JOS 
iion, Prance, Lombardy, England, Hungary, and Turkey. 
It fpeaks of the Burgundians, the Bulgarians, of the inhabi¬ 
tants of Cracow, of the Croats, and of gold florins ! Calmet. 
JO'SEPH of EX'ETER, or Jofephus Ifcanus, is entitled 
to commemoration as a remarkable example of purity of 
literary tafte and elegance of ftyle in an age generally re¬ 
puted barbarous. He was a native of Devonfhire, and 
flourilhed in the clofe of the twelfth and commencement 
of the thirteenth century. He was probably an ecclefiaf- 
tic, as his patron was Baldwin archbifhop of Canterbury. 
Pits aflerts, that he became at length archbifhop of Bour- 
tleaux, but probably erroneoufly, fince his name does not 
occur in the lift: of prelates of that fee. Camden fays 
that he accompanied Richard I. to the Holy Land. Jo¬ 
seph wrote two epic poems in Latin heroics. The firft, in 
fix books, is on the Trojan war, the Itory of which he 
takes from the fabulous Dares Phrygius, whom he confi- 
ders as good authority, while he charges Homer with fic¬ 
tion. He treats his fubjcjct rather in the hiftorical than 
the poetical manner; but his ftyle is not only for the moft 
part pure, but rich and ornamented, and his verfification 
approaches the beft models of antiquity. His diftion is 
chiefly compounded of Ovid, Statius, and Claudian, the 
favourite poets of that age. “ Italy,” fays Mr. Walton, 
“ had at that time produced no poet comparable to him. 
This work was firft printed, but very corruptly, at Baft], 
in 1541, under the name of Cornelius Nepos. It had been 
fo much forgotten in England, that Leland could meet 
only with two manufcript copies of it: the moft complete 
is now in the Bodleian library. The beft printed edition 
is that annexed to the Delphin edition of Dares Phrygius 
and Diitys Cretenfis, Amfterdam, 1702. His other poem 
■was entitled Antiockeis, the War of Antioch, or the Cru- 
fade : of this a fragment only remains, in which he cele¬ 
brates the heroes of Britain. Its ftyle is fimilar to that of 
the former. Jofeph likewife compofed love-verfes, epigrams, 
and other mifcellaneous poems, which have all perifhed. 
War ton's Hiftory of EngHJk Poetry. 
JO'SEPH AL'BO, a learned Spanilh Jew who flourifhed 
In the fifteenth century, was a native of Sora, and one of 
the opponents of Jerome de Santa Fe in the public con¬ 
ference held at Tortofa in 1413, before pope Benedict 
XIII. He died in the year 1430. He was the author of 
a celebrated work in rabbinical Hebrew, entitled Sep/ur 
Ikkarim, or The Book of Fundamentals, treating of 
the principal articles of Jewifh faith ; which was printed 
at Venice, in 1618, folio, and has undergone feveral other 
impreflions. In this work the author, with the defign of 
counteracting the effeCt on his Jewifh brethren of Jerome 
de Santa Fe’s publications in favour of Chriftianity, main¬ 
tains the pofition, “ that the belief in the advent of the 
Mefliah is not a point neceflary to falvation, nor an opi¬ 
nion of any eflential importance.’’ In father Simon’s 
Critical Hiftory of the Ola Teftament, as quoted below, 
the reader may fee the reafons by which he attempts to 
fhow, in the fame work, that the five books of Mofes have 
come down by tradition without any corruptions, and a 
particular examination of the arguments which he deduces 
from the ftate of the Samaritan copy of the Pentateuch. 
It may not be improper to add, that the biblical fcholar 
would do well to compare what father Simon advances on 
the fubjeft of that copy, with Kennicott’s fecond Difler- 
tation on the State of the printed Hebrew Text. Moreri. 
Now. DiEl. Hiji. Simon's Crit. Hijl. Old Tef. b. i, ch. x. 
JO'SEPH (Pierre de Saint), a French Feuillant monk 
in the feventeenth century, whofe family name was Coma- 
gere, was born in the diocefe of Auch in Armagnac, in 
the year 1594, and died in the year 1662. He was the 
author of, 1. Idea Theologise contemplativae & praclicae, 
1642. 2. Idea Philofophise, 1654-* 3. Summula Cafuum 
Confcientise, 2 vols. nmo. and a multitude of controver¬ 
sial works againft the Janfenifts. 
JO'SEPH, King of Portugal. See Portugal. 
JO'SEPH 1 . and II. Emperors of Germany. See the 
article Germany, vol. viii. p. 498-528, 
JOS 267 
JO'SEPH, a village on the wefternmoft coaft of the 
ifland of St. Domingo; about three leagues north-weft of 
the village of Tiburon. 
JO'SEPH, a port on the weft fide of the ifland of Tri¬ 
nidad, near the coaft of Terra Firma. 
JO'SEPH, a fmall town and port on the weft point of 
the north peninfula of the ifland of Trinidad, in the 
Weft Indies. 
JO'SEPH, a bay on the weft fide of the ifland of Trini¬ 
dad, defended by a fmall battery. It has a few houfes 
on it, and lies fouth-eaft of Port, the capital of the ifland. 
JO'SEPH’s BAY, on the coaft of Weft Florida, is of 
the figure of a horfe-flioe, being about twelve miles in 
length, and feven acrofs where broadeft. The bar is nar¬ 
row, and immediately within it there is from four to fix 
and a half fathoms foft ground. The beft place to anchor, 
is juft within the peninfula, oppofite to fome ruins that 
ftill remain of the village of St. Jofeph. 
JO'SEPH’s KEY, a fmall ifland in the gulf of Mexico, 
near the coaft of Florida. Lat. 30. 8 N. Ion. 89. 30. W. 
JO'SEPH’s LAKE, in North America, lies eaft of Lake 
Sal, and fends its waters by Cat Lake River into Cat 
Lake, and afterwards forms the fouth-eaft branch of Se¬ 
vern River. The lake is thirty-five miles long and fif¬ 
teen broad. 
JO'SEPHGROD, a town of Ruffian Poland, in the pa¬ 
latinate of Braclaw, on a river which runs into the Bog : 
feventy-fix miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Braclaw, ninety-five 
north-eaft of Jaffi. 
JO'SEPFISTADT. See Gostadt. 
JO'SEPHSTHAL, a town of Bohemia, in Boleflau s 
twelve miles north-north-eaft of Turnau. 
JOSE'PHUS (Flavius), an eminent Jewifli hiftorian, was 
born in the year of Chrift 37, when Caligula was emperor. 
His father was Mattathias, defcended from the ancient 
liigh-priefts of the Jews; by his mother’s fide he was of 
the royal lineage of the Afmonaeans, or Maccabees. He 
was educated in the knowledge of the law, in which he 
obtained an early proficiency. Having, at the age of fix-* 
teen, engaged in the ftudy of the different Jewifh febts, 
he was lo captivated with the aufterity profefled by the 
Eflenes, that he joined a certain Banus, who led a folitary 
life in the defert, and palled three years with him. He 
afterwards adhered to the febl of Pharilees, of which he 
was a ftrict and zealous member. He repaired to Rome 
at the age of twenty-fix; where, by means of a player of 
his nation, he obtained an introduction to Poppsea, after¬ 
wards the w'ife of Nero, by whofe intereft he procured 
the releafe of fome priefts, whom Felix had lent prifoners 
from Jerufalem. Returning with honour to his own 
country, he was appointed by the revolted Jews governor 
of the two Galilees, in which capacity he bravely de¬ 
fended Jotapha ©gainft Vefpafian. When the place was 
taken by ftorm, he efcaped the general maflacre by con¬ 
cealing himfelf in a cavern cut in a rock. Upon being 
difcovered, he propofed to the forty men who had taken 
refuge there along with him, that they Ihould furrender ; 
and, upon their determination rather to perifh by mutual 
wounds, he perfuaded them to calt lots fucceflively who 
fliould kill the next man; and, by extraordinary good 
fortune, he and one other were left furvivors of the reft. 
This Angle companion was eafily prevailed upon to join 
him in accepting the proffered mercy of the Romans. 
Such is his own relation, which the reader will credit ac¬ 
cording to the confidence he may find reafon to place in 
his veracity. On being taken before Vefpafian, he boldly 
predicted that within a Ihort time the empire would fall 
to the lhare of that general, and thereby fecured a favour¬ 
able reception from him. He was, indeed, retained as a 
prifoner, on account of the ufe Vefpafian intended to 
make of him in the further profecution of the war againft 
the Jews. 
As foon as Vefpafian was feated on the imperial throne, 
Jofephus was fet at liberty, and was taken by Titus with 
him when he marched to lay fiege to Jerufalem. He was 
fent 
