelard, Alexander de Ville Dieu, and 
De Lyra. A fimilar deficiency prevailed in Germany. 
Rolef Haufmann, or Agricola, was the firft, according to 
Melanfthon, qui in Germania emendavit genus ftrmonis et dia- 
IcElicum. Three others are mentioned by the prefent au¬ 
thor; viz. Heggiu», Liber, and Dringenberg. In Eng¬ 
land we find Roger Bacon, Richard Aungervyle, and Mi¬ 
chael Scot. 
In hiftorical knowledge the Arabs (according to M. 
Meufel) were the foremoft. Bohaddin Ibn-Scheddad, 
Abulfeda, Bar-Hebrasus, Ibn-Alamid or Elmakin, and- 
two or three others, are here particularly noticed. The 
following were Perfian hiftorians; Abu-Said, Turan 
Schah, Sheriffeddin, and Mirkhond. In Greece, we have 
the authors in the Byzantine colle&ion, Anna Comnena, 
William of Tyre, (although he wrote in Latin,) and Ge- 
miftius. The hiftorians of Italy were Gottfredo di Vi¬ 
terbo, Petro de Vincis, Albertino Muffaco, Ludovico Ba- 
varico, Petrarch, Leonardo Bruni, Flavio Biondo, y£neas 
Sylvius, Benedict Acolti, Antonio Beccatelli, Bartoli Sac- 
chi, commonly called Platina, Bernard! Juftiniani, and Ju¬ 
lius Pomponius Lsetus. The Spanifh hiftorians were, Ro- 
derigo Ximcnes, Juan Nunoz de Villafiin, Roderigo de Za¬ 
mora, and Ferdinando de Pulgar. In France, we find the 
names only of joinville and Froiflart. German hiftorians 
were, Cofmos of Prague, Otto, Helmold, Arnold von Lu- 
beck, Conrad von Lichtenau, Albrecht, Martinus Polonus, 
Jacob von Konigfhofen, and Gobeiinus Perfona. Of the 
many Englifli hiftorians, M. Meulel mentions as the moft 
renowned, William of Malmfbury, Matthew Paris, and 
Nicholas Trivet. The father of Ruffian hiftory was Nef- 
tor, a monk who lived in the beginning of the twelfth 
■ century. His annals, written in Ruffian, were continued 
by abbot Sylvefter and Simeon bifhop of Sufdal. They 
were printed at Peterfburg in 1767. Aras, or Are Frodi, 
wrote, about the year 1148, annals in Iflandic, publifhed 
by Bufl'seus in 1733. Snorro Sturlafon, who died in 1241, 
was a celebrated hilcorinn, ftatefhnm, and warrior; he wrote 
in Iflandic a hiftory of the northern kings, which was 
publifhed in a vols. folio by Peringfkiold in 1697, and by 
Thorlac and Tliorkelin in 1782, The firft good hiftorians 
A T U R E. g 07 
of Denmark were Sweno Aaagefon and Saxo Grammaticus, 
The firft hiftory of Poland was written by Vincent Kad- 
lubek, bifhop of Cracow, in 1226 : it was publifhed by 
Martino Gallo, in folio, 1749. A prieft named Henry of 
Lettland wrote a good hiftory of Livonia, from the year 
1184 to t2i 6, called Origincs Livonia: facra et civilis ; pub- 
lifhed by J. D. Gruber, at Leipfig, in 1740. 
The principal geographers of this period were, Edrefi, 
a learned Mahometan of Cordova ; Abdollatif Ibn-Ju- 
fuph of Bagdad ; Abulfeda, and Benjamin of Tudela. 
See the article Geography, vol. viii.'p. 347. Here M. 
Meufel juft notices Girold’s Topography of Ireland, and 
Doomfday Book. 
The principal mathematicians, or rather aftrologers, 
among the Arabic writers, were Alpharngius of Morocco ; 
Abul Walid, Ebn Rofhd, commonly called Averroes, 
who was at the fame time theologue, lawyer, phyfician, 
and philosopher ; Aben Ragel and Aikabiz, both of To¬ 
ledo; Nafiredolin, and Ulugh-Beigb, uncle to Tamerlane. 
From the Arabs, the weftern world drew its firft leffons 
of mathematics; and from their language, Camparus, in 
1159, tranflated Euclid’s Elements.' The emperor Fre¬ 
deric II. who was himfelf a mechanift, aftronomer, and 
aftrologer, caufed the Almageft of Ptolemy to be tranf¬ 
lated in 1230. Alphonfus X. king of Caftile brought af- 
tronomy into great repute, by patronizing equally the 
Arabic, Jewifh, and Chriftian, writers on that fubjech 
Other mathematicians are, Albei tus Magnus, Roger Ba¬ 
con, Petrus Aponenfis, Francifcus Cecco, and Paulus 
Tofcanellus. The mariner’s compafs was difcpvered about 
the beginning of the fourteenth century, but by whom 
is uncertain : M. Meufel thinks that we owe it to the 
Arabs. Peter Dailly and Nicolaus Cufanns attempted to 
correfil the calendar; and the latter laboured to find the 
quadrature of the circle; but Regiomontanus, and Mul¬ 
ler, (alfo furnamed Regiomontanus,) were the principal 
mathematicians of that age. Regiomontanus’s fcholar, 
Bernard Walther, was likewife reckoned one of the belt 
aftronomers of his day. His work was printed at Nurn- 
berg in 1544. Military taftics underwent a confiderable 
change during this period, from the invention of gun¬ 
powder, mufkets, cannons, bombs, &c. Thefe laft were 
invented by Siegmund Pandulph Malatefta, of Rimini, 
about the middle of the fifteenth century. 
The platpnic philofophy had hitherto prevailed in the 
Chriftian fchools; and Ariftotle was fcarcely noticed ; but 
in this period he iupplanted his rival fo completely, that 
Platonifm was in its turn neglefted and forgotten. The 
philofophy of Ariftotle, thus adapted to the doftrines of 
Christianity, was called fcholajiic. At firft it was very li¬ 
mited ; being confined to a fort of logic termed dialeElic , 
and a fingular fort of metaphyjic ; a mere tiffue of abftracb 
ideas, ufelefs diftinftions, and difputes about words. The 
principal fcholaftics of this period were, Heldebert, Rofce- 
linus'; the famous Abelard; Hugo de S. ViStore ; Pul- 
lenus or Pullein ; John of Salifbury ; Alexander Hales, 
called the Irrefragable Doftor ; Albert the Great; Tho¬ 
mas Aquinas, called the Angel of the Schools, or the An¬ 
gelical Doctor; Raymond Lulli, Duns Scotus, Durandus, 
Occam, Walter Burleigh, Burridan, Marfilius Von-Ingen, 
the celebrated Gerfon, Ganifort, and Gabriel Biel. The 
Arabs'had their Wafel Ebn-Ata, Ibn-Baja, Algazel, Abu- 
jarfar, and Averroes. Among the degenerate Greeks, 
we find Barlaam and Gemiftus Pletho. 
Poetry, during this period, feems to have flourifhed 
chiefly among the Arabs and Perfians. The moft re¬ 
markable of the Arabian poets are Thograi, Hariri, and 
Al-Meidani ; of the Perfic, Ferdufi, Anweri, Sadi, and 
Hafez, called (not improperly) the Perfian Horace. Of 
the Greek poets, the author mentions only Theodorua 
Prodromus, Tzetzes, and Planudes. In the weft, tins pe¬ 
riod gave birth to the Proven$al poefy, and to rhyme. 
The poets were called Trovatori, or Troubadours ; i. e. 
finders ;” who flourifhed principally in Italy, Spain, and 
the fouth of France. For their hiftory the curious reader 
s is, 
