M E N 
ad annum 1656,4to. 1734,1735. -• Hlftoriade Tangere, 
folio; Lilboa, 1732. 3. Vida dc el Rey D. Joam I. 4to. 
Lilboa, 1668. This is a work of very confiderable merit. 
But the moll valuable in the lift is by his brother, fon- 
in-law, and heir, Don Luis. “ Hilloria de Portugal Reilau- 
rado, a tom. fol. Lilboa, 1679, 1698.” a work of great ex¬ 
tent and great authority, the laft in the feries of Portu- 
guefe hiftorians. The wife alfo of Don Luiz was an au¬ 
thor ; and it has been faid of her that lhe wrote not with 
the quill of an eagle, for of fuch there are many; but 
with the quill of a phenix, of which there is but one ! 
This lady belongs to the family by blood as well as by 
marriage, having married her father’s brother. 
Don Francifco Xavier, the fon of this marriage, left be¬ 
hind him four-and-forty works, of which the chief is his 
“ Henriqueida, Poema Heroico, em doze Cantos ; Lilboa, 
1741.” The Conde D. Henrique, founder of the royal 
houfe of Portugal, is the hero of this epic, which Voltaire 
has mentioned with praife, as in courtefy bound to do, 
Ericeira haying called his Henriade the beft French poem. 
It appears the author of this piece, at the age of eight, 
was member of one academy, which feems by its title to 
have been deiigned for extemporary fpeaking ; and, when 
little older, was admitted into another, of which at twenty 
he was preiident. This was the age of academies in Por¬ 
tugal ; he was fecretary and protestor of the Portuguefe, 
and cenfor and director of the royal one ; a member of 
the Arcadians of Rome, and of our own Royal Society. 
The moll learned men of the time were his correfpon- 
dents: Muratori and Crefcembini in Italy; Boileau, 
Neufville (who wrote a hiftory of Portugal), marlhal 
Schomberg, Le Clerc, and Bayle, in France ; and Sala¬ 
zar, lylayaus, and Feyjoo, in Spain. He fays, in the pre¬ 
face, that the knowledge which he has of Greek is not 
fufHcient for him to underiland Homer well; a proof 
how littie that language was cultivated in his country, 
when the moll learned man in it would make fuch a de¬ 
claration ; in other refpefls this preface difcovers a range 
of poetical reading which few have equalled, and none 
perhaps exceeded. The'poem itfelf is not worfe than its 
French namefake, though its faults are of a different 
charadter. He was blind when he wrote it, and died be¬ 
fore it was publifhed. This truly-eltimable maniwasa 
munificent patron of letters. He increafed the family 
library with above fix hundred manufcripts, and 20,000 
volumes. 
The vein was not yet exhaufled. Don Luiz, the fifth 
conde, wrote commentaries of his own adminiflration in 
India, correfilions and a fupplement to Bluteau’s Portu¬ 
guefe Didlionary, and alfo to Moreri. He completed the 
catalogue of the library which his predecelfor had begun : 
it was one of the noblefl which any private family ever 
collected together, but it has been difperfed. 
Portuguefe literature is deeply indebted to this noble 
houfe. Individuals have fucceeded better, but no family 
has ever done fo much. R. S. in Gen. Biog. 
MENFRI'CI, a town of Sicily, in the valley of Mazara, 
containing about 2700 inhabitants: nine miles north- 
well of Sacca. 
MEN'FUS KE'DUS, a town of Abyffinia : fixty miles 
fouth-louth-eaft of Sire. 
MENGE'DE, a town of Germany, in the county of 
Mark : two miles eaft of Caltrop. 
MEN'GEN, a town of Wurtemberg, infulated in the 
county of Scheer : thirty-three miles louth-well of Ulm, 
and forty-five fouth of Stuttgart. Lat. 48. 3. N. Ion. 
9. 23. E. 
ME'N'GENGUT, a town of Prufiia, in the province of 
Oberland : twelve miles eaft of Ofterrod. 
MEN'GERINGHAUSEN, a town of Germany, in the 
ccunty of Waldeck: twenty-four miles well-north-well 
of Calfel, andfixteen north-north-well of Waldeck. 
MEISi'GERSDORF, a town of Germany, in the prin¬ 
cipality of Culmbach : tliirteen miles fouth of Culmbach. 
MEN'GERS K IRC I IEN; a town of Geyniany, in the 
M E N 103 
county of Naflau Dillenburg: feven miles fouth-well of 
Dillenburg, and eight north-w'ell of Weilburg. 
MENGES'TA SEMAIAT', a town of Abyflinia: 
165 miles fouth of Gondar. 
MENGO'LI (Peter), an able Italian rdathematician in 
the feventeenth century, concerning the place and time 
of whofe birth we have no information. He ftudied un¬ 
der the celebrated Bonaventure Cavalieri, to whom the 
Italians alcribe the invention of the firll principles of 
the infiniteiimal calculus. Mengoli was appointed pro- 
feflor of mechanics in the college of nobles at Bologna, 
and acquired high reputation by the luccefs with which 
he filled that poll, as w-ell as by his publications. He was 
the author of, 1. Geometric Speciolie Elementa, 1639, 
4-to. a kind of eflayon infinitefimals,and containing limilar 
figns with thofe of Leibnitz- in one part of his calcula¬ 
tions. 2. Novas Quadrature Arithmetic®, feu de addi- 
tione Fraftionum. 3. Via regia ad Mathematicas ornata. 
4. Refrazzione e Paralalfe Solare. 5. Circolo, 1672, 4to. 
6. Arithmetic® rationalis Elementa. 7. Arithmetic?, 
realis. 8. Mufica fpeculativa, Bologna, 1670,410. This 
is a defultory and fanciful work. The author firft gives a 
minute anatomical defcription of the ear, and the mecha- 
nifm or manner in which he thinks found is conveyed to 
the mind by the pulfes of air acting on the ear. He after¬ 
wards treats on the theory of mufic after his own way. 
The {peculations contained in this work are fome of 
them fpecious and ingenious; but the philolophy of 
found has been fo much more fcientificaliy and clearly 
treated fince its publication, that the difficulty of finding 
the book is no great impediment to the advancement of 
mufic. He wasTtill living in 1678. See Phil. Tranf. vol. ii. 
MENGRAVIL'LA, a town of Spain, in Old Caitile, 
famous for its mines of fait: near Avila. 
MENGS (Antony Raphael), an eminent painter, was- 
born in 1728 at Auffig in Bohemia. His father, Ilhmael, 
removed to Drel'den, wffiere he was made painter to Au- 
gultus III. king of Poland. He had from a very early 
age educated his fon for his own profeffion, and prafilifed 
him in all the different methods of painting. In i74r 
he took him to Rome, and kept him very affiduoufiy at 
lludy under his own direblion, particularly exercifmg 
him in copying from the antique, and from the works of 
the greateil modern artills. After an abode in that 
capital of three or four years, Antony returned to 
Drefden, where he was employed at court, and obtained 
the rank of king’s painter: He made a fecond journey 
to Rome, where he married a young woman from whom 
he had modelled the head of a Madonna. He was de- 
lirous of fixing himfelf there; ’but his father, who con¬ 
tinued to hold him in the bonds of paternal authority, 
obliged him in 1749 t0 return to Drefden. The in- 
created favour he experienced from the king did not 
prevent his longing to revilit Rome, and in 1752 he car¬ 
ried thither his wife and an infant child. The difafters 
wdiich befel Saxony and its monarch deprived him of his 
penfion, and he fell into a ftate of indigence, barely fun- 
porting himfelf by his ill-paid labours, which chiefly 
conlilled of painting infrefco. Having become known to 
Charles III. king of Naples, on a vifit to his capital, that 
monarch conceived fuch an opinion of his talents, that’ 
upon his acceffion to the throne of Spain he gave Mengs 
an invitation to Madrid on very honourable and lu¬ 
crative conditions, which were willingly accepted, -and 
he arrived in that city in 1761. He there executed a 
great many works, both frelcos and ealel-pictures, of 
which a Dead Chrifl, with the ufttal accompaniments, 
is reckoned the principal. After a confiderable flay in 
Spain, excels of application, and the want of domeJlic 
fociety, threw him into a bad ftate of health, which in¬ 
duced him to alk leave to return to Italy, where he had 
left his wife and family. During his convalefcence he 
painted for the king of Spain a Nativity, in which, lhe 
light is managed in the manner of Corregio’s famous 
JSotte, This piece was fo match valued, that a plate of 
