M E I 
1668. publiflied together v/ith the treatife of Adrian Tur- 
nebus, De Vino. 7. Aurelii Cafliodori Formula Comitis 
Archiatrorum; ibid. 1668; which is a commentary on 
the i9thepiftle of the 6th book of Cafliodorus. Eldy 
Did. Hi ft. 
MEIBO'MIUS (Henry), fon of the preceding, was born 
at Lubeck, in June 1638. After having gone through 
various courfes of ftudy at Helmftadt, and in different 
Dutch univerftties, he travelled into Italy and France, 
and took his doftor’s degree at Angers, in 1663. He then 
continued his travels into England, whence he returned 
to Germany. His father’s name was ftill held in eftima- 
tion at Helmftadt, and his own talents and acquirements 
gained him confiderable refpecl, fo that he was foon en¬ 
rolled among the profeffors of that univerfity ; in which 
he held fucceffively the chairs of medicine, poetry, and 
hiftory ; the laft of which he retained at the time of his 
death, in. March 1700, when he had reached his fixty-fe- 
cond year. He wrote a great number of differtations on 
medical and -anatomical topics, in which laft Icience he 
may be reckoned an inventor, on account of his more 
accurate inveftigation of the febaceous glands and dudts 
in the eyelid, difcovered by Cafferius, and his refearches 
refpedting the valves of the veins and the papillae of the 
tongue. He is, however, better known by his hiftorical 
publications, the principal of which relate to Germany. 
He wrote feveral pieces concerning the dukes of Brunf- 
wick and Lunenburg; and in 1687 he publilhed “ Ad 
Saxoniae Inferioris imprimis, hiftoriam Introdudlio,” 
4to. in which he treats of the works printed and manu¬ 
script which have been compofed on the hiftory of Saxony. 
His greateft work is “ Rerum Germanicarum tomi tres,” 
folio, 1688. being a collection of writers on German hif¬ 
tory, firft commenced by his grandfather Henry Meibo- 
mius ; with hiftorical differtations on a variety of topics. 
Some other individuals of the family of Meibomius were 
profeffors at Helmftadt; efpecially Henry, the grandfather 
of the preceding, who publiflied feveral works ; Mark, 
whofe ftudies were entirely confined to hiftory and the 
belles lettres ; and Braivdvs, who taught medicine, and 
publiflied feveral academical differtations, about 1730. 
JZloy Dia. de Med. 
MEIBO'MIUS, (Marcus), a learned writer of the fame 
Family with the preceding, was born at Tonningen in 
Slefwig. He turned his ftudies particularly to the mufic 
of the ancients ; and in 1652 he publiflied at Amfterdam 
an edition, in two volumes quarto, of the feven Greek 
authors concerning mufic whofe writings are extant, with 
a general preface, and a feparate one to each of the trea- 
tifes. To thefe he added the treatife De Mufica of Mar- 
tianus Capella. He dedicated the work to queen Chrif- 
tina of Sweden, who invited him to her court, then the 
refort of many learned men. His perpetual praifes of 
Grecian mufic excited a defire in the queen to hear a 
performance upon the principles, and with the inftruments, 
of antiquity ; and a day was appoint ed for a public exhi¬ 
bition of this kind. Meibomius himfelf, who had a bad 
voice and no practice in tinging, undertook the vocal 
part; while Naudet, an old Frenchman, danced d la Grcc 
to the tune. The whole exhibition, as might be fuppofed, 
was fupremely ridiculous. The general laughter of the 
audience provoked Meibomius to luch a degree, that, un¬ 
mindful of the royal prefence, he ran up to Bourdelot, the 
queen’s favourite and phyfician, whom he fufpedted of 
being the author of his dilgraee, and gave him a blow on 
the face. He immediately quitted Stockholm, and went 
to Copenhagen, where he was well received. He obtained 
a profelloribip in the coliege of Sora, with the title of 
king’s counfellor ; and was afterwads made preffdent of 
the board of cuftoms at EInneur. His irritable temper 
involved him in lo many difputes, that he refigned or was 
difrniffed from this employment, and foon after fettled at 
Amfterdam as profeffor of hiftory in the collegiate fchool 
of that city. A quarrel with a burgomafter caufed his 
difmiflion from this ftation; and he vifited France and 
., Vql. XV. No. 102 j. v 
M E J 29 
England, for the purpole, it is faid, of felling the difco- 
very which he thought he had made of the mode in which 
the ancient galleys were conftru&ed. ; On this fubjefl he 
publiflied an effay entitled “ Marci Meibomii de veteii 
fabrica Triremium Liber;” 1671, 4-to. Returning to 
Amfteydam, he died there at a very advanced age in 1710 
or 1711. Befides the works above mentioned, he pub¬ 
liflied an edition of the Greek mythologifts ; and a new 
edition of Vitruvius, with a commentary on the Echeia, 
or harmonic vales. He aifo corrected, for a new edition, 
the Hebrew Bible : this daring work appeared at Amfter¬ 
dam, 1698, in folio, under the title “ Davidis Pfklmi, et 
totidem Sacrse Scripturse Veteris Teftamenti caoita_ 
reftituta, & c.” 
The molt folid and celebrated of his critical works is his 
edition of the feven Greek writers on ancient mufic, in 
which ail fubfequent writers on the lubjeCt of ancient 
mufic place implicit faith. It is from the indefatigable 
and learned labours of Meibomius, in his commentaries 
on the Greek writers in mufic, particularly Alypius/that 
we are able to fancy we can decipher the mufical charac¬ 
ters ufed by the ancient Greeks in their notation ; which, 
before his time, had been lo altered, corrupted, disfigured, 
and confounded, by the ignorance or negligence of the 
tranlcribers of ancient MSS. that they were rendered 
wholly unintelligible. 
MEI'CHE, a town of France, in the department of the 
Doubs : four miles fouth of St. Hypolite, and twenty-fe- 
ven north-eaft of Pontarlier. 
MEI'DAN, a town of Perfian Armenia : one hundred 
miles north-eaft of Erivan, and fixty north-north-eaft of 
Nacfivan. 
MEI'DBURG, or Magdeburg, a fortrefs of France : 
three miles of Landau. 
MEI'DLING, a town of Auftria: three miles welt- 
north-well of Baden. 
MEIDOBRI'GA, in ancient geography, a town of 
Hifpania, in Lufitania, fouth-weft of Nuba Csefarea. It was 
formerly a powerful city ; and its inhabitants were called 
Plnmbarii, on account of the mines of lead which were 
found in its vicinity. Some traces of it have been difco- 
vered in a place called Armenha. South of this town was 
a chain of mountains denominated Mons He'rminius. 
MEI'DON, or Meidun, a town of Egypt, at Ibme dif- 
tance from the left bank of the Nile, near which is the 
moll foutherly of the pyramids, built of brick. It is 
thought to occupy the fite of the ancient Nilopolis: thirty- 
miles fouth of Cairo. 
MEJED’DAH, a town of Algiers, on the Shellif ; five 
miles north-eaft of Seedy Abid. 
MEI'ENBURG. See Meyenburg. 
MEJER'DAH, a river of Africa, formed by the union 
of the Sujerafs and the Serrat, in the kingdom of Tunis, 
on the borders of Algiers, and, crofting the country from 
weft to eall (Ptolemy fays from north to fouth), runs into 
the Mediterranean at Porto Farina. This river continues 
winding during its whole courfe through a rich and fertile 
country 5 and becomes thereby lo well faturated with 
foil, that it is of the fame complexion with the Nile, and 
has the fame property likewife of making encroachments 
upon the fea : and to this we may attribute not only the 
many changes and alterations, which appear to have been 
made at one time or other in the channel of it; but like- 
wile that Jin open creek of the fea, into which the Me- 
jerdah no longer than a century ago difcharged itleif, is 
now circumfcribed by the mud, and become a large navi¬ 
gable pond, the anti-harbour as we may call it to Porto 
Farino. This riyer was anciently called Bagrada, which 
Bochart (c. 24.) deduces from the Heb. N,TO “0 bar alt a, 
a pond, agreeably to the defcription of Silius Itaiicus; 
Turbidus arentes lento pede fulcat harenas 
B-agrada, non u'llo Libycis in finibus affine 
Vi6tus limofas extendere latius undas, 
Et ftagnante vado patulos involvere campos. Lib. vi. 14c. 
I MEJER'DAH, 
